My Web Experiences

Stop apache showing incomplete urls

Written on May 22, 2008 – 9:51 pm | by Rene

Apache was showing files even if i didn’t put the extension on the url, that behavior was messing with a mod rewrite rule i was working on. To solve this we just add the line below to the .htaccess file and that’s it apache will stop showing incomplete urls

Options -MultiViews

Tags: Apache, url

Posted in Apache | No Comments »

Vaga – free icon set

Written on April 8, 2008 – 11:40 am | by Rene

Today i found on the web a free icon set called vaga, that you can use for personal or commercial projects, it contains 60 icons 16×16

Posted in Resources | No Comments »

Show videos on your site using PERL and Youtube API

Written on April 1, 2008 – 11:34 pm | by Rene

This tutorial uses an old Youtube API, after google acquired Youtube a new API was released

In this brief tutorial i will show you how to show videos from youtube on you web page using PERL and Youtube API, the idea of the script is that it will show by default the favorites videos of some users, and you will be able to navigate to the tags you specify.

For this script we will use some libraries from the CPAN:

CGI we will use to get the data send by GET
Template toolkit This is an excellent template library
XML:DOM this library will help us to parse the XML file that is returned by youtube
LWP::UserAgent This is needed by XML:DOM to parse the files in remote locations
Unicode::String We will use this to convert data to UTF8

Click here to see this script in action.

Download the code

index.pl this is the perl script.

