sim.plified.com

On my company blog I posted a complete step by step processes with videos of a standing desk that I built.  As a programmer I do a lot of sitting and the standing desk is a great way to get out of the seat and be productive.  Learn more about this project: Simplified Building – Standing Desk

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I was reading a Read/Write Web article and YQL and started to monkey around with it a bit today.  I was in need of an script that returned information on the users location based upon their IP.  In a few minutes I was able to pull together a quick script to start parsing out information based on a user’s IP.  Nothing fancy here, but it works!  There are some limits to how many times you can query YQL (read the documentation for more information).

    $ip = $_SERVER['REMOTE_ADDR']; 

    $url = "http://query.yahooapis.com/v1/public/yql?q=select%20*%20from%20ip.location%20where%20ip%3D'{$ip}'&format=xml&env=http%3A%2F%2Fdatatables.org%2Falltables.env";
    $xml = simplexml_load_file($url, 'SimpleXMLElement', LIBXML_NOCDATA);

    // if you need to see what is coming back.. uncomment below.
    // print_r($xml);

    // store the information you want using xpath

    $country =  $xml->xpath("/query/results/Response/CountryCode");
    $city =  $xml->xpath("/query/results/Response/City");
    $lat =  $xml->xpath("/query/results/Response/Latitude");
    $long =  $xml->xpath("/query/results/Response/Longitude");

    echo "<p>" . $country[0];
    echo "<p>" . $city[0];
    echo "<p>" . $lat[0];
    echo "<p>" . $long[0];

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An extension that showed custom fields in the edit had already been developed and was readily available on the EE forums.  However, I needed to mod this extension a bit to be based on field label instead of field id.  Functionally this allowed me to grab custom fields in different custom field sets and display them in the same column.  The use case for this was as follows.  I had multiple custom field sets, the user was entering the title in German and I wanted to be able to see a title in english.  So I added a field to each custom field set with the same label “english_title”.  I used that to pull the English title in the edit tab (so if I needed to find something I could, see as I don’t speak German). 

Download: ext.edit_custom_field_by_label.zip

To use the extension, install the files in their standard locations, enable and then edit the settings (fill in your field with the appropriate field label).

If you have any problems feel free to leave a comment and I’ll help you when I can.

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Just about 18 months ago we conceived of a new web site that was focused on safety solutions.  As we conducted business on Simplified Building Concepts we saw an increased emphasis on safety railing and safety products.   This led us to create an entire site that focused on providing safety solutions and advice.  The site was designed in collaborations with Squared Eye.   Matthew Smith from Squared Eye did a fantastic job working with me to put together a site that is both beautiful and usable.  I highly recommend his services.

I welcome you to visit the site and give feedback (use the black tab on the right side).  In the future I plan on releasing some posts on the ins and outs of the architecture of the site.

Here’s a bit of information about the site:

Simplified Safety is a company specializing in safety products and advice.  We aim to provide customers with tested, top quality safety gear and the appropriate advice to identify the products that are needed by each individual customer.  Working closely with each customer to arrive at a tailored safety solution is how we hope to set ourselves apart in the industry.  Here are a few examples of the safety products we supply: Guardrails, Skylight Protection, Lifeline Systems, Personal Protection Equipment, Harnesses, Lanyards, and more.

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In software development, you usually think of the next version of a package as containing more features, not less!  Especially when you consider such a featured glutted product as Microsoft Office, you don’t just expect things to just “go away".  Perhaps you are one of the people who was shocked to see the Routing feature disappear from Excel 2007. 

A couple of years back I worked for Roberts Wesleyan College, a higher educational institution that made frequent usage of the routing feature found in Excel.  One of their bright developers, Todd Andersen, has developed a plug-in to bring routing capabilities back to Excel 2007. 

I invite you to check out his routing plug-in for Excel 2007.  He offers it for reasonable price, and knowing Todd’s programming ability, I have no problem recommending it as quality plug-in that will help fix what Microsoft has broken

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For the next release of PatternTap, the images that are approved will be time released into the tap, this will allow for a more smooth delivery of content throughout the day, rather than bulk loading.

The function below take a datetime string (mysql formatted) and then returns the next delivery date.  The idea is that a whenever an item is submitted, it looks at the last item that was cued, get’s it’s time, and feeds it to this function to determine when the next item should be cued.  This function used the logic that items should be cued hourly between the hours of 10am and 5pm on Monday through Friday.  

This logic could easily be updated to accommodate your own needs, let me know if you find any problems or if it helps you solve a problem.

