A K Chauhan's Blog

Verify the iTunes Account access information with the help of cURL

admin — Sun, 04 Jul 2010 20:19:23 +0000


// URLs of iTunesconnect.
$urlBase = 'https://itts.apple.com';
$urlWebsite = $urlBase . '/cgi-bin/WebObjects/Piano.woa';
 
// function to check finance role acounts validity. This function return true is the detail is still valid.
function isAccountValid($username, $password) {
	global $urlBase, $urlWebsite;
 
	$html = curlRequest($urlWebsite, null); // First cURL request to get the login form
 
	preg_match('/" action=".*"/', $html, $matches); // Search the form action URL because all URLs are dynamic
 
	$urlActionLogin = $urlBase . substr($matches[0], 10, -1);
 
	$postData = array('theAccountName' => $username, 'theAccountPW' => $password, '1.Continue.x' => '1', '1.Continue.y' => '1'); // Creating the form POST data
 
	$html = curlRequest($urlActionLogin, $postData); // Second cURL request with form data for login
 
	if (strpos($html, 'Report Options') === false) { // If the return HTML contain 'Report Options' text then its successful login
		return false;
	}
 
	return true;
}
 
// function send the curl request on given URL with post variables and return the html output
function curlRequest($url, $postVars) {
	$ch = curl_init();
 
	curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_URL, $url);
 
	if (!is_null($postVars)){ 
		curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POST, count($postVars));
 		curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, http_build_query($postVars));
	}
 
 	curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_FOLLOWLOCATION, TRUE);
 	curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_HEADER, FALSE);  
 	curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, TRUE);  
	curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_SSL_VERIFYPEER, FALSE);
 
 	$html = curl_exec($ch);
 
	if (curl_errno($ch)) {
		die(curl_error($ch));
	}
 
	curl_close($ch);
 
	return $html;
}
 
// Examples 01
if (isAccountValid('anil@test.com', 'test@anil')) {
	echo "anil@test.com account is valid.
";
}
else {
	echo "anil@test.com account is not valid.
";
}
 
// Examples 02
if (isAccountValid('invalid_address@test.com', 'wrong_password')) {
	echo "invalid_address@test.com account is valid.
";
}
else {
	echo "invalid_address@test.com account is not valid.
";
}
 
?>

How know Base Path of Drupal in JavaScript

admin — Mon, 17 May 2010 10:45:54 +0000

Sometimes you want to know about the Base Path of your Drupal installation in JavaScript. You may want to know about this path for sending the AJAX request at correct URL relatively, load the image or some other type of file on client side through JavaScript etc.

Drupal provide a variable called Drupal.settings.basePath for this purpose in JavaScript. But this variable is only available if you include any custom JavaScript file or JavaScript block in your module. By default Drupal doesn’t include the ‘jquery.js‘ and ‘drupal.js‘ file in generated output. It only add these files if you add your custom JavaScript file or JavaScript block. We can include our custom JavaScript file in Drupal like this:-

drupal_add_js(drupal_get_path('module','my_module'). '/my_module.js');

The my_module.js file should reside in same directory where my_module module exist. This will force Drupal to add jquery.js and drupal.js files in output.

These two files initialize the Base Path variable. In drupal.js file, on top you can see the initialization of setting object in Drupal object. Like this:-

var Drupal = Drupal || { 'settings': {}, 'behaviors': {}, 'themes': {}, 'locale': {} };

Drupal generate some JavaScript code in Script block inside head tag of each page for extending the settings object with the help of jQuery. Like this:-

jQuery.extend(Drupal.settings, { "basePath": "/" });

You can test the Base Path by adding following code in my_module.js file.

$(document).ready(function() {
	alert(Drupal.settings.basePath);
});

This will alert the Base Path for Drupal installation after loading of the page.

Create Simple Carousel using jQuery

admin — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 03:42:15 +0000

Carousel

You can see the working demo here.

Carousel is a way to present content in the form of slideshow on web page. Here I’m showing how easily you can create a horizontal carousel using jQuery. You can play with the given code and easily create vertical carousel, circular carousel, auto-scrolling carousel etc.

