I have a ton of date strings in the stupid US style dd/mm/yy format. i.e. 12/24/09 being 24th September 2009. I need to convert them to the UK style dd/mm/yy.

Solution 1

As a string in PHP is really just an array of characters, the simplest fix was to address the individual number characters by their positions within the sting, and rearrange them into the format I wanted:

$d = "12/24/09";
$d = $d[3].$d[4]."/".$d[0].$d[1]."/".$d[6].$d[7];
echo $d; // displays "24/12/19".

Solution 2

I posted my solution on twitter (@hutchings) and asked for comments and @londonhackspace organiser Jonty came back with the following elegant (and much cleverer) suggestion:

$d = "12/24/09";
$d = preg_replace('|(\d+)/(\d+)/(\d+)|', '$2/$1/$3', $d);
echo $d; // displays "24/12/19".

So provided you know that your original string is in US format, both these solutions can be used. In my testing I found solution 1 executed more quickly, but isn’t as pleasing to look at Cheers Jonty.

I’m doing some freelance Flash development, and it’s been a while. I have just created a dynamic text field that I wanted to fill via actionscript, then fade in via an alpha tween. This wasn’t working, even if I set _alpha = 0 on the movieclip containing the text field.

Solution

You can only set _alpha on a Dynamic Text field if the font has been embeded (with the embed button).

Works now! wohoo! Simple stuff that I’ve known in the past, but forgot.

We’re building a website in Business Catalyst and need to provide the client with a test site during the design, build and testing phases. This test site needs to be accessible on a sub-domain of the client’s main domain. At the same time we want to retain DNS control of the parent domain, and stick a small holding site there.

For example:
‘mydomain.com’ has a small holding site on it, and mail services etc work as usual for that domain.
‘test.mydomain.com’ needs to be delegated to the Business Catalyst nameservers.

Solution

Turns out this is easy (peasy) if you’re using ZoneEdit, but probably equally as simple with any domain registrar service that lets you make changes to a domain’s zone file.

1) Login and ‘View’ the domain you need to work on.

2) Click on the  ’Nameservers’ links, Shown below:

3) Add the domain and subdomain in full in the ‘Domain Name’ field, and the new nameserver in the next field. The IP isn’t necessary. In the image below, you can see that one nameserver for the subdomain has already been added, and the second one is being entered. There ARE usually at least 2 nameservers for a zone.

That’s it, done. Now when a lookup is done on test.mydomain.com, the query is forwarded to the nameservers ns1 and ns2 at anotherserver.com, and any records they have for the subdomain are returned.

Please leave a comment if you have any questions, thoughts or corrections.

When trying to add a Plugin, Component or Module in Joomla’s Extension Manager, you might get the following error:

JFolder::create: Could not create directory
Warning! Failed to move file.

Shown here:

This is likely – but not definitely – to be after the site has been moved from location to another, a change of directory, or server.

Solution

When a Component, Plugin or Module is added, the Joomla system attempts to copy the installable zip to a temporary directory, called ‘tmp‘. From there, PHP extracts the files and installs them. The error above usually occurs for one or more of the following reasons (in order of likelihood):

The path to the ‘tmp’ directory is wrong in the Joomla configuration file

In the Joomla installation root, find the file called ‘configuration.php’. In this file there should be a line with that says something like:

var $tmp_path = ‘C:\\path\\to\\your\\cms\\tmp’;

A masked live example is shown here:

Check that this path is correct, and that the ‘tmp’ directory truly does sit in that location. In this example, the directory would need to be here: d:\clients\sites\[my client]\tmp.

The temporary exists, but is not ‘writable’

If the ‘tmp’ directory has the wrong permissions, the web service won’t be able to copy the installer files to it. To check/correct this you will need  access to the server physically, or via a remote admin method like RDP (terminal services), VNC or similar.

