Application Developer » Programming

Calling #PHP on #JSP / #Java Pages with Javascript – #js

Alex — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 16:34:38 +0000

Working with hacked together management systems that utilize both Java/JSP and PHP can be extremely annoying. However, jQuery has made our lives a lot easier by letting us call PHP using Javascript.

Most of us are script kiddies. Admit it, we like to build our own tools but whenever a shortcut comes into play, we take the high road. Can you really blame developers for choosing this route when time seems to always be a factor on the Internet. The issue is this leaves us with VERY hacky systems. We piece together and integrate but there are just things we can’t control. Particularly if we ever end up with anything that’s not open source.

Here’s a trick for pulling PHP into a JSP run page, or really any page for that matter, as long as it supposed Javascript. Generally speaking, all things support Javascript.

 Javascript |   copy code | ?  
1 
2  
3 
9

Here's how this works. jQuery we should all know. If you don't, go do some reading. It's a big deal.

$.get is from jQuery and it will pull the information over and display it.

#posthere is key. The

is where what you want to load will show up.

Pretty much from this point you're set. All you need to do is build the PHP file and everything will load up on the JSP pages. Remember, this can applied to any page that supports jQuery or Javascript.

User Authentication Through Twitter OAuth or cURL

Alex — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 12:43:51 +0000

Twitter offers 2 types of authentication. Using the standard cURL GET HTTP protocols or the new and fancy OAuth. cURL is easy, we all get it, and it works great. However, OAuth offers a wide range of fancy features, most importantly, securtiy.

Taken from the OAuth website – An open protocol to allow secure API authorization in a simple and standard method from desktop and web applications. It’s a terrific idea and I’m glad someone is coming out with it. To make things easier there are also developers who’ve already done the work for you. Here’s a pre-built script that does all the OAuth for you. There’s also a Beginners Guide.

When the benefits are increased security, a higher level of compatibility, and new fancy technology, why bother with cURL anymore?

It’s pretty simple. cURL is easier, and it doesn’t require anything beyond what we know. Setting everything up with OAuth takes a few hours to wrap your head around. Compared to figuring out OAuth, here’s how to connect with cURL.

 PHP |   copy code | ?  
01 
02 $loginUsername = "username";   
03 $loginPassword = "password";
04  
05 $url = "https://twitter.com/statuses/followers/" . $username . ".xml";
06  
07 $curl_handle = curl_init();
08 curl_setopt($curl_handle, CURLOPT_URL, $url);
09 curl_setopt($curl_handle, CURLOPT_HTTPGET, 1); //GET method
10 curl_setopt($curl_handle, CURLOPT_HTTPAUTH, CURLAUTH_BASIC); //basic authentication
11 curl_setopt($curl_handle, CURLOPT_USERPWD, $loginUsername . ":" . $loginPassword); //login
12 curl_setopt($curl_handle, CURLOPT_SSL_VERIFYPEER, false);
13 curl_setopt($curl_handle, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, 1); //Return the string
14 $buffer = curl_exec($curl_handle);
15 curl_close($curl_handle);
16

There you have it, you're logged in, or at the very least authenticated. Here's how to report back:

 PHP |   copy code | ?  
1 
2 // check for success or failure
3 if (empty($buffer) || strpos($buffer, "Could not authenticate you")) {
4  $replyStatus = "Failed: Please check your username and password";
5 } else {
6  $replyStatus = "Success: You are logged in.";
7 }
8

Twitter currently supports both without offering many benefits to either choice. cURL isn't really anything new but it's simple while OAuth will continue to develop. For serious developers who plan for longevity with their Twitter Application sites, I highly recommend taking the extra effort to at least understand OAuth enough to switch to it when they demand it. In the meantime, forget it and stick with cURL until the benefits outweigh the cons.

SEO Friendly Links and .htaccess Hacks

Alex — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 23:17:36 +0000

I’m going to assume most people know how to activate or edit their own .htaccess files. If you’re not sure how to edit them then visit this link.

htaccess modifications can come in really handy when cleaning up some of the old management systems. For those that use Google Webmaster Tools, this can be a great way to clean up those nasty 404s. Also note the Bing Webmaster Area. Many developers don’t build for SEO purposes and let other guys deal with it later. Sometimes they will even request a fee. Here’s a few tricks to save a couple bucks or clean up some links.

1. Removing variables from your links

Ever wonder how sites that have nice friendly links to customer profiles do it? There are a number of methods but if you use php variables that come out like this:

http://www.mywebsite.com/index.php?profile=customer_name

Apply this short mod to your .htaccess file:

 HTML |   copy code | ?  
1 
2 RewriteRule ^profile\/(.*)$ index.php?profile=1 [L,QSA]
3

The result:

http://mywebsite.com/profile/customer_name

Nice friendly links that everyone understands. Even the users.

2. SEO Friendly 301 Redirects

This is probably the simplest and most useful htaccess. As developers, we change our minds all the time. If those changes ever include changing post names, moving folders, or just altering a link. Google Webmaster Tools is going to come knocking with a 404 error within the next couple days. Fix it with this:

 HTML |   copy code | ?  
1 
2 Redirect 301 /path/to/old/location /new/location
3

/new/location can also be a link like http://new_website.com

3. Custom Error Pages

These just help you make a nice polished site. Particularly the 404 error page.