I’m using jQuery for animation. So, you need jQuery JavaScript library for it. You can download latest jQuery JavaScript library from jquery.com.

So, how it work.

Your basic structure of HTML for Carousel should be like this:-


   
    	some content...
        some content...
        some content...
        some content...
        some content...
        some content...
        .....

What you need to do before applying “my_carousel” ID to your Carousel DIV.

1. Put any HTML content which you want to display in your LI’s.
2. Create CSS for your Carousel DIV.
3. You also need two images, or button to scroll your content in left and right direction.
4. Assign “btnprev” class to your left button or image.
5. Assign “btnnext” class to your right button or image.
6. Assign “my_carousel” ID to you Carousel DIV.

How JavaScript Code work:-

So, when browser load the page JavaScript look for “my_carousel” ID in HTML and apply all the require attributes and events to your DIV, UL, and LI.

Important JavaScript variables and their purpose:-

step – How many LI’s you want to scroll on click of left and right button.
current – Index or Number of left most visible LI in carousel.
maximum – Total number of LI in carousel.
visible – Number of visible LI’s.
speed – Animation speed.
liSize – Width of one LI in pixels.
liSize – Width of one LI in pixels.
carousel_height – Carousel DIV height.
ulSize – Width of UL. You can calculate it like this liSize * maximum.
divSize – Width of CArousel DIV. You can calculate it like this liSize * visible.

Assign require attributes to DIV, UL, and LI.

$('#my_carousel').css("width", divSize+"px").css("height", carousel_height+"px").css("visibility", "visible").css("overflow", "hidden").css("position", "relative"); 
 
$('#my_carousel ul').css("width", ulSize+"px").css("left", -(current * liSize)).css("position", "absolute");

Here we changed the width, height, visibility, overflow, and position of Carousel DIV. The Carousel DIV overflow = hidden property is very important here, through it we are just showing the require(visible) LI’s which we want to show at a time. We just hide the remaining LI’s.

We also changes the width, left and position of UL.

Assign Click event to left and right buttons/images

Left button/image

$('.btnprev').click(function() { 
	if(current - step < 0 || current - step > maximum - visible) {return; }
	else {
		current = current - step;
		$('#my_carousel ul').animate({left: -(liSize * current)}, speed, null);
	}
	return false;
});

So, we have assigned a click event on previous button. So, we are first checking the index of current LI. If the current LI is the first LI we will not do anything. We will simply return from the function. If the current LI is not the first LI then scroll the content of UL to left hand side by using the jQuery “animate” function. For more information about animate function click here. And we also changed the current to current left most most visible LI.

Right button/image

$('.btnnext').click(function() { 
	if(current + step < 0 || current + step > maximum - visible) {return; }
	else {
		current = current + step;
		$('#my_carousel ul').animate({left: -(liSize * current)}, speed, null);
	}
	return false;
});

Similarly we assigned the clicked event on next button and followed the same logic what we used for previous click. We just changed it slightly to check last LI when we click on next button. If the current is last LI we will do nothing.

Complete JavaScript Code:-

<script language="javascript">
	$(function() {
		var step = 2; 
		var current = 0; 
		var maximum = $('#my_carousel ul li').size(); 
		var visible = 2; 
		var speed = 200; 
		var liSize = 331;
		var carousel_height = 161;
 
 
		var ulSize = liSize * maximum;   
		var divSize = liSize * visible;  
 
		$('#my_carousel ul').css("width", ulSize+"px").css("left", -(current * liSize)).css("position", "absolute");
 
		$('#my_carousel').css("width", divSize+"px").css("height", carousel_height+"px").css("visibility", "visible").css("overflow", "hidden").css("position", "relative"); 
 
		$('.btnnext').click(function() { 
			if(current + step < 0 || current + step > maximum - visible) {return; }
			else {
				current = current + step;
				$('#my_carousel ul').animate({left: -(liSize * current)}, speed, null);
			}
			return false;
		});
 
		$('.btnprev').click(function() { 
			if(current - step < 0 || current - step > maximum - visible) {return; }
			else {
				current = current - step;
				$('#my_carousel ul').animate({left: -(liSize * current)}, speed, null);
			}
			return false;
		});
	});
script>

