Mike's Technology Blog

My print_r() implementation for .NET

2005-01-02T10:21:00.000-08:00

I notice that print_r() function is missing in .NET, but that's function is very important for debugging your application. So I posted the source code here. I'm open to your suggestions or critiques.

Two MVC frameworks were found today

2005-01-02T06:43:00.000-08:00

Actaully, I could have said 'only one' because one of them is for Java and second one is its port for ASP.NET, but let's get down to the business here is the Java one - http://mav.sourceforge.net/ and ASP.NET http://mavnet.sourceforge.net/.

FireFox is getting widespread

2005-01-02T05:53:00.000-08:00

I've just had a look at this blog statistics, nearly 50% of the visitors are using FireFox, of course it's because this blog is intendted for web-developers mostly, but it's still surprising.

So what is so special about FireFox? I dunno.......

Creating a PHP-Based Content Management System

2005-01-02T02:04:00.000-08:00

As well as usual, I was simply browsing the Net in the morning today and came across something that can interest me and you. This time it was this article - Creating a PHP-Based Content Management System.

It covers some basics of creating a CMS - general plan, some system classes, validation etc. Although I didn't like some things, for example DBConnector class, I would use the Singleton pattern there, plus they don't have a full separation of content and PHP code, that is not good and look like just another Nuke.

But some thing are rally good, for instance their validation class:


class Validator extends SystemComponent {



   var $errors; // A variable to store a list of error messages



   // Validate something's been entered

   // NOTE: Only this method does nothing to prevent SQL injection

   // use with addslashes() command

   function validateGeneral($theinput,$description = ''){

      if (trim($theinput) != "") {

         return true;

      }else{

         $this->errors[] = $description;

         return false;

      }

   }

   

   // Validate text only

   function validateTextOnly($theinput,$description = ''){

      $result = ereg ("^[A-Za-z0-9\ ]+$", $theinput );

      if ($result){

         return true;

      }else{

         $this->errors[] = $description;

         return false; 

      }

   }



   // Validate text only, no spaces allowed

   function validateTextOnlyNoSpaces($theinput,$description = ''){

      $result = ereg ("^[A-Za-z0-9]+$", $theinput );

      if ($result){

         return true;

      }else{

         $this->errors[] = $description;

         return false; 

      }

   }

      

   // Validate email address

   function validateEmail($themail,$description = ''){

      $result = ereg ("^[^@ ]+@[^@ ]+\.[^@ \.]+$", $themail );

      if ($result){

         return true;

      }else{

         $this->errors[] = $description;

         return false; 

      }

         

   }

   

   // Validate numbers only

   function validateNumber($theinput,$description = ''){

      if (is_numeric($theinput)) {

         return true; // The value is numeric, return true

      }else{ 

         $this->errors[] = $description; // Value not numeric! Add error description to list of errors

         return false; // Return false

      }

   }

   

   // Validate date

   function validateDate($thedate,$description = ''){



      if (strtotime($thedate) === -1 || $thedate == '') {

         $this->errors[] = $description;

         return false;

      }else{

         return true;

      }

   }

   

   // Check whether any errors have been found (i.e. validation has returned false)

   // since the object was created

   function foundErrors() {

      if (count($this->errors) > 0){

         return true;

      }else{

         return false;

      }

   }



   // Return a string containing a list of errors found,

   // Seperated by a given deliminator

   function listErrors($delim = ' '){

      return implode($delim,$this->errors);

   }

   

   // Manually add something to the list of errors

   function addError($description){

      $this->errors[] = $description;

   }   

      

}

.NET naming

2004-12-29T08:16:00.000-08:00

Hi!

I was playing with C# a bit, but its variable naming is driving me insane - I have to use capital letters so much, for example, when I want get the value of some text field I have to write the following:


string someValue = someTextBox.Text;

Note the capital letter in 'Text', personally, I love Java accessor:


String someValue = someTextBox.getText();

But guy from Microsoft decided to make coders life 'easier', the invented their own properties that cause this naming confuse:


class Person {

	private string name;

	public string Name {

		get {

			return name;

		}

		set {

			name = value;

		}

	}

}

Nice finding...

