How to use optional parameters in URI path in Yii framework

Posted by Stanislav Furman on July 10, 2014

Yii - is one of my favorite frameworks. I've done a few projects using this framework and have been always satisfied with its functionality, flexibility, performance and community support. This post starts a series of "how to" articles where I will give some tips, advises and best practices.

If you need to use optional parameters in URLs here is how you can do it in UrlManager:

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Securing a directory with 777 or 775 permissions

Posted by Stanislav Furman on July 6, 2014

If in your project you have a publicly accessible directory that has full permissions (777), then it may cause serious security issues. An attacker may put an executable script or binary on your host and then run it remotely. This is a major security whole and it may lead to major problems if someone decides to attack your website.

However, sometimes on some shared webhosting servers you need have a folder that has risky 777 permissions (or, if possible, 775 which is a little bit better). As an example you can consider a folder where website users can upload their photos or images. In this case it opens a security whole for potential attackers. But, there are a few techniques that can help you to keep your website safe.

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Shared web hosting Vs VPS hosting Vs dedicated servers

Posted by Stanislav Furman on June 22, 2014

Are you a web developer or/and web site owner? Then you definitely have shopped around for a website hosting!

Unlike 90s and beginning of 2000s when Yahoo! GeoCities was pretty much the only choice, today, there are a lot of choices for web developers: shared web hosting, virtual private servers, and dedicated servers.

So, which Hosting is right for You? Let's compare the 3 main types of hosting.

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Responsive website Vs standalone mobile version

Posted by Stanislav Furman on June 16, 2014

We all use mobile devices every day. Well, at least most of us. All those smartphones, tablets, gadget-watches, etc. Most of us cannot imagine life without these things. Of course, these devices are used a lot to access the Internet. Howerver, not all websites will look the same on different screens. In fact, a lot of websites will look really bad on smaller screens. I'd even say most of web sites!

In the modern web design there is very common dilemma whether to create mobile standalone website, or create responsive design. As usual each option has its pros and cons. In this article I will look at both options and show a sort of comparison.

Comparison

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Regular expressions? What's that? Part 2.

Posted by Stanislav Furman on June 2, 2014

Thanks to nightbloos I can continue posting funny code samples that developers meet/write from time to time. :)

Here is another good example of how NOT to do! Please, do not try this at home! This stunt was performed by untrained professionals.  :)


<?php
$forReplace = array(",","."," ","-", "+", "#""/");
foreach($forReplace as $repl){
	$find = str_replace($repl,'',$find)
}

Obviously, in this case a regular expression function must have been used.

If you have another good examples of a funny code samples, please leave it in the comments. ;)


How to update fields from another table in MySQL

Posted by Stanislav Furman on May 28, 2014

This article is to continue the series of short handy MySQL tips that I started a while ago. 

If you need to update a number of column fields in a MySQL table with data from another table, there is a simple way to do it. Lets say you need to update user phone numbers in table1 with the corresponding phone numbers from table2. Then you could run the following query.

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Ebay asks its users to change passwords

Posted by Stanislav Furman on May 21, 2014
Security alert! Ebay asks its users to change their passwords.

Important things you must know before register a domain name

Posted by Stanislav Furman on May 16, 2014
10 important things you should know before you register a domain name with a registrar

PHP NG, significant speed-up features coming in PHP 6

Posted by Stanislav Furman on May 15, 2014
PHPNG : significant speedup changes announced in PHP 6 Release

Huawei introduces the Ascend P7, its new flagship Android phone

Posted by Stanislav Furman on May 7, 2014
The Ascend P7 from Huawei is going to compete with its rivals from Samsung and Apple.