Comments for PHP Starter

Comment on Parse Weather Forecast Data (from the NDFD) in PHP by Sean

Sean — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 19:11:05 +0000

Here’s some of the code… there’s a whole mess of it, and I dont’ want to clog your board with randomness, so I’ve stripped out that which I think is relevant…
‘ Find roots nodes for temperature and cloud data
Dim wtClouds As New WeatherTable()
wtClouds.nodeData = xmlDoc.SelectSingleNode(“/dwml/data/parameters/conditions-icon”)
‘ Find out corresponding time layout table for each top data node
wtClouds.nodeTimeLayout = FindLayoutTable(xmlDoc, wtClouds.nodeData)
FillCloudData(wtClouds, arrDayWeatherData, arrNightWeather)
arrDayWeatherData = New DayWeatherData(cTimes – 1) {}
arrNightWeather = New DayWeatherData(cTimes – 1) {}
Dim DR As DataRow
For N As Integer = 0 To arrDayWeatherData.Length – 1
DR = DT.NewRow
DR.Item(“WeatherDate”) = arrDayWeatherData(N).DateTime
DR.Item(“DayIcon”) = arrDayWeatherData(N).CloudIconURL
DR.Item(“DayHigh”) = arrDayWeatherData(N).HighTempF
If N < arrDayWeatherData.Length – 1 Then
DR.Item(“NightIcon”) = arrNightWeather(N).CloudIconURL
DR.Item(“NightLow”) = arrDayWeatherData(N).LowTempF
Else
DR.Item(“NightIcon”) = Nothing
DR.Item(“NightLow”) = Nothing
End If
DT.Rows.Add(DR)
DR = Nothing
Next

Private Shared Sub FillCloudData(ByVal wt As WeatherTable, ByRef arrDayWeatherData As DayWeatherData(), ByRef arrNightWeather As DayWeatherData())
‘ Cloud data is typically much longer than day high/low data
‘ We need to find times that match ones in high and low temp tables.
Dim listTimes As XmlNodeList = wt.nodeTimeLayout.SelectNodes(“start-valid-time”)
Dim listIcons As XmlNodeList = wt.nodeData.SelectNodes(“icon-link”)
Dim cWeatherData As Integer = 0
Dim cNodes As Integer = 0
Dim hourDiff As Integer = Int32.MaxValue

For Each node As XmlNode In listTimes
cNodes += 1
Dim dt As DateTime = ParseDateTime(node.InnerText)

If dt.[Date] > arrDayWeatherData(cWeatherData).DateTime.[Date] Then
cWeatherData += 1
If cWeatherData >= arrDayWeatherData.Length Then
Exit For
End If

hourDiff = Int32.MaxValue
End If

If dt.[Date] = arrDayWeatherData(cWeatherData).DateTime.[Date] Then
Dim diff As Integer = Math.Abs(dt.Hour – arrDayWeatherData(cWeatherData).DateTime.Hour)

If diff < hourDiff Then
hourDiff = diff
If cWeatherData < arrDayWeatherData.Length Then
arrDayWeatherData(cWeatherData).CloudIconURL = listIcons(cNodes).InnerText
End If

End If
End If

cNodes = 0
cWeatherData = 0

For Each node As XmlNode In listTimes
cNodes += 1
Dim dt As DateTime = ParseDateTime(node.InnerText)

If dt.[Date] > arrNightWeather(cWeatherData).DateTime.[Date] Then
cWeatherData += 1
If cWeatherData >= arrNightWeather.Length Then
Exit For
End If

hourDiff = Int32.MaxValue
End If

If dt.[Date] = arrNightWeather(cWeatherData).DateTime.[Date] Then
If dt.Hour = arrNightWeather(cWeatherData).DateTime.Hour Then

Dim diff As Integer = Math.Abs(dt.Hour – arrNightWeather(cWeatherData).DateTime.Hour)

