Website Ideas » Website Scripts

Useful PHP Snippets

admin — Fri, 01 Jul 2011 18:49:01 +0000

As a PHP developer i’m always in the search for little snippets to add to my library. This at times so often proves useful when coding big projects and quick little functions. Snippets as such are great to add to existing CMS systems, such as WordPress, drupal or Joomla.

Calculate distances in PHP

I used this on an accommodation website not to long ago. this snippet allows you to measure the distance from one point to another. Great combo with Google maps too!

function distance($lat1, $lon1, $lat2, $lon2, $unit) {

$theta = $lon1 - $lon2;
$dist = sin(deg2rad($lat1)) * sin(deg2rad($lat2)) + cos(deg2rad($lat1)) * cos(deg2rad($lat2)) * cos(deg2rad($theta));
$dist = acos($dist);
$dist = rad2deg($dist);
$miles = $dist * 60 * 1.1515;
$unit = strtoupper($unit);

if ($unit == "K") {
return ($miles * 1.609344);
} else if ($unit == "N") {
return ($miles * 0.8684);
} else {
return $miles;
}
}

Force file download

This allows you to force file downloads such as mp3 and other files being played in browsers.

function downloadFile($file){
$file_name = $file;
$mime = 'application/force-download';
header('Pragma: public'); // required
header('Expires: 0'); // no cache
header('Cache-Control: must-revalidate, post-check=0, pre-check=0');
header('Cache-Control: private',false);
header('Content-Type: '.$mime);
header('Content-Disposition: attachment; filename="'.basename($file_name).'"');
header('Content-Transfer-Encoding: binary');
header('Connection: close');
readfile($file_name); // push it out
exit();
}

Get latitude and longitude from an address

This is a great snippet and goes well with the first one i mentioned. This allows you grab the latitude and longitude from the Google map url and returning the values as an array!

Get how many times a page have been retweeted using PHP

This snippet will return the number of tweets that a page was tweeted. Using the tweetmeme API

Send Mail using mail function in PHP

$to = "viralpatel.net@gmail.com";
$subject = "VIRALPATEL.net";
$body = "Body of your message here you can use HTML too. e.g.
Bold ";
$headers = "From: Peter\r\n";
$headers .= "Reply-To: info@yoursite.com\r\n";
$headers .= "Return-Path: info@yoursite.com\r\n";
$headers .= "X-Mailer: PHP5\n";
$headers .= 'MIME-Version: 1.0' . "\n";
$headers .= 'Content-type: text/html; charset=iso-8859-1' . "\r\n";
mail($to,$subject,$body,$headers);
?>

Updated 7/8/2011

Validate email Address

This snippet will help you validate a email addy. It will check the MX records of the domain to make sure the email is more robust

Zip Files on the Fly

Snippet created by David Walsh. zip files on the fly!

/* creates a compressed zip file */
function create_zip($files = array(),$destination = '',$overwrite = false) {
//if the zip file already exists and overwrite is false, return false
if(file_exists($destination) && !$overwrite) { return false; }
//vars
$valid_files = array();
//if files were passed in...
if(is_array($files)) {
//cycle through each file
foreach($files as $file) {
//make sure the file exists
if(file_exists($file)) {
$valid_files[] = $file;
}
}
}
//if we have good files...
if(count($valid_files)) {
//create the archive
$zip = new ZipArchive();
if($zip->open($destination,$overwrite ? ZIPARCHIVE::OVERWRITE : ZIPARCHIVE::CREATE) !== true) {
return false;
}
//add the files
foreach($valid_files as $file) {
$zip->addFile($file,$file);
}
//debug
//echo 'The zip archive contains ',$zip->numFiles,' files with a status of ',$zip->status;

//close the zip -- done!
$zip->close();

//check to make sure the file exists
return file_exists($destination);
}
else
{
return false;
}
}
/***** Example Usage ***/
$files=array('file1.jpg', 'file2.jpg', 'file3.gif');
create_zip($files, 'myzipfile.zip', true);

Resize Images on the fly

This is a very useful snippet, especially when design wordpress templates and so on. Even shopping comparison websites!

