Thomas Aylott, the author of the JavaScript Bundle for Textmate, announced that he added the completion feature to his package. This is great news. as far as I know, this is the first completion made available for Textmate and I understand it is easily extended so we could see several other languages being supported soon. If that’s the case, this will make Textmate a real contender not only to text editors but full featured IDE. This is exiting.

To install the bundle, just head over to Thomas Aylott’s GitHub page and download the Javascript bundle (not the Javascript-tools one) and extract it. Rename the generated folder javascript.bundle and double click it. Once the bundle is installed, enter the beginning of a javascript line of code and press option+escape to show the completion.

At first, I was getting the following error message in Textmate:

It was fixed by running the following command

First, I must confess that I like trying software out. That’s probably how I ended up having some many accounts with so many services and having a Tumblelog AND a Wordpress blog. Since this blog is not running on wordpress.com, it is for me to remember and backup my database and files from time to time in case of a problem with my server. For my Tumblr, it is different. The data is on Tumblr server(s) and there are no features I know of in the admin to download them and store them locally. After a year of publishing a daily list of the movies I watch and books I read, this tumblelog became a Journal of my cultural activities and I grew attached to it. Recently I decided it had to be backedup in case something happened to my tumblr account or whatever. As usual, someone had the idea before me and a tool is available. It is called – appropriately enough – Tumblrbackup. It couldn’t be easier to use, enter your credentials, select the tumblelog to backup and the destination on your computer. A folder is created which contains your posts, images, avatar and even your custom style. A index.html file is generated allowing you to browse your own content on your local hard drive. The index.html doesnt include your custom style so it looks pretty plain but everything you wrote and uploaded is there… Now I just need to remember and rerun the backup from time to time. Cool!

I don’t remember how I’ve heard about Chive, a young alternative to PhpMyAdmin (version 0.3 was released less than a week ago). I believe it was a link on twitter.
There seem to be two policies when it comes to a MySQL browser for web developers: the desktop app or the web app. A lot of people seem to use PHPMyAdmin though I gave it up several years ago. First for the MySQL QueryBrowser, later on for SequelPro (OS X). SequelPro does everything I need, connect via socket, tcp or ssh which is extremly useful. Still, sometimes, to install a PHPMyAdmin (or something similar) on a remote server or a dev server can be handy. So I tried Chive.

The installation couldnt be easier. Just unrar the package, place it in your document root somewhere and it works. Chive runs on the Yii PHP framework and, as far as I can tell, it’s pretty fast. The interface is less cluttered than PHPMyAdmin. Of course, you have to get some work done with a tool like that to judge of its efficiency but it looks like a nice alternative to PHPMyAdmin to me. Actually, the feature list comparaison on the Chive website is impressive (considering the age of the project). I will definitely recommend it to developers I work with because I hate using PHPMyAdmin when pairing with them.

If you have any use for a web based MySQL Browserm check Chive out:

Before I was a mac user, I have used Windows and Linux for several years. I still use Linux daily (via SSH) and I still see Windows running on machines all around me. From these two worlds, there are very few things that I am missing on Mac OS X.

From the Windows world, I would like to get AnyDVD, DVD Shrink (that is a cool name for a cool soft) and IrfanView. From my Linux setup, there is one thing that I’ve missed: Amarok.
Every now and then I try to compile Amarok on my mac. So far I had tried using MacPorts but this week end, I found out it could also work using FInk so I tried to install it. Fink is a linux port for Mac OS X which works pretty closely to aptitude on Debian.
The installation, on Snow Leopard, can only be done from the source but it’s simple enough:

Install Apple XCode
Download the Fink source
Untar the package

Launch the bootstarp file

Add fink to your path

Update fink

Finally, in order to install Amarok, switch to the unstable branch by doing

update your fink distribution again

And try installing Amarok

It doesn’t compile for me at this point (it failed on kdebase) but I’ll try again. In the meantime, fink works.

