Here’s another quick braindump post. A custom JSON-RPC library I wrote for a project at my last job. It should follow the JSON-RPC 2.0 Spec pretty closely. It does require the jQuery library as well.

You can pretty much ignore the MIKU references. Basically it’s just a way of namespacing objects to make them globally available. Try reading up on the YUI library for more information.

As always, feel free to post with any questions.

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var MIKU;
 
/*
 * Method to allow namespacing of new objects within MIKU;
 *
 * Example:
 * MIKU.namespace('objectname');
 * MIKU.objectname = function() { return {'...'} }
 *
 */
MIKU = function() {
  return {
    namespace: function(name) {
      try {
        if (MIKU[name]) {
          throw 'Namespace exists.';
        }
        return {}
      }
      catch (e) {
        this.throwError(e);
      }
    }
  }
}();
 
MIKU.namespace('throwError');
 
/*
 * Method to catch MIKU errors
 */
MIKU.throwError = function(e) {
  if (console) {
    console.error((e.message || 'MikuError:'), e);
  }
};
 
/*
 * Init the JsonRpc namespace into the MIKU object.
 */
MIKU.namespace('JsonRpc');
 
/*
 * Miku Json-RPC Implementation
 */
 
MIKU.JsonRpc = function() {
  var _url = 'json-rpc/call';
  var _timeout = false;
  var _requests = [];
  var _responses = [];
  var _callbacks = {};
  var _requestId = 0;
  var _failures = 0;
 
  function _send() {
    _request();
    _t = false;
    _requests = [];
  }
 
  function _request() {
    try {
      if (!_url) {
        throw('undefined post url.');
      }
      $.ajax({
        type: 'POST',
        url: _url,
        data: ({
          request: JSON.stringify(_requests)
        }),
        dataFilter: function(data, type) {
          //check for php errors
          try {
            return JSON.parse(data);
          }
          catch (e) {
            var phpError = /^.*?(Error|Warning|Notice).*?\:\s*(.*?) in .*?(\/[0-9A-Za-z\/\.\-\_\ ]+).* on line .*?([0-9]+).*$/i;
            var lines = data.split(/\n/g);
            $.each(lines, function() {
              var error = this.match(phpError);
              if (error) {
                MIKU.throwError({
                  message: error[1] + ': ' + error[2],
                  file: error[3],
                  line: error[4]
                });
              }
            });
          }
        },
        success: function(data) {
          _success(data);
        },
        error: function(XMLHttpRequest, textStatus, errorThrown) {
          // retry after connection failures
          if (XMLHttpRequest.status != '200') {
            _failures ++;
            if (_failures < 3) {
              _request();
              return;
            }
          }
 
          // give up and throw errors...
          MIKU.throwError([XMLHttpRequest, textStatus, errorThrown]);
        }
      });
    }
    catch(e) {
      MIKU.throwError(e);
    }
  }
 
  function _success(response) {
    $.each(jQuery.makeArray(response), function() {
      try {
        if (this.error) {
          // check for error
          throw(this.error);
        }
        else if(this.result) {
          // trigger callback
          var callback = _callbacks[this.id];
          callback(this.result);
        }
      }
      catch(e) {
        MIKU.throwError(e);
      }
    });
 
    // reset callbacks
    _callbacks = {};
  }
 
  function _genId() {
    return ++_requestId;
  }
 
  return {
    version: '2.0',
    delay: 10,
    setUrl: function(url) {
      _url = url;
    },
    call: function(args) {
      var id = _genId();
 
      var request = {
        jsonrpc: this.version,
        method: args.method,
        params: args.params,
        id: id
      }
 
      _requests.push(request);
      _callbacks[id] = args.onSuccess;
 
      if (_timeout) {
        clearTimeout(_timeout);
      }
      _timeout = setTimeout(_send, this.delay);
 
      return request;
    }
  }
}();
 
/*
 * Testing Below
 */
 
$(document).ready(function() {
  var rpc = MIKU.JsonRpc;
 
/*
  rpc.call({
    method: 'System.getTitle',
    params: [
      'this is a title'
    ],
    onSuccess: function() {
      console.log('w00t');
    }
  });
*/
});

While working on a soon-to-be finished Wordpress theme for a client, I ran into a situation where it would be useful to create a custom widget that they could use to organize content on their site. Basically, they wanted to be able to select a random post or page and display some associated meta data. Essentially a custom image and content teaser. They were going to be doing this several times throughout the site, but in slightly different configurations. A post here, a page there. It seemed silly to hard-code these features. Using a widget would allow them to swap them out for a Twitter stream, or an RSS news feed in the future.

