Dev Talk


Usage of database stored procedures

Usage of database stored procedures

Hello guys. Today I’ll try to explain 2 things. First WHY to use stored procedures. And second, HOW to use them. First of all, a small notice. I’ll explain the subject on PostgreSQL example, because of the fact that I used that language syntax most recently.

So let’s begin with the question “Why?“.

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Best development IDE for web on Linux

Best development IDE for web on Linux

There are many tools available for developing web applications, but if you use Linux, the situation is dramatically changed. There are only few compared to other platforms.

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Top 3 annoying things in Basecamp

Top 3 annoying things in Basecamp

“It’s simple for us and it’s simple for clients” cried Željko Prša, our frontend developer over a year ago in our first Ask a developer episode. Our clients know that we use Basecamp as our collaboration tools because of its simplicity and the fact that clients get familiar with it in a short time. However, we really miss some of the simple features that would improve usability a lot.

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Simple Controller Plugin in Zend Framework

Simple Controller Plugin in Zend Framework

This tutorial will describe how to create own Controller Plugin.
How to set up environment for zend framework controller plugin.
How extend the library with own class and finally how to use it.

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Rediscovering your site with YSlow

Rediscovering your site with YSlow

Since it’s crucial to have a responsive site let alone online store you’ll definitely want to do anything humanly possible to make that store run fast. Here’s one way of doing it.

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Zend Framework Custom View Helper

Zend Framework Custom View Helper

Creating custom helper in new Zend Framework edition 1.9 in few easy steps.
Let’s assume that we need to fetch some data from database
but we do not need them in all view files.

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Remove SID query from Magento URLs

Remove SID query from Magento URLs

Many people wonder why sometimes the SID part appears in their Magento URLs. This is when your URL has additional SID query usually at the end. Take a look at the image. The curiosity is that it does not appear always. What is the most common scenario it happens? You didn’t access the site with the same domain variant you entered as your “Base URL” in your System> Configuration> Web interface.

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Zend framework notification system

Zend framework notification system

I was playing around with admin interface for one custom project and I wanted general notification system for updating, adding, deleting records in database or any other action I could imagine. Zend framework has built in notification system where you can easily call the following helper (it’s an controller action helper). I hope this code will help somebody.

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Flash Google maps to embed

Flash Google maps to embed

Long time ago when Google released Google Maps API for Flash, i created small flash which i embedded on multiple sites. I thought it looks nicer that usual javascript version, maybe you will too.

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Online and real time text editing that works!

Online and real time text editing that works!

What is etherpad? It’s an real-time collaborative text editing online application.

As they state on their site “Etherpad” is a “Really real-time collaboration”. That means no delay between writing or editing your shared document. It has built in versioning, chat and requires no registration for anyone in the free version.

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Zend Core – PHP LAMP/WAMP stack overview

Zend Core – PHP LAMP/WAMP stack overview

For all those in open source web application development, like myself, LAMP/WAMP is well known term, especially if your development is based on PHP. Imagine WAMP with commercial support available and you what to you get? You get Zend Core. I don’t mean to be harsh neither to WAMP or Zend Core with statements like these. I’m simply trying to explain as short as possible, to those interested in Zend Core what it actually is.

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Zend authentication component (Zend_Auth), database storage class

Zend authentication component (Zend_Auth), database storage class

I love Zend Framework. Sometimes it can really be overhead but most of the time it’s really nice working in well organized, documented framework. One of the components I use relatively often iz Zend_Auth component. Zend Framework documentation is quite rich so I wont get into explaining how to use Zend_Auth. There is one thing that bothered me in Zend_Auth, and that’s persistent storage. Zend_Auth (in the latest version 1.7.6, as of time of this writing) supports only Session state as it’s storage. What I needed is full database session storage.

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Getting started with REST using Zend Framework

Getting started with REST using Zend Framework

I was playing with SOAP for the last few days. I must say, it looks somewhat complicated in some areas. After some google-ing on SOAP vs REST stuff I decided to write this simple ZendFramework REST how to. Actualy this is a PHP part of tutorial since I was working on a PHP and C# solution using Mono framework for C# part can be found on my site. My desire was to create a web service in PHP environment and consume that service in C# environment.Getting started with REST using ZendFramework. Here’s the PHP REST server part.

Basic example is really, really simple. Aren’t they always. Seriously, it’s not my intention to go into outermost details.

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dotProject – Open Source Project Management for free

dotProject – Open Source Project Management for free

Notice the word free in the title. If something is declared as open source this does not imply it should be free. Take a look at FogBugz. It is, one of the best open source project tracking tools currently available. However it’s quite expensive. Maybe not so expensive to larger companies but for small businesses and freelancers it sure is.

Yesterday I came across dotProject tool. If you are like me and came to PHP from .Net world then your first though might be that this is .Net application due to the “dot” in the title. Well, it isn’t, it’s a PHP powered collaboration tool.

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Kapitol Reef :: Magento store with 1 product

Kapitol Reef :: Magento store with 1 product

Can an online store have only one product? Sure it can and we give you the one that just launched. Kapitol Reef was founded to develop, perfect, manufacture and market a new breed of snorkels based upon pressure-balanced breathing in the aquatic environment. The entire focus for this company is to deliver best-of-class products, starting with the snorkel. Kapitol Reef is in the market for many years and this week they published a new site. Similar to our work on Teraflex project, we used WordPress and Magento platforms for the development.

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UPS API Quest

UPS API Quest

I got one fairly simple request to develop a custom shipping calculation for Magento that will use some special calculation using UPS API. Right now, Magento only calculates weight and the client needs something more advanced. I worked on similar stuff before, so I guessed this will not be much different. First step was to find an API for UPS. Well, this post is all about the search for API. I’ll update it when I manage to find it.

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FogBugz – Project Management Tool

FogBugz – Project Management Tool

Working on a project as only developer having direct contact with the client gives you the freedom not to think too much of a communication tool you will use. Couple of meetings, phone calls and an email will be just fine. After 3-4 weeks, you deliver the project and the communication is over. If that is your common scenario, than skip evaluation of this tool.

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