The Internet has drastically transformed the way we look at life. Business, politics, even society itself has been turned upside down by the Internet, and all in the last few decades. Whereas a decade ago, websites were only for the most avant garde businesses and networks, today it is seen as naive for even the plainest individuals to go without one. Having a website keeps you on the cutting edge as a cyber-conscious individual.

Having your own website does something for your online, worldwide personality that is way out of the league of common social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter. It gets you out to the world in a charming, efficient way that says, “Check me out! I’m different!” And the good news is it’s not even that hard to make your own. Below, we’ve compiled a few pointers to help you get started on your own personal, world changing website.

Proper Planning

Just like any endeavor, creating your own website begins with a good plan. What should your website be about? Your website can look like the Queen of England’s but if there is no substance to it, if it doesn’t offer anything of value to the viewer, it will just end up being seen as another fancy piece of trash among millions of others. Every good website says something, and yours can be unique and stand out from all the rest by saying something different and gripping.

Do you have interesting views and experiences you could share with your readers? If so, a personal blog type of website could be just right for you where you share your eccentric opinions and worldview, drawing your visitors in through pithy words and content. Or maybe you’re a friendlier, more social kind of guy or gal. If so, try a forum based website in which visitors interact with you and each other, sharing their ideas, thoughts, and information. Make sure you know which direction you want to go in before starting.

Development and Design

Now let’s talk about development and design. In this phase, you need to start with deciding on which website building software you want to use. Most professionals know a number of programming languages and use code to write their websites by hand. As a beginner, you’re not expected to know HTML, Javascript, or CSS, and if you don’t, it’s not a problem. There is plenty of web editing software such as Microsoft Frontpage or Adobe Dreamweaver that is easy to use and quick to learn.

Web editing software allows you to make professional looking pages in a short amount of time by arranging your content on screen as it will be seen on the web. Then, you can publish your finished masterpieces to the Internet using a Content Managing System (CMS) such Drupal, Joomla, or WordPress. I usually recommend WordPress because it’s the easiest to install and use and avoids most of the major hassles associated with web content managing and publishing.

Hosting Your Website

Finally, it’s time to get your site out to the world. There are free places to park your site but these are often unreliable. A better option is a cheap Shared Web Hosting provider like Dreamhost. Dreamhost offers cheap website hosting and best host reliability and speed. Make sure you do some web hosting comparison to get the best deal. Some web hosts will provide a domain registering service but, if not, you can use Godaddy to purchase and register your Domain Name. Choose something fun, yet memorable.

Even if your site isn’t perfect, the most important thing is to get it out there quickly. Later, as you learn more, you can upgrade your site and add more features such as better design, increased user interface and networking capabilities. But for now, your website is beautiful as it is and, best of all, you are out there where people can see you and love you. Good luck!

I would like to thanks everyone for all the feedback regarding The Future of FeedMalaya. Yes we are going GPL, at the moment we already have some draft plan to be executed but it will take some time, opening our source code alone will not make the developer community to improve the project.

What we need to do is build a solid foundation so that developers will improve the feature based on current foundation or base code instead of forking the project to another name. Don’t get me wrong, in GPL there no issue of forking one project into another but at the moment we still want FeedMalaya to grow instead just a name.

Some of you might have already come across FeedMalaya, a project that me and Mohd Huzairy did more than a year ago. It’s was a project that we did for fun and at the time the wasn’t any real business plan that we build from the project. So over this period of time we how far can a web application survive in term of performance, mind you the application is currently running on just a single shared hosting service under IPServerOne.com.

FeedMalaya Visit Graph July - Aug 2010

Graph above shows the average visits FeedMalaya gets every months, while the application might not be as good as other available alternative out there but it would be a shame to shut it down just for that. As for now, we are few option in mind:

• Release the code under GPL
• Continue with current structure with a new base code
• Port over the code into WordPress and release it as plugins.

