Rob Allen's DevNotes – Developing software in the Real World

Quick script to (re)create my python virtualenv

When working on rst2pdf, I use pyenv as I've written about before. Recently, I've found myself needing to recreate virtualenvs for various Python versions and then recreate them to easily reset the list of packages installed into them via pip. To my my life easier, I created a script that I can run from the command line:

$ newenv rst2pdf-dev-py3.9 3.9.5

1	$ newenv rst2pdf-dev-py3.9 3.9.5

This creates a new virtualenv called rst2pdf-dev-py3.9 from Python version 3.9.5, upgrade pip and install pytest, pytest-xdist… continue reading.

Posted on 8 September 2021 in Development, Python Leave a comment

Changelog generator for GitHub milestones

For many years now, I've been using Matthew Weier O'Phinney's changelog_generator script to generate an easy-to-read list of changes for a given milestone. Time has moved on; the Laminas project now uses Laminas Automatic Releases and Matthew hasn't updated his script since 2013. Since PHP 8, warnings have started appear, so it's clear updates were required. While I fully intend to see if I can use Automatic Releases on some projects, I have others where… continue reading.

Posted on 18 August 2021 in PHP Leave a comment

Setting HTTP status code based on Exception in Slim 4

One thing that's quite convenient is to be able to throw an exception with a valid HTTP code set and have that code sent to the client. For example, you may have:

throw new \RuntimeException("Not Found", 404);

1	throw new \RuntimeException("Not Found", 404);

With the standard Slim 4 error handler, this response is sent to the client:

$ curl -i -H "Accept:application/json" http://localhost:8888
HTTP/1.1 500 Internal Server Error
Host: localhost:8888
Content-type: application/json

{
    "message": "Slim Application Error"
}

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$ curl -i -H "Accept:application/json" http://localhost:8888

HTTP/1.1 500 Internal Server Error

Host: localhost:8888

Content-type: application/json

{

"message": "Slim Application Error"

}

Ideally we want the status code to be 404. Option 1: Use an HttpException The simplest solution is to use one of Slim's HttpException classes:

use Slim\Exception\HttpNotFoundException;

...

throw new HttpNotFoundException($request);

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use Slim\Exception\HttpNotFoundException;

...

throw new HttpNotFoundException($request);

This… continue reading.

Posted on 19 July 2021 in PHP, Slim Framework, Slim Framework 4 Leave a comment

A few Git tips

I don't do that much that's clever with git, but I've found the following helpful. Automatically prune When you do a git fetch or git pull, you can ask it to remove remote tracking branches for a branch that has been removed on the remote by using the –prune flag. This can be automated globally with:

git config --global fetch.prune true

1	git config --global fetch.prune true

and if you only want it for a specific repository, you can use:

git config remote.origin.prune true

1	git config remote.origin.prune true

One line log I… continue reading.

Posted on 30 March 2021 in Development View all 3 comments

OpenConnect on Mac

One of my clients has recently moved to AnyConnect VPN and I've been having routing problems with the official Mac client. As my colleagues on Linux on the project have not had these issues, I investigated and installed the OpenConnect client. These are my notes after scouring the Internet to set it up how I want it. Installation I used Homebrew:

$ brew install openconnect

1	$ brew install openconnect

OpenConnect is a CLI tool. If you want a GUI in your menu bar,… continue reading.

Posted on 23 March 2021 in Computing, Software View all 3 comments

Dependency injection in Serverless PHP with Bref

When writing PHP for AWS Lambda, Bref is the way to do it. One thing I like about Bref is that you can use PSR-15 Request Handlers to respond to API Gateway HTTP events as documented in the API Gateway HTTP events section of the Bref docs. The request handler is the same as used in PSR-7 micro-frameworks like Slim or Mezzio and can be thought of as a controller action. As such, it's really… continue reading.

Posted on 9 March 2021 in AWS Lambda, PHP Leave a comment

MailTrackerBlocker

One thing that has annoyed me about receiving email is so-called tracker pixels. These usually 1x1px transparent images that are remotely loaded into HTML email enable the sender to track information about be. A good resource about them is No To Spy Pixels. As such I've tended to run my email clients with remote resource loading disabled, which isn't the best experience as a surprising number of legitimate email even display the call-to-action link as… continue reading.

Posted on 3 March 2021 in Around the web, Software One comment so far

Keyboard control of Big Sur notification alerts

With the release of Big Sur, my scripts for keyboard control of macOS notification alerts stopped working. With a bit of experimentation and help from Google, I have written new ones. Closing an alert To close a notification alert on Big Sur, conceptually we want to press the X button that appears when you hover over it. The AppleScript to do this is:

activate application "NotificationCenter"
tell application "System Events"
    tell process "NotificationCenter"
        set theWindow to group 1 of UI element 1 of scroll area 1 of window "Notification Center"
        # click theWindow
        set theActions to actions of theWindow
        repeat with theAction in theActions
            if description of theAction is "Close" then
                tell theWindow
                    perform theAction
                end tell
                exit repeat
            end if
        end repeat
    end tell
end tell

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activate application "NotificationCenter"

tell application "System Events"

tell process "NotificationCenter"

set theWindow to group 1 of UI element 1 of scroll area 1 of window "Notification Center"

# click theWindow

set theActions to actions of theWindow

repeat with theAction in theActions

if description of theAction is "Close" then

tell theWindow

perform theAction

end tell

exit repeat

end if

end repeat

end tell

This is much more complicated than just clicking button 1 of… continue reading.

Posted on 27 February 2021 in AppleScript, Computing Leave a comment

Free ticket to The Online PHP Conference!

I'm very happy to be speaking at The Online PHP Conference this year. As you can guess from the title, this is an online event so is easily accessible right from your desk. thePHP.cc have very kindly made available a couple of tickets to me, so you could attend for free.

Posted on 6 January 2021 in Conferences, PHP

2020 in Pictures

As we reach the end of 2020, I continue my tradition of looking back at my year through the photos that I took as I have done every year since 2009. I have been doing a Project 365 for a good few years which acts as a diary too, so I have the opportunity to appreciate what happened this year in my life. This has been quite a year with the pandemic hitting the UK… continue reading.

Posted on 31 December 2020 in Me, Year in Pictures One comment so far