Miles Johnson

Code snippets now available

So over the years I have written many small code snippets, functions and what have you, and thought it would be a good idea to release them to you guys. I use most of these snippets on my own projects and applications and are great to be re-usable everywhere. Most, if not all the snippets, will deal with PHP and Javascript, however I have thrown in some CakePHP and jQuery ones.

View all 21 code snippets

Ajax Handler

On top of releasing my code snippets, I have recently made my AjaxHandler component available. The component can be placed in any CakePHP application and then applied to specific controller actions to handle them as Ajax requests. The handler does nearly everything automatic and even responds with the correct data structure and content type.

Check it out and let me know what you think!

Download the Ajax Handler

Calling functions within your CSS files

I always thought CSS should have a little bit more power, like the use of inline programming functions and dynamic variables. That's exactly why I set out to write my Compression class. On top of compressing the CSS files, saving cached versions and assigning dynamic variables, the class can now call PHP functions that have been written inline within the CSS itself.

This allows for tons of new possibilities for allowing dynamic content, values and structure within boring old stylesheets. As an example, here is the PHP function, the CSS written with the function and the result.

// The PHP function
public function colWidth() {
	$args = func_get_args(); 
	$width = $args[0] * 100;
	return $width .'px';
}
// The CSS
.col1 { width: colWidth(5); }
.col2 { width: colWidth(3); }
.col3 { width: colWidth(1); }
// After being parsed
.col1 { width: 500px; }
.col2 { width: 300px; }
.col3 { width: 100px; }

This new feature has been released in the new Compression version 1.4, which is now available! You can view the updated documentation, or download the files to see the example usages, enjoy! Be sure to spread the word!

Download Compression v1.4

Cupcake and Uploader plugins updated

I want to thank everyone who has tested my forum plugin, and thanks again for all the people who reported bugs and features! The plugin is coming along nicely and I have a few features planned for the future. Cupcake has been updated again to provide more multi-byte character support and fix all the reported bugs. Additionally, I have added a quick-reply feature which can be enabled or disabled through the settings.

The Uploader plugin has also received an update, for there was a major bug, the validation never worked! This was my fault because it seems like I removed a reference variable to the parent model (&$Model) which would never update the primary model outside of the behavior, and in turn the validation never worked. I also updated the plugin with multi-byte support.

Come have a Cupcake, open beta released!

The time has arrived, I have pushed my Cupcake Forum plugin into public beta. You may now download and use the plugin as you wish, but be weary because its still in beta, so problems may arise. If you run into a bug, please post it on the GitHub issues. I also want to thank Matt Curry for testing the plugin beforehand, just like he tested the Uploader plugin, so give him your thanks as well. Heres a quick overview of Cupcake:

The Cupcake Forum is a slimmed down version of the popular bulletin board system, packaged into a plugin. The plugin can be dropped into any CakePHP application and will run smoothly with a bit of configuration. The plugin comes bundled with all the basic features of a stand-alone system, some of which include topics, posts, users, polls, moderators, staff and more. For a full list, view the chapter regarding Features.

Donations

I was originally going to only sell the plugin, but chose against that, simply because it doesn't deserve to be purchased, if anything CakePHP as a whole does. So instead I have added a donation button underneath all the download buttons. So if you really really love my scripts, donate, or else ill take all my scripts down! Yeah maybe.

Cupcake forum plugin, it's pretty delicious

If you have been following me on Twitter, you may of heard me mention a new CakePHP plugin I am developing, a forum plugin. Well I am officially announcing it as the Cupcake Forum Plugin. It is basically complete, but I would like to run a few more tests and perhaps get an "installer" type script. Alongside this announcement, I have uploaded the forum plugin onto this domain as a demo, and will be using it as a support forum for all my scripts. Click the screenshot of the forum to view the demo.

Cupcake isn't as robust as regular forum systems, that would be absurd. Instead it has all the necessary basic features for fully utilizing a forum. Some of those features include: users and profiles, topics, replying, sub-forums, read topics, flood protection, topic auto lock, hourly post and topic limitations, access levels and permissions, moderators, searching, locking mechanisms, sticky and important topic types, topic and post reporting and many more. Oh and that's not all, it also comes bundled with a built in administration panel where you can manage all aspects of the forum, instead of having to do it manually in the database.

I will be releasing the plugin sometime this week. If you have any suggestions for features, be sure to send me an email or reply to this entry. Looking forward to all your feedback on this, it took quite a while to develop!