Few months ago we try out a prototype of version 3 developed using CodeIgniter, as before it was lightweight but there wasn’t anything new as added value. There were also some consideration that we might port this project to WordPress and release it as plugins but again WordPress does impose some limitation to it’s architecture whereby limiting number of feed/rss query per day.

I would welcome any idea to improve FeedMalaya or any suggestion how you would like to see the future for FeedMalaya, we might be the one developing everything but you as the user are welcome to have a say.

Taken from Wulffmorgenthaler.com

Only afterward did I got a chance to test out CodeIgniter Database Library or ActiveRecord Library on project using MySQL. At this point, the simplicity of ActiveRecord really caught my attention but how would it be enough compared to ADOdb when using Oracle Database?

Introduction

Bare in mind, while CodeIgniter have the advantage with ActiveRecord, ADOdb Database Abstraction Layer also equipped with it’s own ActiveRecord or Object Relation Mapping but in this article I would only made comparison between CodeIgniter Database Library, CodeIgniter ActiveRecord Library and ADOdb Database Abstraction Layer (without the ActiveRecord).

ADOdb as CodeIgniter Library

You can get the ADOdb Database Abstraction Layer for CodeIgniter Library from CodeIgniter Wiki. However I personally have modify the code to make it more integrated with CodeIgniter available at Ext.CI GoogleCode page.

$today_date = date('Y-m-d');
$tmrw_date = date('Y-m-d', strtotime("+1 day"));
$sql = "SELECT * FROM my_table
    WHERE my_datetime BETWEEN '" . $today_date . "' AND '" . $tmrw_date . "'";

However this method might return false positive result if the web server and database server doesn’t have it date and time synchronized. From my point of view, it best to let the database server have the full control to insert, update or compare the dates. So what the alternative? You can check the full specification from MySQL Date and Time Functions but I would opt for DATEDIFF if you specifically want to compare with today date.

SELECT * FROM my_table
    WHERE DATEDIFF(my_datetime, SYSDATE())=0

setcookie("sevisitor", 1, time()+3600,
    SITECOOKIEPATH, COOKIE_DOMAIN, false, true);

There are multiple alternative for it but this work perfectly on multiple installation.

There are alternative with the use of “callback” to by creating an additional method inside your Controller. The solution is good if you have a complex filtering but why bother when all you need to do is a simple RegExp verification. Based on my Twitter status:

Based from a reply to the status.

I took the challenge of extending Form Validation Library to add support for Regular Expression test. As a result here MY_Form_validation.php. The changes was minimal but since I need to tweak some of the existing method to allow the special character such as | and [ ] to be use in our Regular Expression the LOC for this modify is quite big.

Now you can add rule such as:

$this->form_validation->set_rules(
    'username',
    'Username',
    'trim|required|expression:/^([a-zA-Z0-9\.\-\_\|]{1,50})$/|xss_clean'
);

As you can see, an additional rule has been set with expression:/^([a-zA-Z0-9\.\-\_\|]{1,50})$/. With this new rule you can safely reject request such as below (with proper error message).

Here’s my first (and currently only) daughter Nura Aesha Safia binti Mior Muhammad Zaki.

To make the learning process much easier to understand I would actually try to convert CodeIgniter From Scratch: Day 5 – CRUD from Nettuts+ from using available libraries to Ext.CodeIgniter CRUD Library.

Requirements and Basic Informations

• is based and developed on CodeIgniter 1.7.1, it might work with previous version but please do test it out first.
• requires Table, Pagination, Form (Ext.CodeIgniter Library), Form Validation libraries and Form helper.
• callback can be optimized with Template Library for Ext.CodeIgniter.
• your model code can be minimized with ActiveRecord, you may require more works if using raw SQL.

Disclaimer

This library is not as simple as implementing using Scaffolding Library for CodeIgniter but more to minimizing your development time to write code in CodeIgniter.

