#!/bin/bash
cd /home/jesse/rails/billing

if [ ! -f tmp/pids/server.pid ]; then
	script/server -d
fi

while [ `netstat -tan | grep 0.0.0.0:3000 | wc -l` != 1 ]; do
	echo "Server not started yet..."
	sleep 1
done

google-chrome http://localhost:3000/customers &
tail -f log/development.log

# Server can be killed with:
# kill -INT `cat tmp/pids/server.pid`

I then created a launcher simliar to this:

When I double click on the icon the first time it pauses for about 5-6 seconds while WEBrick initializes and binds to port 3000. As soon as it detects the webserver listening, I launch google-chrome to the default view. Each time I click the icon there after, the webserver is already running so the google-chrome tab kicks off instantly.

Mocha Shopping Cart

Mocha is written entirely in CakePHP and jQuery and is certainly the best CakePHP eCommerce app out there. Why do I say that?

Mocha Shopping Cart is…

• Fully hosted, secure, pre-installed
• Very easy to set up and configure
• Themable and Modular (Plug ins docs in the works)
• Works with most popular payment and shipping apis (UPS, USPS, Authorize.net, Paypal, etc.)
• Charges no transaction fees and no setup fees

If you still don’t believe me, Mocha is offering a limited time only Pre-Launch coupon code that gives you the first month FREE. You can try it for yourself and see how you like it. I think you will agree that it beats CakeCart and BakeSale, HANDS DOWN! And no, Mocha is not free (after the first 30 days). The costs help to speed up development, pay for server and hosting fees, and pay for that cup of coffee that us developers need when its 8 AM and we are having to talk with <insert_API_name_here> first thing in the morning.

Official Website: Mocha Shopping Cart
Blog with coupon code: Get a free trial of Mocha Shopping Cart

Controller example:

				$sizeArray = getimagesize('/path/to/really_cool_image.jpg');

				$outputArray = array(
					'file' => 'really_cool_image.jpg',
					'width' => $sizeArray[0],
					'height' => $sizeArray[1],
				);

				$this->set('result', $outputArray);

				$this->render(null, 'ajax');

AJAX View example:

Configure::write('debug', 0);
echo $javascript->object($result);

jQuery AJAX response handler example:

	  function(response, status) {
	  		imageDetails = JSON.parse(response);
	  		imageName = imageDetails.file;
	  }

So to make a long story short: I decided to make a quick hack up solution and write my own WP plugin. My only hurdle-like requirement is that it had to work for PHP4 as well because the client is on one of our older servers. I ended up finding a really good example by Ryan Stemkoski. He wrote a perfect function for me to tweak a little and expand upon. I am currently waiting to get approved on WordPress extend so I can host my plugin there. For now, I have created a page here where you can download the plugin.

Note: I haven’t tested this in a more recent version of WP yet but I will be soon. Let me know if you find any bugs!

I also figured I would post the source code in case someone needed a quick and dirty solution with some examples.

rss_lib.php

<?php

/*
* RSS Parsing Function
*
* Original Author: Ryan Stemkoski
* http://www.stemkoski.com/how-to-easily-parse-a-rss-feed-with-php-4-or-php-5/
*
* Slight modifications by Jesse R. Adams (DualTech Services, Inc.)
*/ 

function parseRSS($url) { 

	//PARSE RSS FEED
        $feedeed = implode('', file($url));
        $parser = xml_parser_create();
        xml_parse_into_struct($parser, $feedeed, $valueals, $index);
        xml_parser_free($parser);

	//CONSTRUCT ARRAY
        foreach($valueals as $keyey => $valueal){
            if($valueal['type'] != 'cdata') {
                $item[$keyey] = $valueal;
			}
        }

        $i = 0;

        foreach($item as $key => $value){

            if($value['type'] == 'open') {

                $i++;
                $itemame[$i] = $value['tag'];

            } elseif($value['type'] == 'close') {

                $feed = $values[$i];
                $item = $itemame[$i];
                $i--;

                if(count($values[$i])>1){
                    $values[$i][strtolower($item)][] = $feed;
                } else {
                    $values[$i][strtolower($item)] = $feed;
                }

            } else {
                $values[$i][strtolower($value['tag'])] = $value['value'];
            }
        }

