So I’ll be posting on the brand new Web Help Forum now which has recently expanded to include web design and development articles, some tutorials, and all the best web discussions being had.  All of the posts on this blog will be moved there too, but I’ll leave links behind me as I go in case any of you have bookmarked any of these pages.

Thanks to all who’ve taken the time to comment on my articles, hope to see you all at my new home soon – Web Help Forum

Here’s a tutorial to get you tweeting from the mac command line. Brace yourself though, because it’s too exciting!

OK, there are two ways of achieving this that I know of, one is a simple command, and the other involves installing a program called Mitter. My preference is Mitter as it’s an almost fully functional twitter client for the terminal: sweet.

Mitter has a few dependencies which you’ll need to install before you can get going though, and you’ll also need to have curl installed. Curl should be installed by default, so if you haven’t uninstalled it, you shouldn’t have to worry.

The first dependency you need is setuptools. In order to get this working properly, you will need to download the correct version for your python version. Python comes pre-installled on your mac, so to find out which version you have, open up the terminal and type:
python

The python prompt will appear, and it will tell you which version you have. In order to carry on with the setup, you’ll need to quit python – just press ctrl+d.

Ok, you’re armed with the knowledge you need, so head over to the setuptools download page and download the correct version for your python version. For the purposes of this tutorial I am going to assume that all downloaded files will be saved to the desktop.

Now you’ve downloaded it, go back to the terminal and head for the desktop:
cd Desktop

Now you need to run the setuptools file. The command will look something like this
sh setuptools-0.6c9-py2.5.egg
but obviously the file name will be dependent on the python version you have. You can see the filename from the terminal by typing
ls

Done? Excellent. Now you will need to install simplejson – you can find the file here. You will need to extract the files from this archive which you can do by double clicking on it from the finder. Or you can use this command in the terminal
tar -zxvf simplejson-2.0.9.tar.gz

The file will decompress and a folder will appear called simplejson-2.0.9. You’ll need to move into this folder from the terminal for the next part. Type:
cd simplejson-2.0.9
To install simplejson, type
python setup.py install

Ok, nearly there already. You now are ready to install Mitter. You can find the file here and it’s another one you’ll need to extract. Use the same method as above.
Now move into the mitter folder from the terminal. If you’re still in the simplejson folder, you’ll need to go back. Type:
cd ..
Then type:
cd mitter-0.4.3
The command to install mitter is the same as for simplejson:
python setup.py install

Mitter is now installed and ready to use! From the terminal, type
mitter

and you’re ready to go! It will ask you for your username and password, and then you’re ready to update your status. There are a few commands you can use, but if you type anything other than these commands, mitter will assume you’re updating your status.
timeline – this command shows the latest 20 entries in your timeline
replies – shows the latest replies to your tweets
update – this will update your status with whatever you type after it
delete – delete entries from your timeline
EOF – exit mitter
exit – exit mitter
help – shows a list of available commands.

And that’s it. Good eh?

If you can remember as far back as the beginning of this article, you’ll be waiting for me to explain the second method of updating your status from the terminal. Here it is:
curl -u username:password -d status=”your_status_here” http://twitter.com/statuses/update.xml

Have fun folks!

If like me, you’re a complete idiot when it comes to javascript, then this post is for you, my friend. While away endless hours marvelling at this little script I put together all by myself.

Actually, I copied and pasted bits and bobs from other scripts I found on the net till i found a combination that worked. Still, I’m glowing with self esteem now, so it’s time to share!

“Alright, shut up already!”, I hear you say, “what’s this ruddy script for, anyways?”

Well, simply put, it lies in wait for IE6, then does a runner… Or anything else you’re clever enough to tell it to do. In this instance, I have a piece of javascript which totally breaks my page in IE6, and I wanted to only show the script to other browsers. Conditional comments in my HTML did not seem the way to go as I wanted to remove rather than add something when IE6 was detected.

It’s very simple… so no laughing.

function detectBrowser()
{
var version=parseFloat(navigator.appVersion);
if ((navigator.appName=="Microsoft Internet Explorer")
&& (version<=6))
{
return;
}
else {
document.write('<' + 'script');
document.write(' type="text/javascript"');
document.write(' src="' + 'path_to_file.js' + '">');
document.write('</' + 'script' + '>');
}
}
detectBrowser()

It would be patronising to give a blow by blow account, but I like this solution because it relies on javascript – if the user already has js disabled, then the script is already redundant, and the desired effect is achieved by default.

• Stop using Joomla – it’s horrible.
• Read this article, it will tell you how to do it.

The main obstacle to using MenuMatic in Joomla is that it doesn’t work! The reason for this is because Joomla includes Mootools version 1.1 and MenuMatic requires Moo version 1.2. You’ve probably guessed that they’re not compatible.

Now what really irritates me, is the fact that Joomla only makes use of mootools in the administrative area, yet the developers have seen fit include the mootools library in the front end also…. So the task at hand is to keep Mootools version 1.1 for the back end (trust me, it’s totally unusable without it), but switching to Mootools version 1.2 for the front end.

