Help, I need really solid expand-collapse code
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I really need a rock-solid expand-collapse display that I can integrate with Scripting News. If you're reading this in RSS, flip over to the home page and have a look. See how the pluses and minuses work? There are a bunch of problems: 1. Doesn't work in Opera. Deal-stopper. Opera users are cool folk. 2. I don't like the indentation. I want the text flush-left. 3. Takes too long to display. I want it to be instantaneous. 4. Must be multi-level. I haven't tested the code I'm using with more than two levels. I know it can be much better, because I see it done better in lots of places.  Looking for help from people who know their Javascript. Me, I'm into other things (obviously).  Mock up a Scripting News home page with your code, and post a pointer, and we'll test it out. When it's done, everyone will be able to use it.  BTW, I know there are people from the Radio community that have stuff in this area, I just don't know how well supported the stuff is these days. It's been a while.
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In this new blog post, Mike Potter points out two examples of the AMFPHP package in action as provided by Renaun Erickson.   The source code to both examples is available as well.  (You did know that Flex applications have the option of publishing the source code right? [...] To publish the source code for your own application, in Flex Builder select Project -> Publish Application Source...)   He also mentions an upcoming update to the PHP RIA SDK by Adobe to include some of these sorts of examples. Check out the mailing list for more.
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Did you know that Mac OS X offers a simple way to increase the width of a column in Column View? It does, and it couldnât be simpler. Find out how to automatically expand a single column â or every Column View column at once â in the latest Tip of the Week.
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Joshua Eichorn points out an interesting project in a new post to his blog today - quercus.   I found an interesting project, quercus that compiles PHP to Java Bytecode allowing it to run ontop of the Java Resin Application Server. It has a couple neat features, one being PHP6 compatible unicode support, the other being easy integration between Java and PHP code.   He gave it a shot and notes that the performance seems decent and allows you to compensate for some of the differences in the PHP API it supports and what you're using via a Java class. According to their site:   Quercus is Caucho Technology's 100% Java implementation of PHP 5 released under the Open Source GPL license. Quercus comes with many PHP modules and extensions like PDF, PDO, MySQL, and JSON. Quercus allows for tight integration of Java services with PHP scripts, so using PHP with JMS or Grails is a quick and painless endeavor.   It includes several extensions too, including the JSON library, APC, MySQL and Oracle support, and PDF functionality. Check out their Getting Started guide, documentation, or their wiki for more information.
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From the PHP in Action blog today, there's a new post that (briefly) shows how to run your tests directly from a popular unix text editor - vim.   I created my own test runner to run tests inside Vim, I can't remember how long ago. Must be a year or two. I never shared it with the world. It was too primitive for anyone else to use. Then, recently, I decided to try re-implementing it in a more serious way.   The "more serious way" meant using Vim script to its full potential, including the ability to work with objects and already has its own testing framework. He includes a screenshot but no download just yet. It looks promising and makes running tests as simple as hitting F11 and watching it go.
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O'Reilly's ONLamp.com website has posted a new tutorial that merges PHP with another powerful web technology - Flex.   With all the hype (and money) surrounding buzzword terms like Web 2.0 and Rich Internet Applications (RIA), it's easy to wonder, "How can I integrate that into my PHP application?" Certainly, Asynchronous JavaScript and XML (Ajax) technologies that use JavaScript code are a good option. But you should also have a look at the Adobe Flex framework. With Flex, you can quickly build functional, attractive user interfaces in Adobe Flash that communicate to your PHP web application through XML.   They go through the usual of showing what Flex is and how it flows in a web application. From there, they move into the tutorial portion - installing the Flex Builder software, creating a new project, testing using Flex Builder and the construction of a sample application (store/access a list of subscribers).
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How often have you thrown up your hands in disgust at the poor quality of documentation for an open source project?  Wouldn&#8217;t it be nice if someone put together a documentation coverage tool that worked like test coverage too ls?  Well, you&#8217;re in luck&#8212;dcov is here (at least for Ruby code).
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On PHPied.com, there's a new post about some updates that have been made to the HiLiteMe.com site work even more features to make it more flexible.   Following from here, I'm proud to announce an update to HiLiteMe.com with two custom renderers for Text_Highlighter.   The additions are an option to make the output in a BB Code format (easier for forum pasting) and some simple HTML code integration to make the results more portable. There are also enhancements to the CSS that keep you from having to View Source each time to get the results and a setting letting you specify the tab size. You can test it out here.
