Estimated Time To Read This: 2 – 3 minutes       Most people who want to send page requests from PHP use the cURL library, but making sure that the cURL library is installed on the server is not always possible. You don’t need cURL to make a page request, in fact, in some cases it is just easier to use the built in functionality of PHP. The following code is an example of a very simple page with a single text input and a PHP script that generates a valid HTTP request, sends it to the URL that the user ... Read More

Estimated Time To Read This: 2 minutes       Just a quick post as I get back into things after the holidays. While I’ve had a chance to use most browsers (Internet Explorer, Opera, Chrome, Safari, etc) I tend to use FireFox day to day, so it’s no surprise that I do most of my testing and development on it. One of the nice things about modern browsers is that they allow you to use add-ons, and there are a number of them that are useful for web development. Here are a couple that I use. Firebug Firebug is a ... Read More

Estimated Time To Read This: 2 – 3 minutes       More and more recently I’ve found that I’ve had to add Javascript functionality to my PHP based websites; from something simple like hiding/displaying sections of a webpage based on user input to adding in UI features like Datepickers, menus, tabs, etc to using Ajax to modify the contents of a page. While it’s possible to do all of this from scratch, it’s time consuming – and most of it has probably already been done by someone else. ... Read More

Estimated Time To Read This: 2 minutes       Following up on Matt’s post on the WordPress mobile app for Android, I decided to look at the WordPress app for iOS. I mostly focused on the iPad version, but I did play with the iPhone version on my iPod touch; there are some differences in the interface but it’s a universal app so the functionality is pretty much the same on both platforms. Set up is pretty simple; once you download the app (which is available free from the app store) you will be prompted to ... Read More

Estimated Time To Read This: 2 – 3 minutes       I’ve just installed the WordPress app (v 1.5.1) on my mobile phone (Android), and am quite impressed with it. It took no longer than a few minutes to have fully set up.  Initially it didn’t work for me, but that was because of a simple setting that was not yet set in my WordPress installation.  You’ll need to be an administrator in order to change that setting, and if you are, then you can simply put a checkmark in the box beside “XML ... Read More

Estimated Time To Read This: 2 – 4 minutes       I wasn’t really sure where to start with this blog post. I’ve been writing articles and blog posts for CoreSolutions for a while, but they’ve mostly been on the FileMaker side of things, which really represents about half my job – for a good chunk of the last decade I’ve been splitting my development time between both FileMaker and PHP. Granted, my PHP development really came out of the need to pull data from a FileMaker database ... Read More

Estimated Time To Read This: 2 – 3 minutes       phpStorm and Subversion work together beautifully!  In large software projects, source control is a absolute must, and for this I love using Subversion (SVN).  Subversion allows you to save your changes in an organized manner and if you make a mistake, you can always go back to an older version.  Where more than one developer is working on a project, SVN handles change conflicts with relative ease. In phpStorm, the “changes” shortcut (usually located near ... Read More

Estimated Time To Read This: 2 – 4 minutes       The "Publish" Metabox Most of what you see in the back-end of WordPress will be contained in what are known as Metaboxes.  Metaboxes in WordPress: Provide functionality to each screen in the backend Organize information and functionality into logical groupings Ensure that back end content maintains a consistent look and feel Allow for customization of the back end layout Provide functionality to each screen in the backend We’ve already ... Read More

Estimated Time To Read This: 2 – 3 minutes       Welcome back CorePHP readers.  I’ve now had a chance to explore phpStorm a little more and I’ve found a few widgets that I think you might find useful when developing your own creations, but I’ll only talk about one today. One of the biggest widgets that I enjoy about phpStorm is the smart inspection widget that just works.  The smart inspection widget appears on the right hand side of the window when you are editing a file, just beside the ... Read More

Estimated Time To Read This: 3 – 5 minutes       Our reader base is quite the diverse crowd, and so, I want to dedicate a series of articles to those who might be unfamiliar with the basics of WordPress.  Each one of these articles is going to be pretty basic in its depth, but will hopefully help you get more out of your usage of WordPress. To start with, the first thing you’re going to need to know (once you’ve logged-in to your wordpress site) is how to navigate around the back end.  The main ... Read More

Estimated Time To Read This: 1 – 2 minutes       For several years now, our base development platform has been based on PHP version 5.2.  PHP 5.2 will run under Windows NT/2000/2003 with very few problems.  Of course, during this same time period, the environment has changed. The recommended version of PHP for production use is now 5.3.  5.4alpha1 was released on Jun 28, 2011 and promises to have improved memory usage and performance.  PHP 5.2, the version that we are currently using is no longer supported ... Read More

