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PHP Bijoy to Unicode Converter

Habib Ullah Bahar — Sun, 11 Mar 2012 09:46:59 +0000

In our latest project at PROGmaatic, we needed a converter to convert lots of information written in Bangla. Unfortunately everything was in Bijoy (SutonnyMJ) font. But our requirement was Unicode formatted data and language preference was PHP.

I thought, no big deal. There should have been lots of converters available, and most of them might be in PHP. After hours of searching (Yes I don’t like coding when I can find something free ).

Well, I haven’t found a single script which would do what I needed. Two of the following did help me to understand how to develop the converter:

www.repulsivecoder.com/2009/06/04/bijoy-to-unicode-converter/ [Oops! javascript only]
mynul.com/bangla/ [Mr. Mynul was kind enough to send me the source code. Unfortunately it didn't work for me when I included it in my project. Probably because of encoding dependency. Also I didn't like the mapping. But it encouraged me!]

So finally I end up coding one myself. Fork it from my Github account.

In the coding process I have learnt two valuable lessons

1. javascript string method ‘substring‘ is not equivalent to PHP’s string function ‘substr‘ [I spent only 5 hours for this mistake!!!]

2. Nothing is better than step-by-step Debugging!

Future modifications:

1. Make mbstring independent. (I actually figured out the way, but right now I don’t need it since I have mbstring support )

2. Make memory efficient.

Check the code and let me know if you find a better way, find a bug or need some modification. I will be happy to make the changes and give you the credit

How to install Netbeans (with prerequisites) in Ubuntu 11.04 and later

Habib Ullah Bahar — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 04:44:01 +0000

To install Netbeans in Ubuntu 11.04 (or later versions) you will need Java JRE or JDK to be installed beforehand.

Now I like openJDK a lot, but I still prefer Sun Java JDK for development So heres the recipe to cook everything -

1. Install JRE

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ferramroberto/java
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install sun-java6-jre sun-java6-plugin sun-java6-fonts

During the installation press ‘OK’ in the screen that appears within the Terminal (see the below screenshot, the screenshot was collected from internet). You can do so by navigating using the ‘Tab’ key and once ‘OK’ is highlighted in red, press ‘Enter’.

2. Install JDK

sudo apt-get install sun-java6-jdk

3. Install Netbeans

The Ubuntu repository has Netbeans 6.9. The latest available version is Netbeans 7.0.1. So I prefer manual installation (Applicable for any version of Netbeans).

Download your appropriate version of Netbeans from http://netbeans.org/downloads/index.html

Remember the download location. In my case, it was /media/software/SDK-IDE

Apply sudo chmod a+x /media/software/SDK-IDE/netbeans-7.0.1-ml-linux.sh

Applying this command we are giving permission to the Netbeans installer file to be run as an executable program.

Now double click the file and then click on “run” to install NetBeans IDE

Follow the instructions

Thats all

How to add scheduled task to run php scripts in Windows

Habib Ullah Bahar — Fri, 22 Apr 2011 07:20:24 +0000

Few days ago, for one of our PHP / MySQL project, we were needed to run two php scripts at every minute. We usually develop/deploy our projects in LAMP environment, where we use crontab for our scheduled tasks. But our client have wanted us to run the system in Windows. So we have chosen XAMPP. To run our two php scripts every 1 & 2 minute, we thought of developing a simple tool for windows which would run at background and execute those two php scripts. Fortunately we have found about schtasks, a native scheduler in Windows to run scheduled task smoothly in command prompt.

I will not describe our actual situation, rather I will demonstrate with 2 simple php scripts.