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When hard a work coding, browser windows with manual entries have a nasty habit of multiplying (at least when I work). So, neededless to say, I was happy to find GotAPI.com, a site that compiles the reference materials for several different web development languages into one handy browser window.  The page, by default, searches HTML resources, including the W3C specs and Microsoft's MSDN materials. Those and the w3schools website show up often in the other languages available - CSS, XSL, XML, and XPath. The PHP manual that's referenced is just pulled from the PHP.net site, but it's still nice to have it all right there.  When searching, a "suggeted terms" box pops up to help you narrow down the search faster. It searches not only the beginnings of the words for your term, but it looks inside them as well, matching anywhere.   It would be nice if the site had some kind of bookmarking system built into it - then you could keep a reference and just flip back and forth between the pages with a single click of the mouse.
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From the JSLabs blog today, there's a mini-tutorial on how to convert your PHP files into executable files (.exe) to be used on Windows.   There are a few commercial products out there that allow you to turn your php scripts into an executable. While most of them work well, I have found a way to do it for free, using an open source application. This application is called Wapache (based on the apache web server) and it is open source (distributed under the Apache License 2.0).   WApache does the trick by combining your script with stripped down versions of an IE browser and an Apache web server. This is compiled together and pushed out the other end as an executable file. Instructions are included in the post to get you started making the .exe files quickly.
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In his continuing effort to redesign his blog, Shiflett.org, he's been working on one of the things that really makes a blog useful - the commenting system. Specifically, he wants site visitors to be able to add their own code listings to the comments they post. He gives more detail in this new post.   I've been playing with this tonight. Feel free to follow along as I go. The first thing you want to do is create an ordered list from the code you want to format ($code in these examples).   He gives an example of a listing using his system and explains how it all works. It's a mixture of:  PHP for parsing the data inside the 'code' tags CSS to correctly style the information, whitespace and all Some ini settings to set parameters for... ...the use of highlight string on the PHP code contents  A little str_replace magic later and you have list items styled as code blocks on your page. Check out his demo for an example.
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Last week we looked at an in-depth explanation of the JavaScript code. This week, we conclude the series with a line-by-line walkthrough of the JavaScript code and describe the server-side classic ASP script code. By Rob Gravelle. 0206
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Okay, non-interview stuff first. I've recently picked up several 'shortcuts' from O'Reilly and Addison-Weseley.  I love this format.  For about 10 bucks, you can get a PDF only copy of a 50-100 page "book".  The shortcuts (so far at least) have been very focused, which allows them to cover a reasonable topic in sufficient depth without creating a monstrous 600+ page tome.  The shortcuts I've looked at so far have been timely, useful, and a great value.  October marks the beginning of Apress' push into Ruby and Ruby on Rails.    Apress also has Practical OCaml coming out soon to help soothe your inner functional programmer.  Now, on to interview news!
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In a new post, Matthew O'Phinney sharing a handy new tool that he discovered - exuberant ctags - that lets you magically click on a class of function name and move to its declaration.   I found exuberant ctags, a library which can be used to generate an index file mapping language objects to source files and the line in the source file where they are declared. Contrary to its name, it's not just for the C language; it currently supports 33 different programming languages, including PHP.   He also includes a usage example in the post, specifically for getting the tool up and working in your Vim installation (via a bash script). Then it's just a matter of issuing a :set command to point at the correct file and you're one keystroke away from the function/class declaration of your choice.
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On the Mac, in a Frontier or OPML Editor script. sys.unixShellCommand("open http://scripting.com/") I want to be able to find this tidbit later in Google. Please ignore.
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Rob Allen has posted a simple example of the Zend_Layout component (since it's in the trunk now) both with a screenshot of the output and the method to set it up.   This example consists of three view files: the outer layout file, the index action view script and a right hand side bar. The remainder of this post describes the key files. If you just want to poke around with the code, then it's at the bottom, so page down now!   He defines the directory layout, sets up his bootstrap file and creates the parts that do the work - the controller and the two-step view layer (with the "inner" scripts that output the information and the layout itself the content fits into).
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On SplitBrain.org, there's a mention of a new feature that's been added to the popular DokuWiki package - "pluggable renderers".    In case you don't know: DokuWiki parses Wiki syntax into an instruction array which then is "rendered" to the desired output format. This output format is usually the XHTML to display a nicely formatted Wiki page.   Pluggable renderers allow plugin authors to write their own renderer to output any format they want. This adds another bit of flexibility to DokuWiki.    The idea for these renderers was inspired by the S5 system (developed by Eric Meyer) that was essentially a web-based slide show (without the need for a messy client-side application). Unfortunately, the slide shows were hard to make - which is where the renderers come in. In fact, he's already created the tool to get you started - the S5 DokuWiki Plugin. Check out his example to see the results.