Nette is a popular web application framework for PHP. It is mostly pretty well documented and easy to use. Recently, I needed to upload media from a Nette application to Amazon S3. This is how I created an S3 service for my Nette application. You will need to be familiar with Nette and have an existing Nette application to follow along.
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Alternate Ways to Call wp-cron
WordPress includes a job scheduling system called wp-cron. The default method for scheduled jobs is for wp-cron to be checked on each page load, which has the potential to slow down your website while background jobs are run. Check out these other options that help maintain the user experience on your WordPress site while still running important tasks in the background.
OpenPGP for WordPress Now Supports Contact Form 7
OpenPGP Form Encryption for WordPress now supports Contact Form 7. You can download version 1.4.0 at the WordPress plugin site and start using a safer contact form on your website today!
Pono Rez WordPress Plugin
Together with Commerce Collective, ((I started working with them last year, remember?)) we have built a WordPress plugin to allow Activities & Attractions Association of Hawaii (A3H) to quickly and easily integrate activity bookings and sales into their WordPress websites.
We still have more features to add to the plugin, but it’s a solid start that will save A3H members a lot of time. It is written in PHP ((Like all WordPress plugins, of course.)) and JavaScript, and uses the Pono Rez SOAP interface to integrate activity data into a WordPress page.
Security Link Rodeo: Silk Road, the Patriot Act, Alan Turing, and Your Passwords
The man behind the Silk Road, Ross Ulbricht, received a life sentence after being convicted of money laundering and drug trafficking. It’s estimated that he made around $18 million on the website, which ran as a hidden service in the Tor network. Some of the operators for the Silk Road argue that it was a haven for libertarian philosophy, but does that really excuse the amount of damage they enabled? The Economist notes that since the Silk Road fell, illegal drug sales on the Internet have doubled.
Pansophie Online Color Test
- A private administrative interface
- Seamless jQuery-backed test interface with few pageloads
- Custom PDF reports, generated on the fly
- A customer database with contact information
- API endpoints for test generation
- Integration with 3rd party e-commerce system
Pansopie PC isn’t currently doing business.
Prime Number Service on Google App Engine
As I mentioned earlier this week, I’ve decided to learn the Go programming language. I’ve also been very interested in Google App Engine, which lets you deploy applications to the cloud from a development sandbox. It’s like magic for web and mobile applications!
Since I’m so fond of prime numbers, I thought I’d build a web service for calculating them. It does some other fun stuff, too, like figuring out if a number is happy. It also caches primes in the Google Cloud Datastore with some minimal statistics. If you’d like to see the source code for the prime number service, it’s available on GitHub.
Integrating Cedexis Radar with WordPress Sites
Cedexis Radar is a real user monitoring (RUM) system that collects millions of metrics every day. It’s used to measure the health of networks in order for Cedexis Openmix to make intelligent routing decisions for web service users.
I put together a simple plugin to add Cedexis Radar tracking codes to a WordPress website. I’m not yet sure how much of an overlap there is between WordPress users and Cedexis Openmix users, but if you’re using both, check out my new plugin.
Philalethes E-Bulletin Online Reader
I began working on the Philalethes E-Bulletin in the Fall of 2013, and published the first issue in January of 2014. The E-Bulletin is published quarterly in EPUB and MOBI formats.
It’s been a great learning experience. Not only have I learned a lot about editing, but I’ve really had to dive into how electronic publishing works. The intricacies of electronic book formats have become well-known to me.
The Philalethes Society isn’t entirely comfortable with modern technology, however. Most complaints about the E-Bulletin came from those who didn’t have e-book readers and weren’t comfortable installing software on their PC to handle a new file format. Because of this, I built an online e-book reader specifically for the E-Bulletin.
The online e-book reader is based around the excellent EPUB.js library, with additional backend code written in PHP.
Click here to visit the Philalethes E-Bulletin Online Reader.
PunchlinePDX Event Manager
PunchlinePDX is a slow-motion video booth for events and parties based out of Portland, Oregon. Earlier this year, I helped them develop event management software that would allow them to upload and curate video.
This was their first experience hiring a software developer, so I had the opportunity to walk them through the entire process. We started by outlining requirements and coming up with a solid plan with application screens, functions, and things to meet their business needs. We then brainstormed additional features and came up with something pretty amazing.
These are a few of the interesting things we came up with:
- Cloud-backed storage for all videos
- Text messaging interface
- Smart social media sharing
- Contact management
- Event and sharing privacy
The best part was the testing process. While I ran them through their new software, they made slow-motion video of me and used the software to upload and manage it. Check it out!
You should seriously consider booking these guys for your holiday party.