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Virtual-Instructor

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Posts posted by Virtual-Instructor

  1. You can safely ignore those. Those are hidden files within Mac OS that stores info about the files. If you notice those folders within any of my videos/courses, let me know? I usually strip them out of the zip files before I upload things.

     

    In the Dreamweaver PC files they are in every single folder. If I can ignore them, I will simply delete them and put all chapter videos into a single chapter folder vs. a chapter and part.

  2. Take a look at the files you downloaded. There should be samples showing which files you need to add (most likely one .js file and one .css file) and how you use jquery to call the modal window. Yes, the iframe size can be customized pretty easily.

     

    Fancybox is what we used on the KillerSites Video Tutorial Library, actually.

     

    Thanks a million, this is an outstanding way to do what I'm looking to do. I think this is the way to go. I'm still not sure where to go from here. I think if I can get one form laid out using this, the rest will fall into place.

  3. Rather than a popup window, perhaps modal windows would be a better option? The issue I have with a popup is that it unnecessarily clutters the user's window with additional browser windows. Modal windows may be a better solution, since you get the same basic effect without generating new browser windows.

     

    For example, look at something like this: http://fancybox.net/ or http://colorpowered.com/colorbox/. They are easily customizable, in the case of Colorbox it includes several differnt themes, and you can load an external .php file in them, so you get the same result as using a popup.

     

    I really like that fancybox sugestion, now all I have to do is figure out how to use it! :clap: I have downloaded the files but am not sure what to do with them now. I'm also wondering if the Iframe size can be customized to control the overall size of the frame?

  4. Unfortunately, they are only available to view, not to download.

     

    I'm not sure that I like that.......I have such limited time to begin with that sometimes I will go two weeks without doing anything. Which naturally begs the question. Where do I begin? There is so much information here and I want to be able to go back later an reference the infromation. I have pretty deep pockets, but I don't know if I should go with just one or a combination of two.

     

    Any thoughts?

  5. I'm not completely sure what you are asking here. If you are really planning on having all of your forms appear within popup windows (please don't -- it's a terrible user experience.) then you would control the size of the page based on how large you set the popup to be.

     

    Let me put it another way. When a mentor completes a training flight they will need to make a log book entry (a table in the dbase) so that the students progress can be tracked. I've already worked out the functionality that will allow the mentor view their scheduled flights for that day and display them in a very boaring table. What I am trying to figure out at the moment, (and I already have the form built) is how to click a button next to a specified scheduled lesson that would then open a pop up window, say maybe 500 x 300 px that displays the logbook entry data with some of the data pre populated. Once the mentor completes and submits the form, the window will automatically close. I'm not trying to make every single form appear as a pop up, just the quick forms. I know it sounds difficult on the user, but the way I have it planned out will actually make it very easy to use the system.

  6. Implementing some sort of permissions system shouldn't be that difficult. Within your database, you'll need to have some sort of "user level" column within your members table that defines what type of member that member is (for example, you might have a "regular" member and an "admin" member). When logging the person in, you would query the database and get the user's level and store it within a session variable. Anytime you need to figure out what content to display to the user, you can check the session variable, figure out what type of member the member is, and display the appropriate content.

     

    I figured it would be something like that. However I'm more concerned with form and site administration. I.E. I already have a ratings system in place and there are certain functions that are available only to senior staff. That is where the real big restrictions will come into play. I figure that if I can maintain the login ID, I can simply run a query on the dbase before the function runs to make sure they have the right access level, then just use an if/else statement.

  7. I've completed the PHP Login videos, and truth be told it wasn't all that difficult. I'm still having some issues with the MD5 and Salt with the login, but I think I have a pretty good grip on things. I think the big problem is trying to figure out how to maintain that login across all the pages so that I can use the ratings to control who can and cannot have access to certain pages and controls.

     

    I thought I was doing pretty good this weekend when I finally solved some of the dbase problems that I have been dealing with and imporved the way information is stored in the dbase. But the more I think about this stuff them more I see it as like squares on a game board. You know if you land on square one you can do one thing, but if you land on a different square you may or may not be able to do the same thing that you did on square one. It kind of makes scense but its still a little confusing.