Find the ‘tmp’ directory in the web root, and view the permissions. The IIS Guest account, called ‘IUSR_[machinename]‘, needs to be given ‘modify’ privileges. Example shown below:

The temporary directory doesn’t exist

To check this, navigate to your web root (often wwwroot) and check that a directory called ‘tmp‘ exists. This directory should have been created when the Joomla was installed, but it’s conceivable that it might have been deleted… maybe? If it doesn’t exist, create it, and make sure its ‘writable’ (see previous step).

If none of this works, or you spot a mistake,  post a comment.

My Fabia’s temperature indicator light started flashing and beeping at me a few minutes after the engine was started, each time I used the car. The coolant level was fine, and the car seemed to get up to temperature quickly and stay there, never overheating. A quick search of the Briskoda forum revealed that this is a common fault, caused by faulty terminals and/or electrodes in the expansion tank vessel.

Solution

On the VRS models, and possibly others, the electrodes that measure coolant level cannot be replaced or cleaned, so a complete expansion tank replacement is needed. Thankfully these are cheap (about a tenner) and easy to fit. Here is a fitting guide, with photos where necessary:

1) Unhook the loom carrier from the two fixing holding the tank in place.

2) Now disconnect the terminal on the rear of the expansion tank that connects the coolant level sensor to the loom. There are clips on the top AND the bottom of this clip. Don’t force it, if it doesn’t come off easily it’s likely because the lower clip is not being squeezed firmly enough.

3) Remove the overflow pipe (or maybe it’s a return pipe) at the top rear of the tank. This is most easily done with parallel pliers or mole-grips, by squeezing the sprung hose clamp, then easing the pipe off. Make sure you don’t lose the hose clamp in the engine bay. I found it best to tuck the pipe backwards under the strut brace to keep it out of the way.

4) Unclip the vacuum pipes from the vacuum thingy (if you know what this ‘thingy’ is, please leave a comment below telling me, and I’ll put the right name in). The two sprung clips are easy to press by hand as shown in the photo. You might hear a little ‘hiss’ (i did) when you do this. Doesn’t seem to be a problem.

5) Remove the two  front nuts that hold the vacuum thingy frame in. The plastic loom support will probably be right in your way for this. If you’ve completely unhooked it (see step 1) you should be able to manhandle the wiring backwards for the right-hand nut, and pulled right forward for the left-hand nut. The nuts have captive washers which is nice, but be sure not to let them drop in the engine bay!

6) Remove the 3rd frame bolt right by the bulkhead. The angle can be a bit tricky and I found that an extension was needed with the socket set.

7) Now to get the frame out, you will need to pull the loom wiring and plastic support thing right out of the way forward. It hooks over the expansion tank socket quite nicely as you can see in the photo. Lift the frame gently off the two front fixings, then pull it towards the front of the car to get the frame off the rear fixing.

Lift the frame completely out of the way. I found that if you turn it 90 degrees it sits between the suspension turret and the rubber bonnet seal quite well.

9) Now remove the 2 fixings that hold the tank in. As shown in the photo below, the fixing is a bolt, a captive washer, and a screw all in one. A 10mm socket removes the fixing. Once both are removed, the tank will stay where it is until you lift it out.

10) Now the tank is ready to come out, clamp the bottom hose near as near to the tank as possible (see pic for step 11) with a pair of mole-grips.
Caution: if you clamp it too right you risk damaging the hose, especially with the mechanical advantage that mole-grips give. It’s soft hose, so only needs to be squeezed a bit.
Then siphon the tank into a bottle or something with some tube. I’m not sure how corrosive G12 coolant is, but um.. don’t drink it.. or get it on your paintwork.. or eyes.. or sensitive bits.

11) Now that the tank is empty (more or less) you can use some pliers (parallel or adjustable ones are best for this) to loosen the sprung hose clamp with one hand, while pulling the tank free with the other hand. I found that the hose came off easily once the sprung clamp was very loose. If the hose doesn’t want to come free, it might be best to use a second pair of mole-grips on the sprung clamp, thus leaving two hands free to wrestle the tank and hose apart.