If diff < hourDiff Then
hourDiff = diff
If cWeatherData < arrNightWeather.Length Then
arrNightWeather(cWeatherData).CloudIconURL = listIcons(cNodes).InnerText
End If

End If
End If

End If

End Sub

Private Shared Function FindLayoutTable(ByVal xmlDoc As XmlDocument, ByVal topDataNode As XmlNode) As XmlNode
Dim nlTimeLayouts As XmlNodeList = xmlDoc.SelectNodes(“/dwml/data/time-layout”)
Dim timeLayout As String = topDataNode.Attributes(“time-layout”).Value

For Each node As XmlNode In nlTimeLayouts
If timeLayout = node.SelectSingleNode(“layout-key”).InnerText Then
Return node
End If
Next

Return Nothing
End Function

Comment on Parse Weather Forecast Data (from the NDFD) in PHP by Andrew

Andrew — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 17:45:44 +0000

Sean-

That's interesting. I had a similar issue because the arrays weren't aligning properly, causing the days to be off, and the forecasts were flipped - showing day for night and night for day. It's hard to say why you are seeing night for both. How are you processing the XML? I assume you are doing it in ASP.NET, but can you post how you are getting the data from the XML to an object to use?

Comment on Parse Weather Forecast Data (from the NDFD) in PHP by Sean

Sean — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 15:57:26 +0000

I have this working in ASP.net, but I feel like the icons must be wrong because it sometimes shows nighttime icons for the day highs…. Am I somehow not matching these up right?
Here’s the page I’m referring to: http://www.boatpittsburgh.com
You can use the down arrow to expand the weather for the whole week… apparently on Monday and Tuesday it’s forecast to be a solar eclipse all day long… O.o

Comment on Merge Image Layers in PHP by Andrew

Andrew — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 19:07:53 +0000

The file_get_contents() function does not work in all environments – only the ones that have allow_url_fopen set to true in the PHP configuration. I have had more luck across hosting environments that way.

If you are sure that allow_url_fopen will be enabled where you are using this, then ya, it would probably be easier than including the Snoopy class.

Glad you find the articles useful!

Comment on Merge Image Layers in PHP by Tim Barmann

Tim Barmann — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 18:51:53 +0000

Hi Andrew,
I very much appreciate your great work and your willingness to share it. Question – why do you use the Snoopy class instead of something like PHP’s file_get_contents() ?
Thanks again,
Tim

Comment on Dynamically Converting Text to an Image by Andrew

Andrew — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 23:52:07 +0000

Alex -

I was able to get the example working. Make sure you have the path to the font current. When I had it set to the wrong path, PHP throws a warning and then uses the default font. If you have warnings disabled, you may not notice that. Run error_reporting(E_ALL); before any other code to make sure you aren't hiding any warnings that are getting thrown.

Hope this helps!

Comment on Dynamically Converting Text to an Image by alex turner

alex turner — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 00:08:35 +0000

this doesnt seem to be working for me – ive inputted the code in a php and created a test html file. Ive also selected the font by downloading the program and converting it to .gdf, but it still displays all text normally…

Comment on Akismet Class/Library for Codeigniter by CodeIgniter Tutorials to Help You Get Started | KomunitasWeb

CodeIgniter Tutorials to Help You Get Started | KomunitasWeb — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 20:12:09 +0000

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Comment on Parse Current Weather Conditions Data from the NWS in PHP by Andrew

Andrew — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 22:40:55 +0000

Hey Tim,

I figured that this way, I would only have to parse the XML once on the data load rather than every time someone loads a page. Would this make a huge difference in the page load time? Probably not. Also, if the NWS made changes to their file structure, you would have to rewrite some PHP code anyway, so I figured it wouldn’t be too much of a big deal to change some MySQL data fields while you are at it.

Your method would probably work just as well – it’s a matter of personal preference on what you would rather maintain.

Comment on Parse Current Weather Conditions Data from the NWS in PHP by Tim Barmann

Tim Barmann — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 21:30:29 +0000

Sorry about using the wrong name, Andrew!