        /**
        *
        *    Description: returns the next time to cue up an item based on the logic:
        *       Every hour between 10am and 5pm, Monday - Friday
        *
        *    Example input value $latest_item = "2009-04-15 17:01:00";
        *
        *   @params $latest_item datetime string
        *
        **/

        function get_cue_time($latest_item)
        {

            $next_item = strtotime($latest_item . " + 1 hour"); 

            if ($next_item < time()) // compare to now
                $next_item = time(); // set to now

            // Before 10 am?
            if (date("H", $next_item) < 10)
            { // set to 10 am
                $next_item = mktime(10, 0, 0,
                                date("n", $next_item), date("j", $next_item), date("Y", $next_item));
            }                

            // After 5pm?
            if (date("H", $next_item) > 17)
            { // set to 10am the next day
                $next_item = mktime(10, 0, 0,
                                date("n", $next_item), date("j", $next_item) + 1, date("Y", $next_item));
            }

            // Saturday Check
            if (date("N", $next_item) == 6)
            { // set to 10am Monday
                $next_item = mktime(10, 0, 0,
                                date("n", $next_item), date("j", $next_item) + 2, date("Y", $next_item));

            }

            // Sunday Check
            if (date("N", $next_item) == 7)
            { // set to 10am Monday
                $next_item = mktime(10, 0, 0,
                                date("n", $next_item), date("j", $next_item) + 1, date("Y", $next_item));

            }

            return date('Y-m-d H:i:s', $next_item);
        }
        

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Last week I was in the UK on business and had the opportunity to meet up with some of the leads working on the EECommerce module that will bridge Expression Engine and Magento Ecommerce.  There were several purposes in the meeting 1) for me to communicate a very particular need I had in bridging multiple stores in Magento with multiple sites (via the Multiple Site Manager) in Expression Engine.  2) The other purpose was for me to get a handle on the project and what they were trying to accomplish.  Based on that meeting with Lee and Greg, here are some of the things I learned about EECommerce.

EECommerce is trying to make it possible to have the entire user/developer experience defined within EE.

The goal of the module is to port everything necessary to have a seamless shopping cart experience without ever leaving Expression Engine.  While that was not necessarily what I was looking for in merging the two systems together, there is a lot of potential in this approach as it will mean that the designer/develop does not have to mess with Magento’s somewhat confusing templating system.  Their goal is to make it so that you can define your entire store in EE templates, using the plug-in tags to harness Magento’s inherent functionality.  Of course you would still access Magento’s backend (e.g. product entry, order management) directly, but the actual user experience would be defined in Expression Engine.

EECommerce will be a complete encapsulation of the Magento API.. along with several extensions.

EECommerce’s tag system will encompass everything that can be done through Magento’s API and more.  This is by no means just a subset of Magneto functionality that is being brought into EE.  Far from being a subset, they will actually be extending the API in several ways that can be used with or without Expression Engine (as a developer I like this).

PHP UK seems to have passion for the project and a desire to garner community feedback.

For my own part, these guys drove a couple of hours to meet up with me at my business headquarters.  The drove up and listened as I explained the level of user integration that I was looking for between the two systems.  I laid out my architecture and they responded with what they believed their module would be able to accomplish.  They also assured me that they would talk to their developers and give me a better idea of when I might expect to see and beta test some of the features that I need to have developed for a forthcoming web site that I’m developing.

EECommerce was a bit more undeveloped than I might have hoped

I was hoping to see EECommerce a bit more developed when I met up with PHP UK.  For sure, they showed me that the module was working “in principal” but it seems that there are many bugs to get worked through on a bridge that is this involved.  Although they are hopeful to have something a bit more polished by some of the upcoming MAGE:Camp it seems as though they will have their work cut out for them.  In short, don’t plan on using this module in your ecommerce project that needs to be deployed next month.

A Word About Price

Clearly some of the biggest reaction in the community has come at the sticker shock of the EECommerce module.  Obviously everyone loves getting something for nothing, but as you and I know there is nothing that is truly free.  Everything cost something (even if you’re not the one who has to pay).  As an ecommerce entrepreneur, not just a developer, I think there is some real business value in the module that is being developed.  If built correctly, the module could be used to rapidly deploy ecommerce micro sites.  The tool has the potential (we’ll see when we get there) to greatly speed up the development of ecommerce sites that are simple and complex.

The Jury is Out

At the end of the day, the jury is still out.  Until the beta truly gets out there and a the developer community really begins to put some pressure on the module, its hard to see what will come of EECommerce.  I for one, am willing to give it a go and am looking forward to seeing if these guys can pull together a supported tool that helps make online commerce even easier by bringing the feature richness of Magento into the flexibility of Expression Engine.

If you have questions about my meeting and what I was able to see, please post your questions in the comments and I’ll try to address them in a timely manner.

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I’ve been really impressed with the latest releases of Director and ThumbGrid from Slideshow Pro.  I am planning on using them to replace a JavaScript based slideshow that I feel loads abnormally in different browsers.  SlideShowPro really has simplified the process for me, by providing some great administrative and presentation tools.

Here are the basics of wiring up the JavaScript navigation to the slide show.

In the flash document (fla) in a new key frame I placed the following:

   1:  import flash.external.*;

   2:  ExternalInterface.addCallback("sspNextImage", sspNextImage);

   3:  ExternalInterface.addCallback("sspPrevImage", sspPrevImage);

   4:  function sspNextImage() {

   5:     my_ssp.nextImage();

   6:  }

   7:  function sspPrevImage() {

   8:     my_ssp.previousImage();

   9:  }

This code basically exposes the SSP API to an external agent such as JavaScript

Then in my web page document in the HEAD tag I included the following:

   1:  <script type="text/javascript">

   2:     function sspNextImage() {

   3:        thisMovie("ssp_kg").sspNextImage();

   4:     }

   5:     function sspPrevImage() {

   6:        thisMovie("ssp_kg").sspPrevImage();

   7:     }

   8:     function thisMovie(movieName) {

   9:        if (navigator.appName.indexOf("Microsoft") != -1) {

  10:           return window[movieName]

  11:        } else {

  12:           return document[movieName]

  13:        }

  14:     }

  15:  </script>

Note that “ssp_kg” is the name of my slide show presentation.

