Red Yellow » Development

Bing Maps for WordPress Plugin Test

Rich Gubby — Sun, 25 Jul 2010 21:21:51 +0000

This is Niagara Falls

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Mobile CakePHP Apps

Rich Gubby — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 19:22:23 +0000

It feels like an age ago that I wrote a component and helper for CakePHP that could mobilize an app. Since then, things in the WAPL and Wapple world have moved on at a rate of knots and it’s time to re-write, re-factor and re-engineer the mobile cake code to keep it up to date.

The first version had a pretty basic component, used SOAP to communicate and had no in-built schema check to always produce valid WAPL code.

PHP Package as a Vendor

But now there is a PHP package available that handles the schema check and communication can be done by either REST or SOAP (the preferred method would now seem to be REST seeing as it has better error handling and doesn’t trigger a fatal error if a soap client can’t be created).

Plugging that package in as a vendor should be dead easy (although it does need a few little mods and upgrades of its own first) and then it’ll be just a case of writing a component and helper to make use of it.

Hopefully I’ll have something ready this week so you’ll be able to mobilize your real world cake apps!

Let me know if you have any ideas for how it should be built – as a component & helper? Maybe a plugin? Or just keep it as a vendor.. or maybe all of the above!

WordPress on Load Balanced Servers

Rich Gubby — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 17:49:06 +0000

Picture the scene, you’ve had a great idea for a blog and have decided to use WordPress as your blogging software of choice. And as you’re going to be getting an insane amount of visitors (after all, you’ve got a great idea, right?) you’ve decided to buy some decent hardware to cope with the traffic.

The setup you’d probably go for is some sort of load balanced setup, with multiple web servers and possibly a couple of database servers behind the scenes. You should also be thinking about the wonders of virtualization and all the benefits that brings but that’s for another day.

Having multiple web servers brings about its own set of issues. Your blog code needs to be deployed to all web servers (preferably at the same time) so that if you get visitors that happen to hit different machines, you give them the same experience.

Deployments and Uploads

But that’s not so much of a problem – you could deploy code to all servers with Ant or Capistrano, or even write your own system to do it exactly to your requirements.

However, in this kind of setup, you’re going to come unstuck with plugins, themes and uploads. WordPress has an awesome upload utility, but the file you select from your local computer will get uploaded to a location on a single machine in your server farm. When a visitor lands on a different machine, they won’t see the upload. If you’re using the automatic add plugin or theme wizard built into the newer version of WordPress then it’s the same situation.

Link to NFS locations

But the situation is not nearly as dire as you may think though. There are loads of ways to combat it – and it’s a piece of cake if you’re using Linux! The easiest way is to create an NFS share on web server 1 and link to it on web server 2 so that the “/plugins” directory on 2 actually points to the location on 1. Easy!

If you’ve got a file server, even better – create your NFS on there and link to that location instead so that content really is separate from your code!

With windows it’s just as easy with shared directories – same principle, just a different terminology.

The only issue you’ve got left is that some plugins may have the paths to their files built slightly oddly so that they load the wrong files. But then, if you’ve got errors with the plugins, it may be time to look for alternatives!

Have you had any problems with WordPress on load balanced servers? How did you solve it or did you choose another setup?

When is a bug not a bug?

Rich Gubby — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 19:59:21 +0000

I used to work with someone who said that most bugs in software didn’t exist.

His reckoning was down to the fact that most specifications for functionality aren’t tight enough. For example, if the spec for an adding function was to add two numbers together, adding 5 and 9 together and returning a value of 162 was acceptable. Even returning nothing, or null, or a gazillion was also ok. The specification should have said that the function had to add two numbers and return the correct mathematical result.

For a developer, this is great news. You don’t have bugs anymore, you have “undocumented features”. Feature specifications get better and it’s easier to write code that satisfies the requirements.

It’s a bug!

But I personally think blaming bugs, and they are bugs, on the specification writers is lazy. Bug reporters, whether they are developers or not can get quickly hacked off with being told that an error they’ve found isn’t actually a bug, but it’s the fact that it’s actually been implemented exactly to spec.

A bit of common sense in all of this is definitely required. If you need an adding function, it’s obvious to anyone that it should return the result. If the spec doesn’t say so, just do it and move on.