Round Number upto 2 decimal places in JavaScript

admin — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 22:41:33 +0000

JavaScript’s Math.round() function doesn’t provide facility to round off a number up to 2 or more decimal places. So, here I’m showing a simple JavaScript code using which you can round off numbers up to 2 decimal places. You can change this for more decimal places.

var retailPrice = 9.99;
var percentage = 0.2525; /* 25.25% */
var decimalPlace = 100; /* 100 for 2 decimal place. 1000 for 3 decimal place.*/
 
var wholeSalePrice = Math.round(percentage * retailPrice * decimalPlace) / decimalPlace;
 
alert(wholeSalePrice); /* This will show 2.52 */

Create a TinyURL using PHP and TinyURL API

admin — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 07:30:18 +0000

TinyURL is an awesome service. For those who don’t know what TinyURL is, TinyURL allows you to convert your long URLs like “http://www.akchauhan.com/category/jquery/” to small URLs like “http://tinyurl.com/yz4c4ba”. Basically you need such type of service when you are posting your data to some third party web service and there is limit on the number of characters you can post like Twitter. Twitter only allow 140 characters long Tweet.

Using the PHP and TinyURL API, you can create these tiny URLs.

function get_tiny_url($url)  
{  
	$ch = curl_init();  
	$timeout = 5;  
	curl_setopt($ch,CURLOPT_URL,'http://tinyurl.com/api-create.php?url='.$url);  
	curl_setopt($ch,CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER,1);  
	curl_setopt($ch,CURLOPT_CONNECTTIMEOUT,$timeout);  
	$data = curl_exec($ch);  
	curl_close($ch);  
 
	return $data;  
}
 
//test it out!
$new_url = get_tiny_url('http://www.akchauhan.com/category/jquery/');
 
//returns http://tinyurl.com/yz4c4ba
echo $new_url;

Create Random Alphanumeric Password in PHP

admin — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 08:16:49 +0000

We can use this simple password generation function to create random passwords. The maximum limit of generated password is 36 characters.


	function gen_password($size = 8) {
		$size = $size > 36 ? 30 : $size;
		$pool = array_merge(range(0, 9), range('A', 'Z'));
		$rand_keys = array_rand($pool, $size);
 
		$password = '';
 
		foreach ($rand_keys as $key) {
			$password .= $pool[$key];
		}
 
		return $password;
	}
 
	$password = gen_password(10);
?>

We can use it like this.


	$password = gen_password(10);
?>

JavaScript List Search using jQuery

admin — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 20:58:27 +0000

List Search using jQuery

Here in this example we are using jQuery to filter the list of products. We have list of products in UL and LI. We have associated the “KeyUp” event on the top search textbox. So when somebody type in the textbox we filter the list on the basis of entered value.

We are using the RegExp for comparing the string for matching characters. First we created the regular expression “rg” from the given text and compare the product name (string) with the help of search function.

The search function return the position of string where match is found or ‘-1′ in case of no match.

So, we selected all the LI’s exist inside the ‘product_list‘ ID and match each product name one by one. We hide the LI if its text not match the current search text and display the LIs with matching text.

HTML Code: -


<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
<head>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" />
<title>Sales Vu</title>
<link rel="stylesheet" href="pm-common-new.css" type="text/css" />

