iCal can publish to a password protected directory just fine — but to my surprise, google calendar could _not_ read from one… _only_ public urls. Wtf? I’m really hoping I overlooked something because this is just pathetic.

Anyway, the solution turned out to be dirt simple. Keep all protected calendars in a /private folder on my domain and have a public facing script to route stuff. So I went to work, and a few minutes later, here it is.

I tested this just now and google calendar can indeed read my password protected calendar so thats cool. It isn’t the best way I’m sure — but, hey, it only took a few minutes (edit: less time than it took to write this post in fact) and it gets the job done. (Plus I don’t exactly have a “personal” personal calendar, I’d just rather it not be public.)

view the protected ical calendars in google project page

Hope that can help someone. Or if there were any suggestions feel free to e-mail me

Firstly, let me just say that compiling PHP has never been this difficult before. It shouldn’t be difficult at all actually. So heres the basic run down: I need SOAP, GD, SimpleXML and a few other miscellaneous extensions to make all my dev apps work properly — this went smoothly on the ppc laptop, and I (stupidly) assumed that the Intel would be even easier. My first couple attempts were splattered with GD errors driving me to the brink of insanity as I scrambled up all the pre-requisites. Finally, I had all dependencies met and the configure script STILL would not quit barfing on me. I gave up and finally just installed PHP without GD support (naturally ruining the one project I’m working on currently). I gave up, until I felt feisty enough to give it another shot.

The configure script was choking on a linking error (GD build test failed. Please check the config.log for details.) and kept telling me to hunt config.log for some answers. It turns out that ./configure was attempting to link with shell variables that were empty.

Looks something like “-L: directory name missing“.

The solution

Hacking my way through the configure file you get to the culprit.

LIBS=" -L$GD_LIB $GD_SHARED_LIBADD $LIBS"

Turns out that echo $GD_LIB is blank and being a major pain in the ass. To fix this, just edit the line to look more like: LIBS=" $GD_SHARED_LIBADD $LIBS". After that, try a make clean, rm config.cache and try to compile again. Hopefully this will save you a couple hours of hating life.

Resources:

• http://www.phpmac.com/articles.php?view=3 — good instructions for getting those GD dependencies.
• http://www.phpmac.com/articles.php?view=159 — more insight from the same site
• http://www.afp548.com/article.php?story=20041104230209410 — more about GD dependencies, and a little more insight into problems
• http://www.thescripts.com/forum/thread670263.html — explains the final solution in more depth

My Configure Script
It might be beefed up in the future, but I’m just relieved to have it compiled & working right now — I’m exhausted

./configure --prefix=/usr/local/php5 \
 --mandir=/usr/share/man \
 --infodir=/usr/share/info \
 --sysconfdir=/etc \
 --enable-cli \
 --enable-soap \
 --with-ldap=/usr \
 --with-xml \
 --with-libxml-dir=/usr/local \
 --with-zlib \
 --with-zlib-dir=/usr \
 --with-openssl \
 --enable-exif \
 --enable-ftp \
 --enable-mbstring \
 --enable-mbregex \
 --enable-dbx \
 --enable-sockets \
 --with-curl=/usr \
 --with-mysql=/usr/local/mysql \
 --with-mysqli=/usr/local/mysql/bin/mysql_config \
 --with-apxs \
 --with-gd \
 --with-jpeg-dir=/usr \
 --with-png-dir=/usr \
 --with-freetype-dir=/usr \
 --with-xpm-dir=/usr

Here are 3 “descriptive comments” for use whenever you are frustrated and editing another person’s code. They can also be used to give co-workers a good laugh.

They are setup for use as a TextMate snippet — so ignore the $1/$0

The formatting is a bit off on the webpage — use the SVN link below to grab the text file
Public SVN: ascii_comments.txt
svn export http://svn.ubrio.us/public/ascii_comments .

Skull & Cross Bones
Source: WorseThanFailure commenter “marlow4”

/*************************************************************
 *       		  				     *
 *  .=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-.       *
 *   |                     ______                     |      *
 *   |                  .-"      "-.                  |      *
 *   |                 /            \                 |      *
 *   |     _          |              |          _     |      *
 *   |    ( \         |,  .-.  .-.  ,|         / )    |      *
 *   |     > "=._     | )(__/  \__)( |     _.=" <     |      *
 *   |    (_/"=._"=._ |/     /\     \| _.="_.="\_)    |      *
 *   |           "=._"(_     ^^     _)"_.="           |      *
 *   |               "=\__|IIIIII|__/="               |      *
 *   |              _.="| \IIIIII/ |"=._              |      *
 *   |    _     _.="_.="\          /"=._"=._     _    |      *
 *   |   ( \_.="_.="     '--------'     "=._"=._/ )   |      *
 *   |    > _.="                            "=._ <    |      *
 *   |   (_/                                    \_)   |      *
 *   |                                                |      *
 *   '-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-='      *
 *   	                                                     *
 *   WARNING:                                                *
 *	$1
 *   	                                                     *
 *************************************************************/
$0

