Beginner's Guide to Programming - Revision history

Vinny: Squatty is completely gone, portalparts is "retired" with no active posts since mid-2010.

2011-08-11T17:36:50Z

Squatty is completely gone, portalparts is "retired" with no active posts since mid-2010.

Rasade: /* Support and Such */

2010-04-14T18:27:02Z

‎Support and Such

Rasade: /* Get on with it! */ - added usage of COM_output()

2010-04-14T18:25:23Z

‎Get on with it!: - added usage of COM_output()

Rasade: /* Functions, Bring Me Functions! */ - corrected some mistakes, added use of COM_output()

2010-04-14T18:21:39Z

‎Functions, Bring Me Functions!: - corrected some mistakes, added use of COM_output()

Rasade: /* Where to put it */ -added usage of COM_output()

2010-04-14T18:02:39Z

‎Where to put it: -added usage of COM_output()

Rasade: /* Security */ - added COM_output() usage

2010-04-14T17:55:08Z

‎Security: - added COM_output() usage

Rasade: /* Hello, World */ - added usage of COM_output()

2010-04-14T17:46:24Z

‎Hello, World: - added usage of COM_output()

Dirk: we don't have a page for the User Pages Plugin - removed broken link

2009-05-06T09:08:43Z

we don't have a page for the User Pages Plugin - removed broken link

Dirk: Added category

2009-05-05T09:44:40Z

Added category

Dirk: Fixed URL to bugtracker signup page

2009-03-07T10:28:39Z

Fixed URL to bugtracker signup page

@@ Line 427: / Line 427: @@
 ==Support and Such==
-The best place for Geeklog support is of course [http://www.geeklog.net the main Geeklog site].  But there are a few other great places to check including [http://www.squatty.com Squatty] and [http://www.portalparts.com Portal Parts].  Squatty and Blaine are hard-core Geeklog developers and are responsible for several popular themes, plugins and hacks.
+The best place for Geeklog support is of course [http://www.geeklog.net the main Geeklog site].
 If you want to report a bug or request a feature, set yourself up an account [http://project.geeklog.net/tracking/signup_page.php here] and do so.  If they don't know it is broken, they can't fix it.  I've reported several bugs and have had them fixed promptly.  I've also tracked down and fixed several bugs and simply submitted the code which was accepted.  And I've also requested several features which have been added over the years at my request.  The Geeklog development team is small, but very dedicated and they love to get feedback from the user base.

@@ Line 429: / Line 429: @@
 The best place for Geeklog support is of course [http://www.geeklog.net the main Geeklog site].  But there are a few other great places to check including [http://www.squatty.com Squatty] and [http://www.portalparts.com Portal Parts].  Squatty and Blaine are hard-core Geeklog developers and are responsible for several popular themes, plugins and hacks.
-If you want to report a bug or request a feature, set yourself up an account [http://project.geeklog.net/tracking/signup_page.php here] and do so.  If they don't know it is broken, the cannot fix it.  I've reported several bugs and have had them fixed prompty.  I've also tracked down and fixed several bugs and simply submitted the code which was accepted.  And I've also requested several features which have been added over the years at my request.  The Geeklog development team is small, but very dedicated and they love to get feedback from the user base.
+If you want to report a bug or request a feature, set yourself up an account [http://project.geeklog.net/tracking/signup_page.php here] and do so.  If they don't know it is broken, they can't fix it.  I've reported several bugs and have had them fixed promptly.  I've also tracked down and fixed several bugs and simply submitted the code which was accepted.  And I've also requested several features which have been added over the years at my request.  The Geeklog development team is small, but very dedicated and they love to get feedback from the user base.
 [[Category:Development]]

@@ Line 254: / Line 254: @@
             $display .= "You are not logged in";
             $display .= COM_siteFooter();
-            echo $display;
+            COM_output($display);
             exit;
+}
@@ Line 284: / Line 284: @@
 $display .= COM_siteFooter();
-echo $display;
+COM_output($display);
 ?>