</head>
<body style="padding-left:20px;">
<div class="top-bar">
    <div class="top-left-corner"><img src="images/top-left-corner.png" /></div>
    <div class="top-mid-bg">Product Management</div>
    <div class="top-right-corner"><img src="images/top-right-corner.png" /></div>
</div>
<div class="body-part">
    <div class="body-part-top">
        <div class="search-container">
            <div class="search-box" style="float:left; width:257px;">
                <div style="float: left; width: 70px; padding-top: 4px; font-weight: bold;">Search </div> 
                <div class="text-field-box">
                    <input name="" type="text"  id="search" autocomplete="off" class="search-box-bg" />
                </div>
                <div class="text-field-cancel-button">
                    <a href="javascript:void(0);" id="search_clear" ><img src="images/search-box-cancel.png" border="0" id="search_clear" /></a>
                </div>
            </div>
        </div>
        <div class="modifier-product">
            <div class="modifier-product-right" style="float:left;">
                <div class="modifier-product-right-top">
                    Product
                </div>
                <div class="modifier-product-right-mid">
                    <div class="modifier-product-right-detail" id="product_list">
                        <div class="modifier-product-right-detail-heading">
                            <div class="product-list-heading">Product</div>
                            <div class="price-list-heading">Price ($)</div>
                        </div>
                        <div class="product-list">
                            <ul>
                            	<li>
                                    <div class="product">Banana Split</div>
                                    <div class="price">3.00</div>
                                </li>
                                <li>
                                    <div class="product">Bird Lite</div>
                                    <div class="price">2.45</div>
                                </li>
                                <li>
                                    <div class="product">Butter</div>
                                    <div class="price">2.00</div>
                                </li>
                                <li>
                                    <div class="product">Chicken With Coke</div>
                                    <div class="price">3.45</div>
                                </li>
                                <li>
                                    <div class="product">Chips With Coke</div>
                                    <div class="price">3.75</div>
                                </li>
                                <li>
                                    <div class="product">Corono Lite</div>
                                    <div class="price">2.00</div>
                                </li>
                                <li>
                                    <div class="product">Eggs</div>
                                    <div class="price">0.50</div>
                                </li>
                                <li>
                                    <div class="product">Limca</div>
                                    <div class="price">1.05</div>
                                </li>
                                <li>
                                    <div class="product">Sprite</div>
                                    <div class="price">1.20</div>
                                </li>
                                <li>
                                    <div class="product">test product</div>
                                    <div class="price">3.00</div>
                                </li>
                            </ul>
                        </div>
                    </div>
                </div>
                <div class="modifier-product-right-bottom">
                     
                </div>
            </div>
        </div>
    </div>
    <div class="body-part-bottom">
        <img src="images/body-bottom.png" />
    </div>
    </div>
</body>
</html>
<script src="jquery.js" type="text/javascript"></script>
<script src="pm_new.js" type="text/javascript"></script>

JavaScript Code: -

// JavaScript Document
$(document).ready(function () {
	$('#search').keyup(function(event) {
		var search_text = $('#search').val();
		var rg = new RegExp(search_text,'i');
		$('#product_list .product-list .product').each(function(){
 			if($.trim($(this).html()).search(rg) == -1) {
				$(this).parent().css('display', 'none');
 				$(this).css('display', 'none');
				$(this).next().css('display', 'none');
				$(this).next().next().css('display', 'none');
			}	
			else {
				$(this).parent().css('display', '');
				$(this).css('display', '');
				$(this).next().css('display', '');
				$(this).next().next().css('display', '');
			}
		});
	});
});
 
$('#search_clear').click(function() {
	$('#search').val('');	
 
	$('#product_list .product-list .product').each(function(){
		$(this).parent().css('display', '');
		$(this).css('display', '');
		$(this).next().css('display', '');
		$(this).next().next().css('display', '');
	});
});

Create Windows Service to Schedule PHP Script execution

admin — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 15:02:46 +0000

If you want to schedule your PHP script or any other command on Windows Platform recursively after a fix interval of time then you can create a Windows Service for it. Windows service is very easy to create in Visual Studio.Net. I’m using C# language for this scheduler service you can also use VB.net for it. Basically we need this type of service if we want to execute some PHP script in background in a specific interval of time. For example, If you want to import data in bulk from some web service.

You need to follow these steps: -

Create a project by using the Windows Service application template. This template creates a class for you that inherits from ServiceBase and writes much of the basic service code, such as the code to start the service.
Write the code for the OnStart and OnStop procedures, and override any other methods that you want to redefine.
Add the necessary installers for your service application. By default, a class that contains two or more installers is added to your application when you click the Add Installer link: one to install the process, and one for each associated service that your project contains.
Build your project.
Create a setup project to install your service, and then install it.
Access the Windows 2000 Services Control Manager and start your service.

For more detail check “Walkthrough: Creating a Windows Service Application in the Component Designer” topic in MSDN.

