Evolution of the Blog Application

So yesterday i put in some serious hours into the testing and bug fixing of Supa Blogg and its coming along nicely, the admin management section is pretty much finished and tested well. I am working on outputting the pages to be viewed which is coming along nicely now.

MyTwitterBB 3 has had little development recently, some of the basics are down but because its such a pain to test this on a forum that i get kinda put off with testing it. But i think that when i actually get around to fixing those bugs it should be out after i've tested it well. The entire make up of the plugin is a lot better than the previous versions and will work a lot better!

I have also added the MyBB plugin download link to the Unread Thread Counter so that you can download it via that section so that it can appease my need to see high download counts on the MyBB Plugin section.

I know that this blog is pretty boring right now and that not a lot of stuff is being posted but i barely get time to make new blog posts. I have so much else to work on right now. I also accept that some of the content within this post seems confusing but I am just getting in some quick blog posting before having to do a lot of other stuff so proof reading is out of the window right now.

I have also updated the remove_trailing_zeros() function to make it work with numbers like 1.0 which was wierd that it didn't work with those numbers specifically but it should work better now.

Unread Thread Counter

The Unread Thread Counter is another MyBB Plugin, this one however works with the intent of giving you a number of how many threads that you have not read in a certain category. At the moment it is version 1.0 and you can download from the following mirrors:

MyBB Plugin Website
SupaComix

Installation

Just like every other plugin for mybb just stick the unreadthreadcounter.php into your "inc/plugins" folder and then log into your Admin CP > Plugins > Unread Thread Counter > Activate/ Install

Settings Guid

The Unread Thread Counter has 3 settings, they can be found in the Forum Display Options in your settings area:

Unread Thread Counter Enabled?

If set to Yes than the plugin will run

Unread Thread Counter Display Format

This is how the number will be displayed. Default is " (_NUM_)". _NUM_ is the actual count for the unread threads and so you will need to leave it in for the number to be displayed.

Unread Thread Counter Display Zero

If there are no unread threads do you want it to display the number zero or just leave it hidden? By default its set to False which means that if there are no unread threads then it will not display the number 0.

Bug Fixing?

If you have found a bug or wish to discuss some new features for this plugin then please head over to this thread. I have disabled comments for this post as people ask me a question and then they do not leave me a way to answer their question.

MyTwitterBB 3?

Well over the weekend i was without the Supa Blogg code so when i had a chance to do some coding i was not able to get on with that. I have however perfected RSS Feed Reading, and i have been thinking about MyTwitterBB, this new code means that MyTwitterBB can work a lot more efficiently now and do its job properly. The only downside is that everything that i wanted to add into version 2.4 is going to take a long time meaning that its going to be far more efficient to just start from scratch and build in the functions and functionality of the original 2 versions into Version 3 with its improved code. So i may be moving onto a newer version of the code with that.

So i will be drawing up the plans for the new version of MyTwitterBB in order to improve its functionality and features. If there is anything that people would like to see in the new version please comment and i will see what i can do about it.

If you are looking for some easy PHP Class for RSS/XML file reading then i suggest you give my class a try, you can find the information about it right here.

Also in other news, i have been testing Supa Blogg pretty much none stop. This program is coming nicley along now, a lot of the early bug fixing is just sorting out the background and loading functions which really only need to be fixed once meaning that bug testing and fixing is going to speed up from section to section.

Also i went to see UP in the cinemas yesterday, it was a good film and i enjoyed it. We saw it in 3D as well though which is mega awesome. I recommend that if you have to see a film and have an option between 2D and 3D then see it in 3D it is just mind blowing how awesome it is!

Stuff

Sorry that this post is just a copy and paste of the one on Supa Comix but i'm so swamped I do not have time to do both right now:

So i eventually got around to fixing the forum. It was running a test version of MyTwitterBB that wasn't working properly. I have just removed the plugin since i do not have time to fix the bug properly. Speaking of not having time:

I have now finished the first version of Supa Blogg, it's not available to anyone to use right now as I'm testing it after coding and everyone who codes knows how many first time bugs they find when they test a program for the first time. I do not unit test with large programs, i would rather code in the flow of it and then bug test in one go. It means that everything is kept going and im not breaking flow to see whether it's showing the right time or not. I am continuing to test Supa Blogg and i hope to have it running my personal blog very soon. It won't be out for Public use until after i have released the new Supa Comix website later this year (hopefully).

MyTwitterBB Version 2.5 has not had anything done to it just yet. I have started University and i have to do that, SupaBlogg and the Survivors Diary so getting things done is a slow process right now. I have so many things that i want to do but cannot do alot of them because i have to prioritise what I'm working on. I was just making a post to make sure that you did not think that we were dead or anything.

I do not know what's happening with Is it Because I'm Green or Virtually Reality, Adele has also started uni and has more work than me so she's also very busy. But from what i've seen the scripts for Season 1 of IIBIG are coming along nicely.

Updates

I have been meaning to write a new blog post for a while but never really had a chance to do it. You will be glad to know that this is down to the fact that i have been very busy coding Supa Kode modules, specifically Supa Blogg. It is not completed yet but it is nearing a state which can be tested.

I intend to get a very basic version working and test that, and then add to it to a point where i think that i can move onto the next section of the Supa Kode major modules.

