Continue reading “Nifty Word Search Game” …

We created a random “formid” key that gets put in the reply form as a hidden field (which is easy as md5(uniqid("")) in PHP). Then when the form is submitted, we check to see if a reply already exists with that key. If it exists, then it means its a double post.

So voila, all of a sudden you no longer get a double post when someone replies to your blog entry, and then refreshes the window to see if someone else has replied (or some other random reason - who really understands the mind of users).

Got a better solution to this problem? Feel free to tell us how dumb we are.

Continue reading “May I Take Your Photo?” …

Both of these systems were developed internally for two reasons:

1. Solve a problem of our own (publishing a weblog or photos)
2. Play/experiment with technology

The photo resizing/manipulation code developed with modest intentions has since proven valuable in other (commercial) projects. Similarly, the abstraction of layout/design from the system in the weblog platform is proving valuable in other projects.

We have toyed with the idea of releasing either or both systems. However, both systems rely heavily on our own in-house proprietary PHP development platform (affectionately called the PSeries). For now, at least, neither system will be released to the public. In the meantime, we’ll be releasing a few bits and pieces that we are able and willing to share.

Another option we’ve toyed with is selling either service (or both together) on a subscription basis. However, we’re not sure we want to get into an end-user support situation. There aren’t that many of us here and it’s not really our focus as a business.

There are various systems out there on commercial sites. Some of these include complex plug-ins that allow drag-and-drop, FTP utilities, and applets. These are all somewhat of a nuisance and require the user to download various bits and pieces to get them working. For a solution, I wanted something that would allow for multiple file uploads, be easy to use, and take a minimum amount of time to develop.

The quick and easy solution that I’m strongly leaning toward is actually incredibly simple. PHP has an excellent set of ZIP File functions. I quickly tested them last weekend and it’s as simple as compiling PHP with zip support, and using the little snippet of demo code on the PHP site. All the user will have to do is take all of the photos they want to upload, place them in a zip file, and upload the zip file to the website. Server-side, the photos are extracted from the zip file, processed, and a wizard allows the user to enter photo information. While not every end user knows how to zip a file, most do, and it’s relatively easy to learn. The only other concern is for Apple or Unix users, though there are functions out there for .sit and .tar files that I could incorporate later.

Has anyone else come up with a bulk-file uploading system, or have alternative ideas or suggestions?

view zip extraction demo
 
Code Sample
Zip File
259Kb

We’ll be posting updates to both of these projects and other side projects in the weeks and months to come.

For more about our new silverorange labs site, see About the silverorange Labs.