 HTML |   copy code | ?  
1 
2 ErrorDocument 401 /error/401.php
3 ErrorDocument 403 /error/403.php
4 ErrorDocument 404 /error/404.php
5 ErrorDocument 500 /error/500.php

4. Block IPs Using htaccess

Handy when you just don't like someone, or a country, or you just hate that IP block

 HTML |   copy code | ?  
1 
2 allow from all
3 deny from 145.186.14.122
4 deny from 124.15

5. Prevent Hotlinking

I get a lot requests for this one.

 HTML |   copy code | ?  
1 
2 Options +FollowSymlinks
3 # Protect Hotlinking
4 RewriteEngine On
5 RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^$
6 RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^http://(www.)?domainname.com/ [nc]
7 RewriteRule .*.(gif|jpg|png)$ http://domainname.com/img/hotlink_f_o.png [nc]
8

For more dry information on .htaccess. Here's a great blog on it:

http://htaccess.wordpress.com/tag/htaccess-mod-rewrite/

How to Post to Twitter using cURL

Alex — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 13:20:36 +0000

Having a choice of 50 Wordpress plugins are great when you are using Wordpress but what do you do when you have custom made software or don’t use Wordpress?

Using this handy cURL php code, you can post to Twitter from anywhere on your website. You can include the code as is, or just stick it into a function that you can include across all your scripts that need it.

 PHP |   copy code | ?  
01 
02 // Set username and password
03 $username = '$username';
04 $password = '$password';
05 // The message you want to send
06 $message = $TWITTER_POST;
07 // The twitter API address
08 $url = 'http://twitter.com/statuses/update.xml';
09 // Alternative JSON version
10 // $url = 'http://twitter.com/statuses/update.json';
11 // Set up and execute the curl process
12 $curl_handle = curl_init();
13 curl_setopt($curl_handle, CURLOPT_URL, "$url");
14 curl_setopt($curl_handle, CURLOPT_CONNECTTIMEOUT, 2);
15 curl_setopt($curl_handle, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, 1);
16 curl_setopt($curl_handle, CURLOPT_POST, 1);
17 curl_setopt($curl_handle, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, "status=$message");
18 curl_setopt($curl_handle, CURLOPT_USERPWD, "$username:$password");
19 $buffer = curl_exec($curl_handle);
20 curl_close($curl_handle);
21 // check for success or failure
22 if (empty($buffer)) {
23 //    echo 'message';
24 } else {
25 //    echo 'success';
26 }
27

I commented out the messages but I left them in for debugging purposes. Just uncomment then and start testing. Here's the end result... as if we didn't know what it would look like anyway.

This is really just a snippet, you can expand on this and even create forms that request the username and password for distributable scripts or replies from your traffic.

01
02	$loginUsername = "username";
03	$loginPassword = "password";
04
05	$url = "https://twitter.com/statuses/followers/" . $username . ".xml";
06
07	$curl_handle = curl_init();
08	curl_setopt($curl_handle, CURLOPT_URL, $url);
09	curl_setopt($curl_handle, CURLOPT_HTTPGET, 1); //GET method
10	curl_setopt($curl_handle, CURLOPT_HTTPAUTH, CURLAUTH_BASIC); //basic authentication
11	curl_setopt($curl_handle, CURLOPT_USERPWD, $loginUsername . ":" . $loginPassword); //login
12	curl_setopt($curl_handle, CURLOPT_SSL_VERIFYPEER, false);
13	curl_setopt($curl_handle, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, 1); //Return the string
14	$buffer = curl_exec($curl_handle);
15	curl_close($curl_handle);
16

1
2	// check for success or failure
3	if (empty($buffer) \|\| strpos($buffer, "Could not authenticate you")) {
4	$replyStatus = "Failed: Please check your username and password";
5	} else {
6	$replyStatus = "Success: You are logged in.";
7	}
8

1
2	ErrorDocument 401 /error/401.php
3	ErrorDocument 403 /error/403.php
4	ErrorDocument 404 /error/404.php
5	ErrorDocument 500 /error/500.php

1
2	Options +FollowSymlinks
3	# Protect Hotlinking
4	RewriteEngine On
5	RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^$
6	RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^http://(www.)?domainname.com/ [nc]
7	RewriteRule .*.(gif\|jpg\|png)$ http://domainname.com/img/hotlink_f_o.png [nc]
8

01
02	// Set username and password
03	$username = '$username';
04	$password = '$password';
05	// The message you want to send
06	$message = $TWITTER_POST;
07	// The twitter API address
08	$url = 'http://twitter.com/statuses/update.xml';
09	// Alternative JSON version
10	// $url = 'http://twitter.com/statuses/update.json';
11	// Set up and execute the curl process
12	$curl_handle = curl_init();
13	curl_setopt($curl_handle, CURLOPT_URL, "$url");
14	curl_setopt($curl_handle, CURLOPT_CONNECTTIMEOUT, 2);
15	curl_setopt($curl_handle, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, 1);
16	curl_setopt($curl_handle, CURLOPT_POST, 1);
17	curl_setopt($curl_handle, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, "status=$message");
18	curl_setopt($curl_handle, CURLOPT_USERPWD, "$username:$password");
19	$buffer = curl_exec($curl_handle);
20	curl_close($curl_handle);
21	// check for success or failure
22	if (empty($buffer)) {
23	// echo 'message';
24	} else {
25	// echo 'success';
26	}
27