Other work involves developing the newest format for the Survivors Diary podcast, we have decided to return to a Left 4 Dead podcast rather than anything zombie-ish podcast. This is due to the fact that we realised that we were getting to be a review podcast rather than one which had content generated like we had in Left 4 Dead. We have had a lot of awesome support from the community and intend that this be the best format for the show that we've ever had. I am going to start work on implementing the theme that adele has designed for the new website over the next few days as well as record the next podcast.

With regards to MyTwitterBB and MyWikiBB, well MyTwitterBB is not really being developed just yet, i am still trying to fully understand the XML feed reader that comes with PHP and i am unsure whether it works to a level that i can truly feel comfortable with. So i may be starting to work on my own XML feed reader and see if i can use that to run with MyTwitterBB. MyWikiBB has had nothing done to it, i have deemed this the least priority at the moment due to everything that is going on.

I was planning on doing a Blog post about WMG and how they are shit with Youtube videos but when i was going to actually type it out i wasn't fully feeling the emotions for a good post about it. I had an idea to talk about Content Management Systems but I am too tired to do that at this moment, that may be coming soon though.

University term starts in about 2 weeks, it's not overly busy for my schedule and i have a whole day to work on coding for other things so i hope that i can keep on top of the projects. Especially because we purchased the domain name of the major secret project that me and adele have been working on. And i do not want such an awesome deal (£4.99 per month for unlimited bandwith, freespace, emails @ Hostpapa) to go to a waste!

So more coming soon!

[PHP] Removing Trailing Slashes from Decimal Points

Have you ever had a problem with code when your dealing with decimal points in maths or something and you get the output of 0.10 or 0.00200000 and find that the trailing zeros would be better off gone? Well the code below is a function that sorts that out, it will turn 0.00100 to 0.001.

In PHP some functions such as bcdiv/bcmul output such values and if your code relies upon the proper formatting of the output then this function is the thing for you. Otherwise if you just want to use the outputs of such functions for maths then i don't really see it being a major problem.

Anywhere here is the code, if you can think of improvements for this code then please let me know in the comments section.

function remove_trailing_zeros($intNum)
{
if(is_numeric($intNum) && preg_match("/\./", $intNum))
{
    $intLen = strlen($intNum);

    $bolStart = false;
    $intCutFrom = 0;
    $strString = "";

    for($i = 0; $i <= $intLen; $i++)
    {
        $strChar = substr($intNum, $i, 1);
        if($strChar == ".")
        {
            $bolStart = true;    
        }
        elseif($bolStart == false)
        {
            $strString .= $strChar;
        }
        elseif($bolStart == true)
        {
            if($strChar == "0" && $intCutFrom == 0)    
            {
                $intCutFrom = $i;
            }
            elseif($strChar != 0 && $intCutFrom != 0)
            {
                $intCutFrom = 0;
            }
        }
    }

    $strNew = substr($intNum, 0, $intCutFrom);    
    
    if($strNew == $strString.".")
    {
        return $strString;    
    }
    else
    {
        return $strNew;    
    }
}
else
{
    return $intNum;    
}
}

Formatted Using formatmysourcecode.blogspot.com

Blog Evolution

Supa Enjin is slowly progressing into a properly working php class. With all of the work that i do that require its use i get plenty of oppourtunity to perfect the code and fix some bugs. The major problem i have right now is that the Microsoft SQL Version of the code remains properly untested. I do update that version of the class when theres a problem with the actual code of the MySQL Version, but if its query specific then theres nothing i can really do. But the good news is that i will be setting up Microsofts stunted child version of MySQL on my computer so that i can test the code.

Still I have started to read a lot of blog posts about writing better and more engaging blog posts as well as how to develop your blog into a more impressive being. I do writing for my university course so I have a basic concept of writing it's just that i need to work on the writing process a little more. I am more accustomed to scripts and fiction stories then actual non-fiction content. So it's something that i can learn.

Along with the blog development i have started work on Supa Kodes blogging software, Supa Blogg. This new blogging code is something that will be used throughout the Supa Comix website and will contain many awesome features that someone people have done but not done the way i think about it and even some features that some people never think of. I will be developing more information about that at a later date as i am still working on the basic code for the blogg software. I intend that this blog will be the first one to use the new code, as when i've used it i will upload it to the Supa Comix website to test the code in a more direct way so that i can add new features onto the code and perfect it in real time rather then just the boring tests that i get my code to do at home. The code is not particulary large but it is something that needs a lot of work and testing, i am working towards a more secure version of the code where users are safer from spiders and bots as i have found that spiders and bots are a big problem for many blogs so there are many ways of filtering them out.

MyWikiBB has come to my mind a bit more right now, i have an idea for one last feature to add to it before i release it for a beta version to anyone right now. MyTwitterBB is something else that needs a new version released so that it works a lot better then the previous versions and takes use of some features in Twitter that i knew about but didn't consider when programming the code. I will work more on them next week!

I hate to have to be very obscure about what i will be doing in more information but everything is changing and i want to keep you in suspense. Perhaps next time i write a blog post i will have to read it through and actually plan it before i write it. I just let the writing get away with me sometimes. Anyway thats for next time... promise.