Organized Chaotic Space

Advance form-> Write to multiple tables in one form

2011-07-31T00:19:00.001-07:00

http://www.symfony-project.org/more-with-symfony/1_4/en/06-Advanced-Forms

xdebug for symfony testing

2011-07-28T17:25:00.000-07:00

Update: The latest version of mamp already comes with xdebug so all we need to do is just to uncomment that xdebug line in php.ini.

http://oldforum.symfony-project.org/index.php/t/18326/

Download revised version of xdebug from Komodo

Replace the xdebug.so from MAMP php lib folder (e.g. /Applications/MAMP/bin/php5/lib/)

uncomment the xdebug line from the php.ini file.

Restart apache and the test should run~

Layout and template system in Symfony

2011-07-20T21:30:00.000-07:00

CSS

view.yml (under apps/frontend/config/) defines which css file to be used as default.

Multiple default css files could be included in view.yml.

To customize a specific css file for a specific module and action, we can create a view.yml file under apps/frontend/modules/"module name"/config/

For instance, we have a job module, to specify which css to be used, we can create the following view.yml in apps/frontend/modules/job/config/

How does the final html actually being generated and presented to the user? Here's the flow.

Request from user->routing based on the requested URL->action.class.php analyze which action to be taken->select the appropriate template-> combine the content through actiona nd template->page back to user.

If we take a look at the file actions.class.php, there are different functions like

executeIndex, executeShow, executeNew

The string after "execute" are the actual action, which usually refer to the URL sent by the user.

For instance, if you type http://localhost:8080/job/new

the executeNew function will be triggered, and the "newSuccess.php" template will be loaded.

Data model in Symfony using Doctrine (ORM)

2011-07-20T21:07:00.001-07:00

In day 3 of the book (Practical Symfony), a data model was created using an Doctrine, a kind of ORM, It looks pretty complicate at the first sight, but prove to be very handy after a while.

In fact Doctrine make use of another language (YAML) to deal with schema definition. The relationship between Doctrine and YAML could be found here.

In Symfony, in order to define your data model (which is fundamentally the relational database schema), the first file you need to hack in is the schema.yml which is placed under (config/doctrine/)

I followed the instruction in Practical Symfony book, which define the whole database and its relation in YAML format. But you can do a reverse Doctrine generate through symfony doctrine:build-schema, which essentially build the YAML file based on your existing mysql structure. Mind you you have to define the right foreign key and define the database info in databases.yml (in config/) first.

Here's the really cool thing about Symfony, php database objects generation.

symfony doctrine:build --model (generate models files)

symfony doctrine:build --sql (generate sql for inserting data models to SQL)

symfony doctrine:insert-sql (quite obvious, isn't it?)

Alternatively, all these steps could be compress to a simple

symfony doctrine:build --all command

So the database tables has been built, but we still need to load some data into the DB to get it to work. You're right, we need another YAML file. These files are put in /data/fixtures

For instance if we're going to put some data in the obeetCategory table, we can create a file like the following:

JobeetCategory:   actAs: { Timestampable: ~ }   columns:     name: { type: string(255), notnull: true, unique: true }

We can do the same for creating other yml files for other tables, and put it in the folder (data/fixture/)

After all the yml files are created, we can now run the following command and load the initial data in the database

symfony doctrine:data-load

Before we see the miracle of symfony, we need to run one more command to generate the nessceary php files in the module folder.

symfony doctrine:generate-module --with-show --non-verbose-templates frontend job JobeetJob

Now if we check the module folder (apps/frontend/modules/), a new folder (job/) is created with actions and templates in it.

Visit the following URL to have a taste of Symfony

http://localhost/frontend_dev.php/job

Viola, it's already working!

Symfony note (Basic project setup)

2011-07-20T20:26:00.000-07:00

Some basic setup of symfony projects

Download and install symfony

Create a project directory (e.g. /project/symfony/projectx)

in the project path (/project/symfony/projectx), run the following command

symfony generate:project "name of your project", in this case

symfony generate:project projectx

Change the permission of cache and log to 777 (Make sure they are not in your web root)

chmod 777 log/ cache/

Download the symfony framework and unzip it in the lib/vendor (need to be created) folder of your project

in this case /project/symfony/projectx/lib/vendor/symfony

Define the new site in httpd.conf (refer to Practical Symfony 1.4 Doctrine version Day 2 exercise)