1. Create a directory in your htdocs folder inside XAMPP installation directory. In my case, it was C:\xampplite\htdocs\test

2. Create two php scripts, test1.php and test2.php inside test directory using the following respective code.
[php] //test1.php
//creates, appends current time in a file called dump1.txt
date_default_timezone_set(‘Asia/Dacca’);
$time = date(‘Y-m-d H:i:s’);
$file = "C:/xampplite/htdocs/test/dump1.txt";
file_put_contents($file,"job1 run on: $time\r\n", FILE_APPEND);
?>[/php]
[php] //test2.php
//creates, appends current time in a file called dump2.txt
date_default_timezone_set(‘Asia/Dacca’);
$time = date(‘Y-m-d H:i:s’);
$file = "C:/xampplite/htdocs/test/dump2.txt";
file_put_contents($file,"job2 run on: $time\r\n", FILE_APPEND);
?>[/php]

3. create a batch file php_service_creator.bat with the following code.
[vb]
SCHTASKS /Create /RU SYSTEM /SC MINUTE /MO 1 /TN "test_sch_task1" /TR "C:\xampplite\php\php-win.exe -f C:\xampplite\htdocs\test\test1.php"
SCHTASKS /Create /RU SYSTEM /SC MINUTE /MO 5 /TN "test_sch_task2" /TR "C:\xampplite\php\php-win.exe -f C:\xampplite\htdocs\test\test2.php"
[/vb]

1. test_sch_task1 task will run on every minute.
2. test_sch_task2 task will run on every fifth minute.

to understand the used (and other possible) parameters, please visit this link

4. Run just created php_service_creator.bat. Please note that you have to run this from an account with administrative privileges.

5. After about 20 minutes, check C:/xampplite/htdocs/test/dump1.txt & C:/xampplite/htdocs/test/dump2.txt files for output.

6. To check/view all the added scheduled tasks, type schtasks in command prompt.

7. To delete any scheduled task, type schtasks /Delete /TN TASK_NAME_FOR_DELETE in command prompt.

I hope it helps some people like me.

Comments, suggestions are appreciated

How to add command shortcut in Ubuntu shell

Habib Ullah Bahar — Fri, 01 Apr 2011 04:43:30 +0000

When you need to write long commands in Linux shell, like me, you must have been looking for a way (if you haven’t found the way already ) to create shortcuts for those long commands.
Based on your need, you can do any of the following:
alias: If you need a shortcut for only the current shell session, use alias.

To check current aliases list: alias
To check an existing alias: alias ALIAS_NAME
To add new alias: alias COMMAND_SHORTCUT = ‘LONG_COMMAND’ [example: alias apacheReload = '/etc/init.d/apache2 reload''']
To remove an existing alias: unalias ALIAS_NAME
Learn more about alias at Wikipedia, Bash Man Page for Alias

Symbolic Links: This is actually my favorite. Does not depend on current shell session. FYI. each command is actually an executable script.

To create a shortcut for all users, create a soft symbolic link of the executable script in /usr/local/bin. For example, to execute apache related commands using just apache, issue this command
ln -s /etc/init.d/apache2 /usr/local/bin/apache #this command will create a soft symbolic link of apache2 in /usr/local/bin directory. Now you can just manage apache by using apache command.
To create a shortcut only for current user, create a soft symbolic link of the executable script in $HOME/bin

Using your own shell scripts: This requires understanding of shell scripting. You can create a shell script which essentially provide the full ability to create new system commands. Make the script executable, keep it in home directory.

I hope it helps some one. Please use the comment section to provide your feedback.

How to run Python scripts in your shared hosting server

Habib Ullah Bahar — Thu, 28 Oct 2010 03:38:18 +0000

Direct to the how-to

First make sure your hosting supports Python. Now a days almost all shared hosting providers support Python.
Find your python installation location, this is required for “shebang” line added at the top of your python script. Usually this is /usr/bin/python or /usr/local/bin/python
Make sure to include two print statements which will print the content-type and an empty line.
Now put the script in cgi-bin directory inside your root public folder, usually public_html
Change the permission of the script to 0755
Try to browse now

Example, hello.py:

#! /usr/bin/python

print ‘Content-type: text/html’
print ”
print ‘Hello, World!’

