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Archive for the ‘PHP’ Category

Detecting Bad Words PHP (Filter bad words)

Posted by Tim On September - 17 - 2009

Simple and easy, stop most of the nasty words from appearing on your website or blog with one simple function. This has stemmed from multiple users posting profanity on another one of our sites. After searching far and wide for an easy solution, alas we could not find one. This resulted in a few hours behind the keyboard plucking away with some trial and error, the end result is a lightweight function that works great.

The hardest part about developing a function that would detect profanity was accounting for the special characters being used as letters. Like the “#” being used for a “H” or a “$” for a “S”. The solution to detect the special characters was rather simple once we figured out a good method. Now, in it’s entirety, it will stop most profanity and if any gets through it is very easy to modify it for additional characters and words.

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PHP

PHP and APC – Tutorial

Posted by Tim On September - 12 - 2009

APC is most widely known for allowing the end user to be able to track the progress of file transfers. APC, which stands for “Alternative PHP Cache” does much more than that. Complex and large scale websites can benefit from it’s ability to cache data and as well as its optimization of PHP code.

If you are looking for a tutorial on using APC for tracking file upload progress then visit my tutorial for File Upload Progress

APC does not have a large host of commands, this does not ease the complexity. We will take a look at a few simple functions and explain their use, in addition I will try to explain the practical reasons to use them. There are a few warnings to adhere to when trying utilize alternative PHP cache, these will also be discussed.

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Other, PHP

Basic Auto Suggest with Ajax and PHP

Posted by Tim On September - 11 - 2009

ajax auto suggestYou see it in Yahoo, Google, Bing, and all over the web. As you type into a search feild a box appears before your eyes showing you suggestions based on what you are typing. This offers more than just ease of use for your visitors, it allows them to see other content related to their search that they may have been otherwise unaware of. There are many tutorials on this subject, many of which rely heavily on API’s or copyright protected files.

Developing an auto suggest form is rather simple, with the right methods you too can churn out a professional looking auto suggest form without the complicated mess that many others provide.  Visitors are likely to return to your site (provided the content is valid) to use features like this because so many other sites are slow in developing this type of technology.

The concept is simple, we run a JavaScript function every time a user presses a key in a search box, we use Ajax to send and receive data to a php search function and return the results to our page.

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Ajax, JavaScript, PHP

Ajax – A Squeeky Clean Website

Posted by Tim On September - 8 - 2009

Ajax, not the cleaner, the asynchronous JavaScript and XML, it is like viagra for your website. Pop in a little Ajax and your website is performing better and making your “visitors” happy. As with viagra you need to read the warning labels associated with Ajax.

Warning:

Ajax should be used in moderation. If your server maintains a full load for more than 4 hours as a result of using Ajax, you should consult a programmer immediately. Websites hosted on shared servers or those intending to move to a shared server should not use Ajax as this may cause complications during deployment.

Seriously though, over use of Ajax can cause a lot of load on your server if you are processing too many requests at the same time, often the requests that tax the server the most include database queries. Don’t get me wrong, I love Ajax and I think every site could put it to good use. This is why I am going to show you a few simple methods to implement it on your site to make your visitors time more enjoyable.

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Ajax, JavaScript, PHP

PHP Database Class, The Right Way

Posted by Tim On September - 8 - 2009

How many times do your fingers type out the commands to run a query or fetch a row? If you are performing database tasks on the majority of your pages and you have not simplified the process then you need to keep reading. Developing a database class is not very difficult, in fact there are plenty of them out there which can set you on your way. Once you start using them you will most likely never go back.

A database class should be thorough, simple, and save you time. A single command to connect or disconnect as well as most of your common functions should be included. Do not re-invent the wheel if you have a large scale project, there are plenty of pre-build APIs which will handle much more than the examples given here. Below is a simple class which can get you up and running as well as examples of how to use it, let’s take a look:

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PHP, mySQL

PHP Regex Crash Course

Posted by Tim On September - 6 - 2009

Regex, or regular expression is used to match characters in a string, the problem with using it is knowing how to use it. As with many things it takes practice and memorization to fully understand and commit it to memory. Regex is a powerful tool and can shorten many tasks such as validating email addresses, redirecting users with mod_rewrite, and searching for illegal characters in a submitted field.

PHP uses two very powerful statements to utilize regex, the first is called preg_match which takes a string and tries to match the pattern you provide it. The second statement is preg_replace which will do the same as preg_match with the exception that it will replace the pattern it finds with some other string you provide. I say only two here and some of you may be thinking “liar!” so I will mention a few others, there is ereg and eregi, they do basically the same things that the preg functions do, just not as fast or powerful. These are the only ones I will be covering, there are several preg functions besides these that you can research at your own pace.

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PHP

PHP File Upload Progress (APC Fetch PECL)

Posted by Tim On September - 4 - 2009

You would think that tracking file upload progress would be a given now, from your browser you can create websites, edit pictures and communicate with millions of people. Only a few sites will actually show you your upload progress and they are few and far between. If anything they will show you a nice animated gif that gives you the illusion your file is being transferred.

It is very possible to track upload progress but I have some bad news for some of you. If you are hosted on a shared server like Hostmonster, BlueHost, etc… then odds are you will not have the right privileges to install the required modules. For those of you that have access to your own server or the capability to get it installed then read on.

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Ajax, JavaScript, PHP

About Me

I am an independent web developer and webmaster of many sites. The main goal of Script Perfect is to provide answers to some of the hard to find questions when it comes to website design and coding.

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