And if you need a function to return the results of whether a visitor is a mobile device or not, it’s probably wise to actually return the value rather than store it in a cookie. Oops!

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REST or SOAP? Or don’t care?

Rich Gubby — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 20:05:01 +0000

I think we’ve realised at Wapple that when it comes to web services, not everyone always has the same level of technology that we have at our finger tips and completely take for granted.

Take my Wapple Architect Mobile Plugin for WordPress for example, and the way it used to communicate with Wapple’s web services. It used to use SOAP simply because that was the protocol we chose to employ as our means for delivering web services.

SOAP is not always available!

Now don’t get me wrong, what we’ve got is a really smart, well-designed and developed web service that’s both extensible and easy to use. But the fact was that if you hadn’t got SOAP, you wouldn’t be able to use it. And if you’d only got a shared host available, you might not be lucky enough to have a decent one like me (Evohosting) who allow you to install SOAP on your server.

So what we’ve done is to create corresponding REST web services so you can use Wapple Architect and your dev key, but either request data through a URL by modifying a query string, or through a POST request with something like curl.

Nothing can stop you now!

This is fantastic news all round. For developers who are experimenting with Architect, it’s even easier to develop. And as we’ve already incorporated this new technology into our plugins for WordPress and Joomla, you can use it even if you don’t want to delve into code!

The latest release of the WordPress mobile plugin is out now (version 1.4) – have a read of the full feature list and the new REST web service support in an article over at Mobile Web Junkie.

On a more general note, what do you prefer to use, SOAP or REST? Or maybe XMLRPC? If you haven’t got a clue about any of this but would still like to have a go at leaving a suitably technical comment, here’s a few words you may want to include: “combobulating”, “aerodynamics” and “flux capacitor”.

Clouds.. thousands of em..

Rich Gubby — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 19:47:11 +0000

Not so long ago, the Wapple website had clouds.

Unfortuntely, the powers that be decided that the new version didn’t need them, so rather than sulk about it (ok I did sulk a bit) I’ve turned those hand crafted cumulo nimbii into a WordPress plugin!

All that work designing the clouds, making sure they appear at random locations and animating them so they move across the screen as if blown by a category 5 hurricane. None of it has gone to waste now it’s available for everyone!

Best of all, there’s a hot air balloon that appears at a random time and moves across your site from bottom-right to top-left!

Clouds on WordPress

Any day now, WordPress will approve my plugin (and lets face it – who wouldn’t want clouds on their site!) and you’ll be able to search for clouds when installing a plugin! But in the mean time, all of that cloud goodness is available for all to see on here! (They’re the white fluffy things at the top of the page incase you missed them).

By the way, keep your eyes peeled for any other flying objects appearing (other than the balloon) – if you spot them feel very privileged as they only appear to a chosen few!

If you’ve got any suggestions for other things that fly – Elliot on his bicycle with ET in the basket or a bi-plane are 2 that spring to mind – let me know and I’ll try and include it!

There are a couple that will appear and some other suggestions for new ones would be more than welcome. A bicycling Elliot with an ET in the basket? Easy! Maybe a bi-plane or something more exotic. If you’ve got any suggestions let me know!

WordPress Mobile Plugin Version 1.2 is here

Top 5 WordPress Plugins

Rich Gubby — Sun, 02 Aug 2009 16:49:56 +0000

It seems as if every man and his dog is writing a “top 5 plugins for wordpress” – the problem is they all sound the same and there’s never anything new. So as I’m a bit late to WP party, my list will be all about plugins that have got me up and running in my early days as a blogger.

YARPP

“Returns a list of related entries based on a unique algorithm for display on your blog and RSS feeds.”

Does exactly what it says on the tin – great for keeping readers on your site with links they might be interested in.
Read more…

Wapple Architect Mobile Plugin for WordPress

“Mobilizing your wordpress site using Wapple Architect and WAPL.”