Smashing face into brick wall (we've all been there)
Source: http://www.ascii-art.de/ascii/ (can't remember under which name)

/*************************************
 *      ####  *                      *
 * BANG ##*# /                       *
 *      ###\ ___ ,- -                *
 * BANG ####/   \ ,- -     WHY?!@    *
 *      ####|-   | ,-                *
 * BANG ###/ \_  L_                  *
 *      ##*#  /'   \                 *
 *      ####_ ||    |                *
 *      ####_\|\ / /\                *
 *      ###(_`-./ /  \               *
 *      #### `-._/\   |              *
 *      ####      |   |              *
 *      ####      /   /              *
 *      ####     /   / \             *
 *      ####     |  |\  \            *
 *      ####     \  \ \  \           *
 *      ####     _\  \_\  \          *
 *      ####    (_____)____)         *
 *      ###########################  *
 *
 *	$1
 *
 ************************************/
$0

W.T.F? Nothing else to be said.
Source: http://www.ascii-art.de/ascii/ (can't remember under which name)

/*******************************************
 *                        ,-------------.  *
 *                       ( 	WTF?!    ) *
 *               _     O  '-------------'  *
 *             ,'-'. o                     *
 *             :_ _:                       *
 *  ..._       \ _ /       _.,,            *
 *   '-.>.   _,-'-'-._   ,<,-'             *
 *     :  \ /         './  ;               *
 *      \  '              /                *
 *       \  ,|       |.  /                 *
 *        '' |       | ''		   *
 *           :_______:                     *
 *           |       |                     *
 *           |       |		           *
 *           |   .   |                     *
 *           |   |   |                     *
 *           |   |   |                     *
 *           |   |   |                     *
 *           |   |   |                     *
 *           |___:___|                     *
 *           /___/___\                     *
 *******************************************
 *
 *	$1
 *
 ******************************************/
$0

Source
http://file.ubrio.us/code/numerize.phps

Usage:

./numerize.php [option] [input]

        Options:
                -d      Denumerize
                -n      Numerize

        Input:  Input is either the numerized output
                or the string to numerize

Attachment
file.ubrio.us/code/class.calendar.zip
Documentation & example included in zip file

Sample Usage

$calendar = new calendar();

$my_events = array(
	8	=> "My birthday!",
	19	=> array(
			"#link-to-e-vite"
			=> "[time=12:00pm]Work BBQ @ Shore House"),
	31	=> array(
			"End of a great month",
			"Beginning of a good month")
	);

$calendar->events($my_events)->generate(05, 2007);

Some Bugs

• events array doesn’t like leading zeros for events — simple enough fix
• php date bounds aren’t checked — simple enough fix
• i forget

Screenshot (Click for larger image)

Source

#!/usr/local/php5/bin/php
<?
foreach(range((is_numeric($argv[1]) ? $argv[1] : 99),1,1) as $number)
	printf(
		"%1\\$d bottle%3\\$s of beer on the wall,
		%1\\$d bottle%3\\$s of beer.\\nTake one down, pass it around,
		%2\\$d bottle%4\\$s of beer on the wall.\\n\\n",
			$number,
			$number - 1,
			 ($number == 1 ? '' : 's'),
			($number - 1 == 1 ? '' : 's')
	);
echo "*BUUURP!*\\n";
?>

Usage
Nothing fancy. Just run change the shebang and chmod +x [filename];./[filename] [#]

Was just curious to see if i could fit it all on 1 line. I’m sure it can be shortened, and if I get bored it might , but for right now, it is what it is.

Usage

• Save the annoy_friends.php script to wherever
• edit the $_mail settings accordingly
• chmod +x [filename]
• ./[filename]
• giggle uncontrollably
• wait for $_mail['to'] to come and punch you in the face
• rinse and repeat

disclaimer
Don’t actually run this, and especially don’t run this on my e-mail address .

Relative Digg Wordpress Plugin – Add related digg story links to the bottom of your post based on keywords

Note (5/13/07):
I just looked over this code and I made a lot of mistakes. Just use it as an example/reference or clean it up. I hacked it together pretty quick when I was bored at work, so use your judgement.

