Category Archives: PHP

Installing PHP driver for MongoDB in WAMP

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I’ve been getting more curious about MongoDB. The problem is I’ve been struggling trying to create a development environment. I’ve tried OSX, Ubuntu, and Windows. I always get stuck at a step. I think I found the right recipe.

First, I’m running Windows 7 Professional 64 bit virtually. You don’t have to run Windows virtuall. I’m mostly on my Mac and I prefer to use virtual environments for development so it’s okay if I screw around with things. Then I installed Wamp. The key here is to use the 32bit version of Wamp. I’ve tried the 64bit version of Wamp and could not get it to work. Then, you need to download the latest driver from the MongoDB website. You will get a NTS (non-thread safe) and TS (thread safe) driver. The folders are labeled as follows “mongo-[version]-php5.3vc9” and “mongo-[version]-php5.3vc9ts. Remember “ts” = “thread safe”. I used the non-thread safe DLL file. Take that DLL file and copy and paste it in the “ext” folder within the PHP installation directory of Wamp. If you installed using default settings it should be “c:\wamp\bin\php\php5.3.x\ext”. Open the php.ini file and add the php_mongo.dll extension. Restart Apache and it should show up in your phpinfo() page.

I will be using MongoHQ to try things out. I’m not sure why I couldn’t get it to work in a 64bit web server environment. Mongo looks very cool and if it can help me decrease development time, I’m going to build future web apps with it.

MSSQL Driver for PHP5.3

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Before using PHP5.3, I never had to worry about MSSQL support. PHP included a dll file to use with MSSQL Server 2000 and up. This is no longer true if you decide to upgrade to PHP5.3.x. For months I looked for ways to connect to our MSSQL Server using PHP5.3.x. I finally found the driver and it works. It’s called SQLSRV and you can download it from http://sqlsrvphp.codeplex.com. It’s easy to install, just read the CHM file.

  • Run the exe to unpack it
  • Rename the folder to Microsoft SQL Server Driver for PHP (optional)
  • Move this to your %Program Files% directory (optional)
  • Inside that directory you will find several dll files. It supports both NTS (Non Thread Safe) and TS (Thread Safe). You also need to choose between VC6 or VC9 compiler. This will determine which file will be used.
  • Copy that file to %Installation Directory%\PHP\ext\ (assuming you are using the ext directory for your extensions.
  • Edit your php.ini. In the extensions section add the following extension=php_sqlsrv_53_ts_vc6.dll – or whatever file you copied to your ext directory.
  • Restart your web server and that should be it.

Here’s a quick sample code to get you started.

<?php

$servername = "SQLSERVER_NAME_OR_IP";
$uid = "db_username";
$pwd = "db_passwd";
$connectionInfo = array (
"UID"=>$uid,
"PWD"=>$pwd,
"Database"=>"database_name"
);
$conn = sqlsrv_connect($serverName, $connectionInfo);

if ($conn === false) {
echo "ERROR: DB Connection";
die(print_r(sqlsrv_errors(), true));

}
$stmt = sqlsrv_query($conn, "SELECT * FROM table");

if ($stmt) {
while ($row = sqlsrv_fetch_array($stmt)) {
echo $row[0].’<br />’;
}
}

?>

That should do it. I have only tested this on Windows 7 Professional (32bit), MSSQL 2005 (32bit) Standard on a remote Windows 2008 Server Standard R2, PHP5.3.3, Apache2.2.15, and driver version 1.1 (version 2 is now available) . Make sure your MSSQL server can accept remote connections if it is on a different server than your web server. The above instructions shouldn’t be  too different on other versions.

If you have a phpinfo() page, you will see the image below.

sqlsrv_phpini

Hope this helps you get started. Happy coding.

XHTML compliant with ampersands in the URL

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I was having a few problems creating a page with ampersands in the URL. This is a quick fix if it’s part of the HTML by using &amp; but if it’s part of a javascript, it will take the code literally. For example, let’s say you have a javascript function that sends you to a URL when you click a button.

<script type=”text/javascript”>

function clickMe() {
window.location = ‘http://www.google.com/search?q=javascript+ampersand+xhtml&client=firefox-a’;
}

</script>

If you are concerned about being XHTML compliant, you will get an “unknown entity section” error. You can get some more info of the error here http://htmlhelp.com/tools/validator/problems.html. You cannot use “&” in the URL of that javascript function. You can use &amp; (HTML) or &#38; (ASCII). It will solve your error but depending on the browser/version, it will send the code to the URL and will result in an error – especially if your code is dependent on the querystring. To fix this you can use CDATA.

/*<![CDATA[*/

window.location = 'http://www.google.com/search?q=javascript+ampersand+xhtml&client=firefox-a';

/*]]*/

The /**/ ignores the lines of code but because your document is XML formatted, CDATA parse the line in between properly (http://www.w3schools.com/xml/xml_cdata.asp). I got answer from http://www.liferay.com/community/forums/-/message_boards/message/2657431#_19_message_2873280.

Creating a CakePHP environment using MAMP and OS X

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This will show you how to create a CakePHP environment in MAMP on OS X. Here list of softwares used and their version.

