Nice date

This function shows date formatted as “Y-m-d” for dates older than today or “today H:i” for today’s dates.

function niceDate($date)
	{
		if (substr($date, 0, 10) == date('Y-m-d'))
		{
			return 'today, ' . substr($date, 11, 5);
		}
		return substr($date, 0, 10);
	}

File icon

Here’s a function which returns image icon for a set of predefined file types (based on extension).

function makeIcon($file)
{
	$ico = substr($file, strrpos($file, '.'));
	switch ($ico)
	{
		case 'pdf':
		case 'doc':
		case 'rtf':	$icon = 'document.png'; break;
		case 'zip':
		case 'rar':
		case '7z' :
		case 'tar':
		case 'gz' : $icon = 'archive.png'; break;
		default   : $icon = 'default.png'; break;
	}
	return $icon;
}

Shorten text

Make text shorten, but don’t cut words!

function shorten($str, $len = 50)
	{
		$cut = "\x1\x2\x3";
		$str = strip_tags($str);
		list($str) = explode($cut, wordwrap($str, $len, $cut));
		return $str;
	}

List files in a directory

This function lists files in a directory. It ignores subdirectories.

function scandir2($dir)
{
	$out = array();
	if (is_dir($dir))
	{
	    if ($dh = opendir($dir))
		{
	        while (($file = readdir($dh)) !== false)
			{
	            if ($file == '.' or $file == '..') continue;

				if (!is_dir($dir . '/'. $file))
	            {
				    $out[] = $dir . '/' . $file;
				}
	        }
	        closedir($dh);
	    }
	}
	sort($out);
	return $out;
}

Return next value from a set of values

Given a set of values it returns next value each time it is called. Example:
cycle(‘one’,'two’); cycle(‘one’,'two’); cycle(‘one’,'two’);
will print ‘one’, then ‘two’, then ‘one’.
Can be used in HTML templates:

<?php for ($i=0; $i<5; $i++) { ?>
<div style="color: <?php cycle('red','white','blue') ?>">Text here</div>
<?php } ?>

function cycle()
{
	global $cycleCounter;
	$cycleCounter = isset($cycleCounter) ? $cycleCounter+1 : 0;
	$cycleCounter = $cycleCounter % func_num_args();

	echo func_get_arg($cycleCounter);
}

str = 'Hello World';

into

var str= 'Hello World';

IE doesn’t like uncompleted HTML code. Other browsers try to understand what should it be, but not IE. Once I made a small but I wrote a code like this:

$('body').append(
'<div><div class="background"></div>' +
'<input type="hidden" class="parent" value="' + parent + '"></div>' +
'</div>');

It worked just fine in Firefox, Opera and Safari/Chrome, but not in IE. No bug was shown, but the element was not created.
The solution? I used 1 “

” which I should not. The correct code is:

$('body').append(
'<div><div class="background"></div>' +
'<input type="hidden" class="parent" value="' + parent + '">' +
'</div>');

This stupid mistake cost me some unnecessary problems. If you have similar problem (IE doesn’t create elements) please check your generated HTML. It might have a bug somewhere.

unserialize() [function.unserialize]: Error at offset 118 of 512

Here’s a simple solution I found. Instead of using unserialize() you should use mb_unserialize():

function mb_unserialize($str)
{
    $res = preg_replace('!s:(\d+):"(.*?)";!se', "'s:'.strlen('$2').':\"$2\";'", $str );
    return unserialize($res);
}

You can also think about replacing in your program serialize() + unserialize() with json_encode() + json_decode(). Your data should be safer then.

background-color: #00FF00;
background-image: -moz-linear-gradient(top, #00FF00, #FFFF00); /* Firefox */
background-image: -ms-linear-gradient(top, #00FF00, #FFFF00); /* IE10 */
background-image: -o-linear-gradient(top, #00FF00, #FFFF00); /* Opera  */
background-image: -webkit-gradient(linear, left top, left bottom, from(#00FF00), to(#FFFF00)); /* Safari/Chrome */
background-image: -webkit-linear-gradient(top, #00FF00, #FFFF00); /* Chrome 10/Safari5 */
background-image: linear-gradient(top, #00FF00, #999999);
filter: progid:DXImageTransform.Microsoft.gradient(startColorStr='#00FF00', EndColorStr='#FFFF00'); /* IE8 */

The result:

-moz-transform:rotate(120deg); /* Firefox */
-webkit-transform:rotate(120deg); /* WebKit: Chrome/Safari */
-o-transform:rotate(120deg); /* Opera */
-ms-transform:rotate(120deg); /* IE9 */
filter: progid:DXImageTransform.Microsoft.Matrix(
M11=0.9914448613738104,
M12=-0.13052619222005157,
M21=0.13052619222005157,
M22=0.9914448613738104, sizingMethod='auto expand'); /* IE8 */

The result can look like this:

 
 
 
 
 

You can read more on this subject here: Using jQuery with Other Libraries

The other one, but one I like most, is Tamper Data (click to download). This is what I use for everyday debugging.
After you install it just click Tools->Tamper Data and then reload a website.

Easy, right?