Link the image folder through adding a Location directive in httpd

You should now be able to access your site through http://localhost:8080/

Install Symfony framework in OSX with MAMP

2011-07-08T22:23:00.001-07:00

http://www.tech-recipes.com/rx/2884/os_x_how_to_install_symfony_into_mamp/

PEAR configuration

2011-07-08T22:22:00.001-07:00

To configure pear (PHP related framework)

http://pear.php.net/manual/en/guide.users.commandline.config.php

Disable preview in mac mail

2010-08-02T19:14:00.001-07:00

from http://micahgilman.com/play/disable-mac-mailapp-inline-image-attachments/

In terminal, enter the following command and restart mail app.
defaults write com.apple.mail DisableInlineAttachmentViewing -bool no



defaults write com.apple.mail DisableInlineAttachmentViewing -bool yes

Change Thunderbird attachment pane position

2010-02-08T20:55:00.001-08:00

http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic.php?f=39&t=397534

Game and interactivity, an essay

2009-11-09T04:30:00.000-08:00

http://www.electronicbookreview.com/thread/firstperson/ludican-do

Regular expression in Dreamweaver (highslide javascript)

2009-11-05T17:39:00.000-08:00

Using the following script in Dreamweaver to add highslide javascript to picture for slide show effects.

Find


(<img src=[^>]*)("[^>]*")([^>]width=*[^>]*")([^>]*" height=*[^>]*")( />)

Replace with (remember to remove all alt="" tag before running in order to retrieve all image path correctly.

<a href=$2 class="highslide" onclick="return hs.expand(this)">$1$2$3$4$5</a>

Adobe AIR (Webcam Capture)

2009-08-24T00:45:00.000-07:00

http://imm.sheridanc.on.ca/air/info.php?year=2008&creator=irfan

Java screen capture + print service

2009-02-20T19:06:00.000-08:00

Screen capture using Java (also work in processing)

[link]

Printing image without using dialog box (in processing)

[link]

Spectrum analysis (Max/MSP)

2009-02-12T09:45:00.001-08:00

http://web.arch.usyd.edu.au/~alom9080/DECO2012_files/Analysis%20Introduction.pdf

LM386 amplifier

2009-02-03T02:10:00.000-08:00

Simple LM386 amplifier

How to build a theremin- final project from someone

2009-01-14T08:01:00.000-08:00

A really nice article for theremin introduction
http://www.theremin.rwi.org.uk/dload/REPORT.PDF

Physics and electronics teaching resources

2009-01-13T04:37:00.001-08:00

http://www.phy.cuhk.edu.hk/phyworld/resources/index.html

DVD to Final Cut Pro

2009-01-11T18:33:00.000-08:00

Original Thread
http://forum.videohelp.com/topic292626.html

PgcDemux (For PC)
http://www.videohelp.com/tools/PgcDemux

MPEG_StreamClip (For Mac)
http://www.videohelp.com/tools/MPEG_StreamClip

DTMF + radio frequency remote control

2009-01-07T02:23:00.000-08:00

OK, question time, what are you going to do if you're not allowed to use digital wireless network for remote control?

Answer, use an analog one.

Here's the best I got so far..

A simple 4-ways switch using DTMF->BCD convertor

http://www.electronic-circuits-diagrams.com/remotecontrolsimages/remotecontrolsckt5.shtml

Another blog with a lot of information about RF DTMF control

http://radio-control-schematics.blogspot.com

Using SkypeAPI in Processing

2008-12-11T01:51:00.000-08:00

When helping a friend (my previous student) on her final project, I tried to use the SkypeAPI for Java in Processing, and finally got it work in windows XP using Processing 1.0 (Finally ... well I didn't know they released the 1.0 version until last week).

Platform and system specifics:

OS- Windows XP

Processing version- Processing 1.0 (Without Java)

Sun JDK (NOT JRE!) version- 1.6 rev 11

Skype API for Java- Latest code in tar ball [link]

Skype ver 2.0 or above

Installation steps:

1) Do the usual setup for Processing and JDK, expand the tarball to a new folder.

2) In the sketch folder (in Processing version 1.0 only!), create the following file structure

-- libraries
   -- skype
   -- library
   |-- skype.jar (copy from folder Skype->release)
   |-- swt.jar (copy from Skype->lib->window)
   |-- winp.jar (copy from Skype->lib->window)
   |--libskype.jnilib (copy from Skype->res

3) Copy the file skype.dll to c:/windows/system32

4) Start Processing, now you should see an option for importing skype library in import->libraries

5) Start Skype, test the following code in skype

import com.skype.connector.windows.*;
import com.skype.connector.test.*;
import com.skype.connector.*;
import com.skype.connector.linux.*;
import com.skype.*;
import com.skype.connector.osx.*;
import com.skype.connector.win32.*;

void setup(){
  try{
  Skype.call("+8521878200");
  }catch (Exception e){
    e.printStackTrace();
  }
}

void draw(){
}

Using AT commands + serial port to control mobile phone from processing

2008-12-04T19:42:00.000-08:00

import processing.serial.*;

