Category Archives: Development

Open Exchange Rates library 0.1.0 is out!

That’s right, a new version of Open Exchange Rates library is out. The previous version was released in past October when I released my first two SugarCRM packages who also make use of it.

Since then, the Open Exchange Rates API has been continuously improved, which led to a perfect excuse to not only make an update but also to make an overall review of the library.

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SugarCRM: Currencies Exchange Rate Updater

Not long ago, I wrote a post about the need of a free service that provided a variety of information related to currencies who led me to Open Exchange Rates: Real-time exchange rates for developers!

At that time I also mentioned how I had a couple of projects in mind related with the library I wrote then, curiously, one of these projects also matched a need felt by others: improving/automating the way how exchange rate updates are made in SugarCRM projects.

Two months later, more or less, I’m back with news regarding these projects: a few minutes ago I’ve released publicly, and more important, freely, my two first SugarCRM packages.

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How to force a view to load other modules languages into SUGAR.language?

SugarCRMAs you should know each SugarCRM view extends SugarView class which has a nifty method called _displayJavascript()  who is responsible for including all needed JavaScript files.

When it comes to labels, by default, this function only loads current module labels into SUGAR.language.

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How to reset field values on bean duplication?

SugarCRMWhat you need to do is inject some logic to clear selected field values before the view is displayed.

Like all other stuff made in SugarCRM, this process also depends on what type of module you’re hacking, in other words, the place where you’re going to write the logic depends if you’re hacking a custom module or a core one.

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How to use NTLM authentication with NuSOAP?

For a couple of weeks I’ve been implementing Webservices to feed resources on a SugarCRM project that I’m working on. As you may know SugarCRM provides NuSOAP, which is a SOAP Toolkit for PHP that brings some extra functionalities to SOAP implementation provided by PHP.

Today I had to use NTLM authentication method, unfortunately it isn’t supported by NuSOAP yet, but I’ve found that if you combine cURL with NuSOAP you can get through without a problem.

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LESS – Leaner CSS

LESS - Leaner CSSIf you’re used to work with Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) files, for sure that you’ve already wondered if wouldn’t it be cool if CSS supported variables?

Well, I’ve got news for you: now it does!

LESS or Leaner CSS if you prefer, is an extension of CSS which allows you to use variables, mixins, operations and nested rules. It was inspired by its predecessors – especially SASS, a ruby project which provides an alternative to a lot of the common problems CSS designers and web developers face when developing huge applications.

One of it’s great characteristics is that it is as seamless as possible with CSS, which is great, that way you don’t have to learn a whole new language. Which for me at first sight, was a turnoff in SASS.

You can read more about it in here

UTF-8 + PHP = Headache?

As some of you know PHP doesn’t handle UTF-8 by default and that could lead to a terrible headache, at least till version 6 cames out.

Today I’ve spent some time looking for good articles on this subject. I’ve found two great articles that cover a lot of topics including strategies to use while working with MySQL:

Handling UTF-8 with PHP
Scripters UTF-8 Survival Guide

You can download the second one in PDF format and read it later.

Go PHP5!

A couple of weeks ago I’ve found this project, it’s name is GoPHP5 and it’s main goal is to speed up the transition of old PHP applications to the newer versions.

I totally agree with this project ideas and support them 100%, in my opinion it doesn’t make sense to keep developing applications using old PHP versions.

At the moment there are already a couple of big projects associated such as Drupal, CMS Made Simple, phpMyAdmin and others.

If you’re going to develop a new project or develop new features to an existing one, take a look at the website, spend some time reading and GoPHP5.

At the moment I’m only working with PHP5 and I’ve got to say, the new features are great.