I went searching and eventually came across a module for both Apache and Lighttpd called X-Sendfile. The module works by sending headers out to the webserver to simply output a static file, without touching PHP’s file handling functions. First we need to install the module before we can start sending headers out to the webserver.

Apache:

1. Login as root or your administrator account
2. Download the following code to your server mod_xsendfile.c
3. Installing is simple with: sudo apxs -cia mod_xsendfile.c
4. You will now notice the messages on the screen stating it has been added to your Apache config file and copied to the apache modules directory
5. Restart Apache. Done

Lighttpd

Setting up X-Sendfile on Lighttpd is much simpler as the module is shipped with Lighttpd 1.4+. All we will need to do is add in the “allow-x-send-file” => “enable” setting to our fastcgi.server array:

fastcgi.server = ( ".php" =>
  ( "localhost" =>
    ("socket" => "/opt/local/var/run/lighttpd/php-fastcgi.socket",
     "allow-x-send-file" => "enable",
     .......etc
    )
  )
)

PHP & Lighttpd

Next up we will handle some basic user authentication with PHP to show how you can protect your files with PHP:

<?php

if (!empty($_SESSION['logged_in'])) {
  header( "Content-Disposition: attachment; filename=\"The Name You Want Your Users To See.mp3\"");
  header( "X-LIGHTTPD-send-file: /full/path/to/your/file.mp3");
} else {
  echo "Sorry, You're not on the list, You're not coming in!";
}

?>

If you’re using Lighttpd version 1.5 then you can replace “X-LIGHTTPD-send-file” with “X-Sendfile”.

PHP & Apache

Using X-Sendfile with Apache is very similar, however we need to turn X-Sendfile on. Either put “XSendFile On” in a .htaccess files where your script resides, or put this in your Apache config file. The php configuration is pretty much exactly like Lighttpd 1.5 handling:

<?php

if (!empty($_SESSION['logged_in'])) {
  header( "Content-Disposition: attachment; filename=\"The Name You Want Your Users To See.mp3\"");
  header( "X-Sendfile: /full/path/to/your/file.mp3");
} else {
  echo "Sorry, You're not on the list, You're not coming in!";
}

?>

Feel free to move your files outside of the root path of the webserver which will prevent hotlinking, or as always, “deny from all” will do the trick in a .htaccess file.

This function will spit out timestamps of the following dates for example:

Sat 5 – Sun 27 Jun 10
Sun 6 Jun 2010
Tue 29 Jun – Sat 3 Jul + Tue 6 Jul – Sat 10 Jul 2010
Thu 29 Jul – Sat 31 Jul + Wed 4 Aug – Sat 7 Aug 2010
Every Fri
1st Sat of Every Month
3rd Wed of Every Month

This was developed for a particular use case, so please, if you would like some other terms thrown in let me know and I might go ahead and build them in for future use.

function calculateStartDates($data) {
	foreach ($data as &$event) {
		if (!empty($event['Event']['time_period'])) {
			$event['Event']['start_timestamp'] = $event['Event']['time_period'];
			preg_match('/(jan|feb|mar|apr|may|jun|jul|aug|sep|oct|nov|dec)/i', $event['Event']['start_timestamp'], $months);
			preg_match('/(.*)every\s*(\w+)/i', $event['Event']['start_timestamp'], $every);
			$datePlurals = array('first', 'second', 'third', 'fourth', 'fifth', 'sixth', 'seventh', 'eigth', 'nineth');
			$fullDays = array('sat' => 'Saturday', 'sun' => 'Sunday', 'mon' => 'Monday', 'tue' => 'Tuesday', 'wed' => 'Wednesday', 'thu' => 'Thursday', 'fri' => 'Friday');

			if (!empty($every[2])) {
				if (stristr($every[2], 'month')) {
					preg_match('/(mon|tue|wed|thur|fri|sat|sun)/i', $event['Event']['start_timestamp'], $day);
					preg_match_all('/(\d)(nd|st|th|rd)/i', $every[1], $times);
					if (!empty($times[1][0])) {
						$event['Event']['start_timestamp'] = date('d-m-Y', strtotime($datePlurals[$times[1][0]-1].' '.$fullDays[strtolower($day[1])]));
					}
				} else {
					$event['Event']['start_timestamp'] = date('d-m-Y', strtotime('next '.$every[2]));
				}
			} else {
				$dashMatch = split('[-\+]', $event['Event']['start_timestamp']);

				foreach ($dashMatch as $timeFrame) {
					preg_match('/(jan|feb|mar|apr|may|jun|jul|aug|sep|oct|nov|dec)/i', $timeFrame, $thisMonth);

					if (!empty($months[1]) && empty($thisMonth[1])) {
						if (!stristr($timeFrame, $months[1])) {
							$timeFrame = $timeFrame.' '.$months[1];
						}
					}
					$tempTime[] = strtotime($timeFrame);
				}

				sort($tempTime);
				unset($setTime, $tempTime);
				if (!empty($tempTime)) {
					foreach ($tempTime as $time) {
						if ($time > mktime()) {
							$setTime = date('d-m-Y', $time);
							break;
						}
					}
				}

				if (!empty($timeFrame) && empty($setTime)) {
					$event['Event']['start_timestamp'] = $timeFrame;
				} elseif (!empty($setTime)) {
					$event['Event']['start_timestamp'] = $setTime;
				}

			}
			$event['Event']['start_timestamp'] = strtotime($event['Event']['start_timestamp']);
		}
	}
	return $data;
}

svn co -r 53555 http://svn.macports.org/repository/macports/trunk/dports/lang/php5
cd php5
sudo port install +fastcgi+mysql5+pear

Or you can simply use the branch of PHP 5.2 via:

sudo port install php52 +fastcgi+mysql5+pear

Happy porting!