Making multi-instance widgets in Wordpress 2.8+ couldn’t be easier. Here is a good example to start with from the Wordpress codex.

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<?php
class My_Widget extends WP_Widget {
	function My_Widget() {
		// widget actual processes
	}
 
	function widget($args, $instance) {
		// outputs the content of the widget
	}
 
	function update($new_instance, $old_instance) {
		// processes widget options to be saved
	}
 
	function form($instance) {
		// outputs the options form on admin
	}
}
register_widget('My_Widget');
?>

And here is my finished widget (evolved from the above example).

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<?php
/*
 * Custom mini-post widget
 */
class FGX_MiniPost_Widget extends WP_Widget {
	function FGX_MiniPost_Widget() {
		// widget actual processes
		parent::WP_Widget(false, $name = 'Floragenex MiniPost', array(
			'description' => 'Display a teaser for a post or a page.'
		));
	}
 
	function widget($args, $instance) {
		// outputs the content of the widget
			global $post;
 
			extract( $args );			
			$type = $instance['type'];
			$include = (!empty($instance['include']) ? explode(',', $instance['include']) : '');
			$category = (is_numeric($instance['category']) ? (int)$instance['category'] : '');
 
                        // Set up query for posts with the provided filters
			query_posts(array(
				'post_type' => $type,
				'post__in' => $include,
				'post__not_in' => array($post->ID),
				'cat' => $category,
				'post_status' => 'publish',
				'meta_key' => 'teaser_value',
				'meta_value' => '',
				'meta_compare' => '!=',
				'orderby' => 'rand',
				'posts_per_page' => '1'
			));
 
			echo $before_widget;
 
                        // Output widget, if a post exists that matches our query
			if ( have_posts() ) :
				while ( have_posts() ) : the_post();
					$post_meta = get_post_custom($post->ID);
					echo (!empty($post_meta['image_value'][0]) ? '<a href="' . get_page_link() . '">' .
							 '<img alt="image" src="' . get_bloginfo('template_url') . '/scripts/timthumb.php?src=' . htmlentities($post_meta['image_value'][0]) . '&h=62&w=180&zc=1" />' .
							 '</a>' : '') .
							 '<h3><a href="' . get_page_link() . '">' . get_the_title() . '</a></h3>' .
							 '<p>' . htmlentities($post_meta['teaser_value'][0]) . '</p>' .
							 '<p><a class="learn-more" href="' . get_page_link() . '">learn more</a></p>';
				endwhile;
			else:
				echo '<p>No posts found.</p>';
			endif;
 
                        // Very important to reset the query here.
			wp_reset_query();
 
			echo $after_widget;
	}
 
	function update($new_instance, $old_instance) {
		// processes widget options to be saved
		return $new_instance;
	}
 
	function form($instance) {
		// outputs the options form on admin		
		$type = esc_attr($instance['type']);
		$include = esc_attr($instance['include']);
		$category = esc_attr($instance['category']);
 
                // Get the existing categories and build a simple select dropdown for the user.
		$categories = get_categories();
 
		$cat_options = array();
		$cat_options[] = '<option value="BLANK">Select one...</option>';
 
		foreach ($categories as $cat) {
			$selected = $category === $cat->cat_ID ? ' selected="selected"' : '';
			$cat_options[] = '<option value="' . $cat->cat_ID .'"' . $selected . '>' . $cat->name . '</option>';
		}
 
		?>
			<p>
				<label for="<?php echo $this->get_field_id('type'); ?>">
					<?php _e('Content type:'); ?>
				</label>
				<select id="<?php echo $this->get_field_id('type'); ?>" class="widefat" name="<?php echo $this->get_field_name('type'); ?>">
					<option value="post"<?php echo ($type === 'post' ? ' selected="selected"' : ''); ?>>Post</option>
					<option value="page"<?php echo ($type === 'page' ? ' selected="selected"' : ''); ?>>Page</option>
				</select>
			</p>
			<p>
				<label for="<?php echo $this->get_field_id('include'); ?>">
					<?php _e('Include post IDs (optional):'); ?>
				</label>
				<input id="<?php echo $this->get_field_id('include'); ?>" class="widefat" type="text" name="<?php echo $this->get_field_name('include'); ?>" value="<?php echo $include; ?>" />
			</p>
			<p>
				<label for="<?php echo $this->get_field_id('category'); ?>">
					<?php _e('Include category (optional):'); ?>
				</label>
				<select id="<?php echo $this->get_field_id('category'); ?>" class="widefat" name="<?php echo $this->get_field_name('category'); ?>">
					<?php echo implode('', $cat_options); ?>
				</select>
			</p>				
		<?php
	}
}
 
