Although I must admit I didn’t notice it, less than 2 months after it was decided to create a new version for Propel, it was actually released.

Last week, on the 8th of November, the new 1.4.0 version has been released for production use. Additionally they also set up a blog to prove Propel is still very much alive.

Propel 1.4 is a backwards compatible evolution of Propel 1.3. It offers lots of bug fixes, some very interesting new features, speed enhancements, and a very simple upgrade path: rebuild your model after updating Propel, and your application works as always. Except it works better…

It all sounds to good to be true!

A first migration of a project to this new version went smoothly: remember to remove the *-classmap.php file that was generated by 1.3.0 because it has been integrated in the main config file. It’s also recommendable to delete the /map sub-folder in your models folder because 1.4.0 generates newly named *TableMap.php files.

Also good to have: full query logging (Propel 1.3 switched to PDO and lost this feature but it’s back!).

I must also admit I have never actually implemented Doctrine, but that’s also because I haven’t found a reason while using Propel.

After being forced to upgrade to the latest Windows Live Messenger version yesterday, I had to find a solution for the wlcomm.exe error reports I kept getting with this version.

I kept using the old (8.5?) version ever since a new Live Messenger version came out earlier this year because in these new versions I couldn’t sign in: a Windows error report would be generated with each sign in attempt.

The error report showed:

AppName: wlcomm.exe     AppVer: 14.0.8098.930     ModName: crypt32.dll
ModVer: 5.131.2600.5512     Offset: 0000ed05

Several possible solutions failed to fix it for me (and with a search for messenger + wlcomm.exe clearly for a lot of other people too).

While there seem to be different causes, if you have a NVIDIA chipset and use their driver package, the solution is to uninstall the NVidia ForceWare Network Access Manager and you are good to go!

Apparently it is some kind of firewall software for the NVIDIA chipset.

I’ve been looking for this for a while: how to add Apache’s build tool Ant to Eclipse when it is not available to add as a view.

When you download and run the standard PDT for example, it is not available.

The answer seems to be: install the Eclipse Java Development Tools.

This may not be the ideal way but if you want to do this through the “Install New Software…” menu, it seems to be the only one.

Just select “Work with: Galileo” (or whatever your Eclipse version is) expand “Programming Languages” and select “Eclipse Java Development”.

After the installation completes you can add Ant as a view.

Another project: last week I finalized a Google Maps integration with an overview of my client’s members and the status of their membership.

VSK (or the Vlaamse Scholieren Koepel) manage their member schools through a web interface and because they had addresses of each school, it was a logical step to show them on a Google Maps overview:

While the result will definitely come in handy for them, implementation is not spectacularly difficult. The fact that the hosting was fixed on PHP 4.x caused a bit more “fun” though!

This can save some time searching: to center a map on a set of markers (like with the county selection above) your must first center it on a set of fixed coordinates.

I finally tried Zend Server Community Edition as a replacement of WampServer (or XAMPP) for local development.

While Zend Server proposes to be the perfect solution for any environment, I specifically tried it as a development stack on Windows machines. The use and usefulness of course completely differ in any other scenario.

First of all (and of great importance if you ask me): it is clean, simple and easy to use from A to Z. The installer provides the right options but not too many, the dashboard (control panel) is slick and provides quick access to settings you don’t often find in any other “server packages” and last but not least it performs much better due to the use of FastCGI on Windows.

2 less-frequently used features I missed though:

• A way to set up VirtualHosts in the dashboard.
• A WampServer-like way to switch between PHP (and in a lesser extend Apache) versions.

In total, the fine packaging almost got me convinced to replace WampServer.

Almost… because the choice for FastCGI on Windows also has one major disadvantage: you cannot use php_value settings inside your Apache/VirtualHost configuration. I especially like this since it avoids setting include_path, display_errors, upload_max_filesize and the like inside your scripts or .htaccess (which in some setups causes it to be parsed at every request).
Doing this in Zend Server on another platform isn’t a problem, since they use the PHP Apache module instead of CGI but that means you do not have similar environments and that is the complete opposite of what we want.

So it ended with a deinstallation. On the other hand: I can really see the benefit of this package for live/production environments. With it’s included optimization tools it takes a lot of configuration hassle away.

When you use FireFox, you might notice that the Google search results show a different URL once you click on a link.

Google has been experimenting/implementing/… this for quite some time now but apparently not in all countries/browsers/users/… simultaneously?

It is caused by some JavaScript script that re-routes the link through Google in order for them to be able to track clicks. Although I can imagine some people make a fuss about this, personally I do not care as long as the results are good.

But this becomes annoying once you right-click a link to copy it (e.g. in an e-mail): I want to send the original URL and it sounds a bit strange to track other people clicking on my search result (for some good reason it probably makes sense to Google though).

You can easily avoid this (at least in FireFox) with a Greasemonkey script. Scripts have been available for some time, but I made a simple one with jQuery that does the trick for me.

Download or install jQuery Google click tracking removal script.

Looking for a new hobby? Enjoyed playing with Lego when you were little?