2004-12-15T10:31:00.000-08:00

While going through the SitePoint forums I came across the thing - phpBeans.

I assume you can guess what it is by just looking at their URL, so I don't have to explains that it's yet another attempt to make PHP closer to .....of course, Java.

phpBeans is being discussed here.

PHPlet - a PHP approach To Java Servlet

2004-10-25T09:04:00.000-07:00

I was looking thought this thread and found a link that led to the PHPlet project that is a PHP implementation of Java servlet.

PHP Is Going To Be Different

2004-10-24T01:59:00.000-07:00

It looks like PHP isn’t going to be that PHP we’re used to seeing it. I think it’s going to adopt some technology; it will be similar to ASP.NET or Servlet/JSP.

It’s getting closer to ASP.NET owing to such project as WACT and Prado.

As for Servlet/JSP, I think something is going happen here, for example as a language PHP is very close to Java, the only exception is dynamic types of PHP. People use MVC pattern that came from java, they also make DAO components that are very similar to EJB. Then I read this post; these guys want to build a servlet-like container for PHP.
What I think that PHP popularity can be a great advantage of creating some a new server-side technology that can comprises availability of PHP and power of Servlet/Java, I believe that PHP will go to the direction of Java and not .NET according to the next thoughts - .NET is a one platform thing (I don’t consider Mono, because it’s not an officially supported program), while PHP and Java are supported at nearly every platform, then Zend and Sun seem to be very good friends, just read the latest news to understand the fact, so I guess Sun will try to make something PHP based to expand their market of servers-side development tools.

Nice finding of the day...

2004-10-24T01:20:00.000-07:00

I was just lurking around the SitePoint forums and I came across this post Any experiences with OpenCMS?, at the first moment I thought that it was apost about yet another *Nuke, but I clicked on the link and found out that it was a Servlet/JSP CMS that besides was open-source that is very catchy.

Got interested? Go here to find out more ;)

EJB? Hmmm......It's easy!

2004-10-24T01:13:00.000-07:00

Don't you know what that buzzword mean?

Get to know EJB and its newest specification by reading this!

NetBeans 4.1 Early Access Was Released Yesterday!

2004-10-23T01:52:00.000-07:00

And now it supports EJB...more information

SItePoint Launches A Java Blog

2004-10-21T13:10:00.000-07:00

I've just visited SitePoint and got really surpised when I saw their Java/J2EE blog that was launched today. Seems like they are trying to bring more Java to SitePoint.

The blog is here...

Nice reading...

2004-10-02T04:46:00.000-07:00

Here is an interview with Jeffrey Veen/ a recognized expert in the area of Web Design and Content Management Systems

He speaks about common pitfalls when installing a CMS, the thing you should understand when deciding to install a CMS.

Nice finding...

2004-10-01T11:05:00.000-07:00

I came across an interesting thing today - PRADO component framework for PHP 5 .

It's an event-driven framework, it brings you to the development style of Windows programming with using Borldand's IDE, like C++ Builder and Delphi, some of its classes' names begins with 'T' just like as in C++ Builder and Delphi.

Also it can be compared to ASP.NET that also used event-driven coding paradigm.

So, I think, you can see what it is by visiting their website - http://www.xisc.com/

Java 5.0 is here!!!

2004-09-30T10:56:00.000-07:00

Here it is!

Java 5.0 (1.5, in fact ;)) was released yesterday, unlikely its previous versions its changes are not just new classes, but improved language that has some new features.

So, go to the Java website to discover it.

By the way, you can download JDK with NetBeans 4 IDE Beta 2

Nice reading

2004-09-23T13:43:00.000-07:00

Yes, it's rather late to write about that, but it still deserves your reading.

http://themanfromscandinavia.blogspot.com/2004/08/old-school-business-lesson-dont.html

PHP 5 is right here...

2004-09-22T13:41:00.000-07:00

Finally, I've installed PHP 5, I've been playing with it for a while, I would say, it's quite interesting, it's more Javish than its 4th version.

I wonder what's gonna happen then, probably, PHP and Java, I mean its web-development technologies, will merge.