Posted under Cakephp & ReadyNAS Duo & World of Warcraft
Bought a ReadyNAS Duo a few weeks ago and added a Western Digital WD20EARS to it. Aside from using it as a file storage I’ll also add my private client for my upcoming screenshots site to it and some media tools I might release as a cakephp plugin.
Posted under Nginx & Snippets & WyriMaps
One way to speed up WyriMaps.net is to preload popular tiles and nodes to avoid the disk IO build up with a lot of visitors on the map moving around, zooming in and out and adding/removing node sets to the map. Using tmpfs is a simple way to use the RAM as extra cache to speed up your webpages. Tho another way to do that is using memcached wich is more interesting if you have several servers instead of one.
Preparation
First off make sure you have Nginx and tmpfs installed and the following diretories created:
1 2 | /var/www/static.website.tld/ /mnt/tmpfs/nginx/static.website.tld/ |
The first contains the files to serve on disk we need them in case we can’t find anything n the memory. The seccond is the RAMDisk using tmpfs you mount using the following line in /etc/fstab:
1 | tmpfs /mnt/tmpfs/nginx tmpfs rw 0 0 |
The last thing to prepare is a script that automaticly sets up the directories within the /mnt/tmpfs/nginx mount point. Since everything happens within the RAM of the server it’s all lost after a crash/shutdown/reboot.
Configuration The server
Next up is configuring nginx in/etc/nginx/nginx.conf (or somewhere else depending on your distro) to start with error handling every time nginx can’t find a file on tmpfs it generates an error even if it finds it later on the disc.
1 | error_log /dev/null crit; |
Seccondly within the http { } section we add to allow us to check the RAM first then the disc and then serve a 404 error page/image/something.
1 | recursive_error_pages on; |
Aside from these settings it’s wise to look into the Gzip and core modules for speeding up the transfer of data and buffering settings.
Configuration The host
Now this is the fun part 
. To start we create the server { } section within the http { } section. We add the following basic settings to make sure it listens on port 80 to the correct host (static.website.tld) and set the expiration to max so we don’t keep serving the files:
1 2 3 | listen 80; server_name static.website.tld; expires max; |
We tell the server to look in the tmpfs mount first and to check the disc after that:
1 2 | root /mnt/tmpfs/nginx/static.website.tld/; error_page 404 = @static_website_tld_disc; |
By telling nginx to check @static_website_tld_disc after it checked tmpfs and creating a location block we can add another 404 error_page (this is where the error_page nesting comes in we enabled earlier) to serve an error page:
1 2 3 4 | location @static_website_tld_disc { root /var/www/static.website.tld/; error_page 404 = /404.html; } |
Now nginx first checks the ram for files and after that the disc we have one final block to add so we also serve a neat 404 error page. As final step with add a block that will tell nginx where to find 404.html (note that in the root in the block below there has to be a file named 404.html).
1 2 3 | location = /404.html { root /mnt/tmpfs/nginx/static.website.tld; } |
As the block shows I’m serving it from RAM and everytime the machine boots a script puts the 404.html file on the tmpfs mount. This results in the following config and keeps WyriMaps.net/WoW fast under high load.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 | error_log /dev/null crit; http { recursive_error_pages on; server { listen 80; server_name static.website.tld; expires max; root /mnt/tmpfs/nginx/static.website.tld/; error_page 404 = @static_website_tld_disc; location @static_website_tld_disc { root /var/www/static.website.tld/; error_page 404 = /404.html; } location = /404.html { root /mnt/tmpfs/nginx/static.website.tld; } } } |
Enjoy 
!
Wyri
Posted under Google Chrome & Releases
After switching to Chrome a few days ago and hearing Joshua talking about how easy it is to write extensions for Chrome I decided to give it a try. One of the first thing coming to mind was everyone linking to wowhead, thottbot and all but you never know what exactly they are linking untill you click it. Most World of Warcraft database sites supply a handy tooltip script solving this problem. After a talk with Joshua and how Chrome plugins are written I gave it a shot.
The result are 4 extensions (tho basically the same code but adjusted for the 4 sites) that first check if the tooltip script is already in the webppage and stop there if it is. If the script isn’t present but links to the site are present it inserts the tooltip script into the body of the page thus attaching tooltips to the links.
The extensions:
Planning to do the same for a few other database sites later on in the week after some phpBB3 MOD work 
.