I’m a little biased on this one as I wrote it, but I’ve used other mobile plugins for WordPress and not wishing to blow ones own trumpet, mine is way better. Its got more features, doesn’t forward you off to another URL, retains the look and feel of your web theme and much more.
Read more

Developer Formatter

“Developer Formatter system to WordPress”

If you want to quote some code in your post, I’ve not found a plugin better than the Developer Formatter to do it. Others tend to chop things off and have a bit of a flid when switching from Visual to HTML mode but not this one. Top Marks.
Read more

Google Analyticator

“Adds the necessary JavaScript code to enable Google’s Analytics”

Who doesn’t like looking at stats? Ok, it might be just me then. But still, it’s always good to know who’s been visiting your blog and this plugin integrates with the best Analytics software out there.
Read more

Twitter Tools

“A complete integration between your WordPress blog and Twitter”

Finally, Twitter tools – easily put your latest tweets on your sidebar. Dead easy to setup and works a treat – great stuff!
Read more

That’s it – 5 great tools that once setup, keep your visitors on your site, make sure any mobile visitors get a great experience, show nice looking code to them, let your readers know what you’re up to and finally track where they’re coming from!

Let me know what you think of my list and if there’s any you feel should be on there!

WordPress Mobile Plugin 1.2.1

Rich Gubby — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 18:13:19 +0000

So it turns out that there’s a little bug with script tags on certain blogs using my Wapple Architect Mobile plugin for WordPress.

Not a problem as WordPress allows you to release new versions that actually prompt an admin to upgrade, groovy!

So without further ado, version 1.2.1 is released. Here’s a link to the install guide so you can get cracking with your upgrade to make sure your blog is in tip top condition!

Your blog probably already works, it’s only when combined with an exceptional set of circumstances rarer than a Honey Badger that it’ll look a bit screwy!

WordPress Mobile Plugin Version 1.2 is here

Rich Gubby — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 18:23:43 +0000

Cue the drum rolls and roll out the red carpet as yesterday heralded the arrival of version 1.2 of the Wapple Architect mobile plugin for WordPress.

It’s got all of the bells and whistles that you’d ever need to create stunning looking mobile blogs and you’ve now got unprecedented levels of customization at your disposal!

If you want an example of it in action, check out this blog on your phone – I’ve even provided you with a handy QR code for you to scan with your mobile phone! If you haven’t got a data matrix reader on your phone, get one from Kaywa.

If you want to read all about it and get the full low down on what’s been included and what hasn’t, check out the release article at Mobile Web Junkie – here’s the link.

Let me know what you think of Red Yellow on mobile – I’m always looking for suggestions to improve it (and yes, putting Cactuses, Cactii in the footer is in the pipeline!)

Video transcoding, Darwin and the iPhone

Rich Gubby — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 19:53:58 +0000

Project Balti. That name won’t mean a great deal to anyone outside of Wapple HQ, but to those few in the know, it means just one thing – a video transcoding and streaming media solution.

The first part of the project brief was to be able to give Wapple Canvas users the ability to upload a single source video, be that in MP4, 3GP, AVI or whatever, and transcode it into multiple formats. Those formats should be configurable as should resolutions and bitrates – the ability to auto generate thumbnails and place assets into categories and content sets was also a requirement.

On it’s own it’s an enormous project, but in addition to this, all those videos have to be streamable! Aye Carumba!

64-bit install = nightmare!

I’d made a few comments in my article about setting up a Darwin Streaming Server – about how easy it was to install and how you can get up and running in no time, but I may have been a little bit hasty. Configuring DSS on a 64-bit linux machine means you have to apply a number of patches to the source code and compile it rather than go through the handy install file for 32-bit.

Pretty hardcore I’m sure you’ll agree, but I found this awesome tutorial on how to do it – have a read of it here, it’ll explain it a lot better than I can.

As for ffmpeg – to get it running with a decent set of video and audio codecs, you have to install a load of packages (or windows libraries if you’re that way inclined), but get those installed and you’re set and ready to go.

Ffmpeg, perl and crons

If you’ve got a perl script to run ffmpeg transcoding and need to run it in the background, you’ll need a few extra options when starting off your script otherwise it’ll hang at the ffmpeg command and not actually do anything! Your kick-off command should look a bit like this:

$ perl transcode.pl /dev/null &

And if you put it in a cron don’t forget to include the full paths to both perl and your video transcode script.

Streaming now works perfectly to every handset that supports it as well as a few that don’t – we’ve even got embedded iPhone videos with a little play button on top of the video thumbnail! Rock on!

If you’re a budding Steven Spielberg and fancy creating a load of different videos in a multitude of formats and bitrates, sign up for a free Wapple Canvas account and get to it!