#!/usr/bin/perl
use CGI;
use Template;
use XML::DOM;
use LWP::UserAgent;
use POSIX qw(strftime);
use Unicode::String;
# you have to sign up to get a developer id
my $devId = ‘developerid’;
# we will show the favorites videos of this user as front page
my $userFavorites = ‘someuser’;
# this is an array of the tags we will allow to navigate throw
my %tags = (
‘tlaxcala’=>‘Tlaxcala’,
‘huamantla’=>‘Huamantla’,
‘huamantlada’=>‘Huamantlada’,
‘feria huamantla’=>‘Feria Huamantla’,
‘cacaxtla’=>‘Cacaxtla’,
‘apizaco’=>‘Apizaco’,
‘tlaxco’=>‘Tlaxco’,
‘feria tlaxcala’=>‘Feria Tlaxcala’
);
my $query = new CGI;
my $action = $query->param(‘action’);
my @videos = ();
my $total = 0;
my $values = {};
my $url;
my $tt = Template->new;
print "Content-type: text/html;charset=UTF-8\n\n";
SWITCH:{
if( $action eq ‘view’ ) {
$values{‘video’}=$query->param(‘video’);
my @comments = ();
# here we start parsing the XML
my $parser = XML::DOM::Parser->new();
my $doc = $parser->parsefile(‘http://www.youtube.com/api2_rest?method=youtube.videos.get_details&dev_id=FIq6LWxC3RE&video_id=’ . $values{‘video’} );
# we put this on eval to avoid errors
eval{
# here i add all the commets to an array
foreach my $comment ($doc->getElementsByTagName(‘comment’)){
my @date = localtime( $comment->getElementsByTagName(‘time’)->item(0)->getFirstChild->getNodeValue );
push @comments, {
author=>Unicode::String::utf8($comment->getElementsByTagName(‘author’)->item(0)->getFirstChild->getNodeValue),
text=>Unicode::String::utf8($comment->getElementsByTagName(‘text’)->item(0)->getFirstChild->getNodeValue),
time=>strftime( ‘%r’, @date ),
date=>strftime( ‘%d-%m-%Y’, @date )
};
}
# here i format the video time
my( $seconds,$hours,$minutes );
$seconds = $doc->getElementsByTagName(‘length_seconds’)->item(0)->getFirstChild->getNodeValue;
( $hours, $seconds ) = ( int( $seconds/3600 ), $seconds % 3600 );
( $minutes, $seconds ) = ( int( $seconds/60 ), $seconds % 60 );
# here i create an array of the data i will use and show the page using template toolkit
my %data = (
video=>$values{‘video’},
title=>Unicode::String::utf8($doc->getElementsByTagName(‘title’)->item(0)->getFirstChild->getNodeValue),
author=>Unicode::String::utf8($doc->getElementsByTagName(‘author’)->item(0)->getFirstChild->getNodeValue),
rating_avg=>$doc->getElementsByTagName(‘rating_avg’)->item(0)->getFirstChild->getNodeValue,
tags=>Unicode::String::utf8($doc->getElementsByTagName(‘tags’)->item(0)->getFirstChild->getNodeValue),
description=>Unicode::String::utf8($doc->getElementsByTagName(‘description’)->item(0)->getFirstChild->getNodeValue),
time=>sprintf( ‘%02s:%02s:%02s’, $hours,$minutes, $seconds),
comments=>\@comments
);
$tt->process( ‘videos_view.tt’, \%data ) || die $tt->error;
};
last SWITCH;
}
$values{‘page’}=$query->param(‘page’);
$values{‘tag’}=$query->param(‘tag’);
if( $values{‘tag’} eq ” ) {
# i show the favorites of the user
$url=‘http://www.youtube.com/api2_rest?method=youtube.users.list_favorite_videos&dev_id=FIq6LWxC3RE&user=’ . $userFavorites;
} else {
$values{‘page’}=’1′ if( $values{‘page’} eq ”);
# here i get videos by tab
$url=‘http://www.youtube.com/api2_rest?method=youtube.videos.list_by_tag&dev_id=FIq6LWxC3RE&tag=’ . $values{‘tag’} . ‘&page=’ . $values{‘page’} . ‘&per_page=20′;
# since the api dosent support paging, i see if the next xml has data, to show next link
$nextXML=‘http://www.youtube.com/api2_rest?method=youtube.videos.list_by_tag&dev_id=FIq6LWxC3RE&tag=’ . $values{‘tag’} . ‘&page=’ . ( $values{‘page’} + 1 ) . ‘&per_page=20′;
}
my $parser = XML::DOM::Parser->new();
# we put this on eval to avoid errors
eval {
my $doc = $parser->parsefile($url);
# here i create an array with the info for videos
foreach $video ($doc->getElementsByTagName(‘video’)){
push @videos, {
‘author’=>Unicode::String::utf8($video->getElementsByTagName(‘author’)->item(0)->getFirstChild->getNodeValue),
‘id’=>$video->getElementsByTagName(‘id’)->item(0)->getFirstChild->getNodeValue,
‘title’=>Unicode::String::utf8($video->getElementsByTagName(‘title’)->item(0)->getFirstChild->getNodeValue),
‘length_seconds’=>$video->getElementsByTagName(‘length_seconds’)->item(0)->getFirstChild->getNodeValue,
‘rating_avg’=>$video->getElementsByTagName(‘rating_avg’)->item(0)->getFirstChild->getNodeValue,
‘rating_count’=>$video->getElementsByTagName(‘rating_count’)->item(0)->getFirstChild->getNodeValue,
‘description’=>Unicode::String::utf8($video->getElementsByTagName(‘description’)->item(0)->getFirstChild->getNodeValue),
‘view_count’=>$video->getElementsByTagName(‘view_count’)->item(0)->getFirstChild->getNodeValue,
‘upload_time’=>$video->getElementsByTagName(‘upload_time’)->item(0)->getFirstChild->getNodeValue,
‘comment_count’=>$video->getElementsByTagName(‘comment_count’)->item(0)->getFirstChild->getNodeValue,
‘tags’=>Unicode::String::utf8($video->getElementsByTagName(‘tags’)->item(0)->getFirstChild->getNodeValue),
‘url’=>$video->getElementsByTagName(‘url’)->item(0)->getFirstChild->getNodeValue,
‘thumbnail_url’=>$video->getElementsByTagName(‘thumbnail_url’)->item(0)->getFirstChild->getNodeValue
};
}
if( defined( $nextXML ) ){
my $doc2 = $parser->parsefile($nextXML);
$total = @{ $doc2->getElementsByTagName(‘video’) };
}
};
my %data = (
total=>$total,
tag=>$values{‘tag’},
tags=>\%tags,
videos=>\@videos,
page=>$values{‘page’}
);
# i show the page using template toolkit
$tt->process( ‘videos_list.tt’, \%data ) || die $tt->error;
}

videos_list.tt The template where we see the list of videos.