     

    In terms of where I am in the training, I just finished the shopping cart and will be starting the OOP discussion with Steph this week sometime when I don't have to work every second of the day. I have to say, for what I am building, I found the shopping cart videos to be absolutely useless. They may come into play later as the site grows, but for the moment it seems like a complete waste of time.

     

    I am hoping that the OOP and OOP Login lessons prove to be more informative, but as I said, all this information is great, but unless I can figure out how to put these pages together in the way that I have envisioned, its a bit on the pointless side.

     

    I will say this much for you guys, you sure do make it easy to learn this stuff; I'm really looking forward to buying into the University.

  8. Ok Ben, but just remember that you asked for it! :unsure:

     

     

    In a previous post I noted that the bulk of my HTML experiance is in MS Front Page. Using that program I was able to insert and edit the size of cells and parts of the page as I saw fit. I am at a loss of how to make that happen with Dreamweaver. I'm sure that with a little work I will be able to make things happen fairly quickly. I'm pretty comfortable even if just at the novice level with making very static and boaring forms, however since I am planning the majority of my forms involves them showing as pop up windows, I would like to be able to control the overall size of the page.

     

    I am aware that CSS controls how my pages look. But up to this point the only thing that I can do is add a rather unexciting solid color. I'm pretty good with graphic programs and can easily produce something that will look nice for all my forms, but I have no idea how to link to it.

     

    While I am on the topic, how do I control the alignment of inputs, their size and the alignment of the input descriptions. I know that these seem like simple things but at the moment they seem larger than life to me.

     

    I head back to work tonight so no major rush on these.

  9. To go over MVC briefly:

     

    -- The "C" in MVC stands for "Controller". It takes any user input and chooses what models to call and what views to display

    -- The "M" stands for your models. The model contains functions used by the controller. Ideally, the models should contain the bulk of your code (I've heard it said that it is good practice to have "light" controllers and "heavy" models.) Models often deal with retrieving data from the database.

    -- THe "V" stands for "views". This contains your HTML/CSS code, and snippets of PHP where you want PHP variables to display within the view.

     

    Exactly what models, views and controllers you have depends on your application structure. However, I personally like to split up my controllers/models/views (assuming that I am not duplicating any code though), so I may have a separate models for members/nonmembers, and different views for members/nonmembers. If the pages you will show your regular site visitors and the page that logged in members see will be different, yes, you will have different views.

     

    Does that help?

     

     

    Sort of. I still feel like I'm half way between understanding and diving head first into OOP, because that what it seems like.

  10. I have a question about MVC. While I think I understand the base concept, I am still having a hard time wrapping my brain around this thing. I think what I am having trouble with is what is being view. For example, on the site that I am developing I clearly have a seperation between members and non members and further still, students and mentors among the members. I have content that I want to allow non members to see and further more detailed content for members. Does this constitute simply another view or another model and view for non members. Building on top of that, would my members page be different? I think I've almost got this, but still need a little clarification.

  11. Greetings all, I am looking for someone who is semi proficent in the use of Dreamweaver. I have been learning PHP for about a month now and have learned a lot. I am at the point where I feel that a little practical application is now in order. If there is anyone willing to lend a hand to a newbee to help me get started I would appriciate the help. Nothing too advanced as I will probably be beginning my KillerSites University training at the end of this week. For now though I would really like some help in fine tunning some forms that I am working on. If anyone is willing to help please send me a note.

  12. You know I did some work with it and it appears to be working as is. The end question will be determining I will be able to get the information out of these later when I get there. I've run into a new problem with time in refrence to getting information out. The dbase says 17:00:00 but when I try to extract the hour and minutes, it spits out 22:12. I'm not sure why just yet, but I am of the opinion that this is most likely due to the way it was initally input. Either way I have something to keep me busy for a while. I'm sure that I will eventually get there, its just a matter of working it out in my brain.

     

    You may be intrested to know that I removed the hidden fields and picked up the date and time from the php code and it worked like a charm.

  13.  