Getting Started

To use the Template library, you have to checkout a copy of latest Ext.CodeIgniter or grab the following files:

• http://myci.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/system/application/libraries/CRUD.php
• http://myci.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/system/application/libraries/Form.php

KreativeThemes is a collaboration of young creative and talented people in developing and producing WordPress themes (other platforms will join in in the future) of finest quality at affordable prices. It is co-founded by Izuddin Helmi and Amirul Faisyal and backed up by a dedicated team comprises of Ajmal Eylia, Gaddafi, Mohd Huzairy, Nur Fathihah and me.

During the launch, KreativeThemes released Phanatics and Viva-licious as premium themes while Furvious as free themes. Pricing for the themes is based on following structure (do know the price include support for the theme).

You can test drive all themes and purchase or download the one you desired at KreativeThemes official website. More themes will be developed and released in each month so you better be alert and check us out every now and then.

View full photoset 3F Aidilfitri 2009 Open House @ Flickr

<title><?php wp_title('--',true,'right'); ?> <?php bloginfo('name');?></title>

I prefer a more informative title display to improve SEO for your blog/website.

<?php
function seo_title()
{
    $paged = (get_query_var('paged')) ? get_query_var('paged') : 1;
    wp_title('&laquo;', true, 'right');

    if ($paged > 1)
    {
        echo ' Page ' . $paged . ' &mdash;';
    }

    echo ' ';
    bloginfo('name');

    if (is_home() && $paged === 1)
    {
        echo ' &mdash; ';
        bloginfo('description');
    }
}
?>
<title><?php seo_title(); ?></title>

The Rounding Mechanism is a method whereby the total bill amount (including goods and services subject to tax) is rounded upwards or downwards to the nearest multiple of 5 sen. In this regard, total bill amount that ends in 1, 2, 6 and 7 sen will be rounded down while 3, 4, 8 and 9 sen will be rounded up to the nearest multiple of 5 sen.

For example, a total bill amounting to RM82.01 will be rounded down to RM82.00. If it amounts to RM82.04, it will be rounded up to RM82.05.

Source BNM Rounding Mechanism

Here’s two different version if you ever need it:

PHP

Credit Resipi PHP

function nearest_5cent($val) {
    return round($val*20)/20;
}

JavaScript

var nearest_5cent = function(val) {
	return (Math.round(val*20)/20);
}

Google Chrome Frame is an early-stage open source plug-in that seamlessly brings Google Chrome’s open web technologies and speedy JavaScript engine to Internet Explorer. With Google Chrome Frame, you can:

• Start using open web technologies – like the HTML5 canvas tag – right away, even technologies that aren’t yet supported in Internet Explorer 6, 7, or 8.
• Take advantage of JavaScript performance improvements to make your apps faster and more responsive.

With only 1KB+ It would cut-down development time to debug and make things work in Internet Explorer, no more CSS hack or JavaScript hack to recreate the same feature we would be able to gain from other modern browser. But before I jump into the Google Chrome Frame bandwagon I would like to see some questions answered:

• Does it carry Internet Explorer original User Agent string or does it have it’s own?
  
• Does it still check for CSS Conditional Comments?

This is a random post… visit my flickr photostream for more pictures.

For someone who spent 3 years maintaining my own PHP Framework I find it hard to understand why CodeIgniter bundle in a Template Library. There are actually a few good 3rd party Template Engine which you can find for CodeIgniter but let me share with you a port over Template Library for my so call own PHP Framework.

Requirements and Basic Informations

• is based and developed on CodeIgniter 1.7.1, it might work with previous version but please do test it out first.
• the library is build on top of Loader and Output Library allowing you to fully utilize caching, profiler output etc.
• support Parser Library.

Getting Started

To use the Template library, you have to checkout a copy of latest Ext.CodeIgniter or grab the following files:

• http://myci.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/system/application/libraries/Template.php
• http://myci.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/system/application/config/application.php

Setup Template Folder

You will need to create a folder ./public/styles/default/ at the root folder of your CodeIgniter installation. A terminal command equivalent to this is:

> mkdir -p public/styles/default

Setup Template File

For this example let just make a simple template, by default the Template Class will look for “index.html”.