<ul id="videosList">
[% FOREACH videos %]
<li>
<a href="index.pl?action=view&video=[% id %]"><img src="[% thumbnail_url %]" /></a>
<h2><a href="index.pl?action=view&video=[% id %]">[% title %]</a></h2>
<p>[% description %]</p>
</li>
[% END %]
</ul>
<div align="center">
[% IF tag || ( page>1 && total>0 ) %]
[% IF ( page > 1 ) %]
<a href="index.pl?tag=[% tag %]&page=[% (page - 1) %]" alt="Previous" title="Previous">Previous</a>
[% END %]
[% IF total>0 %]
<a href="index.pl?tag=[% tag %]&page=[% (page + 1) %]" alt="Next" title=‘Next’>Next</a>
[% END %]
[% END %]
[% IF tag == '' %]Favorites[% ELSE %]<a href="index.pl">Favorites</a>[% END %]
[% FOREACH key = tags.keys %]
|| [% IF tag == key %][% tags.$key %][% ELSE %]<a href="index.pl?tag=[% key %]">[% tags.$key %]</a>[% END %]
[% END %]
</div>

videos_view.tt The template where we see a specific video.

<h1>[% title %]</h1>
<div align="center">
<object width="425" height="350"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/[% video %]"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/[% video %]" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="350"></embed></object>
</div>
<strong>Author:</strong> <a href="http://www.youtube.com/user/[% author %]" target="_blank">[% author %]</a>
<strong>Rating:</strong> [% rating_avg %]
<strong>Tags:</strong> [% tags %]
<strong>Time:</strong> [% time %]
<p>
[% description %]
</p>
[% IF comments.size > 0 %]
<h2>Comments</h2>
[% FOREACH comment=comments %]
<div class=‘textoComentarios’>[% comment.text %]</div>
<div class=‘pieComentarios’>
| By <a href=‘http://www.youtube.com/user/[% comentario.author %]‘>[% comment.author %]</a> | [% comment.date %] | [% comment.time %] |
</div>
[% END %]
[% END %]

Tags: PERL, video, youtube

Posted in APIs, PERL | 1 Comment »

WordPress 2.5

Written on March 31, 2008 – 11:00 pm | by Rene

Wordpress 2.5 have been released, and i have just upgraded this blog to use this new version, i really like it! it looks a lot cleaner, includes built in gallery support, and a lot of new features that you can read here

Tags: release, wordpress

Posted in CMS | 1 Comment »

Force download in apache

Written on February 27, 2008 – 12:31 am | by Rene

if you want to force certain kind of files to pop up the save as dialog box, you have to add the AddType directive with the value application/octet-stream to the .htaccess file like this:

AddType application/octet-stream .csv
AddType application/octet-stream .xls
AddType application/octet-stream .doc
AddType application/octet-stream .avi
AddType application/octet-stream .mpg
AddType application/octet-stream .mov
AddType application/octet-stream .pdf

and that’s all, now everything works fine

Posted in Apache | 1 Comment »

Configure ubuntu to use mod_rewrite

Written on February 12, 2008 – 11:58 pm | by Rene

To enable mod_rewrite on Ubuntu is pretty easy what we have to do is, first we enable the apache module for mod rewrite with this line.

sudo a2enmod rewrite

After that we have to edit the file /etc/apache2/sites-avalible/default, then we look for this:

<Directory /var/www/>
Options Indexes FollowSymLinks MultiViews
AllowOverride None
Order allow,deny
allow from all
# This directive allows us to have apache2′s default start page
# in /apache2-default/, but still have / go to the right place
#RedirectMatch ^/$ /apache2-default/
</Directory>

And then we replace “AllowOverride None” by “AllowOverride All”, this line tells apache to read the .htaccess file, that is the file where we will put our rewrite rules.