	//RETURN ARRAY VALUES
	return $values[0];
} 

/*
* Convert Raw RSS Parse into concise list of items
*
* Optionally pass in limit (on number of items)
* and/or array list of words to grab items by.
*
*/

function extractRSSItems($xmlArray, $limit = null, $filteredWords = array()) {
	$array = array();
	$regex = null;

	if (count($filteredWords) > 0) {
		$regex = implode('|', $filteredWords);
	}

	foreach($xmlArray['rss']['channel']['item'] as $item) {
		if (!$regex || ($regex && preg_match("/$regex/i", $item['title']))) {
			$array[] = $item;
		}
 	}

	if($limit) {
		array_splice($array, ($limit - 1), (count($array) - $limit));
	}

	return $array;
}
?>

selective_rss.php

<?php
/*
Plugin Name: Selective RSS
Plugin URI: http://techno-geeks.org/selective-rss
Description: Simple Plugin that allows you to embed RSS feed items into Pages or Posts. Optionally allows you to choose how many items to display and allows you to limit items to ones that contain certain words in the titles.
Version: 0.1.0b
Author: Jesse R. Adams (DualTech Services, Inc.)
Author URI: http://www.dual-tech.com/about-dualtech-services/
*/

require_once('rss_lib.php');

function filter_feeds($content) {
	$limit = null;
	$filter = array();
	$url = null;

	$inputTag = preg_match('/\[srss (.+)\]/', $content, $matches);
	$rawArgs = explode(',', $matches[1]);

	foreach($rawArgs as $input) {
                preg_match_all('/^(url|filter|limit)=(.+)$/i', $input, $matches);
                $key = $matches[1][0];
                $value = $matches[2][0]

		if ($key == 'filter') {
			$filter = explode(';', $value);
		} else {
			$$key = $value;
		}
	}

	if ($url) {
		$xml = parseRSS($url);
		$items = extractRSSItems($xml, $limit, $filter);

		$htmlToAdd = '';
		foreach ($items as $item) {
			$htmlToAdd .= '<a href="' . $item['link'] . '" target="new">' . $item['title'] . '</a>' . "<br/>\n";
			$htmlToAdd .= $item['description'] . "<br/><br/>\n";
		}

		$content = preg_replace('/\[srss .+\]/', $htmlToAdd, $content);
	}
	return $content;
}

add_filter('the_content', 'filter_feeds');
?>

Update 06/19: Fixed the way arguments are parsed to be less limiting on possibilities.

1. Controller::loadModel();
This method actually calls ClassRegistry::init() and saves the instance of the model as a parameter in the controller.

Example:

Controller::loadModel('Car');
$cars = $this->Car->find('all');

2. ClassRegistry::init()
This method creates an instance of the Model and returns it for use.

Example:

$car = ClassRegistry::init('Car');
$cars = $car->find('all');

3. App:import() (not recommended)
This method only includes the file. This requires you to create an instance each time.

Example:

App::import('Car');
$car = new Car();
$cars = $car->find('all');

As you can see this is really simple and basic stuff. However, I felt the need to re-post this information. If for nothing else, I will be using this as a reference point for myself

Update 5/27/09: Miles Johnson has a nice write up on this on his blog

1. Database Config

Add ‘encoding’ => ‘utf8′ to app/config/database.php

	var $default = array(
		'driver' => 'mysql',
		'persistent' => false,
		'host' => 'localhost',
		'login' => 'user',
		'password' => 'password',
		'database' => 'database',
		'encoding' => 'utf8'
	);

2. Make sure your layout has the charset line in the

	<head>
	 	<?php echo $html->charset(); ?>
	 	Other elements...
	</head>

3. This one is set by default, but make sure App.encoding is set in app/config/core.php

/**
 * Application wide charset encoding
 */
	Configure::write('App.encoding', 'UTF-8');

And thats it!

Finally, after over a year, we decided to create this perfect GTD compliant web service that will help people, like us, be able to incorporate Allen’s system and become more productive. Peep! is “a simple and easy-to-use tool to help you focus and start getting things done.” I highly suggest you all try it and let me know what you think.

Head over to http://trypeep.com and get started today!

String.prototype.trim = function() {
	return this.replace(/^\s+|\s+$/g,"");
}		

trimmedString = string.trim();

Thanks for your work on this Shailesh. You made my life easier