Here’s what you need to do. First of all, download the MenuMatic package, and Media65 menu module for Joomla 1.5 . There are probably several menu modules that will do the job, but I have chosen this one because the HTML it produces is nice and clean, and allows the inclusion of a parent level class/ id.
You’ll want to install that module in your Joomla backend and make sure it’s showing up. Done that? Good.

Ok, on to the code. First thing you need to do is disable Mootools in the frontend. For this you’ll need to open up the index.php file from your template. You’ll find it here:

/templates/your_template/index.php
Note: please replace all instances of ‘your_template‘ with the name of your chosen template eg beez.

Now find this line in the header:
<jdoc:include type=”head” />

And right before it, you need to add these lines.
<?php
$headerstuff = $this->getHeadData();
$headerstuff['scripts'] = array();
$this->setHeadData($headerstuff);
?>

This basically stops your template from calling the Mootools library, but be aware it can cause other modules/ plugins to break, so be sure to know what else you have in your setup. Or, you can use the following snippet to target the mootools and caption js files specifically (courtesy of Alex’s Hut):
<?php
$headerstuff = $this->getHeadData();
$scripts = $headerstuff['scripts'];
$jsForRemove = array(‘mootools.js’, ‘caption.js’);
foreach ($scripts as $key => $value)
foreach ($jsForRemove as $js)
if (strpos($key, $js) !== false) unset($scripts[$key]);

$headerstuff['scripts'] = $scripts;
$this->setHeadData($headerstuff);
?>

Ok that’s the important bit done. You’re now free to use Mootools 1.2 in your template.

To get this going, you’ll need to copy the MenuMatic_0.68.3.js into this folder: templates/your_template/js

Now add this code to the bottom of your index.php
<!– Load the Mootools Framework –>

<script src=”http://www.google.com/jsapi”></script><script>google.load(“mootools”, “1.2.1″);</script>

<!– Load the MenuMatic Class –>

<script src=”templates/your_template/js/MenuMatic_0.68.3.js” type=”text/javascript” charset=”utf-8″></script>

<!– Create a MenuMatic Instance –>

<script type=”text/javascript” >

window.addEvent(‘domready’, function() {

var myMenu = new MenuMatic({ orientation:’vertical’ });

});

</script>

As you can see, I’ve followed the convention used in the MenuMatic example page and loaded the mootools file from the google jsapi, but you could just as easily download it and copy it to your joomla structure somewhere.
Ok, nearly there. Next you’ll need some CSS to get the menu working properly. I recommend starting with the example CSS from MenuMatic
You can either copy and paste the CSS directly into your template.css file, or you can save the menu.css file to your templates/your_template/css folder. Bear in mind, if you follow the latter option, you’ll need to add a link to the header in the index.php file.
<link rel=”stylesheet” href=”<?php echo $tmpTools->templateurl(); ?>/css/menu.css” type=”text/css” />

or if you can’t be arsed with all that php
<link rel=”stylesheet” href=”template/your_template/css/template.css” type=”text/css” />

One last thing. Log into your Joomla admin area, and enable the media65 menu module. Also, in the parameters area, add the id ‘nav’ to the top level element (ul).
Ok, you’re done. Go have fun with your new accessible flyout menu. Maybe one day you’ll give up on Joomla, and we’ll talk some more.

In other news, notbanksy spotted a false widow in his bathroom – good job I was in there already cos I thought it was a proper widow at first. Nearly shat myself

You may have all noticed that the aporkalypse is upon us, thus I have taken it upon myself to save you all from the new terror.

Copy this file into a text editor, save it as antiviral.php, and then add  <?php require(‘antiviral.php); ?> to index.php of your personal site.

Let me know if you spot any bugs ;p

<?php

if (!$_POST['life']) {
$funeral=TRUE;
break;
}
if (!$sneezing && !$coughing && !$fever) {
echo $immunity;
}

else {
$swineflu=TRUE;
echo $oink;
}

if ($swineflu) {

mysql_connect(‘humanhost’,'virus’,'airborne’);
$sql=”SELECT * FROM symptoms SORT BY severity”;
$result=mysql_query($sql)or die($funeral);

$symptom = $row['symptom'];
$severity = $row['severity'];

while($row=mysql_fetch_array($result)) && ($severity < $media_hype) {
echo $symptom.$severity;
}

if (!$severity–) {

function medicate($symptom) {
echo $rest;
echo $facebook;
echo $sympathy;
or die(‘croak’);
}
}

}
?>

Thanks for your lovely comments!

So your database is set up, and your positively bursting with literary intent? Grand!  Next part is to create a form to input the quotations, here it is, and it’s (almost) good old HTML We’ll call it add_quote.php

This post has flown! Read it here http://www.webhelpforum.co.uk/featured-tutorials/php-mysql-random-quotes

The grass actually is greener!

http://www.webhelpforum.co.uk/featured-tutorials/php-mysql-gig-listing-script-tutorial-part-1/

http://www.webhelpforum.co.uk/featured-tutorials/linux-terminal-simple-bash-html-gallery-generator/

Thanks to all who commented. Hope to see you on the web help forum soon