Posted under World of Warcraft
Posted under Releases & Wordpress
Since I started using WordPress a few weeks ago 1 thing been nagging me. No Feedburner email subscription widget that suits my needs, so decided to make one myself. The result is a simple widget for your themes sidebar that lets your visitors subscribe to you feed in a breeze. Feedburner email widget has been accepted as a plugin bij WordPress yesterday and the first release was pushed today.
The Widget:
Widget control:
For more information please consult the project page.
Posted under Cakephp & Snippets
After the Flattr MOD for phpBB3 release 2 days ago I wrote this simple flattr cakephp helper (basic cakephp helper knowledge is required) to aid cakephp developers integrate flattr quick and easy into their websites. The helper has only 1 function and is very simple in use.
Basic usage
1 2 3 4 | <?php echo $flattr->badge(array( 'uid' => 4080, 'tle' => 'test', )); ?> |
As you can see this is the bare minimum in options you need to use to get it to work.
Since the helper supports the full range of options below are the other options:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 | <?php class FlattrHelper extends Helper { public $helpers = array('Javascript'); function badge($options=array()) { App::import('Sanitize'); $vars = ''; $vars .= "var flattr_uid = '" . intval($options['uid']) . "';\r\n"; $vars .= "var flattr_tle = '" . $options['tle'] . "';\r\n"; if(!isset($options['dsc'])) { $options['dsc'] = ''; } $vars .= "var flattr_dsc = '" . $options['dsc'] . "';\r\n"; if(!isset($options['cat'])) { $options['cat'] = 'text'; } $vars .= "var flattr_cat = '" . $options['cat'] . "';\r\n"; if(!isset($options['lng'])) { $options['lng'] = 'en_GB'; } $vars .= "var flattr_lng = '" . $options['lng'] . "';\r\n"; if(isset($options['tags']) && count($options['tags'])>0) { array_walk($options['tags'],'Sanitize::paranoid'); $vars .= "var flattr_tag = '" . implode(', ',$options['tags']) . "';\r\n"; } if(isset($options['url']) && ((version_compare(phpversion(), '5.2.0', '>=') && function_exists('filter_var')) ? filter_var($options['url'], FILTER_VALIDATE_URL) : true)) { $vars .= "var flattr_url = '" . $options['url'] . "';\r\n"; } if(isset($options['btn']) && $options['btn']=='compact') { $vars .= "var flattr_btn = 'compact';\r\n"; } $code = $this->Javascript->codeBlock($vars, array('inline' => true)); $code .= $this->Javascript->link('http://api.flattr.com/button/load.js', array('inline' => true)); return $code; } } |
Posted under Flattr MOD & phpBB3
A few days ago Flattr send me a beta invite to their website. Checking around their site on the plugin page I noticed there wasn’t a phpBB3 mod for it. Decided to write one and the first RC is read for download. The mod adds badges to the forum on 2 different places viewtopic and viewforum depending on the settings in the ACP.
Viewtopic:
Viewforum:
For more information check the project page.
Posted under Toplist MOD & phpBB3
After months of work RC3 is finished. It comes with a brand new UMIL installer, 2 extra designs and a new security update warning system. This RC took a whole lot longer then I wanted, heck closing into a year since RC2. Not happy with it but I think this release is worth it below you find all changes, additions and fixes. You can download the mod from the forums in the 2.0RC3 Download topic.
Change log
Posted under Cakephp & Snippets
A while ago I started working on some twitter services and I needed an automatic urlshortner. This first started as a model that would shorten en url and save the result in a table for caching purposes. After a good chat with a friend (beeman) it turned into a behavior with the model only using the behavior to act like it did before. One of the reasons for a behavior was to create a simple interface for the developer without the need to poll the caching model but at the same time be able to use the cache model when the resulting short url wouldn’t be stored anywhere else (like an autmatic tweet). The model currently supports 4 different services (I want to add more in the future tho so any suggestions are welcome): 0x.tc, is.gd, bit.ly and u.nu.
Configuration
mode has 2 possible options ordered (default) or randomize. ordered checks the order in order while randomize uses shuffle to randomize the order.
Example:
1 | 'mode' => 'ordered', |
fields is an array with fields that the behavior should send to the services to shorten the url (note that the value in the field MUST be an url). This option has no default value!
Example:
1 2 3 | 'fields' => array( 'short' ), |
order is an array with the services listed in the order to use. This option wil only be used is mode is set to ordered else if mode is set to randomize it will grab the default order array and overwrite what you place in order.
