This is a very simple class for constructing basic comma-separated value (CSV) files in PHP. The export method forces the correct headers to initiate a file download. More information can be had in the PHP documentation.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 <?php   class CSV { protected $data;   /* * @params array $columns * @returns void */ public function __construct($columns) { $this->data = '"' . implode('","', $columns) . '"' . "\n"; } /* * @params array $row * @returns void */ public function addRow($row) { $this->data .= '"' . implode('","', $row) . '"' . "\n"; } /* * @returns void */ public function export($filename) { header('Content-type: application/csv'); header('Content-Disposition: attachment; filename="' . $filename . '.csv"');   echo $this->data; die(); } public function __toString() { return $this->data; } }   $csv = new CSV(array('date', 'name', 'address')); $csv->addRow(array('2/2/2010', 'John', 'Portland, OR'));   // export csv as a download $csv->export('names.csv');   // pass the csv data to a variable as a string $string = $csv;   ?>

Here’s another quick braindump post. A custom JSON-RPC library I wrote for a project at my last job. It should follow the JSON-RPC 2.0 Spec pretty closely. It does require the jQuery library as well.

You can pretty much ignore the MIKU references. Basically it’s just a way of namespacing objects to make them globally available. Try reading up on the YUI library for more information.

As always, feel free to post with any questions.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 164 165 166 167 168 169 170 171 172 173 174 175 176 177 178 179 180 181 182 183 184 185 186 187 188 189 var MIKU;   /* * Method to allow namespacing of new objects within MIKU; * * Example: * MIKU.namespace('objectname'); * MIKU.objectname = function() { return {'...'} } * */ MIKU = function() { return { namespace: function(name) { try { if (MIKU[name]) { throw 'Namespace exists.'; } return {} } catch (e) { this.throwError(e); } } } }();   MIKU.namespace('throwError');   /* * Method to catch MIKU errors */ MIKU.throwError = function(e) { if (console) { console.error((e.message || 'MikuError:'), e); } };   /* * Init the JsonRpc namespace into the MIKU object. */ MIKU.namespace('JsonRpc');   /* * Miku Json-RPC Implementation */   MIKU.JsonRpc = function() { var _url = 'json-rpc/call'; var _timeout = false; var _requests = []; var _responses = []; var _callbacks = {}; var _requestId = 0; var _failures = 0;   function _send() { _request(); _t = false; _requests = []; }   function _request() { try { if (!_url) { throw('undefined post url.'); } $.ajax({ type: 'POST', url: _url, data: ({ request: JSON.stringify(_requests) }), dataFilter: function(data, type) { //check for php errors try { return JSON.parse(data); } catch (e) { var phpError = /^.*?(Error|Warning|Notice).*?\:\s*(.*?) in .*?(\/[0-9A-Za-z\/\.\-\_\ ]+).* on line .*?([0-9]+).*$/i; var lines = data.split(/\n/g); $.each(lines, function() { var error = this.match(phpError); if (error) { MIKU.throwError({ message: error[1] + ': ' + error[2], file: error[3], line: error[4] }); } }); } }, success: function(data) { _success(data); }, error: function(XMLHttpRequest, textStatus, errorThrown) { // retry after connection failures if (XMLHttpRequest.status != '200') { _failures ++; if (_failures < 3) { _request(); return; } }   // give up and throw errors... MIKU.throwError([XMLHttpRequest, textStatus, errorThrown]); } }); } catch(e) { MIKU.throwError(e); } }   function _success(response) { $.each(jQuery.makeArray(response), function() { try { if (this.error) { // check for error throw(this.error); } else if(this.result) { // trigger callback var callback = _callbacks[this.id]; callback(this.result); } } catch(e) { MIKU.throwError(e); } });   // reset callbacks _callbacks = {}; }   function _genId() { return ++_requestId; }   return { version: '2.0', delay: 10, setUrl: function(url) { _url = url; }, call: function(args) { var id = _genId();   var request = { jsonrpc: this.version, method: args.method, params: args.params, id: id }   _requests.push(request); _callbacks[id] = args.onSuccess;   if (_timeout) { clearTimeout(_timeout); } _timeout = setTimeout(_send, this.delay);   return request; } } }();   /* * Testing Below */   $(document).ready(function() { var rpc = MIKU.JsonRpc;   /* rpc.call({ method: 'System.getTitle', params: [ 'this is a title' ], onSuccess: function() { console.log('w00t'); } }); */ });

While working on a soon-to-be finished Wordpress theme for a client, I ran into a situation where it would be useful to create a custom widget that they could use to organize content on their site. Basically, they wanted to be able to select a random post or page and display some associated meta data. Essentially a custom image and content teaser. They were going to be doing this several times throughout the site, but in slightly different configurations. A post here, a page there. It seemed silly to hard-code these features. Using a widget would allow them to swap them out for a Twitter stream, or an RSS news feed in the future.

