"You have to install PECL ZipArchive or `unzip` to install this spark."

I kept checking in my php.ini file that php_zip.dll was enabled.  Hmmm…..

So, I decided to create a test script to test the code that was creating this error message. Running the PHP script in the browser ran ZipArchive() successfully. Next, I ran this test PHP script from the command line (CLI). I got a “Fatal Error:  Class ZipArchive not found in …” error. I couldn’t quite figure out why PHP was throwing an error on the CLI and not when run in the browser. A little digging found that PHP run from the command line uses relative paths including php.ini. This the part where WAMP comes into play. For those using WAMP, your php.ini file that is used is located in C:\wamp\bin\apache\Apache2.2.11\bin not where PHP is being executed from. Ah ha! So I went and opened C:\wamp\bin\php\php5.2.9-2 and scrolled down to find:

;extension=php_zip.dll

So I changed this to:

extension=php_zip.dll

php tools\spark install -v1.2.0 curl

Enabling php_zip.dll in the PHP folder of WAMP, and ran the Sparks command again. Success! The spark was downloaded, unzipped, and installed with no more error.

It seemed the only option was to buy some 3rd party software USP authorizes to connect to the database. Digging through the internet, I found a nice little utility call Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio Express that allows you to access the USP database instance. Once you install the software open the program.

Fill in the Server Name box (usually Servername\UPSWSDBSERVER), and click connect. In the left hand window, double click on the Security folder. You will see a list of logins. You now need to create a new user.

Right click on the right pane, and choose New Login. Type in your Login Name in the top, and now select the SQL Server Login radio box. Type in your password.

At the bottom for Default Database select “master” from the drop down box. In the left pane of the window, there is a link for Server Roles. Click on Server Roles, and check all boxes in the right pane to add all rights to your login. Hey you are into the database, you might as well give yourself full access right?

Save your login, and it’s time to setup an ODBC connection for Codeigniter to use. Open the Control Panel->Administrative Tools->Data Sources (ODBC).

Click on the System DSN tab, and then the Add button. Under Name type in a with no spaces. I used UPS_WS_12 for mine. In the description you can enter anything. In the server box click on the dropdown and select your UPS server databse instance. It should be something like ServerName\UPSWSDBSERVER. Click on the Next button.

Now fill out the options as shown below. Fill in the login credentials as entered in the UPS database. Then, click on the Next button.

Select upswsdb from the dropdown box as shown. Then, click on the Next button.

The options show will probably be set by default. Click on Finish button. Your connection should now be created. You may click on Test Data Source button, and you should connect successfully.

Close your the ODBC screen, and open up your codeigniter application folder. Here are the connections settings you will need to use for application/config/database.php

$active_group = "default";
 
$db['default']['hostname'] = "UPS_WS_12"; //System DSN name you created
$db['default']['username'] = "username"; //Username as entered in ODBC connection
$db['default']['password'] = "password"; //Password as entered in ODBC connection
$db['default']['database'] = "";
$db['default']['dbdriver'] = "odbc";
$db['default']['dbprefix'] = "";
$db['default']['pconnect'] = FALSE;
$db['default']['db_debug'] = TRUE;
$db['default']['cache_on'] = FALSE;

If you are interested in a SQL query to view completed shipments with all the shipping details for you shipping log try out this query:

$query = $this->db->query("SELECT * FROM upswsdb.dbo.calPkgAgent a 
   JOIN upswsdb.dbo.calShipment s ON a.m_primaryKey=s.m_foreignKey00 
   JOIN upswsdb.dbo.calPackage p ON s.m_primaryKey=p.m_foreignKey 
   WHERE s.m_shipDataSet='eod' AND s.m_isVoid='0' 
   ORDER BY s.m_shipDateTime DESC");

To view pending shipments that have not been processed by End of Day, change s.m_shipDataSet=’eod’ to s.m_shipDataSet != ‘eod’. I use this simple little codeigniter application to view all of my UPS Worldship data. This makes it very easy to paginate the results, and provide real time access to tracking data. Much easier than trying to open UPS Worldship on a workstation that does not have it open or security rights to view the shipping log.

Chargify will send a json array back a POST var to your site. The docs for Chargify don’t state what variable they are submitted as. This is what I came up with.

function post_back(){
 
        $body = file_get_contents("php://input");
 
        $replace = array('[', ']');
        $replacements = array('', '');
 
        $body = explode(',', str_replace($replace, $replacements, $body));
 
       //$body now contains array of subscription ID's
       //Iterate through returned subscription IDs
       foreach($body as $subscription_id){
            $subscription = $this->chargify->get_subscription($subscription_id);
            //Do something here with $subscription details
      }
}

As shown in the readme docs, the class is easy to use. Example:

$info = array('lastname' => 'Smith', 'firstname' => 'John');
$data['xml'] = $this->whitepages_lib->find_person($info);

This will search using the find_person method of the API for the name “John Smith”. You can pass any of the fields shown in the documentation in your associative array.

Download CodeIgniter Whitepages.com API Library

Here’s how you will use this library in Codeigniter. First, extract the zip file and place the contents into your /application/libraries folder within your codeigniter folder structure.

