Backup MySQL Database without PHPMyAdmin
When I heard that there is no graphical interface for managing MySQL database on the school web server during the first day of my CA 282 class, I thought that was a good thing because I can in depth learn SQL query language. However, after several months of usage, I noticed that I couldn’t be able to backup my database for the localhost use of the database without using PHPMyAdmin. This made me frustrating because I want my CA282 assignments to be published after I reviewed and tested on my local machine.
Because of this reason, I searched around the Internet and found a useful PHP script on mt-soft.com.ar, The script is called MySQLdump. It will dump out all the data inside a database an allows me to download the zip achieve or .sql file. Since I’m able to view the source code once I downloaded this PHP file, I decided to modify the code to work for my own purpose – to backup the database to my localhost.
The script originally had some advanced output options which it doesn’t have any usefulness to me.
Original page layout
Click the image to enlarge
So I changed into the following:
Modified page layout
Click the image to enlarge
Basically. the data in the MySQL database will be dumped out to the text box once the page is loaded. I can then copy the content in the text area to the PHPMyAdmin in my local machine. If I want one more copy in my hard drive, I can click the Download button to download the .sql file.
You can download the source code for the modified PHP script and the download page from here and the demonstration of this script is here.
First Experience with Ubuntu Server
Since I bought my first laptop two years ago, I had abandoned my old P2 desktop. When I noticed yesterday that the server edition of Ubuntu doesn’t have a GUI, I decided to try it on this desktop that had putted aside for more than two years. I have wished to try a GUI-less Linux distro because I want to increase my Linux skill and to learn more about Linux admin. I don’t have an extra monitor to attach to the desktop besides the one that connects to my laptop set it up as dual-screen. Therefore, I chose Ubuntu Server to provide computing power without any output (monitor) or input (keyboard, mouse) devices.
The installation process of Ubuntu Server was easy. I’m using an USB wireless adapter on the desktop to connect to the Internet so that I can put the server anywhere I want. Because of that, the wireless adapter doesn’t work during the server installation. I had to manually set the properties in the /etc/network/interfaces file.
After the installation, I’m able to access the default web page on this server through my laptop. I explored a while about the usage of server. However, I still don’t have any idea on how to use this newly installed server. This server is only work in my home network because my ISP is Verizon. It is prohibited to create a domain for my server to access across the Internet within the Verizon network.
If you have any ideas for how to effectively use my server, please leave a comment. Thanks.
Free Ubuntu LTS CD will be available soon
The latest version of Ubuntu, Lucid Lynx, will be released at the end of this month. However, the shipment for the new Ubuntu LTS CD is already started. According to the techie-buzz.com, ShipIt, the shipment service for Ubuntu CDs, is already set its homepage up for accepting the new orders for Ubuntu 10.04. However, when I was ready to order a free Ubuntu desktop CD, it comes up the following notice:
We’ll be back in a few days, shipping Ubuntu 10.04 LTS (Lucid Lynx) CDs.
Canonical apparently is ready for accepting the order for the new release and possibly ship the orders before April 29th release date. Note that you can order either Ubuntu Desktop Edition or Ubuntu Server Edition or both for free. The server edition of Ubuntu is a little different from desktop edition. I will write a post about Ubuntu Server Edition tomorrow once I got my newly installed home server working.
10 jQuery Code Snippets to use instead of using jQuery Plugins
There are lots of jQuery plugins available around the web that can simplify your coding. However, some of the plugins can easily implemented using only jQuery. This article lists the top 10 jQuery code snippets that uses only jQuery to achieve the same effect as using plugin including:
- Disable right-click
- Disappearing search field text
- Opening links in a new window
- Detect browser
- Preloading images
- CSS Styleswitcher
- Columns of equal height
- Font resizing
- Get the mouse cursor x and y axis
- Verify if an Element is empty
For the code snippets for the above effects, as well as their usage explanation, please read the original article.