/**********************
*@filename - path to the image
*@tmpname - temporary path to thumbnail
*@xmax - max width
*@ymax - max height
*/
function resize_image($filename, $tmpname, $xmax, $ymax)
{
$ext = explode(".", $filename);
$ext = $ext[count($ext)-1];

if($ext == "jpg" || $ext == "jpeg")
$im = imagecreatefromjpeg($tmpname);
elseif($ext == "png")
$im = imagecreatefrompng($tmpname);
elseif($ext == "gif")
$im = imagecreatefromgif($tmpname);

$x = imagesx($im);
$y = imagesy($im);

if($x <= $xmax && $y <= $ymax)
return $im;

if($x >= $y) {
$newx = $xmax;
$newy = $newx * $y / $x;
}
else {
$newy = $ymax;
$newx = $x / $y * $newy;
}

$im2 = imagecreatetruecolor($newx, $newy);
imagecopyresized($im2, $im, 0, 0, 0, 0, floor($newx), floor($newy), $x, $y);
return $im2;
}

Please bookmark this post, im going to weekly update it with snippets so watch this space!

YouTube Clone Script

admin — Sun, 10 Oct 2010 19:18:02 +0000

http://www.clipsharetemplates.com clone script allows you to run your own video sharing portal like YouTube.com, Metacafe, DailyMotion, and others

The ClearWater template is a stunning and light design featuring stylish mouseover effects and will be a great addition to any video sharing website using Clipshare 4.1 Professional.

The Clearwatter template utilizes all seven advertising positions which are configurable via the new advanced Clipshare 4.1 siteadmin advertise section, the template is a wide set design suitable for 1024+ resolutions this allows for better display of video’s and information.

Demo

Yahoo answers clone scriptYahoo answers clone script

admin — Sun, 30 May 2010 16:18:15 +0000

Looking to create your own Yahoo Answer Website. Well here is the script that will help you achieve that goal!

Question Answer Script with a large and highly customizable set of key features makes it the best of php answer script available. Question answer script has the question & answer publishing including images & videos, with highly secure environment to sustain any attack.

Whether its features, support or ease-of-use, Question answer script offers the most out of money. Learn more about what makes the Question Answer Script the choice for people who are serious about the creating thriving online Question Answer websites.
Quick & Easy Wizard for Installation
Email Administration for New Question, Answers, users added or for any modification performed.
100% Search Engine Friendly Website with Seo friendly URL’s & Meta tags control
Spam Proof – All forms are CAPTCHA Protected
“Best Answers” & “Answer Rating” available
LeaderBoard & Point System
Question & Answer Moderation available through Admin Panel & also through Email.
Change Skin in Just 1 Click. – Many Free Skins included
Imports Question & Answers From Yahoo Answers from your niche keyword.
Quick Advertisement Integration like Google Adsense & Affiliate Promotion
CMS to add & edit new pages and emails
RSS available Category wise for Latest Question Posted
Twitting the questions at twitter.com as posted on the website
You can embed Image & Youtube videos with Question’s & Answer
Google Sitemap is created automatically for fast indexing
Multilingual Supports. Supports UTF8 Encoding
24×7 Support

PRICE: $79

DEMO

Domain Auctions Script Flippa clone script

admin — Sat, 29 May 2010 05:27:20 +0000

This fantastic script can be used to create your very own Flippa website. Not only can it be used as a flippa type website, but it’s great for any marketplace niche. With this Clone Script you will be able to produce a marketplace website within minutes.

PRICE: $57

DEMO

Facebook Style Footer Admin Panel Part 2

admin — Mon, 17 May 2010 18:42:40 +0000

This is Part 2 of the Facebook Style Footer Admin Panel, if you haven’t checked out Part 1 this is the perfect time to check it out.

