16. April 2014

JSON Date (.NET) to PHP timestamp

The JSON spec allows integers, fractional numbers, strings, arrays, but when it comes to dates things are handled differently. There really is no date format in the JSON spec. Would be nice if every JSON date output would conform to ISO8601 :)

// Ruby
2011-07-14 19:43:37 +0100

//ISO 8601
2011-07-14T19:43:37+0100

// Javascript Date Object
new Date(1310669017000)

// Javascript built-in JSON object
2012-04-23T18:25:43.511Z

// .NET JavaScriptSerializer
Date(1310669017000)

// .NET DataContractJsonSerializer
Date(1335205592410-0500)

// Ruby

2011-07-14 19:43:37 +0100

//ISO 8601

2011-07-14T19:43:37+0100

// Javascript Date Object

new Date(1310669017000)

// Javascript built-in JSON object

2012-04-23T18:25:43.511Z

// .NET JavaScriptSerializer

Date(1310669017000)

// .NET DataContractJsonSerializer

Date(1335205592410-0500)

Some of these can easily be converted to a PHP timestamp using strtotime(), others require some more magic.

Here is a way to transform the .NET variant, something that has been haunting me in a current project ;)

preg_match('~(\d+)\d{3}((?:\+|-)\d+)~',  $date, $match);
$dt = new DateTime('@' . $match[1]);
$dt = new DateTime($dt->format('Y-m-d H:i:s') . ' ' . $match[2]);
$date =  strtotime($dt->format('r'));

preg_match('~(\d+)\d{3}((?:\+|-)\d+)~', $date, $match);

$dt = new DateTime('@' . $match[1]);

$dt = new DateTime($dt->format('Y-m-d H:i:s') . ' ' . $match[2]);

$date = strtotime($dt->format('r'));

Due to the wide usage of JSON as an exchange format, I really hope we will see a spec update in the future :)

5. February 2014

PhantomJS – Full web stack / screen capture

PhantomJS is a headless WebKit scriptable with a JavaScript API. It has fast and native support for various web standards: DOM handling, CSS selector, JSON, Canvas, and SVG.

PhantomJS

5. February 2014

Snap.svg Framework

The JavaScript SVG library for the modern web. Just what the doctor ordered ;)

Snap.svg

3. February 2014

Google App Engine PHP + Parse.com + Rest

The Google App Engine has no cURL support, which means that all REST calls need to be executed using file_get_contents.

As Parse REST calls need to be secure, you need to make sure that you send the request with a proper SSL context.

Short example of adding data using the Parse REST API from a Google App Engine application:

$data = array('data1' => 1113,
              'data2' => 'Alex',
              'data3' => false);
$context =
    array(
        "ssl"=>array(
            "allow_self_signed"=>true,
            "verify_peer"=>false,
        ),
        'http'=>
        array(
            "method" => "post",
            "header" => "X-Parse-Application-Id: YourAppID\r\n" .
                "X-Parse-REST-API-Key: YourRESTID\r\n" .
                "Content-Type: application/json\r\n",
                "content" => json_encode($data)

        )

    );
$context = stream_context_create($context);
$result = file_get_contents("https://api.parse.com/1/classes/yourClass", false, $context);

$data = array('data1' => 1113,

'data2' => 'Alex',

'data3' => false);

$context =

array(

"ssl"=>array(

"allow_self_signed"=>true,

"verify_peer"=>false,

'http'=>

array(

"method" => "post",

"header" => "X-Parse-Application-Id: YourAppID\r\n" .

"X-Parse-REST-API-Key: YourRESTID\r\n" .

"Content-Type: application/json\r\n",

"content" => json_encode($data)

)

);

$context = stream_context_create($context);

$result = file_get_contents("https://api.parse.com/1/classes/yourClass", false, $context);

19. December 2013

Consider PhoneJS for your next mobile app

“PhoneJS contains everything you’ll need to create native client applications using HTML5 and JavaScript with a single codebase and deliver solutions that target today’s most popular smartphones and tablet devices.

With a touch-optimized user experience, natively rendered widgets, straightforward page navigation, view management, and data access layers, PhoneJS is a single page application (SPA) framework for your next iOS, Android and WindowsPhone application, ready for online publication or packaged as a store-ready native app using Apache Cordova (PhoneGap).”

Really thinking about using it for one of my upcoming projects. Best documentation I have seen for a long time. Will build a test app next year :)

PhoneJS

26. November 2013

Magic Effects – CSS3 animation framework

Magic is a CSS3 framework with many unique animations. Its simple to use and most of the animations are cross-browser.

26. November 2013

Foundation 5 – framework to build future proof responsive websites

Another interesting framework, but too many frameworks popping up lately ;)