@@ Line 131: / Line 131: @@
 ==Functions, Bring Me Functions!==
-We've already seen two of the most widely used functions that Geeklog has to offer - COM_siteHeader() and COM_siteFooter().  It is important to note with this that there are optional parameters you can pass to each of them to achieve certain results.  COM_siteHeader() displays the header and the left blocks, while its partner controls the footer and the right blocks.  By default COM_siteHeader() displays the left blocks, and by default COM_siteFooter() does not display the right blocks.  Check the source code in lib-common.php for details on how to change this behavior.
+We've already seen three of the most widely used functions that Geeklog has to offer - COM_siteHeader(), COM_siteFooter() and COM_output().  It is important to note with this that there are optional parameters you can pass to each of them to achieve certain results.  COM_siteHeader() displays the header and the left blocks, while its partner controls the footer and the right blocks.  By default COM_siteHeader() displays the left blocks, and by default COM_siteFooter() does not display the right blocks. COM_output takes your $display variable which contains all your HTML and displays it, allowing for compressed data to be decompressed and displayed in the process. Check the source code in lib-common.php for details on how to change this behavior.
 Another set of similar workhorse functions which are also defined in lib-common.php along with the aforementioned functions are COM_startBlock() and COM_endBlock().  COM_startBlock() accepts 3 optional parameters: title, helpfile and template.  The most useful and almost always used is title, which is a text string which will appear in the title bar of the block.  If a helpfile is specified, Geeklog will display the help question mark icon and link to a help file for that block.  And by default the 'blockheader.thtml' template is used unless another is specified.  COM_endBlock() '''must''' be called once for each call to COM_startBlock(), and its only optional parameter is template, the default being blockfooter.thtml.
@@ Line 153: / Line 153: @@
 $display .= COM_siteFooter();
-echo $display;
+COM_output($display);
 ?>
 </pre>
-When using nested blocks inside of HTML tables, one simply has to be certain to call COM_endBlock() in the right place since these functions output HTML tables as well, and otherwise the display may not render properly.
+When using nested blocks inside of HTML tables, one simply has to be certain to call COM_endBlock() in the right place since these functions output HTML tables as well, and otherwise the display may not render properly. COM_startBlock() and COM_endBlock() are used like COM_siteHeader() and COM_siteFooter() but for internal page elements.
 <pre>
@@ Line 185: / Line 185: @@
 $display .= COM_siteFooter();
-echo $display;
+COM_output($display);
 ?>
@@ Line 192: / Line 192: @@
 The great advantage of using these two functions is that whenever the site admin or user changes their Geeklog theme, your GUI will change to match.  Your program will always retain the same look-and-feel of the site in general.
-There are also some useful HTML form functions found in lib-common.php which come in very handy and make life a bit easier.  <pre>COM_optionList( $table, $selection, $selected='', $sortcol=1 )</pre>.  This creates an HTML "<option" list generated from the given table, using the passed variable "$selected" in the SELECT statement of the HTML query.  See source code for a better idea of what the function does, but it is very useful.
+There are also some useful HTML form functions found in lib-common.php which come in very handy and make life a bit easier.  <pre>COM_optionList( $table, $selection, $selected='', $sortcol=1 )</pre>.  This creates an HTML "<option" list generated from the given database table, using the passed variable "$selected" in the SELECT statement of the HTML query.  See source code for a better idea of what the function does, but it is very useful.
-In a similar vein, <pre>COM_checkList( $table, $selection, $where='', $selected='' )</pre> creates a list of check boxes from the given table, with the given select and where clauses being passed to the SQL statement inside the function.
+In a similar vein, <pre>COM_checkList( $table, $selection, $where='', $selected='' )</pre> creates a list of check boxes from the given database table, with the given select and where clauses being passed to the SQL statement inside the function.
 One more useful function is the <pre>COM_errorLog( $logentry, $actionid = '')</pre> function which logs to the Geeklog logfile if $actionid is 1, or to the screen if it is set to 2.
-<pre>COM_checkWords( $Message )</pre> gives you access to Geeklog's (somewhat rudementary) profanity filter.  We find it to be not terribly useful since if you include for example the word "cock" in your filter, you will also filter out the completely innocuous word "peacock".  If you nonetheless want to use the geeklog profanity filter, simply do this:
+<pre>COM_checkWords( $Message )</pre> gives you access to Geeklog's (somewhat rudimentary) profanity filter.  We find it to be not terribly useful since if you include for example the word "cock" in your filter, you will also filter out the completely innocuous word "peacock".  If you nonetheless want to use the geeklog profanity filter, simply do this:
 <pre>
-$text = COM_checkWords( $text )
+$text = COM_checkWords( $text );
 </pre>

@@ Line 96: / Line 96: @@
 $display .= COM_siteFooter();
-echo $display;
+COM_output($display);
 ?>

