http://labs.iamkoa.net I break it. I fix it. You learn. Sun, 27 Jul 2008 17:48:35 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en It's not everyday that you see a car in flames - it's also somewhat rare to drive through fire. Yesterday, I killed two birds with one fiery stone. Read the entire story after the jump. http://labs.iamkoa.net/2008/07/01/i-drove-through-fire-yesterday/ TinyMCE (Tiny) is regarded as one of the best open source, HTML WYSIWYG editors of our time - it's powerful, relatively easy for browsers to digest, and free to use. The frustrations of using Tiny arise when you attempt to submit your Tiny-enhanced form via Ajax. Because your Tiny textarea ... http://labs.iamkoa.net/2008/05/31/tinymce-mootools-ajax-form/ Personally speaking, preparing a new web design isn't as simple as opening Photoshop. I need constant influence from many creative sources to keep my mind fresh on what's hot and what's not. When I need inspirational eye-candy, my sources include CSS galleries, digital prints, and typography demonstrations. For those who have ... http://labs.iamkoa.net/2008/02/13/websites-dedicated-to-design-inspiration-web-showcasing-typography-digital-art/ In attempting to spruce up my knowledge of Javascript, I've been trolling around the net collecting scripts and tutorials for various Javascript libraries, mainly jQuery, MooTools, and Prototype. Of the three, MooTools seems to supply me with the most JS lovin' - it's easy to learn, holds super powerful Ajax ... http://labs.iamkoa.net/2008/01/23/21-must-have-scripts-for-your-favorite-javascript-library-jquery-mootools-prototype/ The CakePHP blog tutorial uses a rather archaic method of displaying user messages (like, "Your post has been saved.") that needlessly breaks up the flow of your application. Rather than Cake's typical method of displaying flash messages on a separate page (ugly), learn how to seamlessly display the same messages ... http://labs.iamkoa.net/2008/01/13/session-based-flash-messages-look-better-cakephp/ Yep. I'm mixing programming references with The Wizard of Oz. Shut up. The all-too-awesome PHPMailer class has been updated and is awaiting your download. If you use MooTools (or even if you don't), Vacuous Virtuoso's Fancy Form is totally worth checking out. It's a mix of CSS and Javascript that enables you ... http://labs.iamkoa.net/2007/12/21/updates-checkboxes-loadbars-oh-my/ Uploading files via CakePHP has been covered a few times on Labs. Based on the feedback, it's safe to assume bridging the gap between file uploads and PHP can be tricky. Usually Cake is ready to lend a helpful hand. Not this time. If you're finding that executing this: ... returns something ... http://labs.iamkoa.net/2007/12/11/cakephp-11-file-upload-plays-rough-with-php-4/ Ryan Johnson, the founder of LivePipe, created one of the best prototype-based widgets I've ever used. Control Suite is a collection of six high quality widgets and controls for Web 2.0 applications built using the Prototype JavaScript framework. Each script is well tested, highly extensible, fully documented and degrades gracefully for ... http://labs.iamkoa.net/2007/11/28/control-suite-high-quality-controls-widgets-for-prototypejs/ If you're not careful, sending email via PHP is about as safe as cookies at Fat Camp. BKWLD was recently tagged by a spammer who noticed one such insecurity on one of our websites and ended up using our server to send hundreds of emails. It wasn't until MediaTemple informed ... http://labs.iamkoa.net/2007/11/27/a-simplesecure-email-class-for-phpmailer/ Taking advantage of custom error documents usually requires tapping on an .htaccess file, as discussed in my previous custom error article. However CakePHP makes for easy custom error handling thanks to a pre-defined Cake system. I'll walk you through creating custom error pages, both simple and complex. Basic Errors Creating typical custom error ... http://labs.iamkoa.net/2007/11/20/custom-cakephp-errors-a-complete-run-down/