Web application programming tutorials

Symfony 1.4: Add and Update Created_at and Updated_at Fields Automatically

contributed by David Kirk on February 1, 2011 under Symfony

After the CRUD building process with symfony, beginners are often perplexed with the handling of the created_at and updated_at fields on their forms. These fields are typically best handled behind the scenes. Here is how to let symfony take control of these fields automatically.

 

Symfony 1.4: Widget Does Not Exist Error after Unset

contributed by David Kirk on under Symfony

With symfony’s form builder, users will need to unset several common fields such as created_at and updated_at. Beginners frequently experience a “widget does not exist” error after unsetting form fields.

 

PHP: Camel Case to Spaces or Underscore

contributed by David Kirk on March 19, 2010 under PHP programming

Recently while working on a project, I found I needed to convert camelcase strings to space-separated strings. This same technique will work if you want to convert camelcase to underscore separation as well.

 

Symfony: Detect Which Version is Installed

contributed by David Kirk on March 5, 2010 under Symfony

The Symfony php framework is frequently updated. Detecting which version is actively installed, however, is not well documented. Here is how to do it.

 

Symfony: Drop Down List Box Without Submit Button

contributed by David Kirk on November 25, 2009 under Symfony

I needed a drop down list box for a symfony site I was designing. As a newbie symfony programmer, I wanted to record this so I could reference it later. Although this uses a little javascript, it will correctly function and is backwards compatible to users without javascript enabled.

 

Pear Fix for “Error: Unable to Unpack”

contributed by David Kirk on February 12, 2009 under PHP programming

Recently while trying to install some Pear packages, I received an odd “Error: Unable to Unpack” message. A search for this error message found a lot of complaining people and not a lot of answers. I finally figured out the cause and the fix for this common Pear problem.

 

PHP: Upload Files to the Server

contributed by William_Wilson on September 30, 2008 under PHP programming

With PHP, it is simple to upload any file to your server.

 

Symfony / Propel: How to Left Join

contributed by David Kirk on July 4, 2008 under Symfony

A JOIN is a way to connect related database tables by the common values between them. A left join contains all of the rows from the primary table plus related members of the second database if they exist. Using joins can significantly reduce the number of database queries required to render a web page. This Tech-Recipe describes how to do a left join in Symfony using Propel.