    I should also point out... I don't believe there is any reason for those hidden date/time fields. You should be able to use PHP to get the current date/time when you are processing the form, before you update the database.

     

    :clap: Ben thanks again. The date_default_timezone_set was the solution.

     

    date_default_timezone_set('America/New_York');

    $current_time = strftime('%H:%M:%S');

    echo $current_time;

     

    I was trying to solve this one on my own but kept hitting the brick wall. (Anyone have any Asprin?) I want to make sure I am clear on your last statement. Are you saying that I don't even have to put the fields in the form, but just add the code into the php that captures the rest of the variables from the form?

  14. I'll leave this one open to anyone that can make it work.

     

    I've been doing some research lately trying to make some functionality work. Specifically date and time functions. Both will be used in several places through out the site, but I believe that if I can make it work in one I can make it work anywhere. Let me explain some specifics.

     

    I have a new request form that I am building. In the form the time and date fields are hidden.

     

    <?php

    // Grab and Format Date

    $current_date=date('Y-m-d');

    // Grab and format time

    $current_time=strftime('%H:%M:%S');

    ?>

    <h1>Welcome to BVA Share the Cockpit</h1>

     

    <hr />

     

    <!--Create Hidden filed for the Recieved Date-->

    <input type="hidden" name="date" value="<?php echo $current_date ?>" />

     

    <!--Create Hidden field for the Recieved Time-->

    <input type="hidden" name="time" value="<?php echo $current_time ?>" />

     

    I'm happy to say that through research and a lot of trial and error, I am successfully collecting and storing the data in the dbase. Where I am having a problem, is that both time and date are showing up in GMT. Because the community is based out of Boston, all the times that we use are on eastern time zone. It therefore it stands to reason that our times need to be in that same time. I've been doing some research on the DateTimeZone::getOffset function but can't seem to get it right. If anyone can help me with the syntax I'd appriciate it. I think that my problem is the way I'm entering variables, but I can't quite figure out why. Any thoughts anyone.

  15. :unsure: Now I'm sure that when we start learning this stuff, we all have hit brick walls. :bash: You know those minor little snippets of code that should produce one thing, but only seem to produce constant errors. :blink: So here is my little story and I would just like to know if anyone else has had a similar experiance.

     

    So at this point I have been working on this stuff for over a month trying to wrap my brain around it. As with most things, the deeper I deelve into it, the easier it becomes; for the most part. I have been taking the stance that as I learn one skill I try to apply it to the project that I am working on. This worked for a little while, but eventually I found that it was slowing me down. So I stopped building for a bit and focused on learning and studing. This too was short lived. The reason for the short focus as it were was a meeting that I had with the community administrators that will eventually control my budget for next year. Obviously I want the money for my site and their responce to that was that they wanted to see some results within 72 hours on what I was creating. :blink:

     

    For the last two days I have been struggling with dates and times. Within my applications, time plays a very big part so getting these things to work was a very big step. However what I found is that either most didn't understand what I was trying to do and thus giving suggestions that were either too confusing, or just had absolutely no bearing whatsoever on what I was doing. :raised: So I took it upon myself to struggle through it. If I couldn't find an expert, I would have to become the expert. Such is the story of my life (or so it would seem). Along the way I have gotten hints and suggestions from more than one source, but nothing that was ever really direct. For two days I did more tap dancing than Fred Astare, consistantly close but never quite right. :bash: After nearly 20 hours in front of the computer trying to figure this out, I (and my mind and body) finally gave up. I figured I would go get some sleep and come back at it in the morning with fresh eyes and a clear mind.