Serial mobilePort;

void setup(){
println(Serial.list());
 mobilePort=new Serial(this, Serial.list()[9], 9600);  
 size(400, 400);
}

void draw(){
  // Expand array size to the number of bytes you expect
  byte[] inBuffer = new byte[7];
  while (mobilePort.available() > 0) {
    inBuffer = mobilePort.readBytes();
    mobilePort.readBytes(inBuffer);
    if (inBuffer != null) {
      String myString = new String(inBuffer);
      println(myString);
    }
  }
  
}

void mousePressed(){
  //make phone calls
  //mobilePort.write("ATD+1878200;");
 // mobilePort.write("\n\r");

 //Anser phone call
 mobilePort.write("ATA;");
 mobilePort.write("\n\r");
}

Hacked serproxy

2008-12-04T04:22:00.000-08:00

There's a problem with the serproxy program for connecting ports number over 10. Based on the instructions in the arduino forum, I've recompiled the serproxy that overcome this problem.

You can download it from here

Asterisk + GSM phone as modem

2008-12-03T19:16:00.001-08:00

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=166617&highlight=nokia+modem

Using ubuntu + wvdial + asterisk for sms!

Calibration for Sharp GP2Y0A700K IR range finder

2008-12-01T02:27:00.000-08:00

A simple applet showing data for calibrating the Sharp GP2Y0A700K

Base on some calibration data, I wrote this applet to show the relationship between voltage reading and range of the GP2Y0A700K IR sensor [link]

A simple screenCap

Calculate activity level base on differenceImage() in JMyron

2008-11-30T19:49:00.000-08:00

The code below use the function differenceImage in JMyron to calculate activity level.

(Skeleton based on Rijk's contriubution)


import JMyron.*;

JMyron m;//a camera object

int numPixels;


void setup(){
  size(320,240);
  m = new JMyron();//make a new instance of the object
  m.start(width,height);//start a capture at 320x240

//  m.findGlobs(0);//disable the intelligence to speed up frame rate
  println("Myron " + m.version()); 
  numPixels = width * height;
  // Create an array to store the previously captured frame
  previousFrame = new int[numPixels];
  currentFrame=new int[numPixels];
//  m.adaptivity(0.5);
}


void draw(){
  //count of non-black image (base on the differenceImage array)
    int nonBlackCount=0;
  m.update();//update the camera view
  loadPixels();
  int[] diffFrame = m.differenceImage(); //get the current image of the camera
  for (int i=0; i<diffFrame.length; i++){
    pixels[i]=diffFrame[i];
    if((red(diffFrame[i])!=0)&&(green(diffFrame[i])!=0)&&(blue(diffFrame[i]))!=0){
      nonBlackCount++;
    }
  }
}


void mousePressed(){
}

public void stop(){
  m.stop();//stop the object
  super.stop();
}

Change color of movieclip (Actionscipt 2.0)

2008-11-30T08:14:00.001-08:00

Here's the Code for changing color of a movieclip (given the movieclip is in white color)

changeMCColor=function (_mcName:String, _red:Number, _green:Number, _blue:Number, _newAlpha:Number){

// trace("_xmouse/Stage.width: "+_xmouse/Stage.width);
// var xPercent:Number = 1 - (_xmouse/Stage.width);
// var yPercent:Number = 1 - (_ymouse/Stage.height);
var matrix:Array = new Array();
if((_red>1)||(_green>1)||(_blue>1)||(_newAlpha>1)){//for 255 case
matrix = matrix.concat([_red/255, 0, 0, 0, 0]); // red
matrix = matrix.concat([0, _green/255, 0, 0, 0]); // green
matrix = matrix.concat([0, 0, _blue/255, 0, 0]); // blue
matrix = matrix.concat([0, 0, 0, _newAlpha/255, 0]); // alpha
}else{
matrix = matrix.concat([_red, 0, 0, 0, 0]); // red
matrix = matrix.concat([0, _green, 0, 0, 0]); // green
matrix = matrix.concat([0, 0, _blue, 0, 0]); // blue
matrix = matrix.concat([0, 0, 0, _newAlpha, 0]); // alpha
}

var filter:BitmapFilter = new ColorMatrixFilter(matrix);
eval("_root."+_mcName).filters = new Array(filter);
}

Serial message from Arduino to Processing

2008-11-29T02:13:00.000-08:00

In the previous post the example only demonstrate message being sent from Processing to Arduino, in thie example it is the other way around, sending message from Arduino to Processing. This require a little bit formatting from the Arduino side since the serial message could be very complex.
The code here use "===" as separator and ";" as message termination.