12) If this is done carefully, there should be no spillage. The tiny amount of coolant left in the neck of the tank after it was siphoned should stay in the up-turned hose.

13) Now, fit the new expansion tank by reversing this process completely. Note: If G12 coolant is already in the system, G12 must be used when  the new tank is filled up. It’s best to use new coolant, and the OEM pink stuff is readily available for about £5-10 from any VAG dealer.

If you have any corrections, questions or thoughts, please leave a comment.

I need to send a mate a link to an item on eBay after breaking his strimmer. The nice people at eBay have reworked their URL structure recently to improve SEO, so a link to a single item now looks something like this:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Medium-duty-bump-head-for-Kawasaki-brushcutter-strimmer_W0QQitemZ190302614007QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUK_Home_Garden_GardenPowerTools_CA?hash=item2c4eeb71f7&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=65:12|66:2|39:1|72:1686|293:1|294:50

..which is not exactly Twitter, Live Messenger or email friendly. Long URLs break often in email and instant messengers when they ‘wrap’ at the end of a line (like the above is doing).

Solution

Here’s the old style linking system that still works: http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=190302614007

So you can use that structure for a link to any item. Just paste…

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=

…into your browser, email or anything followed by the item number, as above, and it’ll work.

If you can’t find the item number in the complicated URL, remember its on each item listing page here:

Bonus trick for Chrome or Firefox users:

Chrome and Firefox both allow custom searches to be added easily via bookmarks. These allow you to type a ‘keyword’ into the address bar, then a ‘search phrase’, and automatically search a specific site for it. This useful functionality is perfect for getting a link to an eBay item. What you do is create a custom search with the keyword ‘el’ (for ‘eBay Link’, but use whatever you’ll remember, keep it short!) and point it to ‘http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=%s’. Note: the ‘%s’ is substituted for the search phrase – in this case an item number – when the search is done.

Chrome Instructions

Open the Chrome options:

Then follow this process:

1. Click the  ’Manage’ button in the ‘Default Search’ area.
2. In the ‘Search Engines’ window, click ‘Add’.
3. Name the new custom search.
4. Give it an easy to remember keyword.
5. In URL enter: “http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=%s”.
6. ‘Ok’ the window, and ‘close’ out of the others.

Here’s the visual process:

Now to use your new custom eBay item linker, type “el [item number]” into the Chrome address bar, and hit ‘enter/return’. You’ll notice that as soon as you’ve typed “el” and a space and start to enter the item number, Chrome shows that you’re about to do a custom search:

great right? Yea I love it too.

FireFox instructions

In firefox it’s a very similar process:

1. Open the ‘Organise Bookmarks’ pane with Ctrl + Shift + B (on a dirty mac it’s Shift + Command + B).
2. Under ‘Unsorted Bookmarks’ add a new Bookmark and name it ‘eBay Item Link’ or whatever.
3. In Location enter “http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=%s”.
4. Add an easy to remember keyword like ‘el’.
5. Click ‘Add’ button then close out of the bookmarks pane.

Here’s a visual prompt for the process:

And here’s what it looks like when you use it:

There, If you know a better or quicker way, or have an issues, please leave a comment below.

I’m now using ZoneEdit to handle the zone record for new domains. It gives far more control over the zone, and is very quick with updates etc.  I needed to setup one particular domain so that all traffic to that it – and any subdomains – went to one IP address. A ‘catchall’ if you like.

For example: ‘myquickfix.co.uk’ and ‘www.myquickfix.co.uk’  have A records pointing to 82.109.178.44. If I needed the subdomain ‘pants.myquickfix.co.uk’ to point to that IP also, I could add a CNAME record, or another A record. But if I need lots of subdomains all pointing to the same IP, it’s far easier to add a wildcard A record.

Solution

Wildcard entries are represented by an asterisk (*) and will send all requests that aren’t covered by other entries, to the specified IP. Shown below are the relevant ZoneEdit screens where this can be setup:

An asterisk is entered for Name, and the destination in Numperic IP

Note: There are already entries for the domain, ‘www’ and ‘mail’. But we want to add the wildcard / catchall record in the fields above ‘Add New IP Address’. By the way, this is done in the ‘IP Addresses (A)’  screen.