Example:
1 2 3 4 5 6 | 'order' => array( 'zero_xtc', 'bit_ly' 'u_nu', 'is_gd', ), |
retries number of times it loops through the list of shortners before giving up. Default value is 5.
Example:
1 | 'retries' => 10, |
shortners list with shortners and their options. All the shortners have an enable option. Shortners that require an API key also have key option to store the needed API key.
Example:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 | 'shortners' => array( 'bit_ly' => array( 'enable' => true, // Go to http://bit.ly/account/your_api_key to get yours 'key' => array( 'login' => 'YOUR_BITLY_API_LOGIN_HERE', 'key' => 'YOUR_BITLY_API_KEY_HERE' ), ), ), |
http_config is an array for the Cakephp HttpSocket class. An example an option is the time out, you can find all possible at the 1.2 API (or 1.3 ofcourse ). The default configuration is shown in the example below.
Example:
1 2 3 | 'http_config' => array( 'timeout' => 10 ), |
http_headers is an array for additional HTTP headers like the User-Agent. The default configuration is shown in the example below.
Example:
1 2 3 | 'http_headers' => array( 'User-Agent' => 'Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 6.0; en-US; rv:1.9.0.1) Gecko/2008070208 Firefox/3.0.1' ), |
Files
Following are the mode and behavior. The model also shows the basic configuration for the behavior tell it what field in the database to shorten urls for. It also
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 | <?php class Shorturl extends AppModel { public $actsAs = array( 'Shorturl' => array( 'fields' => array( 'short' ), ), ); public function shorten($long_url) { $url = $this->findByLong($long_url); if(!$url) { $data = array(); $data['long'] = $long_url; $data['short'] = $long_url; $this->create(); $this->save($data); $url = $this->findByLong($long_url); } return $url['Shorturl']['short']; } } |
The models database table (as a (My)SQL query)
1 2 3 4 5 6 | CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS `shorturls` ( `id` int(32) NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT, `long` varchar(1024) NOT NULL, `short` varchar(255) NOT NULL, PRIMARY KEY (`id`) ) TYPE=MyISAM AUTO_INCREMENT=1 ; |
app/models/behaviors/shorturl.php
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 164 165 166 167 168 169 170 171 172 173 174 175 176 177 178 179 180 181 182 183 | <?php class ShorturlBehavior extends ModelBehavior { private $defaults = array( 'fields' => array(), 'shortners' => array( 'zero_xtc' => array( 'enable' => true, ), 'is_gd' => array( 'enable' => true, ), 'bit_ly' => array( 'enable' => true, // Go to http://bit.ly/account/your_api_key to get yours 'key' => array( 'login' => '', 'key' => '' ), ), 'u_nu' => array( 'enable' => true, ), ), 'order' => array( 'zero_xtc', 'is_gd', 'bit_ly', 'u_nu', ), 'http_config' => array( 'timeout' => 10 ), 'http_headers' => array( 'User-Agent' => 'Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 6.0; en-US; rv:1.9.0.1) Gecko/2008070208 Firefox/3.0.1' ), 'retries' => 5, 'mode' => 'ordered', ); public $settings = array(); public function setup(&$model,$config = array()) { $this->settings[$model->alias] = $this->defaults; $this->settings[$model->alias] = $this->array_merge_recursive_distinct($this->settings[$model->alias],(array) $config); } public function beforeSave(&$model) { if(isset($this->settings[$model->alias]['fields'])) { foreach($this->settings[$model->alias]['fields'] as $void => $field) { if(isset($model->data[$model->alias][$field]) && !empty($model->data[$model->alias][$field]) && ((version_compare(phpversion(), '5.2.0', '>=') && function_exists('filter_var')) ? filter_var($model->data[$model->alias][$field], FILTER_VALIDATE_URL) : true)) { $model->data[$model->alias][$field] = $this->shorten($model,$model->data[$model->alias][$field]); } } } return true; } private function shorten(&$model,$long_url) { App::import('Core', 'Set'); App::import('Core', 'Xml'); App::import('Core', 'HttpSocket'); if($this->settings[$model->alias]['mode']=='randomize') { $this->settings[$model->alias]['order'] = $this->defaults['order']; shuffle($this->settings[$model->alias]['order']); } for($j=0;$j<($this->settings[$model->alias]['retries'] + 1);$j++) { foreach($this->settings[$model->alias]['order'] as $shortner) { if($this->settings[$model->alias]['shortners'][$shortner]['enable']) { $short_url = $this->{$shortner}($model,$long_url); if($short_url && !empty($short_url) && !is_null($short_url) && ((version_compare(phpversion(), '5.2.0', '>=') && function_exists('filter_var')) ? filter_var($short_url, FILTER_VALIDATE_URL) : true)) { return $short_url; } } } } return $long_url; } private function zero_xtc(&$model,$long_url) { $this->Http = new HttpSocket($this->settings[$model->alias]['http_config']); $request = 'http://0x.tc/x?go=' . rawurlencode($long_url) . '&t=' . time(); $response = $this->Http->get( $request, array(), array('header' => $this->settings[$model->alias]['http_headers']) ); $response = Set::reverse(new Xml($response)); if(is_array($response['Taken']['xUrl'])) { return false; } elseif(substr($response['Taken']['xUrl'], 0, 4) == 'http') { return $response['Taken']['xUrl']; } else { return false; } } private function is_gd(&$model,$long_url) { $this->Http = new HttpSocket($this->settings[$model->alias]['http_config']); $request = 'http://is.gd/api.php?longurl=' . urlencode($long_url); $response = $this->Http->get( $request, array(), array('header' => $this->settings[$model->alias]['http_headers']) ); if (substr($request, 0, 4) == 'http') { return $response; } else { return false; } } private function bit_ly(&$model,$long_url) { if(isset($this->settings[$model->alias]['shortners']['bit_ly']['key']['login']) && !empty($this->settings[$model->alias]['shortners']['bit_ly']['key']['login']) && isset($this->settings[$model->alias]['shortners']['bit_ly']['key']['key']) && !empty($this->settings[$model->alias]['shortners']['bit_ly']['key']['key'])) { $this->Http = new HttpSocket($this->settings[$model->alias]['http_config']); $request = 'http://api.bit.ly/shorten?version=2.0.1&longUrl=' . urlencode($long_url) . '&login=' . $this->settings[$model->alias]['shortners']['bit_ly']['key']['login'] . '&apiKey=' . $this->settings[$model->alias]['shortners']['bit_ly']['key']['key']; $response = $this->Http->get( $request, array(), array('header' => $this->settings[$model->alias]['http_headers']) ); $response = json_decode($response); if ($response->errorCode==0 && $response->statusCode=='OK' && isset($response->results->{$long_url}->shortUrl)) { return $response->results->{$long_url}->shortUrl; } else { return false; } } else { return false; } } private function u_nu(&$model,$long_url) { $this->Http = new HttpSocket($this->settings[$model->alias]['http_config']); $request = 'http://u.nu/unu-api-simple?url=' . urlencode($long_url); $response = $this->Http->get( $request, array(), array('header' => $this->settings[$model->alias]['http_headers']) ); if (substr($request, 0, 4) == 'http') { return $response; } else { return false; } } // Taken from: http://www.php.net/manual/en/function.array-merge-recursive.php#96201 /** * Merges any number of arrays / parameters recursively, replacing * entries with string keys with values from latter arrays. * If the entry or the next value to be assigned is an array, then it * automagically treats both arguments as an array. * Numeric entries are appended, not replaced, but only if they are * unique * * calling: result = array_merge_recursive_distinct(a1, a2, ... aN) **/ private function array_merge_recursive_distinct () { $arrays = func_get_args(); $base = array_shift($arrays); if(!is_array($base)) $base = empty($base) ? array() : array($base); foreach($arrays as $append) { if(!is_array($append)) $append = array($append); foreach($append as $key => $value) { if(!array_key_exists($key, $base) && !is_numeric($key)) { $base[$key] = $append[$key]; continue; } if(is_array($value) || (isset($base[$key]) && is_array($base[$key]))) { $base[$key] = $this->array_merge_recursive_distinct($base[$key], $append[$key]); } else if(is_numeric($key)) { if(!in_array($value, $base)) $base[] = $value; } else { $base[$key] = $value; } } } return $base; } } |
Posted under Site News
Last night I ported all my 239 blog posts to wordpress. One reason for this dicision is that I want to have more time to spend on bAdaptive, WyriMaps.net, my phpBB3 mods and my other projects. Also having to develope a blog slowed those projects down and I went for a fully function blog application to speed it up and be able to publish new posts, articles and thougths easy and fast. The day before yesterday I already ported the WyriMaps.net blog for the same reason. Comments on this blog should follow fast . Stay tuned for more articles, project updates and more!
