Browsing articles from "August, 2011"
Aug
25
2011

Using PHP to Replace Special Characters with their Equivalents

PHP Character Replacement

After having just completed an extensive text file parsing script, I discovered something very very very annoying.  A small army of Microsoft Word inspired characters had invaded the imported plain text files (courtesy a number of citation management softwares and websites), causing text to have all sorts of ‘fun’ symbols sprucing things up. For example “Tâ��ms” => “Teams”, but with that extra something added in for visual highlight (or something). So what was a programmer […]

Aug
22
2011

How to Import an ExpressionEngine Blog into WordPress

EE to WP

I’m sure by now that most of you have seen my post on how I feel about ExpressionEngine (here), so this post is a natural follower!  Today, we’re going to talk about migrating your content from ExpressionEngine to WordPress. I spent quite a bit of time working through EE’s poorly detailed instructions on how to export entries before I decided to just get my hands dirty.  Mind you, this post is only applicable to you […]

Aug
11
2011

JavaScript Close Window AND Refresh Parent

Earlier today I was working with complex PHP function to update values in a database, within a popout window.  The function worked flawlessly (naturally 😉 ), however I was looking for a way to have immediate display feedback on the parent page. Enter the JavaScript close window refresh parent script… <a id="actions" href="#" onClick="window.close();window.opener.location.reload();">Close Window</a> Looking for more?  Sorry!  That’s it for this crafty little function.

Aug
1
2011

Data Encryption Using AES_ENCRYPT

Database security using AES encryption

Having databases contain information on subscribers, customers, clients, and the like is similar to playing russian roulette.  You’re never certain as to when the bullet comes!  Same principles apply to having your customer’s sensitive information yanked from your precious databases!  We all watch the news to see which company will have their customer details compromised next. Most recently, Sony has now had approximately 100 million accounts compromised, costing them upwards of $171 million dollars.  And […]