Now look at the top of hello.py script, you will notice the ‘shebang’ is #! /usr/bin/python.And also the first two print statements

Now its little bit annoying to put all python scripts inside that cgi-bin directory. So heres what you will need to do to run a python script inside any directory…

Make an empty .htaccss file inside the directory you want to drop your python scripts. (Just open the existing .htaccess file, make sure you have enabled ‘Show Hidden Files’ in cPanel File Manager or in your favorite FTP manager)
Add the following two lines and save.

Options +ExecCGI
AddHandler cgi-script .py

Tips:

You will get 500 error if anything goes wrong.
Make sure to clear your cache, when you modify any settings/content
And there is always the nice people waiting for you in hosting support section, try them

I hope it helps. Let me know your comment

What is the difference between the variables of Python and other language

Habib Ullah Bahar — Mon, 25 Oct 2010 14:31:11 +0000

If you are from C/C++/Java and started learning Python, this should be an interesting topic for you.

In languages like C, C++, Java, PHP etc a variable is a memory location where its value is saved. When you copy a variable into another variable, both of them still in existence and you can use both of them.

But in Python, its different. As a matter of fact Python don’t have any variables, it has ‘name’ or ‘identifier’ attached to an object (everything in Python is an object).

Let me clear this using an example:

In other language:

int a_variable = 1; //Here a_variable has a value of 1.

a_variable = 2; //Now a_variable has an updated value of 2.

int another_variable = a_variable; //Now another_variable is a new variable with a value of 2.

int sum = a_variable + another_variable; //you can still use both of the variables.

In Python:

a_variable = 1 #Here integer object 1 (see, everything is an object) has a name tag (or identifier) ‘a_variable’

a_variable = 2 #Now a_variable name tag is now attached to integer object 2. Old integer object 1 can’t be accessed via a_variable anymore.

another_variable = a_variable #Now both another_variable and a_variable name tag is attached to integer object 2.

Though we still call them variables in Python, but you see, they behave differently (almost like the pointers in C).

I hope it helps. Let me know your comments

How to find all seven dates of any week in python

Habib Ullah Bahar — Sat, 23 Oct 2010 05:23:02 +0000

I am new to Python (in comparison to my experience in other languages) Last month I have done some experiment with python date time calculation. Also one of my project required a function, which will compute all 7 dates of any week of any year in Python.

After some learning (and searching) heres my work :

__author__ = "bahar"
__date__ = "$Sep 23, 2010 4:13:29 PM$"

import datetime
from time import strptime, strftime

def _getWeekDates(_Year = 0, _weekStart = 2, _weekNo = 0):
    """
        Returns a list with all the 7 dates of provided week and year (or any supplied week number)
        _year , example 2010. will be computed, if not provided
        _weekStart, (0 is Saturday, 6 is Friday) to start day of week
        _weekNo, will be computed, if not provided
    """

    now = datetime.datetime.now()
    if _Year = 0:
        _Year = now.year

    if _weekNo = 0:
        _weekNo = datetime.date(now.year,now.month,now.day).isocalendar()[1]
    WeekDates = []
    janOne = strptime('%s-01-01' % _Year, '%Y-%m-%d')

    dayOfFirstWeek = ((7-int((strftime("%u",janOne)))+ int(_weekStart)) % 7)

    if dayOfFirstWeek == 0:
        dayOfFirstWeek = 7
    dateOfFirstWeek = strptime('%s-01-%s' % (_Year, dayOfFirstWeek), '%Y-%m-%d')
    dayOne = datetime.datetime( dateOfFirstWeek.tm_year, dateOfFirstWeek.tm_mon, dateOfFirstWeek.tm_mday )
    daysToGo = 7*(int(_weekNo)-1)
    lastDay = daysToGo+6
    dayX = None
    while daysToGo = lastDay:
        dayX = dayOne + datetime.timedelta(days = daysToGo)
        resultDateX = strptime('%s-%s-%s' % (dayX.year, dayX.month, dayX.day), '%Y-%m-%d')
        WeekDates.append(strftime("%Y-%m-%d", resultDateX))
        daysToGo += 1
    return WeekDates

if __name__ == '__main__':
        now = datetime.datetime.now()
        weekNo = datetime.date(now.year,now.month,now.day).isocalendar()[1]

