Articles in the Programming category

1. If Your Post Doesn't Start With An Image, Display an Ad Instead

   Posted on March 08, 2011 in Programming

   I usually start my posts off with an image that is relevant to the post. I think it adds a bit of drama to what I'm writing about, and it also gives me a nice place to anchor a link to a WordPress tag about the subject. I had this …

2. [Python] Convert String Date to Date Object

   Posted on November 09, 2010 in Programming

   Occasionally, you may run across a date in a format that can't be easily loaded into a Python date object. For example, I recently had a situation where a file I was parsing was full of dates in this format: 7/7/2008.

   The obvious thing to do here is …

3. Empty Strings in Python Are False

   Posted on September 15, 2010 in Programming

   Recently I was working on some old code. One of my model methods was originally written such that if one parameter was set to the Python None type, a particular set of actions would occur. For some reason, I checked for None like this:

   if parameter is None:
       do something …

4. The Beauty of Python File-like Objects

   Posted on September 10, 2010 in Programming

   As I mentioned the other day, I'm building a RADIUS client in Python for sending disconnect messages to Cisco routers.

   One hang-up with the pyrad package is that it requires a dictionary file in order to map RADIUS attribute names to codes and types. In the case of my client …

5. pyrad and Cisco Invalid Authenticator

   Posted on September 09, 2010 in Programming

   I've been working on a RADIUS client in Python that can send a disconnect message (packet of disconnect) to a Cisco router. I'm using pyrad 1.2 for the project.

   I ran into this problem pretty quickly:

   POD: 192.168.9.9 request queued
   POD: Illegal authenticator in POD from …

6. [Python] Remove Whitespace From a String

   Posted on August 31, 2010 in Programming

   >>> print "".join(" hello   world ".split())
   helloworld
   

   The key to the above is that split() separates the string on any amount of whitespace when no separator is specified.

   

7. Listing WordPress Database Queries

   Posted on August 12, 2010 in Programming

   If you need to debug what queries your WordPress site is making, try adding the following PHP to your theme:

   <?php
     foreach ( $wpdb->queries as $query ) {
       echo "$query[0]<br />";
     }
   ?>
   

   For this code to work, you need to add the following line to wp-config.php:

   define('SAVEQUERIES', true);
   

   After that …

8. Subversion: Revert to Earlier Version

   Posted on June 29, 2010 in Programming

   This is one of those annoying little things I have to do ever so often. There are two different commands to accomplish this task depending on the specific situation.

   If you've made a lot of changes to a file and need to back all of those changes out, you can …

9. No such table: django_admin_log

   Posted on January 29, 2010 in Programming

   If you get this error when trying to save something in the Django admin, it's probably because you forgot to synchronize the database after adding the admin application. If you are using a pre-1.2 version of Django, you can simply:

   $ ./managy.py syncdb
   

   Django 1.2 (which is currently …

10. Sorting dictionary keys in Python

    Posted on November 30, 2009 in Programming

    For some reason, sorting a dictionary by its keys seems to be one of the most frequently asked Python questions. I'm not sure if this is because it's just much easier to do in other languages, or if the semantics of the language just confuse new Python developers. I guess …

11. Google Apps Shared Contacts API: Invalid Request URI

    Posted on October 19, 2009 in Programming

    For me, fixing this problem just meant reading more carefully!

    I am updating some shared contacts via the Google Apps Shared Contacts API and curl. I was able to create new shared contacts with no problem, but unable to update an existing contact. The answer to the problem was to …

12. Suggest Tags WordPress Plugin

    Posted on August 18, 2009 in Programming

    For the last couple of years, I've used the Tag Suggest Thing WordPress plugin to recommend tags for my posts based on the post content. Beginning with WordPress 2.5, that plugin started to have problems interacting with the WordPress administration pages. In August 2009, Yahoo! announced that they would …

13. Spreadsheets to Databases: Exporting and Importing

    Posted on August 09, 2009 in Programming

    In the early stages of an organization, it is common for most data to be stored in spreadsheets. Spreadsheet applications are common and easily understood by most small business people. Unfortunately, spreadsheets become burdensome when tasks move beyond calculations and into querying (Churcher, 2007). Fortunately, databases are designed with querying …

14. Getting Ready to Repackage

    Posted on August 09, 2009 in Programming

    Having built an entire application, the time has come to consider the possibility of redistributing the application for a wider audience. Since the original application was designed to meet the needs of a specific business, one of the primary considerations will be how the application must be modified to meet …

15. Database Basics

    Posted on August 07, 2009 in Programming

    The widespread use of computers has made database interaction a daily occurrence. Although databases can be large and complex, they are generally defined by basic terms that come together to create the larger system. Understanding these database basics helps users understand the underlying structure of the system and how they …