Well, as you can tell by the post dates on the past few articles, I’m being lazy. This all changed the other day when I was messing around in a project with PHP and XML. Normally I think XML/PHP is the devil, but I remembered the SimpleXML classes in PHP5. This pretty much inspired me to write a little plugin for wordpress – well, that and my love for digg – that will add relative digg stories to the bottom of each post depending on the keywords you provide.

Its still in Beta mode, but if you guys are savvy enough to get it working I would greatly appreciate some feedback.

What you need in order to run this, as of right now

1. PHP5 (should come with SimpleXML natively, but if not, you need this)
2. FOPEN (some servers don’t support this)

I will probably re-write this to use cURL in the future to get around the FOPEN problem, and maybe even to get around SimpleXML. Either way, this is just up here to test the waters on the idea and get some general feedback.

(Ps: If your server doesn’t run PHP5 or allow FOPEN, be a man and get in that shell and roll your own

How To Install (almost the exact same procedure as my YouTube PlugIn)

1. Upload “relative_digg.php” to your /wp-content/plugins/ folder
2. In admin panel, go to: Plugins -> Relative Digg Stories -> Activate
3. Switch over to Presentation -> Theme Editor -> (edit) Single Post
4. Somewhere in there add <?php relative_digg(); ?>
   • Note: you can hardcode the tag using relative_digg('tagname');
   • Note: param setup: relative_digg('tagname', number_of_results, story_age, 'title');
5. In your new post, somewhere near the bottom add: <!--digg:TAG-->

Let me know whatsup – hopefully some of you find this useful. Its terribly slow also, so I will have to check into that. Feedback is appreciated, yadda, yadda, etc.

Thanks

-rob

Hey all, I was asked to write a simple plugin that will make use of the YouTube API to generate videos based on specific post tags.

Downloads

1. YouTube Wordpress Plugin
2. svn export http://public.svnme.com/youtubevideos .

Usage

1. open the .PHP file in a text editor, on the line $dev_id = "???" insert your developer ID
2. upload the PHP file to wp-content/plugins/
3. activate the plugin from the Dashboard, Plugins menu
4. go to Presentation, Template Editor, Single Post and/or Main Index. Insert this
   code where you want the video to appear:
   <? youtubevideos(); ?>
5. when you post, use the code: <!--youtube:YourTagHere--> to tell the plugin what video topic you want to show. For example, if you want a video on horses, put <!--youtube:horses--> at the end of your post.
6. that’s it. To change the number of videos shown or to tweak the filter settings, you have to modify that within the plugin PHP file itself.
7. Let me know of any bugs you find, or any tweaks you have made (this is a community after all )

Features

1. Set how many videos to show, could be 1, could be 1,000
2. Setup filters to block videos that contain bad keywords and keep your blog respectable
3. Change the output template to display the videos any way you want to better incorporate it with your blog
4. Manually add your own taggings to show videos you want.

Change Log

• May 13 I just looked through this code and it is pretty sloppy, sorry. Use this as an example or starting point for your own plugin — or, if it still works, use it. Just a heads up (don’t judge me by that code )
• Oct 4 the new version needs to be tested – ill try to get to that today
• Oct 4 Thanks to Mr. Nuck Chorris, the SimpleTags is now phased out, I have updated the file.
• Oct 3 I removed the YouTube Developer ID, please use your own
• Oct 3 I am going to work on this again now that I am back. If you found bugs or have ideas for it, please send me an email and I will try to include them.

Heres how to run the install [on Mac OsX]: – Elaboration on DreamHost Wiki [Full Article]

1. Open your favorite text editor and paste in the script below – MAKE SURE TO CHANGE YOUR DOMAIN on line 4
2. save as “installscript” to your Desktop, or wherver else – just as long as you can find it in the terminal
3. Open your terminal (/Applications/Utilities) and navigate to your Desktop (cd ~/Desktop - or CD Desktop)
4. [client side] Type “scp installscript {USER}@{DOMAIN}:“
5. [client side] Type “ssh {USER}@{DOMAIN}” to log into your account
6. [server-side] Type “chmod +x installscript” now make sure your directory is clear of the directories “php5, source, dist” if they are in there for some reason other than this install, run “rm -rf {DIRNAME}” to get rid of them. The install script will error if those directories are in place.
7. [server-side] Type “./installscript” – then grab a beer and watch T.V.
8. [server-side] Type “cd {DOMAIN}” then create an .htaccess file containing something like

   AddHandler php-cgi .php Action php-cgi /cgi-bin/php.cgi

9. Now you should be in business, try a script to see if everything is enabled that you need.. if not, modify the script below to add/remove any extras that you want
10. *Read the bottom for notes on how to keep things clean & simple