        WeekData = _getWeekDates()
        days = ['Monday', 'Tuesday', 'Wedensday', 'Thursday', 'Friday', 'Saturday', 'Sunday']
        result = dict(zip(days, WeekData))

        for day in days:
            print day ,':', result[day]

Output:

Monday : 2010-10-18

Tuesday : 2010-10-19

Wedensday : 2010-10-20

Thursday : 2010-10-21

Friday : 2010-10-22

Saturday : 2010-10-23

Sunday : 2010-10-24

For Python date time related functions/modules, I find this site useful: http://www.tutorialspoint.com/python/python_date_time.htm

Any suggestion/advice via comments are welcome

How to restore volume icon in Ubuntu Gnome

Habib Ullah Bahar — Tue, 21 Sep 2010 04:09:39 +0000

So why would someone need this at the first place? When someone like me make a stupid mistake by removing them

Restoring volume icon is different in Ubuntu 9.10 or later versions.

So if you are in Ubuntu 9.04 or earlier,

1. Right click on the panel and click ‘Add to Panel’

2. Find Sound/Volume

3. Add it.

And if you are in Ubuntu 9.10 or later like me

1. Right click on the panel and click on Add to Panel

2. Find ‘Notification Area’ and add it. (IN case you have already have a notification area added like me, you can skip this step).

3. Right click near Notification Area

4. Find ‘Indicator Applet’ and add it.

By any chance if the above method does not work for you, you can restore your gnome panel by applying following commands in your terminal.

rm -f ~/.gconf/apps/panel sudo /etc/init.d/gdm restart

Partial credit for this post: Ubuntu Forum

Let me know if you have any problem figuring this

How to prepare bootable flash drive of Windows 7 and Ubuntu

Habib Ullah Bahar — Sun, 19 Sep 2010 13:11:36 +0000

There are bunch of articles and softwares available online to achieve this. So instead of writing another tutorial, I am sharing the available tutorials which I have used often when I needed.

Here are the links:

Make your own bootable Windows 7 Flash Drive

Recommended: http://kmwoley.com/blog/?p=345
Without using any additional software: http://maketecheasier.com/boot-and-install-windows-7-from-usb-flash-drive/2009/01/23
With Microsoft provided software: http://store.microsoft.com/help/iso-tool]http://store.microsoft.com/help/iso-tool (only 2.6 MB)
Using 3rd party software: http://maketecheasier.com/updated-boot-and-install-windows-7-from-usb-flash-drive/2009/09/ (only 6.7 MB)

Make bootable Ubuntu using Flash Drive

Actually this is very much easy, and same for all distro. all are free n opensource.

I hope it helps, if you need any help, let me know.

How to install Sun Java JDK/JRE in Ubuntu Maverick

Habib Ullah Bahar — Sat, 18 Sep 2010 04:24:49 +0000

As Sun (Oracle) repos has been removed completely from Ubuntu Partner repos in Ubuntu Maverick, you can’t install Sun Java JDK or JRE any more.

Running sudo apt-get install sun-java6-jdk will produce the following error

Package sun-java6-jre is not available, but is referred to by another package.
This may mean that the package is missing, has been obsoleted, or
is only available from another source
E: Package sun-java6-jdk has no installation candidate

Same error will be produced if you want to install Sun JAVA JRE.

To solve the issue, you have to switch back to Ubuntu Lucid distribution temporarily. After installing JDK/JRE switch back to original Ubuntu Maverick distro again.

1. System->Administrator->Synaptic Package Manager

2. Settings->Repositories

3. Other Softwares

4. Select Canonical Partners, click Edit, change Distribution to lucid, click OK

5. Repeat step 4 for Canonical Partner (Source Code)

6. Hit Reload

Now try to install Sun Java JDK/JRE

Don’t forget to change back to original distribution Maverick following the same steps once you are done.

Tips credit: Ubuntu 10.10 Maverick Meercat and Sun JRE

If you need any help, have any query please use the comment form below