@@ Line 15: / Line 15: @@
 $display .= "Hello World";
 $display .= COM_siteFooter();
-echo $display;
+COM_output($display);
 ?>
@@ Line 23: / Line 23: @@
 * geeklog programs stay in PHP mode - there is no flipping back and forth between PHP and HTML as is possible in the PHP language.  This means that all programs have "<?php" on the first line, and "?>" on the last line, and everything in between is PHP code.
-* there is only ever 1 "echo" statement to spit out the HTML.  The whole rest of the program up to this point is simply putting together a string of HTML which gets spit out at the bottom.  For debugging purposes you can put "echo" statements elsewhere and this output will appear at the top of the screen.  But aside from debugging, in general you only have a single "echo" statement at the bottom.
+* the HTML is generated using a single function, COM_output() as on the last line of the above code. Although it is possible to use a simple 'echo' statement to spit out the HTML, newer versions of Geeklog use the COM_output() function. COM_output() takes the $display variable to which all your HTML output is appended throughout the code (note the ".=" which is used for the append) as an argument and simply echoes it out in this case. (Newer versions of Geeklog use the COM_output() function to allow for any output that may use compression. More on that later)
 * "lib-common.php" is the single file which must be included in all your Geeklog programs.  It includes everything else you need unless you decide to make your own include files, so it's one-stop shopping.
 * there are functions in Geeklog to do lots of stuff for you - like for example COM_siteHeader() and COM_siteFooter().  In general Geeklog functions start with 2 or 3 capital letters and an understore - this tells you what type of function it is.  Then the name of the function. COM_ functions are "common" functions - not a terribly meaningful name.  But SEC_ functions like SEC_inGroup() which allows you to test if a user is in a particular group, allow your programs to access some of the powerful security features of Geeklog.  And DB_ commands allow you to access the Geeklog database.

@@ Line 296: / Line 296: @@
 ==Defining Functions==
-Defining functions in Geeklog is of course no different from doing so in PHP.  Though there are a few lessons to be learned from the Geeklog coding style.  One handy thing to do is pick a 3 to 5 character prefix for all of your functions.  This will help prevent you and some other developer from walking on each others toes and writing plugins or other Geeklog programs which are incompatible with each other.  For example in my [[UpagePlugin|User Pages Plugin]] I chose the prefix "UPAGE_" for every one of my own functions.
+Defining functions in Geeklog is of course no different from doing so in PHP.  Though there are a few lessons to be learned from the Geeklog coding style.  One handy thing to do is pick a 3 to 5 character prefix for all of your functions.  This will help prevent you and some other developer from walking on each others toes and writing plugins or other Geeklog programs which are incompatible with each other.  For example in my User Pages Plugin I chose the prefix "UPAGE_" for every one of my own functions.
 Figuring out how to do return codes from functions is never easy in Geeklog or PHP in general.  Many functions will return strings of HTML formatted text, and so returning error conditions is not easy.  There is no one solution for every circumstance - though I've found 2 solutions work most of the time.  If you hit an error condition in your function you can either return a NULL string so the caller can check for NULL string, or you can just return a string with an error message about the problem encountered, in which case the caller will not really know something went wrong - which may or may not matter.  It depends on your caller.

← Older revision		Revision as of 09:44, 5 May 2009
Line 430:		Line 430:

	If you want to report a bug or request a feature, set yourself up an account [http://project.geeklog.net/tracking/signup_page.php here] and do so. If they don't know it is broken, the cannot fix it. I've reported several bugs and have had them fixed prompty. I've also tracked down and fixed several bugs and simply submitted the code which was accepted. And I've also requested several features which have been added over the years at my request. The Geeklog development team is small, but very dedicated and they love to get feedback from the user base.		If you want to report a bug or request a feature, set yourself up an account [http://project.geeklog.net/tracking/signup_page.php here] and do so. If they don't know it is broken, the cannot fix it. I've reported several bugs and have had them fixed prompty. I've also tracked down and fixed several bugs and simply submitted the code which was accepted. And I've also requested several features which have been added over the years at my request. The Geeklog development team is small, but very dedicated and they love to get feedback from the user base.
		+
		+
		+	[[Category:Development]]

← Older revision		Revision as of 10:28, 7 March 2009
Line 429:		Line 429:
	The best place for Geeklog support is of course [http://www.geeklog.net the main Geeklog site]. But there are a few other great places to check including [http://www.squatty.com Squatty] and [http://www.portalparts.com Portal Parts]. Squatty and Blaine are hard-core Geeklog developers and are responsible for several popular themes, plugins and hacks.		The best place for Geeklog support is of course [http://www.geeklog.net the main Geeklog site]. But there are a few other great places to check including [http://www.squatty.com Squatty] and [http://www.portalparts.com Portal Parts]. Squatty and Blaine are hard-core Geeklog developers and are responsible for several popular themes, plugins and hacks.

−	If you want to report a bug or request a feature, set yourself up an account [http://project.geeklog.net/~~tracker~~/~~?atid=105&group_id=6&func=browse~~ here] and do so. If they don't know it is broken, the cannot fix it. I've reported several bugs and have had them fixed prompty. I've also tracked down and fixed several bugs and simply submitted the code which was accepted. And I've also requested several features which have been added over the years at my request. The Geeklog development team is small, but very dedicated and they love to get feedback from the user base.	+	If you want to report a bug or request a feature, set yourself up an account [http://project.geeklog.net/tracking/signup_page.php here] and do so. If they don't know it is broken, the cannot fix it. I've reported several bugs and have had them fixed prompty. I've also tracked down and fixed several bugs and simply submitted the code which was accepted. And I've also requested several features which have been added over the years at my request. The Geeklog development team is small, but very dedicated and they love to get feedback from the user base.