Category: Resource Filled

While I’m not to keen on the name of the website, I am in love with its content – I Love Jack Daniels has always been a good developer’s blog – but one gem most folks may not realize is that it also provides some incredibly useful A4 references to some of the technologies, languages and syntax that ofen have us wearing out the lookup bar on our browser.

Now available in both a handily printable PDF and PNG format, a cheat sheet to the mother of all developer cheat sheet websites:

While I’m not a drinker, I do raise my piping hot cup of joe to Dave Child, the ecommerce manager and web developer from Brighton, UK whom has so graciously provided us with such a great set of techno-tools! Cheers!

Okay, I’ll admit it. From time to time I drive my fellow programmers noo-noo bananas, but not because of my snarky-yet-cheerful sense of humor, but rather because I’ve never met a regular expression I didn’t like.

Oh, they still invite me to the office birthday parties, but not without glowering at me for having introduced constructs such as /(?<=(?:^|,\s*)"")(?:[^""]|"""")*|(?<=(?:^|,))(?:\s*)(?=(?:,|$))/ ... ... I suspect Shelly Doll over at Builder.com is of a similar opinion as she writes in her tutorial entitled 'Demystifying the syntax of regular expressions:’

“Regular expressions (REs) are often wrongly perceived as mystical unknowns that only a true guru can understand. They’re ugly to look at, and if you don’t know the syntax, they can seem like cryptic strings of garbage you might get from a core dump. The reality is that regular expressions are very simple and can be easily picked up with the help of a handy cheat sheet. This article will help you amaze your friends by walking you though the most commonly used regular expressions.”

I bring this all up as an encouragement to those of you coding plug-ins, custom pages, and/or other tools for your church’s website so that the many of you cringe of regular expressions may throw any fears borne out of ignorance …

… well that and I didn’t want to lose the link to this excellent-yet-simple how-to/introductory article.

Neex an example of a regular expression real quick? Want to test it without fouling up your code? Here are two ‘resource-filled’ sites that help get you there and back.

Busy, busy, busy today folks – so just a quicky. And yes, I know that I’ve mentioned at least one of the following regular-expression example (and test) sites I’ve before. That said, like a good burrito it bears repeating:

• Regular Expression Library – this website claims to be “the Internet’s first Regular Expression Library.” Whether they are or not is irrelevant, what is relevant are the close to 1000 semi-documented regex examples they provide.
• Regular-Expressions.Info – also blessed with examples, I’m partial to their javascript testing page – and find their detailed explanations of difficult expressions well worth the visit.
• Perl : Sample Regular Expressions – nothing as comprehensive as the previous two links, but here are some nice simple examples of the type of one-line-wonder stuff you may want to add into a MovableType or WordPress plug-in or text filter.

Now you have no excuse not to shoot yourself in the foot with a nice nasty regex!

Regular expressions are like a chain saw … a gas powered chain saw. At first, you’re deathly afraid of even touching it. When you do fire one up for the first time, it’s only after you’ve dressed yourself like a hockey goalie and have your spouse waiting just outside of your roped-off area with his or her their finger on the 911 speed dial button.

Once you realize that if you practice some common sense, that is you take time to think through what you’re trying to do first, regular expressions become your favorite power tool – just like your chain saw.

For example, now that I’m pondering a move to WordPress, I’ve got to port Scripturizer from Perl to PHP. Scott Yang has already done much of the work, but the regex needs to be expanded to include multiple references, e.g. Romans 10:9-10, 12:1-2 or Matthew 5:6-7, 9-12.

Debugging something like this can become incredibly frustrating using the code and test method. Not so much since I have both Perl and PHP installed on my local PC. Still, having tools to help construct, visualize and debug your regular expressions can help reveal hidden bugs, catch typos that snuck past your bleary gaze, and/or teach you how to use your chain saw – I mean regex – without cutting your foot clean off.

So here are some tools, tutorials and testers I found:

Desktop Tools:

• Kiki – a free environment for regular expression testing (ferret). It allows you to write regexes and test them against a sample text, providing extensive output about the results.
• For those of you who love Linux: the KDE Regular Expression Editor
• Expresso – A tool chest for building and testing regular expressions for Microsoft Windows .NET.
• Like PHP but hate regular expressions? Try the RegExpEditor module with PHPEdit.
• RegEx Coach – don’t let the plain-jane website fool you out of using this Window-based tool.