Arduino Code

/*
 * Button
 * by DojoDave <http://www.0j0.org>
 *
 * Turns on and off a light emitting diode(LED) connected to digital  
 * pin 13, when pressing a pushbutton attached to pin 7. 
 *
 * http://www.arduino.cc/en/Tutorial/Button
 */
 
int ledPin = 13;                // choose the pin for the LED
int inputPin = 2;               // choose the input pin (for a pushbutton)
int inputPin2 =3;
int val = 0;                    // variable for reading the pin status
int val2 = 0;                    // variable for reading the pin status

void setup() {
  pinMode(ledPin, OUTPUT);      // declare LED as output
  pinMode(inputPin, INPUT);     // declare pushbutton as input
  pinMode(inputPin2, INPUT);     // declare pushbutton as input  
  digitalWrite(inputPin, HIGH);
  digitalWrite(inputPin2, HIGH);  
  Serial.begin(9600);
}

void loop(){
  val = digitalRead(inputPin);  // read input value
  val2 = digitalRead(inputPin2);  // read input value  
  
  if (val == LOW) {            // check if the input is HIGH
    Serial.print("===1");
    digitalWrite(ledPin, LOW);  // turn LED OFF
  } else {
    Serial.print("===0");    
    digitalWrite(ledPin, HIGH); // turn LED ON
  }
  if (val2 == LOW) {            // check if the input is HIGH
    Serial.print("===1;");
    digitalWrite(ledPin, LOW);  // turn LED OFF
  } else {
    Serial.print("===0;");    
    digitalWrite(ledPin, HIGH); // turn LED ON
  }  
  Serial.flush();
  
  
}

Processing Code

/**
 * Simple Read
 * 
 * Read data from the serial port and change the color of a rectangle
 * when a switch connected to a Wiring or Arduino board is pressed and released.
 * This example works with the Wiring / Arduino program that follows below.
 */


import processing.serial.*;

Serial port;  // Create object from Serial class
int val;      // Data received from the serial port

void setup() 
{
  size(200, 200);
  frameRate(10);
  // Open the port that the board is connected to and use the same speed (9600 bps)
  port = new Serial(this,"COM16", 9600);
}

int buttonStatus=0;
void draw()
{
  String serialMsg="";
  if (0 < port.available()) {  // If data is available,
    serialMsg = port.readStringUntil(char(';'));         // read it and store it in val
//    println("serialMsg: "+serialMsg);
  }
  if (serialMsg.split("===").length>2){
    println("serialMsg: "+serialMsg);
//    println("parsedMsg: "+serialMsg.split("===")[1].charAt(0));
    println("status 1: "+int(serialMsg.split("===")[1].charAt(0)-48));
//    println("parsedMsg: "+serialMsg.split("===")[1].charAt(0));
    println("status2: "+int(serialMsg.split("===")[2].charAt(0)-48));    
    buttonStatus=int(serialMsg.split("===")[1].charAt(0)-48);

  }
    port.clear();  
  
  background(255);             // Set background to white
  if (buttonStatus == 0) {              // If the serial value is 0,
    fill(0);                   // set fill to black
  } 
  else {                       // If the serial value is not 0,
    fill(204);                 // set fill to light gray
  }
  rect(50, 50, 100, 100);
}



/*

// Wiring / Arduino Code
// Code for sensing a switch status and writing the value to the serial port.

int switchPin = 4;                       // Switch connected to pin 4

void setup() {
  pinMode(switchPin, INPUT);             // Set pin 0 as an input
  Serial.begin(9600);                    // Start serial communication at 9600 bps
}

void loop() {
  if (digitalRead(switchPin) == HIGH) {  // If switch is ON,
    Serial.print(1, BYTE);               // send 1 to Processing
  } else {                               // If the switch is not ON,
    Serial.print(0, BYTE);               // send 0 to Processing
  }
  delay(100);                            // Wait 100 milliseconds
}

*/

Using Opera for browsing IE only webpage

2008-11-27T22:23:00.000-08:00

Opera->Quick Reference->Edit Sites Preferences -> Network -> Browser Identification -> Identify as IE

Wifi Arduino using Lantronix wiport

2008-11-27T08:29:00.000-08:00

So, what if you want to monitor and control 100 different arduinos at the same time? Don't tell me you're going to create 100 serial ports, a Lantronix Wiport could be a good idea since it allows arduino to be reached by wifi without heavy modding.