The footer panel can be useful for admin driven applications and much more. There are many useful techniques that we covered today like the fixed footer, CSS tooltips, height calculation function, and multiple toggle function, that can be used in various ways for your future projects.

Read how to do it!

jQuery lightBox plugin

admin — Mon, 17 May 2010 18:32:22 +0000

jQuery lightBox plugin is simple, elegant, unobtrusive, no need extra markup and is used to overlay images on the current page through the power and flexibility of jQuery´s selector.

lightBox is a plugin for jQuery. It was inspired in Lightbox JS by Lokesh Dhakar.

The better way to know what is jQuery lightBox plugin, click the Example tab above and see it in action.

Download here: http://leandrovieira.com/download/7/

jQuery Form Field Validation Plugin

admin — Mon, 17 May 2010 18:15:14 +0000

jVal is a jQuery form field validation plugin that provides an appealing animated message flyout that doesn’t impede form layout/design while being user-friendly.

FEATURES

Current development version is only 8KB and 5.8KB minified
Check validity of field values within a certain container or block element based off simple INPUT tag attributes
Easy configuration of validity checks per field as per attributes in the INPUT tag
Check the validity of all fields within a certain container with a single function call
Check the validity of a single field when the user clicks away firing the onBlur event
Prevent the user to input specific characters into the field and notify them it’s not allowed

ASSETS As they currently reside on Google Code

jVal.js – LATEST – core jVal jQuery plugin code
jVal.css – drives the style of the jVal flyout notifications
jVal.html – demonstration html instantiating jVal
remaining assets – graphics

Demo : http://www.overset.com/2008/07/31/jval–jquery-form-field-validation-plugin/

Facebook Style Footer Admin Panel Part 1

admin — Sun, 16 May 2010 16:25:30 +0000

Learn how to recreate the Facebook footer admin panel with CSS and jQuery. Facebook has many Ajax driven features and applications that are very impressive, and one of the things I particularly like is the footer admin panel, where it neatly organizes frequently used links and applications.

Read how to do it !!!!

Create A Digg-like site With Joomla – Dugg Plazza

admin — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 07:11:46 +0000

Dugg Plazza allows all Joomla lovers to design their very own digg like website. Digg scripts are somehow proving to be more popular. After running through a few of these Digg like scripts, we found Dugg plazza to be quite handy. Moving form pligg to Joomla, this was far our best option.

TPDugg (Component + Modules) Explained

TPDugg is a social article sharing component for joomla. With this component, you can make a website just like digg.com with joomla, where your visitors or users can share articles, voted it, or give a comment about it, just like so many social sharing websites, such as; digg.com, stumbleupon, misterwong, reddit, etc!

This module has a function to show 3 types of TPDugg contents; based on the latest submitted item, the highest voted item and the most-commented item. It also can be arranged based on the time line, for example; the latest item from last week, last month, etc.

Beside that, this module also has features that made it more flexible, such as feature to choose what section and category to display, feature to choose layout module; standard or simple, and many others. You can arrange everything through the backend page of this module.

Joomla users have been waiting for a digg type system to be released and so far Dugg Plazza should tick all the buttons if you are a Joomla user.

Download Here

Ajax Availability Calendar

admin — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 05:55:55 +0000

An open source project available for all to use and develop. Using AJAX to update in real time an availability calendar. This script is great and is ideal for hotels or apartments. We at present are busy building a Sobi2 plugin using this module and will soon be available for download at Website Ideas.

Some great features that it has!

# A very simple php/ajax script that can be used as an availability calendar for hotels/apartaments etc.
# This panel would be the admin panel where the owner could update the availabilty for each day.
# It would be a simple matter of reproducing this without the links for the public availability calendar (ie without the possibility to modify the day status)
# It uses AJAX to change the days state without having to reload the page – just click on any day to change it’s state.
# The script with all the files including the images used can be downloaded in this zip file

Demo here! Download here!

