Download a File using Curl Here is a quick curl snippet for php, that can download a remote file and save it. <?php set_time_limit(0); // File to save the contents to $fp = fopen ('files2.tar', 'w+'); $url = "http://localhost/files.tar"; // Here is the file we are downloading, replace spaces with %20 $ch = curl_init(str_replace(" ","%20",$url));… Read More »
Adsense Management API The google adsense management api can be used to fetch adsense reports inside a web or desktop application. In this article we are going to see how to use the api in python to fetch the earnings. The documentation is available here. The code shown here is build using the samples. Setup… Read More »
Html to pdf If your php application needs to generate some kind of pdf report then the simplest approach would be to generate the report as an html and then convert it to pdf using some library. Plenty of libraries are available that can convert html to pdf in php. To name a few -… Read More »
Php applications might need to do some image processing if they are allowing users to upload pictures of somekind. This can include cropping, watermarking, compressing etc. To compress an image the quality needs to be adjusted. Here is a code example of how to do it: function compress_image($src, $dest , $quality) { $info = getimagesize($src);… Read More »
In a previous article we learned how to . Now lets do the reverse, that is extract tar.gz archives and get the files out. The code to extract a tar.gz archive is very simple and uses PharData class. Here is an example // decompress from gz $p = new PharData('files.tar.gz'); $p->decompress(); // creates files.tar //… Read More »
Tar is a common archive format used on linux. Alone it is just an archiving format, that is it can only pack multiple files together but not compress them. When combined with gzip or bzip2 files are compressed as well. Then it becomes a .tar.gz which is actually a gzip compressed tar file. Php has… Read More »
Proxy with Curl Curl is a very useful library for transferring data over various protocols like http, ftp, https etc. In other words curl can be used to programatically download a web page, or upload file to ftp etc. It also supports using a proxy. This means that curl requests can go through a proxy… Read More »
When working with data import and export for example, file formats like csv and excel are commonly used. Data can be exported to csv format and imported elsewhere. Also data might be entered manually in an excel file and then imported in the database. So there might be a need to convert excel files to… Read More »
Tcpdf is a pdf creation library for php that is written in pure php and works without the need of any external library. It also has the feature to generate 2d barcodes like qrcode and pdf417. The 2d barcodes can store much more information than the 2d ones like code39 and ISBN. It is recommended… Read More »
Consider a long running php script that does many tasks and after each task it outputs the status. echo 'Task 1 complete'; …. some delay … echo 'Task 2 complete'; …. more delay and more tasks … Now for such scripts it may be important to load the contents in browser as quickly as they… Read More »
Streaming (Comet) Streaming means to send content part by part at some intervals in the same request. Or in other words, the client is able to process the response part by part, instead of waiting for the whole transfer to complete. In the context of http and web applications it is more specifically called Comet…. Read More »
Server sent events When running a long serverside task inside a web application it becomes very useful, if not necessary to report the progress of that task in realtime to the clientside, that is the browser. Earlier there was no easy way to do this and hacks had to be constructed to achieve such a… Read More »
If your php application is processing media files like mp3, then it might need to find details of the mp3 file like its playtime, bitrate, encoder etc. There is a very useful php library called Getid3 that can extract information from mp3 files. Its written in pure php and does not have any dependencies. Needs… Read More »
Websockets Websockets is a new feature available in browsers as a part of the Html5 specs that allows javascript clients to open bi directional socket connections to a server. Currently all major desktop browsers support the api. Websocket is not an independant socket protocol, but is based on the TCP protocol just like HTTP. Therefore… Read More »
Revolute Joint Revolute joint is a useful joint in box2d that allows 2 bodies to be pinned together at a point without restricting rotation. The joint can be made between 2 dynamic bodies or between a static and dynamic body. The pendulum on left is a static circle joined to dynamic rectangle. Whereas the cart… Read More »
Weld joint in box2d The weld joint can be used to join to bodies tightly at a common point. Here is an example A weld joint is created like this //create distance joint between b and c var joint_def = new b2WeldJointDef(); joint_def.bodyA = b; joint_def.bodyB = c; //connect the centers – center in local… Read More »
Rope In this experiment we shall make a rope like thing in box2d. There is no rope like structure that box2d supports directly. But if multiple small units are connected together at their edges using a revolutejoint, then it was act somewhat like a rope. You can move any part of the rope using your… Read More »
Distance In the previous post on mouse joints we learned how to interact with box2d objects using the mouse. Now its time to take a look at another joint in box2d, the distance joint. Distance joint connects 2 bodies maintaining a fixed distance between them, its like metal wire connecting the 2 bodies, such that… Read More »
Mouse Joint Out of the many joints that box2d has, one is mouse joint. It is not used in physics simulations, but helps to make the physics world interactive by making a body move towards a specific point, like the mouse coordinates for example. So objects can be picked up, dragged etc by the user…. Read More »
Html5 Audio The html5 audio element provides a simple api to play sound files like mp3, ogg, wav etc. It can be created by putting an audio tag in the html or by creating an instance of the Audio object in javascript. Here is a quick example of using it from within javascript code. var… Read More »