Autoindex Dark Theme

Autoindex Dark Theme

May 06

Autoindex is a popular and simple PHP script written by  Justin Hagstrom. It was intended for quick deployment onto any server with quick and simple configuration options. Usually i will theme it up to suit the rest of the site, or to whatever I feel like. So this small simple theme is perfect for anyone who wants a dark looking theme for autoindex.

Since this was more for a personal project, testing isn’t far a wide. I have had a quick look on the common browsers, if you want to diverse into the world of obsure browsers for testing, be my guest. As for the common ones, they all display it ok. Some elements of the CSS may not work with some browsers as I have used pseudo selectors as well as a few bits of CSS3.

Working In…

• Internet Explorer 8
• Google Chrome
• Firefox
• Opera
• Apple Safari

Download

Autoindex dark theme v1

Installation

Unzip the file, and paste the folder “dark” into your autoindex themes folder /templates/

Enjoy!

From If to Else

From If to Else

Mar 15

So the latest assignment for PHP is involving making a Register and Login System for clients to view and control their settings. It’s not exactly on the same scale as creating an RPG, I think these two assignments were the wrong way around, or maybe the first one was to gauge the level of skills in the group, not sure. As I had already started work on a CMS it was quite easy to use some of the basic parts of it to show as the final piece.

I’ve just finished functionalizing the main administration script that controls pretty much everything that’s not classed as aesthetics. So that’s about 90% of the CMS completed. I’m going to add user list displays for anyone classed as Administrator, everyone else won’t even be given the link in the navigation (more dynamics). On the subject of the navigation, the actual links are built entirely through php, this means that each section of the site can have different nav bar links and some parts contain sub nav bars with links relating to the current content. So basically I’m forcing as much dynamic scripting as I possibly can into this project. I don’t think it will be as effective otherwise. More to come soon.

Sorted. In The Bag. Done

Sorted. In The Bag. Done

Feb 28

So it’s finally done. I’ve complete building The Demons Lair which has taken a while to get fully completed. There’s been so many set backs that I was beginning to get worried I’d never finish it. But low and behold, it’s all in the bag! That doesn’t mean that I don’t want to add anything though, I never got around to adding enemies which made me slightly disappointed, I just didn’t have enough time to add it and make sure it’s bulletproof.

So yes as the picture is showing above, I’m happy that’s all out the way.

I’ve just started work on the next scripting assignment which seems more to my liking. It’s a web tool instead of a game which is much more interesting to design and code so I’m enjoying starting this one. The basic outline is too have an administration page to control users who have registered with the site. These users will be able to access certain content which can only be accessed by being logged in. Simple really, the registration form needs to have all the standard error trapping and validation as any other form would have, this goes for pretty much anything where there’s an input box basically. Anyway moving on, the premise for this project is simple, so I’m in no worry about completion on this one, the game assignment was such a vast project it began to get problematic near the end. Hopefully this won’t be the same.

February has been an off an on month, there’s been so much to put together lately time to myself has taken a back seat, however now that I have cleared one of the monster assignments I think I can take a breather. Bring on March.

Tempus Fugit

Tempus Fugit

Feb 18

After that last post outlining the fiasco’s that I had encountered. I had to really knuckle down and re-write the parts that were causing issues. The problem with my main foreach loop was that it was trying to do too much in one go. I first tried to split the foreach loops up but with no luck. Finally the only way to get it all working correctly was to remove one of the MySQL queries from the code and replace it with an array from the game session, and for some stupid and extremely annoying reason white space was finding its’ way into my arrays… I’m not sure, it’s one of those php things which is always a pain to sort out. But now it’s done so all is good.

The actual game fully runs at the moment, however there’s no win scenario so it’s a bit pointless doing much on it at the moment. I should have the full version complete by tomorrow.

Achieving Efficiency

Achieving Efficiency

Feb 16

This one could go on for a bit, so I’ll try to be short and set out things into sections.

Bugs and Fixes

So there’s been a lot of problem with bugs near the end of the programming assignment. When I first started out there was next to nothing in the way of bugs. But now it seems as I stitch the final part of the canvas, other parts are beginning to rip. My main script is programmed chronologically, so now I work at the bottom of the page, it feels like I’m working in the basement of a large building where all the little things make the building tick, strange analogy but it’s what it feels like.

What I always find, as a programmer of sorts, is that the smallest most insignificant parts of programming cause the most damage and hassle, why? Because they have to assert themselves somehow! If they’re not noticed in the final outcome then to make things equal they’re a pain in the backside behind the scenes! That’s my theory on it anyway.  I’m sure I’m not the only crazy guy thinking this.

I think I’ve spent more time overall on this assignment debugging it, than actually doing some  proper coding. It’s a bit annoying at times as I feel like I’m not getting anywhere, then suddenly out of nowhere I’ll manage to fully fix the problem and feel slightly better about it! Here’s a couple of the main bugs which are currently killing my will to live.

Problem Number 1

First and foremost, there is a major problem with my puzzle coding, I’ve designed it so that there are no hard-coded parts to the script, it’s all database driven. And by doing this means I only have to add new entries to the puzzle table for it to appear in the game. Dynamicity at its’ purest. Anyway at the moment I can only seem to add a maximum of two items to the puzzle, by items I mean items required to complete the puzzle. The reason is most likely to do with whitespace or something that’s going terribly wrong inside my insane two tier foreach loop:

foreach ($items_required as $item_required) {
if (in_array($item_required,$inv)) {
foreach ($objects as $object) {
if ($count == 1) {$object = str_replace(" ","",$object);}
if (in_array($object,$items_required))  { $i = $i + 1;}
}}}

Ok so for people not php orientated, or not code orientated in general. Here’s what this little beast does.