Example code:

$this->load->library('geshi'); //load geshi class
 
$config['set_language'] = 'php'; //REQUIRED set language to parse
$config['set_source'] = 'foreach($test as $item){ echo "hello";}'; //REQUIRED set source code to parse
$this->geshi->initialize($config);
 
echo $this->geshi->output(); //output from geshi alias of parse_code

You can pass any geshi method or variable in the config array. Just name the key the same as the method or variable you are setting, and the value to what you would like to pass.

Download CodeIgniter Uploadify Demo (updated 03/09/2011) (On right side, click click on get source)

The demo zip file contains the uploadify source files as well the controllers and views to get this to work. Just unzip the folder and drop into your CodeIgniter folder. The structure is:

• /js/uploadify/ (uploadify files)
• /system/application/controllers/upload.php
• /system/application/views/upload/ (2 view files)
• /uploads (blank folder where files are uploaded to)

The code is very simple and I have used it several different ways after getting this to work.  You will need to also add a standard upload form to the controller as well for users with Flash disabled. That’s part is pretty straight forward and is provide in the CodeIgniter user guide.  When I was first trying to integrate the two, I was trying too hard to find a solution using CI’s built in upload functions. I was reading in the documentation and found the onComplete callback.  I modified some of the code in the upload.php included in the uploadify source download. The file now echoes a JSON string back when the upload completes. The JSON string is then posted back to CodeIgniter using jQuery.

In /js/uploadify/uploadify.php where the upload is handled by the flash uploader, you will find the code creating the JSON string. You may add more values to the array where you would need them.

$filearray = array();
   $filearray['file_name'] = $newf_name;
   $filearray['real_name'] = $real_name;
   $filearray['file_ext'] = $file_ext;
   $filearray['file_size'] = $file_size;
   $filearray['file_path'] = $targetFile;
   $filearray['file_temp'] = $file_temp;
 
   $json_array = json_encode($filearray);
   echo $json_array;

Here is where the JSON string is handled in CodeIgniter

//system/application/controllers/upload.php
function uploadify()
	{
 
		//Decode JSON returned by /js/uploadify/upload.php
		$file = $this->input->post('filearray');
		$data['json'] = json_decode($file);
 
		$this->load->view('upload/uploadify',$data);
	}

An additional note pointed out in the CI forums is to be sure to add in your /application/config/mimes.php file for each file type you will be uploading:


'application/octet-stream'


UPDATE 09/12/2009: The shopping cart library has now been released as part of the Code Igniter stable release version 1.7.2. You can dowload it at CodeIgniter.com

I have used wfCart class in another CI project I worked on. It provides simple functionality: add, edit, delete products along with displaying the shopping cart contents. wfCart took a little hacking of the code and adding the CI object to the code in order to use some the builtin features of CI. It worked well, but lacked the naming conventions that make CI so great.

I decided to give the Cart library a try, so I put together some simple code to see the functionality of the Cart class. Posted below is download of files you can drop into your CodeIgniter application, and try it out for yourself.

I created a new controller and named it Cart.php.

The code in the controller offers simple functionality:

• View products
• View shopping cart
• Update shopping cart quantities
• Delete products from shopping cart

You will need a table to your database to store the product information.

[code]
CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS `product` (
`product_id` int(10) NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT,
`product_sku` varchar(100) NOT NULL,
`product_description` varchar(200) NOT NULL,
`product_family` varchar(250) NOT NULL,
`product_quantity` double(10,4) NOT NULL,
`product_price` double(10,2) NOT NULL,
`vendor_id` int(10) NOT NULL,
`user_id` int(10) NOT NULL,
PRIMARY KEY (`product_id`),
UNIQUE KEY `product_id` (`product_id`)
) ENGINE=MyISAM  DEFAULT CHARSET=latin1 ;[/code]

Just add a couple products to the table, and you should be able to test this out.

Download Demo

The new code for Open Flash Chart 2 has separated the PHP classes making it very difficult using in CodeIgniter. Thankfully Mesozoic had merged all of the classes back into a single file.

Here are the steps getting CodeIgniter and Open Flash Chart 2 to play nicely together. Download the Open Flash Chart 2 and extract the files. In this zip file you will need to extract open-flash-chart.swf to the root folder of your server. Then place the other files in the application folder into your CI application folder.

I’ve also coded  a CI helper for inserting the chart into your page that plays nicely with CI’s URL helper.  Here’s example of how to use Open Flash Chart 2:

In the controller of your application add the following code below.

[php]

$this->load->helper(‘open-flash-chart’); // load helper function
$this->load->library(‘ofc’); //load Open Flash Chart
[/php]

Now you can use the code that is shown on the Open Flash Chart website, execpt make a like change when building the chart. You will now use:

[php]

$this->ofc->open_flash_chart();
$this->ofc->set_title( $title );
$this->ofc->add_element( $line );
$this->ofc->set_x_axis( $x_axis );
$this->ofc->set_y_axis( $y_axis);
return $this->ofc->toPrettyString();

[/php]

You can find more information on this on the CodeIgniter forums.