The only thing left to do was to setup the links to call the new JavaScript functions:

<p class="gallery-nav">
<a onclick="sspPrevImage(); return false;" href="#">&laquo; Previous</a>
|
<a onclick="sspNextImage(); return false;" href="#">Next &raquo;</a>
</p>

In the end it was very straight forward and I was well satisfied with the results:

Sample Page: KeeGuard Roof Top Railing – Fall Protection System

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Recently our company began a trial of Salesforce.com.  In doing so we opted not to layout the cash for the program that gives you full API access (at the moment any ways).  I needed a way to push leads into the system.  They have a standard web-to-lead process that requires a form submission and then post back to return URL.  I already had a lot of forms that I was using to capture data.  Instead of reworking all my forms, I just created a way to post to the Salesforce web-to-lead form from the server side. 

I started by creating a basic function which passes in the data I want to capture and pushes it to the Sales force form.

    function add_to_salesforce($source, $name, $email, $company, $city, $state, $zip, $phone, $description, $street = "")

    {

        // simple way of breaking apart the name

        $names = split(" ", $name);

        //set POST variables

        $url = 'https://www.salesforce.com/servlet/servlet.WebToLead?encoding=UTF-8';

        $fields = array(

                                'last_name'=>urlencode($names[1]),

                                'first_name'=>urlencode($names[0]),

                                'street'=>urlencode($street),

                                'city'=>urlencode($city),

                                'state'=>urlencode($state),

                                'zip'=>urlencode($zip),

                                'company'=>urlencode($company),

                                'description'=>urlencode($description),

                                'email'=>urlencode($email),

                                'phone'=>urlencode($phone),

                                'mycustomefieldid' => urlencode($source), // custom field

                                'oid' => 'youridgoeshere', // insert with your id

                                'retURL' => urlencode('http://www.yourreturnurl.com'), // sending this just in case

                                'debug' => '1',

                                'debugEmail' => urlencode("youremail@youremail.com"), // your debugging email

                        );

        //url-ify the data for the POST

        foreach($fields as $key=>$value) { $fields_string .= $key.'='.$value.'&'; }

        rtrim($fields_string,'&');

        //open connection

        $ch = curl_init();

        //set the url, number of POST vars, POST data

        curl_setopt($ch,CURLOPT_URL,$url);

        curl_setopt($ch,CURLOPT_POST,count($fields));

        curl_setopt($ch,CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS,$fields_string);

        curl_setopt($ch,CURLOPT_SSL_VERIFYPEER, FALSE);

        curl_setopt($ch,CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, TRUE);

        curl_setopt($ch,CURLOPT_FOLLOWLOCATION, TRUE);

        //execute post

        $result = curl_exec($ch);

        //close connection

        curl_close($ch);

    }

Once that was setup all I had to do was call the function (which I wrapped in a class with something like this:

$myclass = new Myclass;

$myclass->add_to_salesforce("Contact Page", $name, $email_address, $company, "", "", "", $phone, $enquiry);

Works like a charm so far.  If you’ve got a slicker way of perfoming this operation, let me know, I’d love to learn how you did it.

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One of the request for the Pattern Tap Stream was the ability to show part of a post that then "slide down" when the reader clicked "read more".  At first I thought this would be a cinch using jQuery's "slideDown()" command.  I soon found that it did not support initially being open to a partial height.  Below is a my brief explanation and code for how I accomplished a partial height slide with jQuery.

Click here for the Demo Page.

1. Let the height of the box be its full size when it loads in the browser.
2. Attach a new attribute to each box the holds the height of the open slider div.
3. Set the height to the partial height you want.  Remember to consider the line-height with the box height so that you don't have you text cut off.

Here's the code

var sliderHeight = "100px";

$(document).ready(function(){

    $('.slider').each(function () {

                var current = $(this);

                current.attr("box_h", current.height());

            }

     );

    $(".slider").css("height", sliderHeight);

    $(".slider_menu").html('<a href="#">Read More</a>');

    $(".slider_menu a").click(function() { openSlider() })

});

function openSlider()

{

    var open_height = $(".slider").attr("box_h") + "px";

    $(".slider").animate({"height": open_height}, {duration: "slow" });

    $(".slider_menu").html('<a href="#">Close</a>');

    $(".slider_menu a").click(function() { closeSlider() })

}

function closeSlider()

{

    $(".slider").animate({"height": sliderHeight}, {duration: "slow" });

    $(".slider_menu").html('<a href="#">Read More</a>');

    $(".slider_menu a").click(function() { openSlider() })

}

See this in action on the Pattern Tap Stream page.

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