// register widget
register_widget('FGX_MiniPost_Widget');
?>

Just paste this code in your theme’s functions.php file and the widget should appear under your available widgets.

This was a quick braindump post, so please feel free to post with any specific questions.

A while back I created a PHP library for interacting with the Assembla Ticket API. I thought it might be useful to someone, so here it is.

You can use this library to create and list tickets that exist for one of your Assembla spaces. It’s useful for integrating bug reporting and other feedback features into an application that you may be developing. This code is very much a work in progress, so please let me know if you encounter any bugs or have any new feature requests.

You can view and download the code on GitHub:

I have a client who absolutely loves Wordpress, but one of her long-time blogs has been hosted at Blogger since the dawn of time. Luckily, thanks to some persistence and a handy Wordpress plugin, she’s now happily blogging with Wordpress.

Step 1: Set up and configure Wordpress
First thing to do is get yourself a self-hosted Wordpress install. Many hosts these days even offer easy “one-click” installs of Wordpress through their control panels. Otherwise check out the Wordpress docs for help getting started.

If you need hosting recommendations shoot me an email or leave a comment. I’d be glad to recommend some of my favorites.

Step 2: Import your Blogger content
Once you’ve got Wordpress installed and hooked into your database, it’s time to import your old Blogger content. Log into the Wordpress admin panel and go to “Tools->Import->Blogger.” Follow the onscreen directions to complete this step.

Double check the imported posts and pages to make sure that all your content is there. Pay special attention to images in posts.

Step 3: Install plugins
Now, we all know you’ve developed a huge following on your blog, at least, that’s what you tell your friends. You don’t want all your incoming links to go dark once you move off Blogger, ideally you’d like them to point to the same posts on your new Wordpress site. The solution here is to use a nifty plugin called “wp-maintain-blogger-permalinks.” Following the directions at the link below will make this happen:

http://justinsomnia.org/2006/10/maintain-permalinks-moving-from-blogger-to-wordpress/

Now, if you don’t want to mess around with your .htaccess file to go “.html-less.” You can simply append “.html” to the end of your permalink structure. In Wordpress go to “Settings->Permalinks” and check the “Custom Structure” radio button. Modify this structure by removing the trailing “slash” and adding “.html” to the end. Don’t forget to save your changes!

Step 4: Update the DNS settings for your custom domain
It took me a while to find out how to update the DNS settings for a custom domain bought through the Blogger interface. It’s actually pretty easy. Just go to the following URL:

http://www.google.com/a/cpanel/yourdomainhere.com/

Log in to Google Apps using your Blogger ID and password. Then navigate to “Domain Settings ->Domain Names” and click on the “Advanced DNS settings” link.

Step 5: Get your custom domain transferred to a new registrar

You can certainly leave your domain hosted with Google’s affiliate registrar, but if you are hosting other domains elsewhere, it may make sense to consolidate your resources. To initiate the transfer process, you’ll need to obtain your domain’s authorization code from Google’s affiliate registrar.

If you’d like to transfer your domain to another domain registrar, you’ll need your domain’s authorization code. To obtain your authorization code, sign in to the DNS console of your domain host. Instructions vary by domain host.

https://www.google.com/support/a/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=112049

Your domain will either be registered at ENOM or GoDaddy through Google. The Google Apps. panel will tell you where your domain is registered. You’ll need to contact the registrar directly to obtain the transfer authorization code. ENOM can be contacted at GoogleClients@enom.com or by phone at 425-974-4623. Although you may need to pester them to get a response.

Good luck and let me know if you have any advice I may have overlooked!

This is my grandmother Bettina. She passed away last week on labor day morning.

