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ScratchYourself.com is all about web development – From Scratch! From various bug solutions and PHP tricks, to reviews and advice, to How-To Guides such as PHP/MySQL Performance Series: Part 1 – Adding Indexes, Optimize Tables.
Keeping PHP Sessions open, or any sessions open regardless of what language you use, can be a pain. One of the most commonly asked questions is “How do I keep my sessions open for 30 days or more?”.
This is written from the perspective of PHP, but of course Cookies themselves can be manipulated from whatever server-side language you use to code your web application.
So if your users only stay logged in for a few hours, maybe a a couple of days at the most, and you want them to stay logged in much longer, continue reading.
The main reason this method works is because it doesn’t rely on PHP to keep the session, and sessions on the server tend to get cleared out, which is probably the most common reason for users having to login again. Rather than rely on PHP garbage collection to work properly, you take control of a secondary session that you store yourself. When the primary login check fails (depends on your application), you check the secondary session against your own records, and if you find a match, you can auto-login the user, returning control to the PHP session itself. You can choose to be seamless about the whole process, or you can present your user with one of those unnecessary messages saying “Please wait while we find your account…”. Continue reading…
Your registrar – most likely GoDaddy – is where your purchased your Domain Name. It’s very important to keep your GoDaddy account secure, because if an unauthorized user gains access to your account, they can transfer your domain to a different owner, and it can be exceedingly difficult to regain control of your domain, so here are some tips to keep your domain and your business safe: Continue reading…
jQuery is an incredible Javascript library. It allows programmers, as well as other web developers with less programming experience, to develop high-end Javascript and AJAX features on their websites. Many situations require or benefit from software written from scratch, but other situations do not. For most Javascript functionality, writing your code from scratch isn’t worth it or necessary, and that’s where jQuery comes in. jQuery isn’t necessarily easy. The more customization you want, the more specific your requirements, the longer it will take you to get it right. But even if you have the time and experience, jQuery doesn’t do everything for you.
Many people are curious about how to perform a full AJAX file upload using jQuery. Some users have noted that HTML 5 supports AJAX file uploads, however most websites aren’t written in fully support HTML 5. Other users have also shown exactly how to do this using methods such as hidden iframes, and a Javascript XMLHttpRequest() object.
Continue reading…
Microsoft has touted their new Metro Apps as a key feature of Windows 8. Metro Apps have a bit of a mixed reputation. On one hand, they provide some much overdue features to the Windows line. On the other hand, they don’t really live up to the hype, and in many instances they are useful only because of other software shortcomings.
But Microsoft has given one claim to Windows 8 Metro Apps that, until today, I found to be true. Continue reading…
Windows 8 apps can be very useful, but their reputation and usefulness is mixed.
After a few months of using Windows 8, I find that one of the main reasons Windows 8 Apps are useful is because of shortcomings in other software.
For example, we want to use Windows 8 apps to play streaming music like Pandora, or to look at Facebook. But those are pretty lame reasons to develop and use a whole new App platform. I mean, those are already available in a format called “the web” and accessible using something called a “web browser.” So why do we prefer the apps over the web versions? In these cases, the Apps trump the web-based version simply because of computer resources. Having a browser open just for Pandora can drain battery and hurt performance, and the same applies for many other programs and web services. Continue reading…
jQuery is an incredible Javascript framework, but it can also be a bear to learn, and a bear to write even for an experienced user.
Writing Javascript and AJAX code from scratch can be extremely time consuming, and it’s important to keep inn mind that Javascript only accounts for 1/5th of your web application, maybe less, and wasting too much time on your Javascript should be avoided. In addition to Javascript, you’ve got CSS and HTML to write, as well as your server side language and DB language (ie. PHP and MySQL). That’s 5 language to manage, 5 languages to incorporate, and that’s without even considering mobile apps.
On top of that, you’ve got 4 major browsers to test your code in (IE, Firefox, Chrome, Safari), and it all becomes a bit of a blur when you’ve been working on a project for some time. Continue reading…
jQuery’s .load() method supports an optional callback function called when the request is complete. However, you might find that the complete callback function doesn’t work properly.
The jQuery .load() documentation shows 2 optional arguments to the .load() method.
The first optional argument is “data”, which is described as “A plain object or string that is sent to the server with the request.”
The second optional argument is “complete”, which is described as “A callback function that is executed when the request completes.”.
The examples on that page present some confusion, by showing this example:
$('#result').load('ajax/test.html', function() {
alert('Load was performed.');
});
The problem with that example is that the “complete” callback function is shown as the 2nd argument, not the 3rd. Continue reading…
If you are using jQuery, and you’ve noticed some errors appearing in Firefox, it might be a very simple fix.
The errors resemble the following:
Chances are you are using jQuery’s load() or get() or ajax() functions and sending a response back to jQuery via PHP or another server-side langauge. Continue reading…
Q: Using jQuery, I cannot get a hidden layer to show or hide using the $(“#layerID”).show() or #(“#layerID”).fadeIn() functions.
A: Although there could be several reasons for this, one common problem is that you have set your DIV’s style attribute to specifically hide the layer using “visibility:hidden;” and “display:none;”. In many Javascript implementations, in order to change that value, both of these attributes must be set explicitly in the “style” attribute. For example:
Traditionally, you would use javascript to modify the style attribute in order to show the layer.
However jQuery is slightly different. If you explicitly set the style attribute to “visibility:hidden;display:none;” then jQuery will not be able to show the layer. The solution is to remove the visibility attribute from your style tag, so only the “display:none;” attribute is left. For example:
An alternative would be to use jQuery to hide the layer upon page load. For example, here is your DIV: Continue reading…
Have you been wondering where your Desktop icons are on Windows 8?
Curious why Windows 8 desktop doesn’t show your files and folders?
Microsoft made some major changes with Windows 8, but it also made a lot of very small changes. By default, Windows does not show any icons on your desktop. This can be very confusing, especially when you browse to the Desktop through the File Explorer and can see your icons just fine.
There are 2 different places for Desktop Icon settings in Windows 8
Keep in mind that the Desktop will be much cleaner by leaving the above options set to default. Also keep in mind that in order to show system icons on the Desktop, you need to enable “Show desktop icons” per step 1 above.
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