Making multi-instance widgets in Wordpress 2.8+ couldn’t be easier. Here is a good example to start with from the Wordpress codex.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 <?php class My_Widget extends WP_Widget { function My_Widget() { // widget actual processes }   function widget($args, $instance) { // outputs the content of the widget }   function update($new_instance, $old_instance) { // processes widget options to be saved }   function form($instance) { // outputs the options form on admin } } register_widget('My_Widget'); ?>

And here is my finished widget (evolved from the above example).

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 <?php /* * Custom mini-post widget */ class FGX_MiniPost_Widget extends WP_Widget { function FGX_MiniPost_Widget() { // widget actual processes parent::WP_Widget(false, $name = 'Floragenex MiniPost', array( 'description' => 'Display a teaser for a post or a page.' )); }   function widget($args, $instance) { // outputs the content of the widget global $post;   extract( $args ); $type = $instance['type']; $include = (!empty($instance['include']) ? explode(',', $instance['include']) : ''); $category = (is_numeric($instance['category']) ? (int)$instance['category'] : '');   // Set up query for posts with the provided filters query_posts(array( 'post_type' => $type, 'post__in' => $include, 'post__not_in' => array($post->ID), 'cat' => $category, 'post_status' => 'publish', 'meta_key' => 'teaser_value', 'meta_value' => '', 'meta_compare' => '!=', 'orderby' => 'rand', 'posts_per_page' => '1' ));   echo $before_widget;   // Output widget, if a post exists that matches our query if ( have_posts() ) : while ( have_posts() ) : the_post(); $post_meta = get_post_custom($post->ID); echo (!empty($post_meta['image_value'][0]) ? '<a href="' . get_page_link() . '">' . '<img alt="image" src="' . get_bloginfo('template_url') . '/scripts/timthumb.php?src=' . htmlentities($post_meta['image_value'][0]) . '&h=62&w=180&zc=1" />' . '</a>' : '') . '<h3><a href="' . get_page_link() . '">' . get_the_title() . '</a></h3>' . '<p>' . htmlentities($post_meta['teaser_value'][0]) . '</p>' . '<p><a class="learn-more" href="' . get_page_link() . '">learn more</a></p>'; endwhile; else: echo '<p>No posts found.</p>'; endif;   // Very important to reset the query here. wp_reset_query();   echo $after_widget; }   function update($new_instance, $old_instance) { // processes widget options to be saved return $new_instance; }   function form($instance) { // outputs the options form on admin $type = esc_attr($instance['type']); $include = esc_attr($instance['include']); $category = esc_attr($instance['category']);   // Get the existing categories and build a simple select dropdown for the user. $categories = get_categories();   $cat_options = array(); $cat_options[] = '<option value="BLANK">Select one...</option>';   foreach ($categories as $cat) { $selected = $category === $cat->cat_ID ? ' selected="selected"' : ''; $cat_options[] = '<option value="' . $cat->cat_ID .'"' . $selected . '>' . $cat->name . '</option>'; }   ?> <p> <label for="<?php echo $this->get_field_id('type'); ?>"> <?php _e('Content type:'); ?> </label> <select id="<?php echo $this->get_field_id('type'); ?>" class="widefat" name="<?php echo $this->get_field_name('type'); ?>"> <option value="post"<?php echo ($type === 'post' ? ' selected="selected"' : ''); ?>>Post</option> <option value="page"<?php echo ($type === 'page' ? ' selected="selected"' : ''); ?>>Page</option> </select> </p> <p> <label for="<?php echo $this->get_field_id('include'); ?>"> <?php _e('Include post IDs (optional):'); ?> </label> <input id="<?php echo $this->get_field_id('include'); ?>" class="widefat" type="text" name="<?php echo $this->get_field_name('include'); ?>" value="<?php echo $include; ?>" /> </p> <p> <label for="<?php echo $this->get_field_id('category'); ?>"> <?php _e('Include category (optional):'); ?> </label> <select id="<?php echo $this->get_field_id('category'); ?>" class="widefat" name="<?php echo $this->get_field_name('category'); ?>"> <?php echo implode('', $cat_options); ?> </select> </p> <?php } }   // register widget register_widget('FGX_MiniPost_Widget'); ?>

Just paste this code in your theme’s functions.php file and the widget should appear under your available widgets.

This was a quick braindump post, so please feel free to post with any specific questions.