Online Tutorials:

• A Tao of Regular Expressions – how regex is used by different languages/editors
• Regular Expression Tutorial by Regular-Expressions.info
• An Introduction to Regular Expression with VBScript by 4Guys.
• The Code Project – An Introduction to Regular Expressions

Online Testing Tools:

• Quanetics – Regular Expression Tester – includes useful cheat sheet
• Simple Regular Expression Tester by WebDevTips.
• Bite Size – Online Regular Expression Syntax Checker
• ioctl .org – an online Javascript Regex Tester
• ASPSmith.com – gives you the choice of testing your regex using .NETor Javascript

Leave a comment if you have a favorite not on the lists. Or if you have tried one of the above cool regex tools and tutorials, let us know what you think.

I love parody. Yes, even church-inspired parody. I even like it when I’m parodied, but only if it’s very well done. Case in point: The First Baptist Church of {unidentified}, one of the coolest of cool church websites. A site created some time ago by webservant Don A. Elbourne, who actually runs a very usable and accessible website for the Lakeshore Baptist Church, Lakeshore, Mississippi.

What makes The First Baptist Church of {unidentified} parody so funny is that every element Don employs on the page represents a topic I’ve written about at one time or another. Here are just a few I could find in the short time between wiping the tears of laughter from my eyes and explaining to my youth pastor “no really, this isn’t the way we want to go ….”

• My personal feelings about faith aside, there are some serious technical issues about this site that need to be addressed – and healed. First and foremost, the evil animated .gif background image.
• Holy Mystery Meat ! – graphic navigation should be about giving the user a clue, not an online game.
• … the majority of the people who use the Internet are purpose driven. That is, they aren’t generally looking to be entertained or wowed.
• don’t be fooled into thinking that ‘resizing‘ the image with the height and width attributes of the <img> tag will make your images load faster. They won’t!
• Holy Jesus Junk! – remember when as Peter rebuked Simon Magnus for employing cheap tricks?
• … [fix] the <title&gt tags on the sub pages so they say something a bit more descriptive than “Untitled Document.“
• Lorem Ipsum == Check Your Title Bar – its okay to use dummy text, but only for testing.
• .. sub pages suffer from irregular use of font color, such as fire-engine red on their “Favorite Links” page, all bold and all centered fonts on their dated “What’s New” page.
• Scan Me NOT! – always use text to represent text.
• Instead, we get church and para-church websites so chock-full-o-junk that they drive people away even before all the spinning animated gifs and cheesey MIDI files can load.
• Evil Marquee Tag – If it’s so darn’d important, then say, don’t spray it!
• I am commanding you, my faithful followers, to bookmark the Web Page Analyzer page …
• It’s not just what you say … … it’s How you say it!

Giggles and grins aside, this parody preaches an important point: anything that gets in your user’s way should be crucified.

In fact, about the only things I can think that are missing from this hilariously good example of bad web design are:

• Under, there outta be a law … – pop-up and pop-under ads are nothing less than the spawn of satan.
• Disabling the Right Click – doesn’t stop anything except honest users.
• Page Transitions, or Swiper no Swiping! – the article that inspired the healing of the now very cool Burtonsville Baptist Church. (good job Frank)

How about you? Did you find anything else on top or underneath that someone developing a church website should avoid so they don’t wind up creating ‘The Coolest Church WebSite, Ever!’

This post is dedicated to all of you running your church’s website in the choir robe closet, or who have been graced with a generous and geeky member who has taken advantage of one of those cheap, unmanaged dedicated server deals advertised at places like WebHostingTalk:

Richy’s Random Ramblings: Techy: Handy Security Tips.

As the author plainly states, “This list is not comprehensive, nor does [he] take any responsibility for any harm that may come to your server if you use any of these commands.” That said, I found this a very good “quick reference” for those of you thinking about running or leasing your own Linux/Apache server.

Along with the tips found on Richy’s site, here are some other things to worry about, each with a link to some other helpful “Security for Newbies” type page:

• Plan first, Implement Second
• Close All Unused Ports
• Minimize Privileges
• Protecting the Boot Process
• Turn off all unused services.
• Check your system logs, OFTEN!
• Remove Stale and Unnecessary Accounts
• Scanning your system for rootkits (modified binaries)
• Remove unnecessary programs (“rpm -qa”)
• Keep up with your operating system’s Security announcements
• Scan/Attack your own system
• Enforce a strong password policy

Now if this hasn’t scared you out of running your own server in the basement of your church or charity (and I’m hoping it does), then may suggest, no … I COMMAND YOU to go buy and then read “Hacking Linux Exposed” before you take the dive.

How ’bout some of you other pros out there. I’m sure I’ve missed something. Leave a comment, add to the list.