PHP

SOAP Server and Client, now with WSDL part 2

Now here is the part where I give the example files. After we have planned the application functions, we need to figure out what we are going to return to the client. This is going to be a standard array with at least two levels: The Response array and the Data array. It will look similar to this:

Array
(
    [responseMsg] => Array
        (
            [status] => ok
            [message] => Service call was successful
        )
    [allColors] => Array
        (
            [0] => blue
            [1] => green
            [2] => black
            [3] => white
            [4] => yellow
            [5] => red
            [6] => beige
        )
)

Now that we have the basic idea, we need to create the WSDL file. Remember, it is very important to think of WSDL files as of reading from bottom to top. The final WSDl file is located here. Here is the basic idea of the WSDL file I created (going from the bottom to the top):

Service: This houses the binding, the location, the port, and the name.
Binding: This houses the functions that will be exposed, the operation and the input and output encoding. Most of the time these will be similar with only the names being different.
Port Type: Here is where I define the operations and the input/output definitions
Message: These are individual nodes for the Request and Response messages for all functions. These will usually have two message nodes per function, and they will define the structure for each action
Types: This defines each structure that has been mentioned in the Message and any subsequent structures that have to be defined. This is usually the area where most struggles occur.
- This structure will be encompassed by schema target namespace
- Import the XML namespaces to help build the structures in the reasponse
- For each complex type, it should either mention a specific data type (xsd:), or a new defined structure (tns:)
- Each structure that is an array should be defined as a SOAP-ENC:Array with a wsdl:arrayType parameter

So that is the WSDL. The one I have created defines the 2 functions, the input, the output, and the structure of each. Now we can move on to the Server code.
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Wednesday, May 25, 2011

Applications / PHP

Count the Number of Cakes – Finding complex results with CakePHP

CakePHP offers a good selection of tools to help you retrieve the data. Recently, I came into a situation where I needed to find and paginate results based on a single, distinct column in the table. Distinct data can be tricky, especially if the tools do not allow you to…

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Tuesday, May 10, 2011

Applications / PHP

Have Your Cake and Eat It Too

CakePHP is one of those frameworks where it is easy to set up and get an application running in a minimal amount of time. It provides different securities, helps, and functions in the framework so that your application can run smoothly and be safe. As with all applications, the level of security and functionality depends on the developer, not the code, not the language, not the database. An application is only as secure, functional and reliable as the person/team who is coding it. One of the reasons I do like Cake is that the built in security and helpers offer a developer a great way to secure data, validate it, and display it. And that can also be one of the more trickier parts of getting the application to work correctly, finding the data to do something with it.

CakePHP provides some functionality for finding the data, this is done using the “find” method. You can read more about this at the Cookbook. Using this, one can grab data from many different tables if needed, or just one table. For this exercise, I am going to use dummy data to show how to find data, using simplistic finds, and using joins, and sub-queries. So first lets examine the data tables. Not all of these are going to be connected. This is a very simplistic, quickly drawn up solution to a lending library

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Tuesday, April 26, 2011

Applications / PHP

Data Model Relationships – CakePHP’s HABTM

For today, lets dive back into some code, well data modeling at least. When you set up an application that connects to a database, you need to understand the data that will be working in the application. This is the data that will be edited, added, read and even scrutinized…

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Tuesday, March 15, 2011

Applications / PHP

Getting into the code

So it has been a couple of weeks since I have posted. But now we need to set up some base code before we can go forward with the details and then adding in the Facebook Graph API. In the last post, the Data model was set up. We have skills and certifications as standalone tables. Skills with the levels and areas tables connected together. We also have the main glue of resumes, connected to covers and tasks which itself is connected to jobs. A lot of tables to create the resume section, but will keep some of this information all together. We need to create some code so that we can get all this information.

If you Baked each object, and used the Bake methods to create the model, and associations, as well as the controllers an views, you will have some code ready to use and ready to go. After you have Baked these items, the sample code that is created is ok to begin with. However, we want to take advantage of a very important technique, and the is the centralization of code, and prevent code duplication. There is one other thing that gets to me, and this is more of an OCD thing for me in code, and that is the way that Cake does the edit check in the controller. In the base created code, it creates a section of code that checks for an ID. If it is not passed, then it redirects the page elsewhere. Like so:

function edit($id = null) {
    if (!$id && empty($this->data)) {
        $this->Session->setFlash(__('Invalid resume', true));
        $this->redirect(array('action' => 'index'));
    }
    . . . . 
}

So in this code segment, if one gets to the edit form, and an ID is passed, and the form is not filled in, then it will display the actual form. And if the ID is not passed in, then it redirects to the Index page. For examples, if the site name was test.com:
www.test.com/resume/edit/2 – will result in the form being shown
www.test.com/resume/edit – will result in a redirect and the error message

Now here is where my OCD kicks in a little. . . .
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Sunday, January 23, 2011

Applications / PHP

Adding Comments in your Site with the Facebook API

Now that I have jumped almost 2 weeks without a post, as I have been super busy, this should have been a real easy item to post, but I wanted to make sure that this is done correctly. This is probably one of the easiest methods to add some great Facebook functionality in your site. This revolves around comments to a page. In my example, I am posting topics to discuss. This is mainly just a small little blurb that I will enter via an admin form on the site, and then list the different topics for everyone to select one. Once they select it, they can view the details of the topic and then comment on it using the Facebook API/Social plugin. So as always, lets go through a basic plan for this idea.