But first of all check out my site if you’re interested in custom decals! Designed by you made by us! www.wedecal.com!

Source: guestbook.zip
Demo: http://www.jotlab.com/tutorials/guestbook/

The poll system we will be using today will read and store from a mySQL database. mySQL is an extremely fast, efficient and stable database tool. Our poll system will read the questions stored in the database, then display the options to the users, then when a user selects an option and clicks submit, that selection will be stored in the database whereby results will be further calculated from this pool of results. The tutorial today will teach you PHP, not the database construction side of things. If you are interested in the mySQL side of it, just load up phpmyadmin and look at the database design I have made for the tutorial. I will however provide you with the database design which you can just import, which I will describe how to do. Anyway, lets get started.

But first of all check out my site if you’re interested in custom decals! Designed by you made by us! www.wedecal.com!

Source: poll.zip
Demo: http://www.jotlab.com/tutorials/poll/index.php

setcookie('YourCookieName', 'Some Values', time() + 3600, '/', 'mydomain.com');

Damn! Almost there! The part you are missing to add a cookie irrespective of the subdomain is “.mydomain.com”. Yep, just add a . infront of your domain name. So you would have:

setcookie('YourCookieName', 'Some Values', time() + 3600, '/', '.mydomain.com');

All done ^^ Enjoy

Take a look at the demo before jumping in:
Demo Here

What you will need is a decent webserver, PHP with cURL enabled (check in your phpinfo();) and time. Please note that within php you are unable to test for MIME types unless you brute force them, which is beyond the scope of this tutorial. You can however add extensions to PHP to enable access to the mime types of stored files on the server, please take a look here for more information. But for this tutorial we will examine the file extensions in the url and go from there.

So you have completed the file upload tutorial. The tutorial has taught you how to upload an image using a form, and then it auto makes a thumbnail and shows it to you, nice. Now lets say you are on a public computer, and can’t save to the desktop or whatever. So you would like to upload a photo that is already on the internet, but thumbnail it to your webserver. We need to be able to allow our users the ability to submit a link to an image and work from there.

Take a look at the demo before jumping in:
Demo Here

What you will need is a decent webserver, PHP with cURL enabled (check in your phpinfo();) and time. Please note that within php you are unable to test for MIME types unless you brute force them, which is beyond the scope of this tutorial. You can however add extensions to PHP to enable access to the mime types of stored files on the server, please take a look here for more information. But for this tutorial we will examine the file extensions in the url and go from there.

Demo: http://www.jotlab.com/tutorials/thumbtutorial/thumb.php

*Thats right you can host images on my website. But i have edited my code to make the maximum size no greater than 300 pixels*

So start off with. Make a directory on your webserver, call it whatever you want….See if i care. Once you have done this make more folders in this folder you made called thumbs and tmp, chmod them both to 777. To chmod you go: right click chmod/properties/get info…. one of the three. This makes the directories writeable, readable and executable; so you can upload and mangle your files up. Next make a file in this new directory called thumb.php. This will be both our workhorse and our html displayer. So, we have done 3 steps. Congrats!

Now lets open up thumb.php and add in the HTML code. This sets us up with an interface for our users to upload their shiney images.

	File:

	Max Dimensions:
 (optional)

So i will explain. Line one states that this is a form. It gives it a name, says that the data is to be communicated via the POST gateway and that the encoding type allows files. The other fields are the file, which accepts user input of files, max dimensions and a nice button to click to upload the information.

Next lets get onto some PHP stuff.

In this tutorial we will make a thumbnailing script using PHP. The script will allow your users to upload their images using a html form, and then be shown the thumbnail and a link to the file on completion. Also the user will be able to specify a max height or width if they want to.

Demo: http://www.jotlab.com/thumbtutorial

*Thats right you can host images on my website. But i have edited my code to make the maximum size no greater than 300 pixels*

So start off with. Make a directory on your webserver, call it whatever you want….See if i care. Once you have done this make more folders in this folder you made called thumbs and tmp, chmod them both to 777. To chmod you go: right click chmod/properties/get info…. one of the three. This makes the directories writeable, readable and executable; so you can upload and mangle your files up. Next make a file in this new directory called thumb.php. This will be both our workhorse and our html displayer. So, we have done 3 steps. Congrats!

Now lets open up thumb.php and add in the HTML code. This sets us up with an interface for our users to upload their shiney images.

	File:

	Max Dimensions:
 (optional)

So i will explain. Line one states that this is a form. It gives it a name, says that the data is to be communicated via the POST gateway and that the encoding type allows files. The other fields are the file, which accepts user input of files, max dimensions and a nice button to click to upload the information.

Next lets get onto some PHP stuff.

This will show you how many rows were supplied in that query. So if you want to find out how many people are under 18 in your forums you could do something like this:

The time gap gets the time in seconds of 18 years, then subtracts it from the time now. Yay. so now you can limit access to minors :O

$host = 'localhost';
$username = 'yourusername';
$password = 'yourpassword';
$databasename = 'yourdbname';

//don't edit this stuff okay?

$connect = mysql_connect($host, $username, $password);
$selectdb = mysql_select_db($databasename);

if($connect == true){
	echo 'Connected fine!';
} else {
	echo 'Bad Username or Password.....or host dummy!!!!';
}

if($selectdb == true){
	echo 'Connected to DB master  ';
} else {
	echo 'Cant find that database....did we connect?';
}

So this code basically connects to the database and says hi!
More to come on DB Functions