Stubmled across this odd PHP error when I was testing out some new features on a staging server. Fatal error: Can’t use function return value in write context in As it turns out empty function only accepts variables as input in versions prior to 5.5… So if you see the above make sure you are…
PHP
Accessing an SSL secured url from PHP with cURL
Recently I was playing around with the SSL configurations within my PHP Wrapper Library for Harvest API and noticed that I was getting an access error. As it turns out cURL was behaving properly and trying to verify the SSL Certificate of the server, and as no CA Certificate was associated with the library it…
An Overview of the DateTime object in PHP
Most if not all PHP developers are aware of the getdate function and how it returns an associated array of the current time and date. $current_time= getdate(); print_r( $current_time ); Output Format: Array ( [seconds] => 40 [minutes] => 58 [hours] => 21 [mday] => 17 [wday] => 2 [mon] => 6 [year] => 2003…
New PHP Security and Authentication Framework
Introducing the MDBitz Security and Authentication Framework for PHP. I have always had an issue with any PHP Security or Authentication Framework or library that I have utilized in past projects. That is why I am developing my own comprehensive Security and Authentication Framework. I am building this framework from the ground up keeping all…
PHP Database Objects: An Introduction to PDOs and why you should utilize them
PHP Database Objects PDOs for short is a light-weight data abstraction layer for PHP. What this means is that it allows you to use an interface for performing data manipulations instead of using db specify functions such as mysql_query. So that if you needed to migrate to a different database you would not have to…
Code Snippets: How to log system messages in PHP
In PHP we are provided with an integrated logging system for outputting info, warnings, and errors. This is accomplished by use of the syslog function. This function outputs the specified message at the specified priority level to the default system logger. If you want to have it output the log message to a user defined…
Securing your php websites on shared servers by use of the session_save_path configuration
Beginner web developers may not be fully aware of the security vulnerabilities from shared hosting. Most shared hosting servers work by having a common php installation that uses the same php.ini configurations to run. What this means to the user is that all session information for all users are stored in a common directory on…
WordPress Tips & Tricks: How to utilize custom fields to enhance your blog posts and main page
Very often when developing a WordPress powered blog or website you may find that you need to add custom features. One of the most common feature requests that I have come across is to add an image to the excerpts that get displayed on the main posts/articles page. Some people will try to utilize the…
Understanding Yahoo Finance Stock Quotes and sl1d1t1c1ohgv
To those just starting to utilize Yahoo Finance to obtain stock information you may get a little disoriented by the query string sl1d1t1c1ohgv. Although at first glance the string sl1d1t1c1ohgv may seem like random letters and numbers it is actually responsible for telling Yahoo Finance what information to return to you. Instead of sending dozens…
How to use the wp_get_archives function in your WordPress Themes.
It is very common to have an archive in your WordPress blog displaying a list of the months that you have created a post on your blog. This navigation is the result in most cases of the wp_get_archives function of WordPress. However you may not know that you can utilize this same function to display…