1. The model is Topic, with a table in the DB labeled “topics”
2. Only the admin has access to add or edit the topics
3. All comments on this topic will be done through the Facebook API/Social Plugin Comments
4. Topics will have a title that will also double as the Unique ID (to be explained later)
5. Topic titles, or themes, will not be allowed to be edited, to be explained why later
6. Administration of the comments will be done by the Facebook Application admins, which differs from the site admins
7. Start Dates will determine if the topic is allowed to be visible yet
8. End dates are optional, and will be built upon later with more advanced FBML/FB JS libraries

And there it is, some basic ideas behind the whole idea. So now lets get into some of the items called out in Numbers 4 and 5
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Saturday, October 30, 2010

Applications / PHP

Facebook Application on the Site

OK, I finally got my data models set up and working. I have the initial CakePHP set up on the site, it is using v1.3, and now I am ready to set it up for the Facebook integration, and start to add the integration. When we first set up the application on the Facebook side, I chose to do an “iframe” version of the application, as I want Facebook on my site, and be able to have integration with some of the great Facebook tools on the site, and be able to “promote me”. And remember this is just a way to show a possible real world example of how to integrate these things with your site. Actual applications may vary, but this is the base to integrate. At least, as of this posting it is the base, it may change in the future.

So lets go ahead and dive into it. If you do not have the application ID for your Facebook application, you can get it at the following:
http://www.facebook.com/developers/apps.php

The next thing is to grab the API and code from Facebook. This can be found at the following page:
http://developers.facebook.com/docs/

This is the main page, and you will need to scroll to the bottom of the page. This will list different APIs that are available. I am going to be using the PHP and JavaScript SDKs. This will provide the back end that I will want, and will also provide a positive user experience on the front end. So be sure to download both SDKs.

After that, now we need to start getting some stuff set up. In this post, I am just going to explain how to get this set up, and working right now. It is important that we get the correct items working, and so we will be working with the “pages” area for the JS SDK, and creating a very simple controller for the PHP SDK so we can get set up and running. I am just using, for right now, the base CakePHP CSS styles and layouts. All we need is a page to display some of the basic items to ensure that we have installed the SDKs in the proper locations. So lets go.
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Sunday, October 17, 2010

PHP

Its the Simple Things

I am still working forward on the Facebook integration and resume stuff. And will get that posted when I have completed the data model and the basic set up. I will also post about how to integrate Facebook into a CakePHP application. But in the mean time, there was something…

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Friday, October 08, 2010

Applications / PHP

Facebook Integration Initial Steps

The next few posts will examine how I will integrate a Facebook application into one of my sites: stephenhird.com. If you have browsed to this site, you will see there is already a Facebook platform there. And while it does show some of the great things to do with the API, it is very basic and really does nothing. So In this post I will examine what I want to do with it, how to set up an initial application on Facebook, and then go from there. This will likely happen over the next few weeks/months and will be a little more drawn out depending on how much time I have to document this process. This is step one, and step one will always include planning.

First I need to figure out what I want to have on my site. Since it is my name that is on the URL, I will need to create a way that this site will be an online portfolio, biography and information repository. When doing this for any site, it is important to remember your brand. Even for individual sites like this, it is important for branding, because this is who I am, I do not want it to be a classic case of slop on the web. This site before was mainly just a testing ground and now will need to be more.

A side note here, my name is the same spelling as a famous photographer based in London. His site is well put together with good descriptive links and a great example of combining minimalist ideas with styled presentation. He keeps his brand on the pages and the site does not confuse or mislead with extra peripheral items, or overuse of Flash or other heavy web technologies loading down the page. His site is located at: http://www.stephenhird.co.uk/

OK, now on to the planning and setting up the Facebook Application.
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Wednesday, September 22, 2010

Ideas and Sorts / PHP

ORM Designs and Tools

ORM, that magical acronym that can send developers into a flurry of excitement, or the rolling eyes of grief. ORM stands for Object Relational Mapping. Used correctly, this can really help applications convert data into objects ready to use. While it does cause some overhead, the key thing to remember is that used properly, it can be really helpful. But that is also the way it is with anything related to code. Since I focus mainly on the open source areas, examining an ORM tool will be limited to the PHP view and aspect.

When designing the data objects, it is important to understand the data and how it relates to the application and other objects. Usually it is the planning sessions that get overlooked, or hurried, and create a problem for later on. This is why using a tool to help with this is always good. I specifically look for more of an ERD (Entity Relationship Diagram) type of tool that can help me visualize and document the data objects. Never underestimate the power of a visual diagram for data. This is worth everything when coming on a new project, or bringing in new resources to a major project. It can drastically decrease the learning curve. There are different tools out there that can help with ERD and ORM design, with the basic Visio diagrams (a Microsoft product), to more robust ERD tools that include different UML (Unified Modeling Language) tools integrated with it like MagicDraw. Each tool will have its pros and cons, no matter what the toolset is, no matter what the project is. I have found that there is not a single tool that is perfect for every project. But finding a good tool that can help in designing the database is a must. If it can even generate code, that is a lot better. One tool that is available that can help with ERD, and generate code, and help with ORM is ORM Designer. And I will examine this tool as it relates to Symfony, CakePHP and non framework applications.
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Saturday, September 04, 2010