     

    I don't know if I am the only one that this has ever happened to, but when I am studing something for long periods of time, it has a tendency to consume my mind; so much so that it follows me into my dreams. When I was in college I remember having nightmares about polynomial equations. As I said, I was exhausted and decided to get some sleep. I got into bed and started watching a few episodes of my favoriate show (Robotech; I know it's geeky and retro, but what can I say). As I finally drifted off to sleep my shows were ending and the timer on the TV had switched it off, the last thought that went through my mind was that frustrating code that I have been working on. I don't know how long I laid there, but I remember the next feeling that I had. Most people when they wake up do so slowly. This was instant. I sat bolt upright in my bed like I was responding to an explosion. :o "THAT'S IT!" It was so sudden and violent that it scared my poor wife out of a dead sleep. As I struggled to free myself from my blankets I actually tangled myself up in them worse; so much so that I wound up face down on the floor. :unsure: Undetered I made my way with all haste to my office where the monitor had gone to sleep (which is where I should have been). Tapped the spacebar and brought it back to life. There in front of me was the code that frustrated me so badly. The soloution was so simple I don't known how I missed it. I hastily tapped in the correction. To my delight, DW didn't squak any coding errors. I crossed my fingers and previewed the form on the explorer.

     

    To my absolute delight it appeared. No errors, no missing items or code. Everything seemed to be working. I filled in the fields with meaningless data just to test a single input. After all the information was filled in I sat there staring at the cursor blinking on the monitor. It was like being hypnotized. I couldn't move. Felt more like sleep walking. I snapped out of it just long enought to click the submit button............ The form cleared as it was supposed to. I was stunned. :blink: Did it really work? Was it possible that I had solved in my sleep what I couldn't solve in 20 hours at the computer? I opened my dbase, navigated to the table that I was working with, positioned my mouse pointer over browse, closed my eyes and with a good deal of doubt and foreboading, gave it a click. I reluctantly gave a peak out of one of my eyes and was completely shocked with what I saw. The only responce that I could come up with was "YES!" :lol: as I jumped straight up right out of my chair throwing up my fists in triumph. It should be noted here that I don't exactly have the highest ceilings in world. As such I now have eight band aids on my knuckles two very sore hands and a pair of dents in the ceiling. Ah well. Such is the price of victory!

  16. 1) Yes, you can use an include. However, it's only necessary when the user is logged in, so you may not want to include it in all pages.

     

    2) Inactivity is defined -- with this code, at least -- as the period of time between page loads. So, if the amount of inactivity is set to 5 minutes, that means that if the user does not refresh the page/change pages within five minutes, when the page is next changed/refreshed, they will be asked to log in again. This is simply time oriented -- if the user is logged in on the same page for five minutes and is actually typing in something the entire time, it will still log the user out. I would suggest that it only automatically logs out members after a semi-significant amount of time, so you can be just about sure that they are actually inactive. You always remove this functionality if you don't find it useful.

     

     

    Thanks Ben, that helps.

  17. In watching these last videos in the part 1 folder for the php login series, its talking about automatically logging out a user if they show inactivity for a certain period of time. I have two questions on this matter.

     

    1. This is alot of addtional code to place into these documents and it seems that they are beginning to clog things up a bit. I'm wondering if I can write the code once and then drop it in with an includes statement. If this is true, then would you call them with the rest of the includes statements when the code opens or only when needed?

    2. I understand that last active variable is looking for a time duration of inactivity, but I'm wondering what exactly defines that inactivity. I suppose what I am really asking is will this execute if someone is using the mouse and looking at the page, or do they actually have to be typing in something on the page.

  18. In video 7 you talked about php secuity. In particular you said something to the effect that when we are using a mysqli prepare stmt that it automatically escapes the entries so we really don't need to use the htmlentities ENT_QUOTES code. I am wondering, if I leave that code in there will it still work the same. My thinking here is that you can never have too much security.

  19. That's actually pretty slick. :clap: That gives me something to compare notes against so that I can easily see where my errors are. Man if I'd known about this earlier, I probably wouldn't have posted quite so many questions.

  20. Thanks Ben that clears that up a great deal and it now makes sense.

     

    I would like to ask a side question about the videos. In each file I have several other files. For example in the PHP Login folder, I have the following files. PHP Login Part 1, 2 and 3. I also have PHP Loin Project files Part 1, 2, 3 & 4. This is common through out most of the video files that I have. What I am trying to figure out is what the Project files are for. When looking at them they look like the code that is being covered in the videos, but what is the purpose of that? Should I be printing these out and taking notes on them as I go, or do they serve another function that I am not aware of as of yet?

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