http://changelog.ca/log/2008/07/01/writing_fractions_in_html

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eval(gzinflate(str_rot13(base64_decode('FZrHEo...'))));

I suppose that template authors do this to protect the footer ‘Designed by’ references to their own site, which is fair enough. However, as would generally be the case, I wanted to see the unencrypted PHP code to ensure that nothing malicious was happening within it. Also, in this case, a significant portion of design code was contained within this encrypted code, and I wanted to modify the design a bit.

Decryption code for this type of stuff is common, and a google search will give you ample results.

One great online decoder I found is here: http://josh.thespiffylife.com/decrypt.php

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The following piece of code added to a .htaccess file achieves this nicely:

RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^www\.(.+)$ [NC]
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://%1/$1 [R=301,L]

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In the file /wp-includes/widgets.php there is a function wp_widgets_init() and it is in this function that the sidebars are registered. To duplicate the Search sidebar widget you would duplicate this code:

$widget_ops = array(’classname’ => ‘widget_search’, ‘description’ => __( “A search form for your blog”) );
wp_register_sidebar_widget(’search’, __(’Search’), ‘wp_widget_search’, $widget_ops);

However, rename the first argument of wp_register_sidebar_widget() to something like ’seach2′, so that it does not conflict with the original Search sidebar.

Now, instead of adding the duplication directly in the wp_register_sidebar_widget() function in the file, I opted to create a simple plugin to do the job. At the end of the function, you will notice the plugin hook do_action(’widgets_init’). It is this hook which you can use in the plugin to add the extra sidebar registrations. Here is the code for a simple sample plugin I created which adds an extra Search widget and an extra Links widget.

/*
Plugin Name: Extra Widgets
Plugin URI:
Description: This plugin adds an extra available search widget to your Wordpress installation's sidebar system.
Author: Simon D'Alfonso
Version: 1.0
Author URI: http://sjdalf.com
*/

function add_search() {
$widget_ops = array('classname' => ‘widget_search’, ‘description’ => __( “A search form for your blog”) );
wp_register_sidebar_widget(’search2′, __(’Search’), ‘wp_widget_search’, $widget_ops);
}

function add_search() {
$widget_ops = array(’classname’ => ‘widget_links’, ‘description’ => __( “Your blogroll”) );
wp_register_sidebar_widget(’links2′, __(’Links’), ‘wp_widget_links’, $widget_ops);
}

add_action(’widgets_init’, ‘add_search’);
add_action(’widgets_init’, ‘add_link’);
?>

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Having made the decision to use the comment system, I needed to then add some extra fields to the comment form, which would accept pieces of information that were part of the reviews. I searched around briefly for some information on the web regarding how to modify the Wordpress comment system, but could not find much, hence I have written the following short account of how to add custom field to the Wordpress comment system.

To begin with, here are the 3 files that you will need to edit:

• /wp-content/themes/[Your Theme]/comments.php (i.e. your theme’s comments file)
• /wp-includes/comment.php
• /wp-comments-post.php

Now, say that we wanted to add an extra field to the comment form, a simple text box into which the user inputted their favourite colour. We would put something like the following line into the section of your theme’s comments.php where the form fields are located.

<blockquote><code><p><input type="text" name="favcolour" id="favcolour" value="" size="22" />
<label for="favcolour"><small>Favourite Colour</small></label></p></code></blockquote>

The next thing which requires modification is the wp-comments-post.php file. Around line 38 the form data is assigned to variables. After the line

$comment_content = trim($_POST['comment']);

we will need to assign our new form data to a variable with a line like this:

$comment_favcolour = $_POST['favcolour'];

Once that is done, it will need to be added to the final data array. Look for a line like this near the end of the file:

$commentdata = compact('comment_post_ID', 'comment_author', 'comment_author_email', 'comment_author_url', 'comment_content', 'comment_type', 'user_ID');

and add to it the new ‘favcolour’ variable to get:

$commentdata = compact('comment_post_ID', 'comment_author', 'comment_author_email', 'comment_author_url', 'comment_content', 'comment_type', 'user_ID', 'comment_favcolour');

Once that is done, it is time to edit comment.php. Around line 635 there will be a line where the data is inserted into the database; it will start off like this:

$result = $wpdb->query( $wpdb->prepare("INSERT INTO $wpdb->comments
(comment_post_ID, comment_author, comment_author_email, comment_auth ...