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.ComponentModel;
using System.Data;
using System.Diagnostics;
using System.Linq;
using System.ServiceProcess;
using System.Text;
using System.Timers;
 
namespace MyNewService
{
    public partial class MyNewService : ServiceBase
    {
        private Timer syncTimer = null;  
 
        public MyNewService()
        {
            InitializeComponent();
        }
 
        protected override void OnStart(string[] args)
        {
            syncTimer = new Timer();
            this.syncTimer.Interval = 180000;
            this.syncTimer.Elapsed += new System.Timers.ElapsedEventHandler(this.syncTimer_Tick);
            syncTimer.Enabled = true;
        }
 
        protected override void OnStop()
        {
            syncTimer.Enabled = false;
        }
 
        private void syncTimer_Tick(object sender, EventArgs e)
        {
            System.Diagnostics.Process.Start(@"C:\xampp\htdocs\task.bat");
        }  
    }
}

The task.bat file is a batch file. We are executing our PHP script through this batch file. First we set the path of directory where php.exe is located in your windows. The import.php is basically importing data in bulk from some web and we need to execute this script file background in every 3 minutes.

@echo off
cd\
set path=C:\xampp\php;
cd "C:\xampp\htdocs"
php import.php
exit

How use cURL library when running PHP through Command Line

admin — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 23:40:39 +0000

If you run any PHP code which using cURL extension through command line like this:

c:\>php somefile.php

it might give error that “curl_init()” function is not defined. The reason is the cURL extension “php_curl.dll” is not loaded. So, to resolve this issue you can load cURL (or any extension) dynamically in your PHP code. The “dl()” basically load PHP extension at runtime.


dl("php_curl.dll");
...
?>

Create Virtual Hosts and run multiple websites on Amazon server

admin — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 07:42:09 +0000

You can create virtual hosts on any Linux or window platform if you are using Apache web server. Virtual hosts or v-hosts is basically Apache feature. I’m considering here Amazon server running with Apache version 2 or above. So, basically for creating v-hosts you need to modify Apache’s configuration (httpd.conf) file. You need the root access for all this modifications. Here I’m showing how we create the “name-based virtual hosting“. This is the easiest way of creating virtual host.
On Amazon server httpd.conf is located on ‘/etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf‘ location. You need to follow these steps:-

1. First, take the backup of this file so in case if anything goes wrong you can rollback changes.
2. Download this file in your local machine and open it in any text editor.
3. Go to section 3 (Virtual Hosts) of this document.

### Section 3: Virtual Hosts

4. Un-comment this line

NameVirtualHost *:80

5. Now create v-hosts like this

80>
    ServerAdmin admin@mydomain1.com
    DocumentRoot /var/www/html/domainname1
    ServerName www.domainname1.com
    ErrorLog logs/www.domainname1.com-error_log
    CustomLog logs/www.domainname1.com-access_log common
</VirtualHost>
80>
    ServerAdmin admin@mydomain2.com
    DocumentRoot /var/www/html/domainname2
    ServerName www.domainname2.com
    ErrorLog logs/www.domainname2.com-error_log
    CustomLog logs/www.domainname2.com-access_log common
</VirtualHost>

Here we have create two virtual host one www.domainname1.com and second one www.domainname2.com. We have specified 5 Apache directive into a VirtualHost container. We can put almost any Apache directive into a VirtualHost container. Let’s discuss each one by one.

ServerAdmin – Here we specified email address of server administrator. If there is any issue Apache show this email address for contact.
DocumentRoot – Here we give the absolute path of directory where our website files are located.
ServerName – Here we give the name of our domain which is pointed to “/var/www/html/domainname1″ directory.
ErrorLog – Absolute path of Error log file for this domain.
CustomLog – Absolute path of custom log file for this domain.

6. Restart the Apache web server to apply these changes.
You can restart your Apache server using Terminal or Putty on Windows.

service httpd restart

Note:- One more thing which you need to do is you need to point both the domains “www.domainname1.com” and “www.domainname2.com” to the IP address of the Amazon server.

The Apache server it self find out the domain name form request header and point the incoming request to correct “DocumentRoot” directory.