I switched my dev. environnement at work from MAMP to Zend Server Community Edition a while ago but was disappointed that my Mac Book could not migrate because of a MySql error. Every time I would try to run the server, I would get the following error:

Googling this error, all kinds of solutions came up: privileges on the files, misconfiguration issues, installation problems…
It seems to be a generic message. After trying to understand what might have happened to the missing PID file, I tried re-installations and all the common MySql on Mac OS X tips I could find on Google. No luck. At least, MAMP worked.

Eventually, the same error occured on alheim’s computer. He eventually found a solution which worked for him (SnowLeopard running on Mac Book Pro) for my own laptop as well (Snow Leopard on a black MacBook).

So here are the steps we took:

Hopefully, you’ll get a “SUCCCESS” message, too. Thanks to Alheim for the tip.

A very quick post to list the languages supported by Code Colorer which I use on this blog. Everytime I write I find myself wondering which language is supported and how I should write it out for the plugin to work so here it is, for the record:

• ABAP
• ActionScript
• ActionScript 3.0
• Ada
• Apache
• AppleScript
• Apt sources.list
• asm
• asp
• autoit
• avisynth
• bash
• basic4gl
• bf
• bibtex
• blitzbasic
• bnf
• boo
• c
• c_mac
• caddcl
• cadlisp
• cfdg
• cfm
• cil
• cmake
• cobol
• cpp-qt
• cpp
• csharp
• css
• d
• dcs
• delphi
• diff
• div
• dos
• dot
• eiffel
• email
• erlang
• fo
• fortran
• freebasic
• genero
• gettext
• glsl
• gml
• gnuplot
• groovy
• haskell
• hq9plus
• html4strict
• idl
• ini
• inno
• intercal
• io
• java
• java5
• javascript
• kixtart
• klonec
• klonecpp
• latex
• lisp
• locobasic
• lolcode
• lotusformulas
• lotusscript
• lscript
• lsl2
• lua
• m68k
• make
• matlab
• mirc
• modula3
• mpasm
• mxml
• mysql
• nsis
• oberon2
• objc
• ocaml-brief
• ocaml
• oobas
• oracle11
• oracle8
• pascal
• per
• perl
• php-brief
• php
• pic16
• pixelbender
• plsql
• povray
• powershell
• progress
• prolog
• properties
• providex
• python
• qbasic
• rails
• rebol
• reg
• robot
• ruby
• sas
• scala
• scheme
• scilab
• sdlbasic,
• smalltalk
• smarty
• sql
• tcl
• teraterm
• text
• thinbasic
• tsql
• typoscript
• vb
• vbnet
• verilog
• vhdl
• vim
• visualfoxpro
• visualprolog
• whitespace
• whois
• winbatch
• xml
• xorg_conf, xpp
• yaml
• z80

An impressive list which should be handy next time I post anything.

Before you jump and get a real Search Engine for your website, you might try the MySQL full text search feature.

It is incredibly easy to set up. All you need to do is setup the table and fields to be searchable as full text with the following command:

Then, simply write a query using “match” to run your searches:

Happy Valentine’s Day

A few months ago, we jumped into Teeorama, a PHP based online tee-shirt store front end for Spreadshirt. We finally completed the project and we’re planning on opening it to the public tomorrow. By the way, if you feel you could use a new Geek shirt, please head over to teeorama.com before reading on…

When I started the development, I decided to use both a PHP and a Javascript framework I didn’t know. I had two reasons for doing that:

• It’s always interesting to play with new code. You get to see how other people/framework solved common problems, how some libraries make this or that easier  to use for the developer. You also sometimes realize some other things are carried out better in the framework you are used to. Either way, it is a good learning experience.
• Also, I wanted to stay away from the stack we use at work to not be tempted and not be able to just copy over bits of our blueKiwi framework into my code

So, I picked CodeIgniter and jQuery to build my website. In the end, I am very pleased with the experience of working with these two tools. CodeIgniter is exactly what it claims to be: a very light but powerful framework that does not try to command the way you work. Of course, jQuery is just as powerful as its reputation. It’s incredibly easy to get used to and I haven’t found anything it couldn’t do.