Technically she was my step-grandmother, as my mom’s birth mother Ellen passed away when my mom was a teenager 7. So I’ve always known Bettina to be my grandmother.

Bettina was a fantastic lady, who, I’m sorry to say, I was just beginning to get to know. She was always cheerful, even through the last few years of her life, when she was very sick.

Whenever I spoke to her on the phone she would happily answer “Hola, hola!”, which always made me smile. She always had something wonderful to say about how I was doing, even when I was feeling at the end of my rope.

I remember taking walks with her and my grandfather in the woods behind her house when I was little. There was this fantastic stone wall way out behind their house that opened up into a field. They had a huge basement, with all sorts of exciting things to discover. I used to ride around on this long wooden car, that was sort of like a bench with wheels and handlebars. I’d ride around their basement and peruse my uncle’s old toys – everything from a box of old electric trains, to long abandoned remote-controlled airplanes.

Bettina understood the importance of computers and new technology, even if it advanced faster than she could. She gave my family our first computer, an old 486 running MS-DOS, which sat idle for months with no monitor. Finally, Christmas morning, I woke up to find a big CRT under the tree, courtesy of my uncle Mike. That computer was undoubtedly one of the most important gifts I ever received.

I regret that I wasn’t able to see Bettina one more time before she left us. While she had been sick for quite some time, her passing seemed sudden and unexpected. I had lots of things I hoped to tell her, like how I had discovered Mate with my friend Josh, a beverage she drank almost every morning. I also hoped she would live to see me graduate from college, something that would have been very difficult for me financially, if it weren’t for her and my grandfather’s support.

I’ve included a copy of the obituary below, written collectively by my family, which will go out to the local paper sometime this week.

Thank you so much for all your love and care Bettina. We’ll miss you.

Bettina was born December 19, 1934 in Buenos Aries, Argentina to Ricardo and Elizabeth Diaz Herrera. Bettina led a varied and unusual life as a young woman in Buenos Aries and on the family ranch in Argentina. It was here, on the family ranch, that she developed a deep appreciation and love of animals and nature that continued throughout her life. She became an adept equestrian and learned to pilot bush planes as a young woman on the Pampas of Argentina.

Bettina came to the United States in 1966 were she pursued graduate studies in macroeconomics and business at the University of Wisconsin, Madison and at Stanford University. She worked with women and minorities in small business development and consulting.

Bettina was very active in and served as President of the League of Women Voters of Dane County. After growing up under repressive regimes in Argentina she truly valued the democratic process and freedom of speech she experienced here. She became a citizen of the United States in 1983.

Elisabeth is survived by her husband: Don Kanel, her children: Mike Kanel and Elizabeth Kanel, her grandchildren: Avery and William Kanel and Tristan and Galen Waddington. Many friends and family in Argentina and the United States also survive Elisabeth. Her own reflections on her life included the following; “ For myself, living in this world has been very interesting, very demanding and very rewarding. I think that I would do it all again (given the advantage of this practice run!)”. We will all miss her.

Just wanted to direct your attention to my new post over at EMU Marketing on open-source software in academia:

http://emumarketing.uoregon.edu/tristan/2009/09/04/coding-open-the-benefits-of-free-and-open-source-software-in-academia/

Check it out and leave us a comment!

A user recently reported an odd problem on a Virtuemart site I maintain. They weren’t able to properly select the bottom two shipping methods listed (both USPS options).

I took a gander at the cart and quickly found the problem. The UPS shipping module was outputting the radio buttons wrapped in a <label> tag. Problem was, it wasn’t doing this consistently, and the last UPS shipping option had an open tag that was encompassing all the remaining radio buttons. This meant that anywhere you clicked in that region would result in the last UPS option being selected.

Now for some reason the USPS shipping module didn’t output labels at all. So I figured the most consistent solution would be to simply prevent the UPS module from outputting those <label> tags.

The method you’re looking for is ups::list_rates(), which is in the ./administrator/components/com_virtuemart/classes/shipping/ups.php file.

You can see the changes I made below on lines 362 and 384. The lines that are commented out are the original ones.

