Weblog

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, place types, coordinates, addresses, opening hours, all coupled with a unique place ID. ...

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. ...

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 with content stored in a JCR-compliant content repository using PHP objects and APIs…no Java knowledge needed. This means that you could save data to a JCR repository using a Java application, then read or modify that data using PHP, simplifying data reuse and interoperability between applications running on different platforms. ...

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. Ideally, it needed to work on a mobile device so that it would be at hand at meal-times, and be simple, interactive and easy to use. After a little thought, I had my requirements and design down, so I went ahead and built it. ...

I’ve been experimenting with IBM Bluemix for some time now and a few weeks ago, I decided to try hosting a custom REST API with it. I built the API using Bullet, a PHP micro-framework, then deployed it to Bluemix and connected it with Bluemix’s MySQL service. It worked out pretty well…as you can see by trying this live demo. In case you’re interested in learning how I went about building this, you can read all about it in this IBM developerWorks article. In this article, I explain how to implement the four basic REST methods using Bullet, then add support for API authentication and multiformat support, and finally deploy the API to Bluemix. Take a look, then download the API source and see what you think! ...

A few weeks ago, I was introduced to Bluemix, IBM’s new cloud infrastructure platform for developers. With a bunch of pre-configured runtimes for Java, Node.js and Ruby, plus MongoDB, MySQL and various other database services, BlueMix provides a platform for quick app development and deployment. Bluemix is currently in beta and doesn’t support PHP (yet) but I found a blog post which suggested it was possible using the Zend Server PHP buildpack. However, on trying it, I came across a problem: my Web application (built with Slim Framework) needed URL rewriting for its custom routes to work, but I couldn’t find a way to edit the nginx configuration file included with the Zend Server PHP buildpack. The search for an alternative led me (via Q&A in this thread) to the Cloud Foundry PHP buildpack, which solved my problem. ...

I’ve been working with Zend Framework 2 for a while now, trying to learn it and map its concepts to those from Zend Framework 1. One of the things that hasn’t changed is the framework’s support for security - it still has a bunch of useful components which let you protect your PHP application from SQL injection, XSS, CSRF, spam, and brute-force password hacking. You don’t need to be using Zend Framework either - the framework is loosely coupled, so you can use the components on a standalone basis. If you’re not familiar with framework-based development, this gives you all the benefits of components like Zend\InputFilter and Zend\Escaper without the additional overhead and learning curve. ...

I’ve been waiting to try out jQuery Mobile for a while and a few weeks ago, I finally got the chance. I hooked jQuery Mobile up with the Google Tasks API and built a simple to-do list application that works on tablet and smartphone browsers. The application exposes most of the basic functionality of Google Tasks, allowing you to add new to-do lists, create tasks, attach due dates and mark tasks as complete. ...

As promised, IBM developerWorks has now published the second part of my article on Sentry 2. In this concluding segment, I dive into the Sentry 2 permission model, explaining how to create groups, assign users and permissions to them, and use permission checks to selectively enable application functions. Also on the menu: find out how to harden your application with login throttling and temporary user deactivation, and integrate Sentry 2 with third-party authentication services like Google and Twitter. ...

If you build Web applications, there are a few things you can’t dodge coding: a user registration workflow, a password reset workflow, a login and logout system, and so on. Since these workflows aren’t likely to change much from one project to another, why not package them all up in a set of classes and use the time you save on something more constructive (blowing up some Protoss bases, maybe?) ...