The Google Reader sign-in page can be addictive: the poplar blog posts that appear there are often funny and interesting. Like this one yesterday: Introducing the Illuminato X Machina.

Apparently Liquidware is a company/organisation that manufactures electronic components in an open source spirit. You have all kinds of components that you can plug together and that are programmable with the available C++ IDE for Windows or Mac.

Their latest product is the Illuminato X Machina from the blog post above, which is basically a small motherboard with a 72 MHz CPU, storage and interfaces and which can be attached to other cells to increase computation power.

A early funny (geeky) example of the possibilities:

You can order any component separately or in starter kits from the Liquidware shop. I believe Christmas is on it’s way!

No, you guessed wrong. This will not be the nth post about W3C standards.

Well, maybe one paragraph: while I know the use of W3C standards is favourable, the usability of your project/application should be your number one priority. Not adherence to a standard which would render your application unusable for (a part of) your audience. Every once in a while people tend to forget this. Of course no one will argue that W3C standards actually are a blessing.

But, this post is mainly about 2 simple standards:

• The ISO 639 standard for representing languages. Please use “en” or “fr” in your database, routing, scripts,… . It is unbelievable how many times people pick something like “FR” or “F”.
  Next time, consult the ISO 639-1 list.
• The ISO 3166 standard for representing countries. Same case: please use “US”, “FR” or “BE” or use the ISO 3166-1 list.

Additionally, use the Unicode CLDR list when working with locale’s (e.g. nl_BE).

Standards in general provide a major productivity benefit: you do not have to lose time discussing, implementing, mapping,… other peoples personal preferences (whether or not their choice can be motivated).

This also applies to coding standards/guidelines. We have probably all had (or will have) discussions about them once in our life because there are no “official” ones as far as I know. Specifically about PHP: please (yes, I am on my knees right now) use one of the major ones that are already available: e.g. Zend Framework (my preference because it is or will become the industry standard), PEAR or … . Do not create your own flavour (I do not have to explain why this does not make sense).

A hot topic at your company, project or team? Have a look at Weble Subversion hosting: you can force a list of predefined guidelines/standards by a mouse click. This will prevent SVN users from committing their code if it does not comply and, in such a case, an overview of the deviations will be displayed.

Popular and widespread in Japan, QR codes (a variant of the well-known bar-codes) certainly provide many opportunities.

The QR code was invented by Denso Wave, Inc of Japan in 1994. They appear on many product packaging in addition to “normal” bar-codes for shipment tracking and other purposes. When scanned, these codes can return numbers and text (e.g. the URL to this blogpost in the example image). The camera on your mobile phone and dedicated scanning software do the rest of the magic.

While their ability to be a link between the “online” and “offline” world can provide many opportunities, it hasn’t really become the hype it could be outside of Japan. Practical implementations are rare. Most likely because of the lack of knowledge by the broad public. Although QR reader software is freely available and a July ‘09 research by the University of Essex stated that 68% of UK phone owners can install such an application, most have not.

The biggest difference between the numerous free QR readers (for about any phone brand/model) may be the image quality needed to recognize a code. I’m happy with the  speed of NeoReader but there are also Kaywa Reader and QuickMark barcode reader (among others).

Besides Wordpress plug-ins and support in the Google Charts API, there is a PHP library but support in the Zend Framework could stimulate its use even more (Zend_Gdata_Chart anyone)?

Some more implementations:

• Facebook Add to Friends.
• Viral advertising campaigns.
• Share contact information.
• TV to website link (Dutch).
• … any other examples? Please share them in the comments.

One useful tip is to shorten URLs through one of the many URL shortening services there are. This generates a smaller, less prominent QR code.

The name or URL strictlyPHP may not immediately reveal I have a second online passion: Web Analytics.

I am more than aware a proper site would help clarify what I do and it’s certainly on the list, but for now, a short description: besides PHP/Web development, I try to invest as much time as possible in Web Analytics. In my case summarized as: website optimization using Google Analytics.

I am extremely fascinated by the information you can derive from analysing data/traffic. I like to pin-point possible usability issues, missing information or missed opportunities to improve site conversion performance. Related to that, targeted AdWords PPC (Pay-Per-Click) campaigns are lots of fun too!

And that is what made me write this post: I just started a new Google PPC campaign for a small Bed and Breakfast in Haspengouw (Belgium) targeted to Belgian and Dutch people.

The conversion action is of course the use of the contact form and as results are coming in, it’s doing well. I did a small site rebuild in advance so not everything can be compared to the past, but the amount of new not-bouncing visitors has almost doubled and conversions (of course!) follow the same path. While traditionally March and April were their best months, July is coming close.

Conversions via phone are currently not measurable but it’s easy to ask the person that handles them if an increase is visible (audible?). You could do this properly by asking those people if they visited the website before. Logging that somewhere would allow you to combine this data without to much hassle.

Now, don’t forget to visit De Pastorie yourself! Even if it is only for a drink on their terrace.

Or even better: if you like to receive an actionable optimization report for your site or launch a PPC campaign together to increase traffic: don’t hesitate and send me a message.