<Directory /var/www/>
Options Indexes FollowSymLinks MultiViews
AllowOverride All
Order allow,deny
allow from all
# This directive allows us to have apache2′s default start page
# in /apache2-default/, but still have / go to the right place
#RedirectMatch ^/$ /apache2-default/
</Directory>

finally we just reload apache

sudo /etc/init.d/apache2 restart

now we have pretty urls for our sites. :)

Posted in Apache | 4 Comments »

Send a post request to a popup

Written on January 26, 2008 – 1:11 am | by Rene

Today i want to send the post request from a form to a pop up window and the solution is pretty simple first we have to create our form and then we add a target attribute where we specify the name that our popup window will have second we add a onsumbit call to the form that will popup the new window and submit the form we also have to assign and id to our form that will be usefull when calling the function that popup the windows

<form action="index.php" method="post" target="windowName" onsubmit="return postPopup();" id="postForm">
<input type="text" name="value1" />
<input type="text" name="value2" />
<!– put all the form elements here –>
<input type="submit" />
</form>

<script type="text/javascript">
function postPopup( formElem ) {
// here we popup the new window, the second attribute have to be the same as the form target attribute
window.open( ”, ‘windowName’, ‘width=800, height=400, resizable=yes, scrollbars=yes, toolbar=no, location=no, directories=no, status=no, menubar=no’ );
// we submit the form 50 milliseconds after so the browser creates the popup
setTimeout("document.getElementById(‘postForm’).submit();",50);
// we stop the regurar form submit
return false;
}
</script>

Posted in Javascript | 1 Comment »

Real housewives write extensions.

Written on December 12, 2007 – 1:48 am | by Rene

One of the firefox extensions that i have installed is View Source Chart wich as said on the extension page “Draws A Color-Coded Chart of a Web Page’s Source Cod” what i like about it, is that it displays the html generated by javascript and the original code, not only the code viewable with the “view source” option.

i was using it when i realized that at the very bottom there is a hided message “Real housewives write extensions”, i attached an image of that message

Posted in Firefox | 2 Comments »

What is this?

Written on September 18, 2006 – 11:20 pm | by Rene

What is this all about?

Well i am a Mexican computer science engineer, focused on web development, i like to work with perl, php, css, xhtml, javascript, ajax, etc. and this will be my playground. Where i will put my experiences while i am working, learning and living from web development.

My first languaje is not english, so if something is not well written please let me know

Posted in General | No Comments »

Pages
Archives
Categories
- AJAX
- Apache
- APIs
- CMS
- Firefox
- General
- IE
- Javascript
- Linux
- PERL
- Resources
Blogroll
- My Personal Blog
- Where do i live?
Meta
- Log in
- Valid XHTML
- XFN
- WordPress

Recent Comments
- Laurence Mellison on Use google docs to embed PDF documents and PowerPoint presentations on your site
- tuba on Force download in apache
- John Lees on Configure Apache to serve PERL pages ( Ubuntu )
- jitesh on Configure Apache to serve PERL pages ( Ubuntu )
- Jameson Williams on Configure Apache to serve PERL pages ( Ubuntu )
Recent Posts
Calendar

February 2012

M T W T F S S

« Jan

1 2 3 4 5

6 7 8 9 10 11 12

13 14 15 16 17 18 19

20 21 22 23 24 25 26

27 28 29

February 2012
M	T	W	T	F	S	S
« Jan
		1	2	3	4	5
6	7	8	9	10	11	12
13	14	15	16	17	18	19
20	21	22	23	24	25	26
27	28	29

Pages

Archives

Categories

Blogroll

Meta

Recent Comments

Recent Posts

Calendar