Vikram Vaswani

Create a Browser-Based PDF Storage and Search Application

Like most people, I send and receive a lot of documents over email, and the vast majority of those are in PDF format. Over the last few months, I’ve been playing with the idea of moving all these documents into a single location and building an application to automatically index them. This would not only make it easier to find a specific one quickly, but also simplify backing things ups.… Read More »Create a Browser-Based PDF Storage and Search Application

Build a Notepad Application with PHP, MongoDB, and IBM Bluemix

I’ve been looking for an excuse to play with MongoLab’s DBaaS for a while…so when I had to choose a database for my latest IBM Bluemix application, MongoDB was first on my list. I like the idea of a document-oriented database as an alternative to the traditional RDBMS, and I was keen to try this in a real-world context. As it turned out, MongoDB’s document-oriented structure was a great fit… Read More »Build a Notepad Application with PHP, MongoDB, and IBM Bluemix

Build a PHP App that Uses GPS Data From an IoT Device

For many people, the Internet of Things is…well, the Next Big Thing. It’s all about using the cloud, real-time data, and new sensor technology to collect, store and analyze information from a wide range of previously-unwired sources: your house, your car, your refrigerator, your pet and so on. While IoT is certainly very exciting, it’s hard to figure out exactly how to get started building IoT applications…especially if you’re a… Read More »Build a PHP App that Uses GPS Data From an IoT Device

Build and Deploy an Investment Tracking Application in the Cloud with IBM Bluemix

Financial data is now more accessible than ever via open APIs. This makes it easy to build Web or mobile applications that let you track your investment portfolio on a minute-by-minute basis (or at least as often as you care to check it). That’s the idea behind my new portfolio tracking application, which lets you create a virtual portfolio of stocks and then shows you the current market value at… Read More »Build and Deploy an Investment Tracking Application in the Cloud with IBM Bluemix

Build a Photo Storage Service in the Cloud with PHP and IBM Bluemix

Cloud storage is increasingly popular because it’s cheap and scalable. Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3) is probably the most well-known, but almost every serious cloud vendor now has a storage offering. Cue my research into IBM Bluemix and its Object Storage service, which lets you attach cloud storage to your Bluemix application. Bluemix’s Object Storage service is based on OpenStack Swift and follows Swift’s three-tier hierarchy for organizing data:… Read More »Build a Photo Storage Service in the Cloud with PHP and IBM Bluemix

Debugging PHP Errors on IBM Cloud

I’ve been using IBM Cloud (aka IBM Bluemix) for various projects, but one of the things that often frustrates me is the lack of debug information available. For example, it’s quite common to upload a new PHP application to IBM Cloud and then see a blank page when attempting to access it. The typical reason for this is that there’s a script error somewhere but the buildpack is configured to… Read More »Debugging PHP Errors on IBM Cloud

Build and Deploy an ATM Finder App on Bluemix

Google makes a number of APIs available for free – I’ve previously written about the Google Tasks API and the Google+ API. I recently came across another interesting one – the Google Places API. As the name suggests, the Google Places API lets you retrieve information about shops, businesses, and other establishments by location or keyword. The information returned by the API is quite detailed – it includes place names,… Read More »Build and Deploy an ATM Finder App on Bluemix

Host Your Application in the Cloud with XAMPP and Bitnami

If you’re a developer used to developing and testing applications locally, moving your code to the cloud can be a bit daunting. First, you have to choose a cloud from the numerous options availabe. Then, you need to deal with the nitty-gritties of pricing, provisioning, application deployment, scalability and security. And finally, you need to keep track of server performance, debug application issues and find ways to cost-efficiently improve performance.… Read More »Host Your Application in the Cloud with XAMPP and Bitnami

Integrating PHP Web Applications with JCR and Magnolia CMS

I first came across PHPCR through my work with Magnolia CMS, an open source Java CMS. Magnolia CMS uses the Java Content Repository (JSR-283) as its content storage mechanism and PHPCR is a PHP adaptation of that standard. It’s great for storing semi-structured content in a hierarchical format and it also includes support for content versioning and indexing. The cool thing about PHPCR is that it lets PHP developers interact… Read More »Integrating PHP Web Applications with JCR and Magnolia CMS

Build and Deploy a Mobile-Friendly Calorie Counter on IBM Bluemix with PHP, MySQL, AngularJS and the Nutritionix API

The Nutritionix API is an online API which lets you access a massive database of nutrition information, covering both generic and branded food items. I came across it recently when looking for something else, and was promptly diverted from my original goal into trying it out. While playing with it, it occurred to me that this could be the basis of a very neat little application to track calorie consumption.… Read More »Build and Deploy a Mobile-Friendly Calorie Counter on IBM Bluemix with PHP, MySQL, AngularJS and the Nutritionix API