<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/strict.dtd">
<html>
    <head>
        <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1">
        <title>{{PAGE-TITLE}}</title>
        <link href="{{STYLE-URI}}css/all.css" media="all" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" />
    </head>
    <body>
        <div id="header">
            <h1>{{TITLE}}</h1>
            <div id="navigation">{{NAVIGATION}}</div>
        </div>
        <div id="content">
            {{CONTENT}}
        </div>
        <div id="footer">
            <p>{{FOOTER}}</p>
        </div>
    </body>
</html>

Possible Parse Keyword

Initializing the Template Class

he following code loads and initializes the template class based on your configuration settings

$this->load->library('Template');

Configuration

Open system/application/config/application.php and go to line 13 and 24.

/*
|--------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Base Site Name
|--------------------------------------------------------------------------
|
| Name of your site/application, e.g:
|
|    My First Website
|
*/
$config['site_name'] = 'AdsMalaya';

/*
|--------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Template Option
|--------------------------------------------------------------------------
|
| Enable you to configure template option
| Default template: <your-site>/public/styles/<theme>/<filename>.html
*/
$config['template']['theme'] = 'default';
$config['template']['filename'] = 'index.html';

Here you can modify the title of your application or site and the folder and filename of the default template.

$this->ui->set_output()

There are 3 possible output type: html (default), text or json (require json_encode to be enabled)

$this->ui->set_output('json');

Only html output will load the template file.

$this->ui->set_title()

$this->ui->set_title('Example Page');

The function will only set page title, while application/site title is only editable through the configuration file.

$this->ui->set_template()

$this->ui->set_template('feedmalaya');

The template engine will use folder ./public/styles/feedmalaya/ instead of the one specified in the configuration file.

$this->ui->set_file()

$this->ui->set_file('site.html');

There are time when you need to have different set of layout but using the in the same theme.

$this->ui->data()

Set output for text or json. Here an example how to use it.

$data = array (
    'success' => TRUE,
    'text' => 'Some text'
);
$this->ui->set_output('json');
$this->ui->data($data);
$this->ui->render();

$this->ui->view(‘filename’, $data, $group)

The method is almost identical to $this->load->view with the exception of the third parameter.

$data = array (
'success' => TRUE,
'text' => 'Some text'
);
$this->ui->view('myfile', $data, 'sidebar');
// will render to sidebar
$this->ui->render();

You can embed the view to any of the following group:

• header
• navigation
• content (default)
• sidebar
• footer

$this->ui->append(‘some text’, $group);

Append existing template group with some text.

$heading = heading('Hello world', 2);
$this->ui->append($heading);

$this->ui->prepend(‘some text’, $group);

Prepend existing template group with some text.

$heading = heading('© CodeIgniter', 2);
$this->ui->prepend($heading, 'footer');

Conclusion

How you can make use of it as I made in my project. If you manage to fine any bug please report it to us, Thank you.

|    ['dbprefix'] You can add an optional prefix, which will be added
|                 to the table name when using the  Active Record class
$db['default']['dbprefix'] = "feed_";

For example: TABLE feed_item

$this->db->get('item');

Many might not know that you can also use it with normal database query using 'swap_pre'. In ./system/application/config/database.php

|    ['dbprefix'] You can add an optional prefix, which will be added
|                 to the table name when using the  Active Record class
$db['default']['dbprefix'] = "feed_";
$db['default']['swap_pre'] = "{PRE}";

So now you can actually use.

$sql = "SELECT * FROM {PRE}item";
$query = $this->db->query($sql);

$sql = "SELECT * FROM item";
$query = $this->db->query($sql);
foreach( $query->result_array() as $row ) :
    $this->db->query("UPDATE relationship
        SET rel_date=?
        WHERE (rel_value=? AND rel_type=1)", array(
        $row['item_datetime'],
        $row['item_id']
    ));
endforeach;

This actually can be simplify using only MySQL query such as:

UPDATE relationship r, item i
    SET r.rel_date=i.item_datetime
    WHERE (r.rel_value=i.item_id AND r.rel_type=1)