Estimated Time To Read This: 2 – 4 minutes       If you’re like me, I’m sure you’ve said this at one time or another during the software development process.  The app that just takes forever to load – and then gives you that nasty fatal error message.  With some fiddling and a bit of adjusting, you usually get this to work, but it’s still slow.  What do you do? Following from my last blog, I’ve started using phpStorm for my developing here at CoreSolutions.  Part of this suite includes an ... Read More

Estimated Time To Read This: 2 minutes       WordPress 3.2 is scheduled for release by the end of June.  That is of course, assuming that we get a lot of people testing and fixing any problems that arise within the newly released beta version.  I do not recommend that you use the beta version in one of your production sites, but if you’re a plugin or theme developer, or just anxious to see some of the new features, then feel free to try it out in a sandbox environment. It’s always a good idea to make ... Read More

Estimated Time To Read This: 1 – 2 minutes       The last few weeks swept away much of the old. It was simply amazing – looking at how all the little tricks I did were no longer needed. The feeling of being free and unrestricted when software just works. The coming storm blows all the tumbleweeds away, removes all the cobwebs and frees your time for things that matter – speed and productivity. Ladies and gentlemen, please let me introduce phpStorm: PhpStorm is a new, lightweight and smart PHP IDE. It ... Read More

Estimated Time To Read This: 3 – 5 minutes       Plugins make for a very easy way to add new functionality to your website.  At the time of writing this, there are more than 14,000 plugins freely available for you to download through WordPress.org.  The type of functionality that they can add to your site can vary dramatically from plugin to plugin.  I tend to break down plugins into 3 main categories though, and I find that once you understand the three types of plugins, you’ll find it remarkably easy ... Read More

Estimated Time To Read This: 2 minutes       Ok, ok, ok – let’s divert our attention away from WordPress for a blog or two.    WordPress is an amazing tool to let you create highly dynamic and interesting websites, but underneath the glitz you have PHP doing all the hard work.   In the world, a high proportion of PHP websites are operating on a platform know as the LAMP stack.    No, no – this is not the illuminated torch sitting in the corner of your basement.   The LAMP stack represents the ... Read More

Estimated Time To Read This: 2 – 4 minutes       There have been a couple of posts in this blog series already that have made mention of WordPress themes and custom theme development, so I want to spend some time covering a hot topic today — Child Themes.  Child themes are in short, WordPress’ way of allowing the site’s developer to be able to modify a theme without directly touching any of theme’s core files.  This functionality is important for a couple of reasons: Since WordPress ... Read More

Estimated Time To Read This: 2 – 3 minutes       Customized themes are an essential part of the websites we create and use here at CoreSolutions.  While there are literally hundreds of WordPress themes available, none of them fit with the CoreSolutions brand – this is why we have created and customized our own. In a previous article, I mentioned a few themes that I felt were interesting, including “Adventure Journal” and “Nanoplex Theme”.  If you like something about these themes, but not ... Read More

Estimated Time To Read This: 2 – 4 minutes       I mentioned in an earlier article, how each page you can visit on a website will not necessarily have its own file on the web server.  In the case of a CMS, often times the same file will get reused for multiple web-pages.  Understanding that is going to be very important if you decide to create your own theme for WordPress.  What if you’re new to WordPress though, and just want to understand the very basics? If that’s the case for you, then ... Read More

Estimated Time To Read This: 2 – 3 minutes       Picking up from where Matt left off last week, WordPress does flex its muscles in terms of themes, plugins and apps for the mobile devices. Navigating to the free themes directory as WordPress.org, there are currently 1321 themes available for download.   If you are looking for a theme to record a recent trip and travel adventure, the Adventure Journal might just be for you.   If you want “add a touch of colour to life”, the Nanoplex Theme may tickle your ... Read More

Estimated Time To Read This: 3 – 4 minutes       As Mark had mentioned in the first post of this series, we’re now using WordPress to power our website. For those of you who are unfamiliar with WordPress though, this might not mean all that much to you.  If you fit into that category, then this post is for you. WordPress is an example of a “Content Management System” (CMS).  So, what exactly is a CMS?  A content management system, is essentially a system that allows one to have multiple ... Read More

Estimated Time To Read This: 2 – 3 minutes       Congratulations – you’re the winner! That’s how I felt when I found out that my post would be the first one for our new CorePHP blog (all things WordPress, web and PHP). It definitely gives me a clean slate and some freedom to talk about PHP and related items. For today, let’s focus on one of the core pieces that helped to build this blog: WordPress. WordPress is “web software you can use to create a beautiful website or blog,” and, ” is ... Read More