The Script

#!/bin/bash

# Abort on any errors
set -e

# The domain in which to install the PHP CGI script.
export DOMAIN="{YOUR DOMAIN HERE}"

# Where do you want all this stuff built? I'd recommend picking a local
# filesystem.
# ***Don't pick a directory that already exists!***  We clean up after
# ourselves at the end!
SRCDIR=${HOME}/source

# And where should it be installed?
INSTALLDIR=${HOME}/php5

# Set DISTDIR to somewhere persistent, if you plan to muck around with this
# script and run it several times!
DISTDIR=${HOME}/dist

# Update version information here.
PHP5="php-5.1.4"
LIBICONV="libiconv-1.10"
LIBMCRYPT="libmcrypt-2.5.7"
LIBXML2="libxml2-2.6.26"
LIBXSLT="libxslt-1.1.17"
MHASH="mhash-0.9.7"
ZLIB="zlib-1.2.3"
CURL="curl-7.15.4"
LIBIDN="libidn-0.6.3"
CCLIENT="c-client"
CCLIENT_DIR="imap-2004g" # Another pest!

# What PHP features do you want enabled?
PHPFEATURES="--prefix=${INSTALLDIR}
 --with-config-file-path=${INSTALLDIR}/etc/php5/${DOMAIN}
 --enable-force-cgi-redirect
 --with-xml
 --with-libxml-dir=${INSTALLDIR}
 --enable-soap
 --with-openssl=/usr
 --with-mhash=${INSTALLDIR}
 --with-mcrypt=${INSTALLDIR}
 --with-zlib-dir=${INSTALLDIR}
 --with-jpeg-dir=/usr
 --with-png-dir=/usr
 --with-gd
 --enable-gd-native-ttf
 --enable-ftp
 --with-exif
 --enable-sockets
 --enable-wddx
 --with-iconv=${INSTALLDIR}
 --enable-sqlite-utf8
 --enable-calendar
 --with-curl=${INSTALLDIR}
 --enable-mbstring
 --enable-mbregex
 --with-mysql=/usr
 --with-mysqli
 --without-pear
 --with-gettext
 --with-imap=${INSTALLDIR}
 --with-imap-ssl=/usr"

# ---- end of user-editable bits. Hopefully! ----

# Push the install dir's bin directory into the path
export PATH=${INSTALLDIR}/bin:$PATH

#setup directories
mkdir -p ${SRCDIR}
mkdir -p ${INSTALLDIR}
mkdir -p ${DISTDIR}
cd ${DISTDIR}

# Get all the required packages
wget -c http://us3.php.net/distributions/${PHP5}.tar.gz
wget -c http://ftp.gnu.org/pub/gnu/libiconv/${LIBICONV}.tar.gz
wget -c http://easynews.dl.sourceforge.net/sourceforge/mcrypt/${LIBMCRYPT}.tar.gz
wget -c http://ftp.acc.umu.se/pub/GNOME/sources/libxml2/2.6/${LIBXML2}.tar.gz
wget -c http://ftp.acc.umu.se/pub/GNOME/sources/libxslt/1.1/${LIBXSLT}.tar.gz
wget -c http://easynews.dl.sourceforge.net/sourceforge/mhash/${MHASH}.tar.gz
#wget -c http://www.zlib.net/${ZLIB}.tar.gz
wget -c http://easynews.dl.sourceforge.net/sourceforge/libpng/${ZLIB}.tar.gz
wget -c http://curl.haxx.se/download/${CURL}.tar.gz
wget -c ftp://alpha.gnu.org/pub/gnu/libidn/${LIBIDN}.tar.gz
wget -c ftp://ftp.cac.washington.edu/imap/${CCLIENT}.tar.Z

echo ---------- Unpacking downloaded archives. This process may take several minutes! ----------

cd ${SRCDIR}
# Unpack them all
tar xzf ${DISTDIR}/${PHP5}.tar.gz
tar xzf ${DISTDIR}/${LIBICONV}.tar.gz
tar xzf ${DISTDIR}/${LIBMCRYPT}.tar.gz
tar xzf ${DISTDIR}/${LIBXML2}.tar.gz
tar xzf ${DISTDIR}/${LIBXSLT}.tar.gz
tar xzf ${DISTDIR}/${MHASH}.tar.gz
tar xzf ${DISTDIR}/${ZLIB}.tar.gz
tar xzf ${DISTDIR}/${CURL}.tar.gz
tar xzf ${DISTDIR}/${LIBIDN}.tar.gz
uncompress -cd ${DISTDIR}/${CCLIENT}.tar.Z |tar x