After the wildcard entry is added, it appears in the list

The entry now appears in the list. If you wait for a few minutes and try to browse to a random subdomain of your domain, it should work. Woo!

A few notes:

If you’ve tried the subdomain in your browser before adding the wildcard, you might get a 404 error or just a blank page because the browser has cached the result from lastime. To get around this, clear your browsers cache, and flush your DNS cache. In Windows this is done by opening a command prompt and typing: “ipconfig /flushdns”.

If you try and click on the link that appears with the asterisk in ZoneEdit, it is very unlikely to work. The browser will try and URL encode the address turning ‘*.domain.co.uk’ into ‘%2A.domain.co.uk’ and you’ll get an Invalid Hostname error (400).

Any thoughts? please comment.

Every so often when I’m typing, usually when I’m coding because I use so many shortcuts, the at sign ‘@’ and double quotes (“) get swapped. Annoying!

Solution

When this happens it’s because I’ve accidentally pressed ‘Shift + Alt’. THis key combo causes Windows to switch my keyboard (input) language to US. The easiest way to stop this happening, is disable the ‘Shift+Alt’ shortcut:

1) From ‘Control Panel’, open the ‘Regional and Language Options’.

2) In ‘Regional and Language Options’ window, select the ‘Languages’ tab, and click the ‘Details’ button inside the ‘Text services and input languages’ section.

3) In the ‘Settings’ tab, click the ‘Key Settings’ button.

4) In the ‘Hot keys..’ section, highlight the action ‘Switch between input languages’ and then click the ‘Change Key Sequence’ button.

5) Un-tick BOTH tickboxes.

6) Now just ‘OK’ and ‘Apply’ your way back out of the open windows and IMPORTANT you need to reboot for the changes to make effect.

Know of a quicker way? please post a comment…

I’ve just had to convert a photoshop visual to a wordpress template. The designer wanted a bulleted list where the bullets themselves were very close to the list items, and were small dashes. Cross browser support for list item and bullet styling is ropey at best, and to make things perfect I’d have to resort to browser specific styles.

Solution

The solution I think I’ll be using for the rest of my ‘web’ career will be this. JUST FORGET THE BULLET ITEM, and use positioned background images instead.

In the stylesheet, add styles for both the ‘ul’ tag, and the ‘li’ tag like so (explanations inline):

ul {
margin-left:0px; /* Set the indenting back to far left. */
padding-left:0px; /* Set the indenting back to far left. */
}

ul li {
list-style-type:none; /* Switch the list bullet off altogether. */
background-image:url(dashbullet.gif); /* The replacement bullet image */
background-position:0px 4px; /* Place bullet 0px from left and 4px from top */
background-repeat:no-repeat; /* Stops bullet tiling, important */
padding-left:7px; /* separation from li txt and bullet */
}

Then just create the list as you usually would, with ‘ul’ and ‘li’ tags. Here’s what it looks like in use:

Example of image bullet in use

Here’s a bit more detail so you can get your head around the spacing. It’s incredibly simple, but still, nice to have a diagram or two sometimes.

Detail showing some dimensions and spacing

This style works perfectly (by my testing, but I’m not perfect) on:

• Internet Explorer 6, 7 & 8+
• Firefox 2.*+
• Opera 9+ (not tested 8, but bet it works!
• Google Chrome (all versions)
• Safari (Mac and PC versions)

A colleague was having trouble getting a DVD imported to Adobe Premier for some overlay edits etc and asked me to take a look.

Solution

VOB files are MPEG-2 files with a different coat on. Rename the .vob file to .mpg and it should work. This also works in Sony Vegas and probably other software. No idea how copy-protection on some disks might effect this?

That really WAS a quickfix and probably not worth posting. If you have any questions, thoughts or corrections please post a comment below.