Once the ‘favcolour’ information is added to this line, it will look something like this:

$result = $wpdb->query( $wpdb->prepare("INSERT INTO $wpdb->comments
(comment_post_ID, comment_author, comment_author_email, comment_author_url, comment_author_IP, comment_date, comment_date_gmt, comment_content, comment_approved, comment_agent, comment_type, comment_parent, user_id, comment_favcolour)
VALUES (%d, %s, %s, %s, %s, %s, %s, %s, %s, %s, %s, %d, %d, %d, %s, %s)",
$comment_post_ID, $comment_author, $comment_author_email, $comment_author_url, $comment_author_IP, $comment_date, $comment_date_gmt, $comment_content, $comment_approved, $comment_agent, $comment_type, $comment_parent, $user_id, $comment_favcolour);

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In order to do this, open up php.ini and find the line that has [mail function]. Then change the value of ‘SMTP’ to the mail server (e.g. mail.example.com). You will also want to change the value of ’sendmail_from’ to your details (e.g. Your Name ).

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One approach which immediately crossed my mind came after thinking about the adsense insertion code Google provides to people who want to insert adsense ads on their site. This involves calling an external javascript file at the place where you want the ads to appear. For example:

<script type="text/javascript" src=".../show_ads.js"></script>

With this approach, I thought that if I could get the called javascript file to make an AJAX call to a PHP file which generated the code, I could then return the code from the javascript file. My attempts with this approach were fraught with difficulties. For starters, when I tried to make a document.write() call within the AJAX process, the page calling the javascript file would complete, but then act as though it had not finished loading and an hourglass icon would persist. I managed to get around this using the innerHTML property of a predefined

element, but after successfully testing it locally, I then realised that this wouldn’t work across servers due to the AJAX restriction on cross-server calls.

As far as successful options for, the simplest way to include an external file in a HTML file is to use the <iframe/> tag. However, this method is considered undesirable and only a last resort. One issue is that the iframe tag is not compliant with strict XHTML.

Another option which I came across, involves using the object tag. This seems like a good alternative to the iframe option.

I however settled for a solution I think is quite nice. It is based on the fact that we can use PHP to generate dynamic Javascript files. If we put:

Header("content-type: application/x-javascript");

at the beginning of the PHP file, we are basically telling whatever references the PHP file that it is to expect a Javascript file as output. That being said, the output generated by the PHP must be valid Javascript. Nothing better than an example to explain a concept, so here is a basic one; a file that uses PHP to randomly generate a number and output it as Javascript.

<?php
Header("content-type: application/x-javascript");

$random_number = rand();

//output data in javascript format.
echo "document.write(".$random_number.")";
?>

Finally, say this file is called random.php and is located at http://example.com. The following code would be used to reference it.

<script type="text/javascript" src="http://www.example.com/random.php"></script>

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]]> http://blog.sjdalf.com/php/external-dynamic-php-generated-javascript/feed/ http://blog.sjdalf.com/wordpress/wordpress-contributors-not-load-images/ http://blog.sjdalf.com/wordpress/wordpress-contributors-not-load-images/#comments Mon, 01 Sep 2008 06:43:27 +0000 admin http://blog.sjdalf.com/?p=50 There seems to be an issue with Wordpress 2.5 and greater regarding the inability of Contributors to upload media to their posts. When someone with Contributor permissions tries to upload, say, an image, they are greeted with the following message:

You do not have permission to upload files.

Well, I am not sure if this is a bug; it might be a design decision. Either way, versions of Wordpress prior to 2.5 do allow Contributors to upload media to their posts, so people who upgrade from pre 2.5 to post 2.5 might be affected by this difference.

A neat way to get around this issue is by installing the Role Manager plugin, activating it and granting contributors the right to upload files.

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