Anyway, this post is about setting up Code Igniter. There is a Code Igniter user_guide (included in the downloaded zip file) to do just that and it would take you about two seconds to get going. The thing is, I did not like the way Code Igniter was laid out in my folder. I wanted to be able to place the framework in a library folder within my application folder and make my web folder (containing the images, javascript and css files) the document root therefore keeping my application folder out of exposure to the Web.

This is also possible though it does involve some minor tweaking of CodeIgniter base code.

First, here is my chosen folder layout

Second, as I said, I made the web folder the target of my Apache virtual host.
Here is my virtual host for this application

Finally, in order for all this to work, you need to tweak a couple of CodeIgniter files

define the system and application folders paths as follow in index.php:

Also, modify the CodeIgniter.php file at the bottom of index.php to:

Finally, edit CodeIgniter.php in order to replace all occurrences of “codeigniter/” by “” (nothing)

You should be setup. Happy coding!

Today I tried a new task at work. Instead of coding, I wrote about coding. This is a scary thing to attempt, especially if your writing is aimed for people from the other side of the wall. Those who look with suspicion at your screen when all you have showing is a dark console window, those who do not understand how in the world a semi-colon could mean so much. The worse thing is, when we share what we do with these people, we are not really giving them a chance to realize how clear and simple it all is. Send a php file to a non developer, he’ll open it with Notepad (if not Microsoft Office) and immediately close it thinking it’s a virus. That’s why I decided to add some syntax highlighting to my API documentation I was writing with Open Office. Maybe it can look appealing to “real” people, too.

By the way, I must say I am very impressed by the evolution Open Office.org shows now in it’s 3.1 installment. I used it since version 1.0 and regularely had to go back to my student edition of Microsoft Office to complete my thesis and reports for school. I do not feel that need anymore. OOo just became stable and powerful enough.

So, anyway, there is an OpenOffice.org extension to do just that, code syntax highlighting. It is called COOoder

Download and open it with OpenOffice then confirm the installation process and validate the User Agreements. Finally, restart OpenOffice.

Now you can create a document (with Writer) and start pasting your code. In the toolbar, you should see the COOoder button. Select your code and click the button. Pick your language from the drop down list and click “OK”.

Awesome! Now your non-developing audience can enjoy neat looking geek stuff.

If you ever wonder where your readers are from, if you ever need to adjust your application to the origins of its users; you can determine the geographic location of a connection by using an IP to Country table.

I should start by saying that I do not always like the way websites use this feature. As much as I appreciate, let’s say, Yamaha, to redirect me from www.yamaha.com to fr.yamaha.com based on my location ; I can not stand for Google or Wikipedia to assume that I either speak French or intend to search French speaking contents.

Another thing I absolutely can not stand is of Skype (for example) to prompt me to download the French version of its application just because I am browsing the Web from France. I can not tolerate any French speaking applications to be installed on my computer. Actually, Mac OS X is such a treat on that point because I can have a French bought CD of Snow Leopard and still install my system in English. All the OEM Windows systems I purchased in my country of residence were bound to remain in (poorly-translated) French. I actually would always keep my license number handy but use a pirated English (but otherwise equivalent) version just so that my Start button would actually spell ‘Start’.

Anyway, the IP to Country determination can still come in handy and here’s how I made it work for me (using PHP/MySQL). I am aware that it is possible to do the www.yamaha.com to fr.yamaha.com redirection simply using geolocated aliases. Hosting providers such as OVH usually provide this functionality.

1. Download the IP to Country.csv database (and update it there after) from http://ip-to-country.webhosting.info/
2. Create a table to hold the data
3. Import the data from the csv file into that table

Then, from your PHP code, you can get the country code for example, using the code below

The code above is using Code Igniter to query the database. I suppose it is self explanatory enough to be transposed to any other DAO you might be using.