Just connect the TX port (Digital pin 1) to the RX pin on the Wiport, then you can use UDP to recieve data sent by the arduino through the wifi network.

For the data sending part, it is a little bit complicated since the output level for the Lantronix Wiport is 3.3 V leveled. It is fine for it to recieved the 5V signal from Arduino since it has a certain tolerance, but to send serial command from Wiport to Arduino, a 74HCT541D is used for pulling the 3.3V signal to 5V.

Sharp IR sensor

2008-11-27T08:26:00.000-08:00

About Sharp IR sensors

http://www.acroname.com/robotics/info/articles/sharp/sharp.html#e8

The output voltage for the sharp IR sensor has to be linearized for useable sensing, an article about linearization could be found here

http://www.acroname.com/robotics/info/articles/irlinear/irlinear.html

To avoid the double sensitive zone (when moving too close to the sensor), one method COULD be combing 2 IR sensors that cover different ranges (To be implemented)

Managing quota on proftpd

2008-11-27T08:20:00.000-08:00

To manage quotas on proftpd using a file based monitoring system, the mod_quotatab and mod_quotatab_file has to be included during compile time.

After that a very useful contributed admin tool for compiling the "limit" and "tally" table could be found here

http://www.castaglia.org/proftpd/contrib/ftpquota

All you need to do is to copy and paste the file and save it in one of the folder for generating the limit and tally table file. The instruction for using the ftpquota tool could be found here

http://www.castaglia.org/proftpd/contrib/ftpquota.html

And then just modify the /etc/proftpd/proftpd.conf following the instruction here (just change the location where you put the generated ftpquota files.

http://castaglia.org/proftpd/doc/contrib/ProFTPD-mini-HOWTO-Quotas.html

And you're done~

Cool, nice ftp server~

Posting program code on blog space

2008-11-26T19:49:00.001-08:00

Convertor
http://formatmysourcecode.blogspot.com/

Java based convertor
(Article)
http://blog.js-development.com/2008/03/posting-source-code-on-blogger.html
(application)
http://juri-strumpflohner-projects.googlecode.com/files/WebCodeFormatter1.0.jar

UDP test Code

2008-11-26T19:48:00.001-08:00

Processing code for communication between Arduino and Processing via Lantronix

/**
* (./) udp.pde - how to use UDP library as unicast connection
* (cc) 2006, Cousot stephane for The Atelier Hypermedia
* (->) http://hypermedia.loeil.org/processing/
*
* Create a communication between Processing<->Pure Data @ http://puredata.info/
* This program also requires to run a small program on Pd to exchange data 
* (hum!!! for a complete experimentation), you can find the related Pd patch
* at http://hypermedia.loeil.org/processing/udp.pd
*
* -- note that all Pd input/output messages are completed with the characters
* ";\n". Don't refer to this notation for a normal use. --
*/

// import UDP library
import hypermedia.net.*;


UDP udp;  // define the UDP object

/**
* init
*/
void setup() {

 // create a new datagram connection on port 6000
 // and wait for incomming message
 udp = new UDP( this, 6002);
 //udp.log( true );         // <-- printout the connection activity
 udp.listen( true );
}

//process events
void draw() {;}

/**
* on key pressed event:
* send the current key value over the network
*/
void keyPressed() {
  
   String message  = str( key );    // the message to send
   String ip       = "localhost";    // the remote IP address
   int port        = 10002;        // the destination port
  
   // formats the message for Pd
   //message = message+";\n";
   // send the message
   udp.send( message, ip, port );
  
}

/**
* To perform any action on datagram reception, you need to implement this
* handler in your code. This method will be automatically called by the UDP
* object each time he receive a nonnull message.
* By default, this method have just one argument (the received message as
* byte[] array), but in addition, two arguments (representing in order the
* sender IP address and his port) can be set like below.
*/
// void receive( byte[] data ) {             // <-- default handler
void receive( byte[] data, String ip, int port ) {    // <-- extended handler


 // get the "real" message =
 // forget the ";\n" at the end <-- !!! only for a communication with Pd !!!
 data = subset(data, 0, data.length-2);
 String message = new String( data );

 // print the result
 println( "receive: \""+message+"\" from "+ip+" on port "+port );
}

Arduino Processing communication

2008-11-26T07:32:00.000-08:00

Communication between Arduino and Processing

This post is aimed at giving an example for communication between Arduino and Processing using the bundled Serial Library for both packages.

In this example, LEDs are connected to pins 2-9 of the Arduino board, and Processing control it through sending ASCII code of number 2-9 (Relative ASCII code 50 to 57).

Arduino Code

[link]

Processing Code

[link]