  • OS X Leopard or Snow Leopard
  • MAMP version 1.91 (using PHP5.2.x)
  • CakePHP 1.2.8

You shouldn’t have to use MAMP 1.9.1. I have it working on version 1.8.x. You will need to change Apache’s port from 8888 to 80. Make sure there aren’t any other web servers running on the same port. Leave MySQL running on port 8889. We will be creating a /Applications/MAMP/conf/apache/sites file that will store your virtual sites. It isn’t necessary but it’s easier to manage new sites on a separate file. You will need to edit the /Applications/MAMP/conf/apache/httpd.conf file by adding the following lines of code.

# virtual hosts file
Include /Applications/MAMP/conf/apache/sites

This will tell Apache to check the new sites file for additional configurations. So now, whenever you need to add or create a new site, you will edit the sites file and add the following code.

<VirtualHost *:80>
DocumentRoot /Users/username/Sites/projectname
ServerName projectname.local
</VirtualHost>

The value of DocumentRoot can be different. I just chose to put it in that folder. Now you will need to edit your /etc/hosts file by adding the following code.

127.0.0.1          projectname.local

Restart your MAMP server. Now unzip the CakePHP files into the projectname folder. You should now be able to view your new CakePHP site by directing your browser to http://projectname.local. This page will tell you that you need to change the default Security.Salt value. All you need to do is change at least one character and you will meet the requirement. You can also use Terminal to generate your own.

echo -n ‘foobar’ | openssl sha1

This will give you a 40 character string. You can use a mixture of upper and lower case on the letters. Copy and paste this value from Terminal to give a new Security.Salt value.

The next warning is your database. Rename the database file and edit it. Provide your database server information. Because MySQL in MAMP is using port 8889, you will have to edit the array and add the following.

‘port’ => ’8889′

There are notes in this file to help you further with additional array elements.

To use Terminal with the cake command, you will have to edit you ~/.bash_login file and create aliases. Here is the code to add to your .bash_login file.

# php
alias php5=”/Applications/MAMP/bin/php5.2/bin/php”

# cake for this project
alias cake=”php5 /Users/username/Sites/projectname/cake/console/cake.php”

To apply

. ~/.bash_login

You should be able to run

cake help

If you get a permission denied error, give it executable access with this.

chmod +x /Applications/MAMP/bin/php5.2/bin/php

That’s it. You can now start baking in a development environment. I know I have skipped a few steps but I’m assuming you know the basic commands and configurations. If not, please feel free to comment and ask questions. I’m still new with the MVC framework and CakePHP so go easy on questions regarding those. I am learning, slowly… haha!

Connect to MSSQL 2005 using PHP

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Here’s a couple of quick tips to connecting to a MSSQL 2005 server using PHP on a Windows webserver. You will need to enable the php_mssql.dll in your php.ini file.

Here’s the code to connect to the server.

<?php

$conn = mssql_connect(‘my_server’, ‘db_username’, ‘db_password’);
if (!$conn) { die(‘ERROR: Unable to connect to the database.’); }
mssql_select_db(‘database_name’);

?>

Here is a helpful function I found that will help escape strings. I found this at http://stackoverflow.com/questions/574805/how-to-escape-strings-in-mssql-using-php.

<?php

function ms_escape_string($data) {
//if ( !isset($data) or empty($data) ) return ”;
if ( !isset($data) or empty($data) ) return “””;         // modified to handle empty $data
if ( is_numeric($data) ) return $data;

$non_displayables = array(
‘/%0[0-8bcef]/’, // url encoded 00-08, 11, 12, 14, 15
‘/%1[0-9a-f]/’, // url encoded 16-31
‘/[\x00-\x08]/’, // 00-08
‘/\x0b/’, // 11
‘/\x0c/’, // 12
‘/[\x0e-\x1f]/’ // 14-31
);
foreach ( $non_displayables as $regex )
$data = preg_replace( $regex, ”, $data );
$data = str_replace(“‘”, “””, $data );
//return $data;
return “‘”.$data.”‘”;        // modified to handle empty $data
}

?>

Here is a sample query to the database.

<?php

$id = ms_escape_string($_GET['id']);    // escape variable
$sql = ‘SELECT id FROM table_name WHERE id=’.$id.”;
$rs = mssql_query($sql);

if (!$rs)
{
echo ‘ERROR: Unable to get records. ‘.mssql_get_last_message();    // equivalent to mysql_error()
}else{
while ($row = mssql_fetch_assoc($rs))
{
echo ‘The id = ‘.$row['id'].’<br />’;
}
}

?>

Another thing I learned from the article is the equivalent of “mysql_insert_id()”. It is “SELECT @@IDENTITY”. To handle dates and make them friendly to PHP use CONVERT(VARCHAR, [date], 20). This will display it as if you are using date(‘Y-m-d H:i:s) – 24 hour format. So an example would be…

SELECT CONVERT(VARCHAR, getdate(), 20) AS now

I tried to use PDO but was having a hard time getting it to work. I kept getting errors that had something to do with functions. I searched for solutions and tried them but none worked for me. Also, the rowCount() will always return less than or equal to 0.

I had trouble on both sides PHP and Microsoft. This seems to be the best solution that works for me. Hope it helps others.