Start Using FirePHP

I've known about FirePHP for a while now and never really had the inclination to install and use it. Although I've been using FireBug for quite some time to debug the client-side and HTML/CSS issues I didn't really think that it could benefit me that much.

Finally I've managed to install and use FirePHP (it's quick and easy) and boy am I glad that I did. For any PHP developer out there I totally recommend spending the short amount of time it takes to get it up and running.

Basically include the FirePHP class file in your Project, use the OOP or procedural way of doing things and then start logging and displaying information to the FireBug console. It really couldn't be easier.

One of the main areas in which it really shines is in Ajax development. You can output variables to the console during an Ajax request and see what exactly is going on without having to output anything to screen and will really aid development and cut programming time.

I'm not going to go through how to install and use FirePHP because it's been very well documented by the offical website and there are a few really good tutorials out there (links can be found below).

Main Links

• http://www.firephp.org/
• http://www.firephp.org/Wiki/Reference/Tutorials

Tutorials

• http://yensdesign.com/2008/10/how-to-debug-php-code/
• http://sixrevisions.com/web-development/how-to-debug-php-using-firefox-with-firephp/
• http://sixrevisions.com/web-development/a-guide-on-advanced-logging-and-benchmarking-with-firephp/

CakePHP Filter Component

For a recent project I've been working on the index pages required the data to be both sortable and filterable. Luckily CakePHP comes with the Pagination class which covers the directional sorting of data and I went looking online for something that will filter the data.

Creating an Admin Section with CakePHP Updated

My previous post on this topic is the most viewed article on the website so I thought I would re-visit it and do it all again using the latest version of Cake which at the time of writing is 1.2.3.8166

I'm going to be using a similar method as last time but a lot more refined, mainly because I'm improving as a programmer and that I'm getting more familiar with CakePHP and the best practises with using it.

Custom CakePHP Flash Messages Updated

I've been quite inactive recently and had a few comments about the "flash messages" article and it's really outdated so I thought I would do a quick update. Last time I created a new class that extended the SessionHelper but that isn't necessary and the process is much simpler. I'm using CakePHP 1.2.3.8166 in this article.

Introducing CakeBattles

CakeBattles is an online application that allows Contenders to be pitted against each and allows users to vote on who/what would win. Each Contender can be assigned to multiple Tags which are used to create battles with similar Contenders. Each Contender can also have multiple images and these are displayed at random to keep the battles fresh.

The application was written in CakePHP and was inspired from CommandShift3 which allows users to vote on website designs. I wanted to create something similar and have been developing it in my spare time between work and freelance projects with the intent to release it online.

An example of the application in action can be seen here. Whilst developing the application I wanted to look at something pretty so I've used a bunch of hot women but I've tried to make the system as generic as possible and anything could be used e.g. films, TV shows or music albums.