Computer Programming Tutorials and Articles

Mapping

• Driving Directions Link
  Creating a driving directions link for your customers
• Plotting items onto UK Google Maps
  Using the Google Maps API to plot items on to the UK Google Maps

Apache

• Apache Redirect Directive
  Using Apache's Redirect command after moving, renaming or re-moving a web page.
• Apache SetEnvIfNoCase
  Using Apache's SetEnvIfNoCase command to ban site rippers and email collection robots.
• Disabling a site for essential maintenance
  Using an Apache mod_rewrite command.
• Using .htaccess files
  Creating a customised 404 error page and password protecting a members only directory on your web server.

PHP

• Creating a HTML selection list of file names matching a criteria
  Using the readdir function to build a list of filenames matching a supplied criteria
• PHP GD2 function ImageCopyMerge - setting the opacity of an image
  Reducing the opacity of an image using PHP graphics functions GD2 ImageCopyMerge
• Using fsockopen with HTTP POST requests over an SSL connection
  Shows you how to check that OpenSSL is installed on your PHP installation, with sample code showing HTTP POST requests using fsockopen.

Perl

• CPAN - Installing Perl Modules
  Example of how to install Perl CPAN modules, even without root access.
• Mass Deleting Email Script
  Deleting all emails from a POP3 account using Perl
• Paging MySQL database results, printing 10 records per page
  How to list database results 10 records per page using Perl.
• Parsing XML files with Perl
  Parsing XML files with Perl and the XML::parser Module.
• Random Password Generator
  A sample Perl subroutine to create random passwords of any length.

MySQL

• How to backup your MySQL tables and data every night using a bash script and cron
  This tutorial will show you how to write a simple bash shell script which will extract your database schema, compress the data and email you the backup

Visual Basic 6

• Determine the version number of your MDAC installation
  Example visual basic 6 code showing you how to programmatically determine the version number of your MDAC installation, allowing you to take appropriate action if the required version is not installed.
• Determine Windows's Regional Settings for Short Date Format, and Prevent Corrupting Your Database
  How to use the Windows GetLocaleInfo API Function to determine the Regional Settings for the short date format, and ensure that they are set to English (United Kingdom)
• Load a file into the application that's associated with the files extension
  Visual Basic 6 code showing how to use the ShellExecute and GetDesktopWindow API functions to open a file with it's associated application.
• on error goto statements in Visual Basic 6
  Better handling of the on error goto statement.
• Screen Capture and Thumbnail Creation using Visual Basic & Freeimage
  How to use the windows API to simulate a print screen button event, capturing the screen contents to the clipboard, and then using Freeimage to create a thumbnail of the clipboard image.
• Splitting Multipage TIFF Files into Single Pages using Visual Basic & Freeimage
  Using the Freeimage OpenMultiBitmap commands to read multipage TIFF files, and split them into single pages.
• Using SHBrowseForFolder in VB6
  A directory browser / selection tool from the Windows API.
• Visual Basic 6 code for connecting to a MySQL database
  Using the MySQL ODBC driver & Microsoft Remote Data Object to connect a visual basic application to a MySQL database.

JavaScript

• Unobtrusive Number Field Validation Using JavaScript
  How To create onblur field validation using unobtrusive JavaScript techniques.

Backups

• Backing up data on a Windows machine using TAR and GZIP
  Tar and Gzip are command line utilities usually associated with Unix systems, so why use them to backup your Windows machine.
• Offsite Backups For Small Businesses Using S3, OpenSSL and Jungle Disk
  How to encrypt your backups before sending them to Amazon S3, and the easiest method of transferring your files to and from your S3 account.

TAR

• Splitting Large Files to Span Multiple Disks using TAR
  How to split large files into smaller chunks so that they will fit onto storage media.

General

• Creating Video Demonstrations of your Software Products
  Need to create video demonstrations of your software products or services? - This short article covers things I have learned while creating my first video demo, including what software I used and why outsourcing your voice over is a good idea.
• Extending EditPlus
  How to extend EditPlus to make it a better PHP IDE (Integrated Development Environment)
• Host large video files on Amazon S3, and serve them via a sub domain of your web site
  How to host large video files on Amazon S3 and serve them from a sub domain of your web site. How to configure the bucket name, and set-up the CNAME DNS mapping.
• Hosts File
  Testing new web servers before changing DNS settings.
• Using YSlow
  Using YSlow to increase the front end performance of your web site