Dolphin 6 – Create Your Own Social Media Network for Free

admin — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 10:39:38 +0000

Finding good quality FREE scripts are so hard at times to come by. Coders spent hundreds of hours on them and end up selling the stuff ( which you cant blame them). But today we take a look at a script that really blew me off my feet, Dolphin 6 . The prefect script for a social media network. It has all the functionality you will need to start off with and has wonderful features ranging from emotions , RSS Feeds, Fully incorporated Ajax controls to user friendly control panels.

BoonEx Dolphin is 100% open-source, so you can modify every piece of code. Dolphin is absolutely independent – it includes a huge pack of features, including an pen-source media server, so you don’t have to pay 3rd party software providers. Dolphin is re-brandable, so you can display your own copyrights and logos on your site.

Got you guys excited yet?

Download Dolphin 6

3 Must Have Web Developer Tools

admin — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 07:24:00 +0000

To create a website you need a toolbox full of tools – software, add-ons and some more software. Perhaps in theory a simple text editor is enough to create necessary code. But in real life comfort comes first and you will need the following three tools to create a website as smoothly as possible.

1. A Ftp Client – FireFTP
Uploading files to your shared hosting account is a common bottleneck in the web development process. It is thus important to minimize programs used and make sure they include all the functions possible. FireFTP is a FireFox add-on that allows you to manage your files through an FTP client in one tab and preview the changes on your site in the other tab. This is integrated web development and will save you much time and sanity.

2. A Text Editor – EditPlus
According to us there are two types of text editors – the overly complicated and the too simple. EditPlus fits in somewhere in between as it has the simple design like Notepad but still comes with cool features like color coding, tabbing and pre-selecting of script language. For example – if you do not finish a piece of code correctly it will show much clearer as the color changes.

3. An Image Editor – Photoshop
While the two tools above are free to download, Photoshop isn’t. But we are going to assume that you actually can afford to buy PS and go ahead and recommend it as the third and final tool. With the text editor you get to define the web design by building stylesheet. An image editor however, is necessary to create the site’s graphic elements, such as buttons, headers, logo etc.

Using Photoshop you can even create the complete web design for your site, slice it up with the slice-tool and save it as both images and html.

These were three tools required to build a website – a FTP client, a text editor and an image editor. Now you have everything you need to program in javascript, PHP, Html or any letter based script language. You can build the web design, upload the image files to your and then apply them to appropriate div tag in the stylesheet.

This is your toolbox.

Posting twitter posts with Curl using PHP, Sobi2 and Joomla

admin — Sat, 07 Mar 2009 05:09:31 +0000

Being experimenting with the API of Twitter. I started out playing with curl to send updates from a joomla directory, once a user added a listing. The concept was to have followers follow the updates live via twitter. Tools used: Joomla , Sobi2 and some basic PHP.

Firstly make sure your server supports curl and that the extension is active. A simple install to linux would look something like this.

sudo apt-get install curl libcurl3 libcurl3-dev php5-curl

Now you have PHP cURL installed, the next thing you need to do is to restart apache2, run the following command in your terminal:

sudo /etc/init.d/apache2 restart

In the command terminal run the following command to test the connection to twitter. You can use the -v dump method to post any errors on the screen if connection fails. example curl -u -v ( and then the command )

curl -u username:password -d status="twittering from curl" http://twitter.com/statuses/update.xml

I then used the PHP curl features to do the same thing from PHP:


<?php

// Set username and password

$username = 'username';

$password = 'password';

// The message you want to send

$message = 'is twittering from php using curl';

// The twitter API address

$url = 'http://twitter.com/statuses/update.xml';

// Alternative JSON version

// $url = 'http://twitter.com/statuses/update.json';