# Build them in the required order to satisfy dependencies.

#libiconv
cd ${SRCDIR}/${LIBICONV}
./configure --enable-extra-encodings --prefix=${INSTALLDIR}
# make clean
make
make install

#libxml2
cd ${SRCDIR}/${LIBXML2}
./configure --with-iconv=${INSTALLDIR} --prefix=${INSTALLDIR}
# make clean
make
make install

#libxslt
cd ${SRCDIR}/${LIBXSLT}
./configure --prefix=${INSTALLDIR}
 --with-libxml-prefix=${INSTALLDIR}
 --with-libxml-include-prefix=${INSTALLDIR}/include/
 --with-libxml-libs-prefix=${INSTALLDIR}/lib/
# make clean
make
make install

#zlib
cd ${SRCDIR}/${ZLIB}
./configure --shared --prefix=${INSTALLDIR}
# make clean
make
make install

#libmcrypt
cd ${SRCDIR}/${LIBMCRYPT}
./configure --disable-posix-threads --prefix=${INSTALLDIR}
# make clean
make
make install

#libmcrypt lltdl issue!!
cd  ${SRCDIR}/${LIBMCRYPT}/libltdl
./configure --prefix=${INSTALLDIR} --enable-ltdl-install
make
make install

#mhash
cd ${SRCDIR}/${MHASH}
./configure --prefix=${INSTALLDIR}
# make clean
make
make install

#libidn
cd ${SRCDIR}/${LIBIDN}
./configure --with-iconv-prefix=${INSTALLDIR} --prefix=${INSTALLDIR}
# make clean
make
make install

#cURL
cd ${SRCDIR}/${CURL}
./configure --with-ssl=${INSTALLDIR} --with-zlib=${INSTALLDIR}
  --with-libidn=${INSTALLDIR} --enable-ipv6 --enable-cookies
  --enable-crypto-auth --prefix=${INSTALLDIR}
# make clean
make
make install

# c-client
cd ${SRCDIR}/${CCLIENT_DIR}
make ldb
# Install targets are for wusses!
cp c-client/c-client.a ${INSTALLDIR}/lib/libc-client.a
cp c-client/*.h ${INSTALLDIR}/include

#PHP 5
cd ${SRCDIR}/${PHP5}
./configure ${PHPFEATURES}
# make clean
make
make install

#copy config file
mkdir -p ${INSTALLDIR}/etc/php5/${DOMAIN};
cp ${SRCDIR}/${PHP5}/php.ini-dist ${INSTALLDIR}/etc/php5/${DOMAIN}/php.ini

#copy PHP CGI
mkdir -p ${HOME}/${DOMAIN}/cgi-bin
chmod 0755 ${HOME}/${DOMAIN}/cgi-bin
cp ${INSTALLDIR}/bin/php ${HOME}/${DOMAIN}/cgi-bin/php.cgi
echo ---------- INSTALL COMPLETE! ----------

Notes to keep things clean
This install will only configure the 1 website right off the bat, but say you want to toggle between the PHP4/PHP5 DreamHostoptions, or your custom configured PHP5 install – on a PER-SITE basis. Its actually dead simple. Heres the ‘basic’ process that I use to get this done.

When you run this install PHP creates a {DOMAIN}/cgi-bin/ which is good and all, but since you want to keep the option of using a custom install dynamic this isn’t as good as we want it.

What i did was to make a ~/cgi-bin/ in your home directory and link whore it out. To do this just get in your terminal again and get to your {DOMAIN}s root directory and type “mv cgi-bin/ ~/cgi-bin/” then without leaving your domain’s root type “ln -s ~/cgi-bin/ cgi-bin” to create a symbolic link. Now if you want to shut off the custom php5 you can “rm cgi-bin” and take those 2 lines out of your .htaccess file.

For every other domain you want to have this install run on is 1 step off from just “cd {DOMAiN}“, “ln -s ~/cgi-bin/ cgi-bin“, “vim .htaccess” (putting in those 2 lines from above). For each new domain you need to create a php.ini file (or folder at least) in the ~/php5/etc/php5/ dir. You can again use a symbolic link here if nothing is changing. Just copy it from your default {DOMAIN} folder back to the ~/php5/etc/php5/ folder and symbolic link it to each new directory you create. Of course, for unique .inis you would need to copy it and modify it.

I hope that helps anyone out there keep their custom php5 install under wraps. Now if they would just enable those few extra modules so i don’t have to keep updating php manually