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$shipping_rate_id = urlencode(__CLASS__."|UPS|".$value['ServiceName']."|".$charge);
$checked = (@$d["shipping_rate_id"] == $value) ? "checked=\"checked\"" : "";
if (count($shipment) == 1 ) {
        $checked = "checked=\"checked\"";
}
//$html .= '<label for="'.$shipping_rate_id.'">'."\n<input type=\"radio\" name=\"shipping_rate_id\" $checked value=\"$shipping_rate_id\" id=\"$shipping_rate_id\" />\n";
$html .= "<input type=\"radio\" name=\"shipping_rate_id\" $checked value=\"$shipping_rate_id\" id=\"$shipping_rate_id\" />\n";
 
$_SESSION[$shipping_rate_id] = 1;
 
$html .= $value['ServiceName'].' ';
$html .= "<strong>(".$value['TransportationCharges'].")</strong>";
if (DEBUG) {
        $html .= " - ".$VM_LANG->_('PHPSHOP_PRODUCT_FORM_WEIGHT').": ".$order_weight." ". $weight_measure.
        ", ".$VM_LANG->_('PHPSHOP_RATE_FORM_VALUE').": [[".$charge_unrated."(".$fsc_rate.")]+".UPS_HANDLING_FEE."](".$taxrate.")]";
}
// DELIVERY QUOTE
if (Show_Delivery_Days_Quote == 1) {
        if( !empty($value['GuaranteedDaysToDelivery'])) {
                $html .= "&nbsp;&nbsp;-&nbsp;&nbsp;".$value['GuaranteedDaysToDelivery']." ".$VM_LANG->_('PHPSHOP_UPS_SHIPPING_GUARANTEED_DAYS');
        }
}
if (Show_Delivery_ETA_Quote == 1) {
        if( !empty($value['ScheduledDeliveryTime'])) {
                $html .= "&nbsp;(ETA:&nbsp;".$value['ScheduledDeliveryTime'].")";
        }
}
if (Show_Delivery_Warning == 1 && !empty($value['RatedShipmentWarning'])) {
        //$html .= "</label><br/>\n&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;<em>".$value['RatedShipmentWarning']."</em>\n";
        $html .= "<br/>\n&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;<em>".$value['RatedShipmentWarning']."</em>\n";
}
$html .= "<br />\n";

As many of you know, there are some crappy icon sets out there. Here are a few that I deem acceptable for general consumption. Enjoy!

Aquaticus Social icons

High Gloss Web 2.0 Icons

108 Free Matte White Square Social Networking Icons

154 Matte Black Social Media Icons

Web 2 Icons

Webtoolkit Icon Set Vol. 1

Free Vectors – 20 Free Social Bookmarking Icons

Social Media Icons Pack

34 (ou plus) boutons gratuits pour votre site

Socialize Icons

Web social icons

Social Post Stamps: Free icon set

Polaroid icon set

Set of social icons no.3

Bonus: Twitm Icon (very slick app-icon)

I decided it was time to freshen up the EMU Marketing blog a bit, so after a little hunting, I swapped out the old theme for the fantastic (and free) deStyle Wordpress theme – from ThemeShift.

I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of the deStyle theme. It features a custom theme options page; integrated Twitter and Flickr modules; ad-support; author bios; and really nice looking markup. The whole theme is just nicely polished.

ThemeShift has two other premium themes, deGusto and deCasa.

EMU Marketing is where I work. We do web development and and print design for student groups and University services housed within the Erb Memorial Union. Keep an eye out for some exciting news in the next few days. Hopefully we’ll have something fun to show you.

The Problem
So for the past few months I’ve been having horrendous problems playing Left 4 Dead with my friends. The game would completely lock-up at the most random intervals. At first I thought this was due to the heat. Then I pegged it on a bad video card that was being pushed for the first time by my new Dell 21.5″ Monitor (1920 x 1080). I’ve been running the latest graphics drivers, so I knew that wasn’t the issue.

Troubleshooting Ensued
My desktop PC has the following specs:

Windows XP 32-bit (Service Pack 3)
AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+
3.00 GB of RAM
XFX GeForce 7800 GTX

The system is aging fast, but should still be able to handle Left 4 Dead without crashing. Needless to say it was irritating the hell out of me.

The Solution
Finally I did some digging and found a few forum posts that suggested I disable the game’s “Multicore Rendering” setting under “Options->Video->Advanced.” While I was at it, I set all the texture settings to “low.” Everything else was set using the “Recommended Settings” button. Now I’m able to play the game smooth as butter at full resolution on my widescreen monitor.

High-def zombies are a beautiful thing – rawr.