9 jQuery Plugins to Enhance Web Design Creativity
I just read an article about 10 jQuery plugins that can help to increase the creativity of web design (noted that there are actually 9 jQuery Plugins instead of 10 jQuery plugins mentioned on the article title) Some of these plugins have cool animation and some have nice styles. And since these plugins are open source, you can study their source code and create your own animations and effects. Here is the list of these plugins:
- Coda Bubble
- DivCorners
- Facebook Style Wall Post
- Create an Interactive, Filterable Portfolio
- How to Make a Slideshow with a Transparent PNG Frame
- Simple Toggle with CSS & jQuery
- Captify
- Flickr Horizontal Menu
- EncyPlayer – jQuery Fancybox and Flowplayer Intergration
Also noted that in the article, each link to the jQuery plugin web page seems to be directed to jqueryplugins.com, which is a jQuery plugins directory . Right now this website is currently in beta. Therefore, it doesn’t have a RSS feed to track of what are the newest jQuery plugins.
For more information about each plugin, visit the corresponding plugin homepage. Please read the original article for an overview for all of the above plugins.
A GNU/Linux PDF Editor Similar to Acrobat
Today I had to complete a PDF form for my school. Normally, I printed out the PDF application and complete it by hand. However, I want to take a look inside Synaptic Package Manager to see what does Ubuntu offer, because I had never edited a PDF since I switched to GNU/Linux. I entered PDF into the search box and came up with many PDF utilities. After researching a bit online, I decided to install PDFedit to give it a try.
PDFedit is much like Adobe Acrobat. It has all the PDF editing features that I need to edit my PDF application, ex. add text to PDF documents and add pages from other PDF docs, etc. I can use XSane Image Scanner to scan the documents into a PDF document and merge it with another PDF document with PDFedit. This can be useful for the form signature.
One feature of PDFedit seems to be missing is the ability to import images to a PDF document. My first thought for the signature is to import the image of my signature into the PDF form. Since it doesn’t have this feature, I had to print out the signature page, manually signed the form, scan the page back to the computer, and merge it using PDFedit with the original PDF document. I hope to see this feature in the upcoming version of PDFedit.
For the screenshots of PDFedit, please visit PDFedit official website.
6 Cool jQuery Animation Plugins
Here is a list of jQuery plugins that I found over here (each link below links to the demo page of the plugin):
I personally think that Flip jQuery plugin is best to replace Flash with JavaScript. In the near future, there will be many creative animations written in jQuery. I believe that Flash will be replaced by jQuery and HTML 5 video.
For more information about each of the above plugins, please read the original article.
CG Movie Effects
I just watched a science fiction movie a moment ago. It talks a little bit about use CG to remove hands around the object. I begin to be interested in this topic, so I googled a little about CG movie remove objects. It seems that all of the CG movie effects are created using 3D programs. This means that I need to use Blender 3D to create CG effects. I always wanted to know how to do the real object animations in some fiction movies. Now I know the technology behind this technique, I will learn more about it. Maybe I will make a short demo to show this technique, but I need to master the Blender 3D first.
Animate Objects along Paths using jQuery Path Plugin
jQuery Path plugin animates an HTML element along a specified path, much like Flash motion guide layer. The path can be a curve or a line. You can see a demo on this page and checkout its source code. According to the source code, the syntax for this plugin is integrated to the jQuery animate function:
$(“#div”).stop().animate({path: pathType}, time_in_millisecond);
One disadvantage of using this plugin that I’ve found is that there is no pre-set path type. Fortunately, the plugin documentation explains how to create bezier and arc path, as well as custom path types.
jQuery CSS Browsers Compatibility
Different browsers require different CSS property syntax, especially in CSS 3. In CSS 2, the only property that I know of requires different syntax is opacity property. Firefox called opacity, and IE called filter. You need to set values for opacity and filter properties at the same time. Not only this is inefficient, but it also adds up the size of the CSS file.
Fortunately, jQuery has a css function to make the CSS cross-browser compatible. For example:
$("#thing").css({
opacity: 0.5
});
It will auto changed to filter CSS property if the user is running IE.
However, since the new CSS 3 is in the draft mode right now, jQuery has not implemented CSS 3 standard yet. It means that border-radius and other properties that are different from each browser needs to write all of the possible style properties into the CSS file.
For more information about jQuery CSS and a jQuery plugin to support CSS 3 syntax, please read original article.