// Set up and execute the curl process

$curl_handle = curl_init();

curl_setopt($curl_handle, CURLOPT_URL, "$url");

curl_setopt($curl_handle, CURLOPT_CONNECTTIMEOUT, 2);

curl_setopt($curl_handle, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, 1);

curl_setopt($curl_handle, CURLOPT_POST, 1);

curl_setopt($curl_handle, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, "status=$message");

curl_setopt($curl_handle, CURLOPT_USERPWD, "$username:$password");

$buffer = curl_exec($curl_handle);

curl_close($curl_handle);

// check for success or failure

if (empty($buffer)) {

    echo 'message';

} else {

    echo 'success';

}

?>

This is just a basic layout, the twitter API allows you to do so much more. Now comes the fun part. If you are using joomla and sobi2 as a directory component, here is a way to place the above code to your sobi2 directory and receive live updates once a user adds a listing.

Open the sobi2.class file , then scroll down to line 533 and insert the above code just above the sql query. You can then use the variables within the sobi2 framework to display to twitter. Here is another sample of this:

function ShortenText($text) {
$chars = 140;
$text = $text." ";
$text = substr($text,0,$chars);
$text = substr($text,0,strrpos($text,' '));
$text = $text."...";
return $text;
}

$username = 'username';
$password = 'password';

$twitpost = $this->title." has joined your directory!";

$twitmessage = ShortenText($twitpost);

$url = 'http://twitter.com/statuses/update.xml';

$curl_handle = curl_init();
curl_setopt($curl_handle, CURLOPT_URL, "$url");
curl_setopt($curl_handle, CURLOPT_CONNECTTIMEOUT, 2);
curl_setopt($curl_handle, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, 1);
curl_setopt($curl_handle, CURLOPT_POST, 1);
curl_setopt($curl_handle, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, "status=$twitmessage");
curl_setopt($curl_handle, CURLOPT_USERPWD, "$username:$password");
$buffer = curl_exec($curl_handle);
curl_close($curl_handle);
// check for success or failure
if (empty($buffer)) {
$twitresponse = 'Deal not posted to Twitter';
} else {
$twitresponse = 'Deal posted to Twitter';
}

Just adapt it as you need to. you can go as far as adding the url to the post. ( incorporate tiny url to keep the url short ). Will post a seperate tutorial on this shortly.

Take control of your online advertising

admin — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 06:18:46 +0000

Looking to take control of your advertising campaigns? Well OpenX is your answer. There came a point in time where I had no control of my ad campaigns. With so many different projects and making use of different CMS systems, advertising for me became a nightmare.

Having to log into 20 different accounts to view page impressions and so on was not working. So I then stumbled upon a free ad server for web publishers, called OpenX. It allows users, web developers and advertisers to take control of their advertising. Web developers have gone as far as using this server system to create their very own affiliate programs.

OpenX carry’s the most advance tracking system I have ever seen in a open source software. Giving in depth tracking to all your campaigns.

Here is a small break down of what OpenX can do for you!

o    Try new ad networks quickly and easily
o    Deliver direct ad sales reliably
o    Rotate banners on your site
o    Compare the performance of different ads and networks
o    Meet all your advertisers’ needs
o    Optimise ad revenue using rich targeting options
o    Manage all your websites from one place
o    Integrate with other applications
o    Run affiliate, advertiser and publisher networks
o    Scale to billions of ads each month
o    Customize the ad server to suit your needs
o    Control your technology costs

And so much more.

Download OpenX Here

Web applications user interface library

admin — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 08:17:57 +0000

Being a big fan of web interface library’s, i stumbled upon a web application user interface that uses mootools as its framework. called MochaUI. This can be used for web applications, web desktops, web sites, widgets, Standalone Windows and Modal Dialogs. I’ve personally set this ui up to see what MochaUI was made of, and to my surprise she meet with my approval, so i thought i would share it.

Please note that mootools is needed along with this script.

Mootools

Mootools is an Object-Oriented JavaScript framework designed for the intermediate to advanced JavaScript developer.

Please click here to view demo

To download MochaUI click here