The Problem

The Concept I wanted to achieve was to have unique Configuration based upon the module that was active. The Issue with this is that the Bootstrap files and the _init functions for ALL modules are called with no bias as to which module is active. Thus if you created a 3 modules wanted to make menu alterations in one, those alterations will be applied to all. I also wanted to have a a system where if i added extra modules i could just add extra functions to the bootstrap file and it would work in a similar way.

With this in mind, I set about trying to figure out the solution.

New Version

Though this version still works and you should read through the code to see how to implement the plugin, there is a new version available at:
http://binarykitten.me.uk/dev/zend-framework/296-active-module-config-v2.html
Please refer to this as the latest version.. Thanks

—– Original Post —–

Solution 1 – Failure

With the Idea that no-body is perfect, including myself. My 1st attempt ended in failure. This attempt was to modify/extend the Bootstrap class to add extra functions to the resources list.. In the end I couldn’t determine if the Module bootstrap was the active one. ok So Attempt 1 was a failure, onto the next

Solution 2 – Success!

A quick conversation with Matthew Weier O’Phinney (@weierophinney) pointed me in the direction of Controller plugins and the routeShutdown method, as after the route had been finished which module was active would be able to be discerned.
At this point I must apologise to Pieter Kokx ( @kokxie ) who I had a small disagreement with in the #zftalk channel. Pieter had done his best to point me down this route to start with, though being a stubborn mule I am refused to see the quality and precision of his comments.
Thank you both for your help here.

The way that this works is that is scans the active modules bootstrap for functions starting with activeInit or modulenameInit just like the _init functions but these would only be called if the module is active.
I was successfully able to create the plugin and trigger the functions, unfortunately it was triggering/calling them in a static sense.. which meant that standard _init style code wouldn’t work. Luckily with a little digging in the source of the framework i found a storage of the modules and their initiated bootstrap classes. Lucky Me! So finally we call the methods within the right context.

So Here it is the Final Code, Please do comment, I learn from people as I hope that others can learn from me.

I’ve used the “Namespace” of BinaryKitten here. If you want to use a different “Namespace” Replace BinaryKitten with what you want.
The “Namespace” allows for the use of the BinaryKitten folder within the Libray Folder.
Remember the Controller Plugin should go in the right place for your application, if you are using the autoloader you can add the “Namespace” to be autoloaded via your application.ini

autoloadernamespaces[] = "BinaryKitten"

First off we have the Controller Plugin.
This should go into the “Namespace” folder within the Library Folder and should be called ModuleConfig.php

<?php
class BinaryKitten_ModuleConfig extends Zend_Controller_Plugin_Abstract
{
    public function routeShutdown(Zend_Controller_Request_Abstract $request)
    {
        $frontController = Zend_Controller_Front::getInstance();
        $bootstrap =  $frontController->getParam('bootstrap');
        $activeModuleName = $request->getModuleName();
        $moduleList = $bootstrap->modules;

        $moduleInitName = strtolower($activeModuleName)."Init";
        $moduleInitNameLength = strlen($moduleInitName);

        if (isset($moduleList[$activeModuleName])) {
            $activeModule = $moduleList[$activeModuleName];

            $bootstrapMethodNames = get_class_methods($bootstrap);
            foreach ($bootstrapMethodNames as $key=>$method) {
                $runMethod = false;
                $methodNameLength = strlen($method);
                if ($moduleInitNameLength < $methodNameLength &&
                    $moduleInitName == substr($method, 0, $moduleInitNameLength)) {
                    call_user_func(array($bootstrap,$method));
                }
            }
        } else {
            $activeModule = $bootstrap;
        }

        $methodNames = get_class_methods($activeModule);
        foreach ($methodNames as $key=>$method) {
            $runMethod = false;
            $methodNameLength = strlen($method);
            if (10 < $methodNameLength && 'activeInit' === substr($method, 0, 10)) {
                $runMethod = true;
            } elseif ($moduleInitNameLength < $methodNameLength &&
                    $moduleInitName == substr($method, 0, $moduleInitNameLength)) {
                $runMethod = true;
            }
            if ($runMethod) {
                call_user_func(array($activeModule,$method));
            }
        }
    }
}

Next we need to make sure the Controller Plugin is loaded.
We can do this in one of two ways. Either in the Application Bootstrap via an _init function

public function _initControllerPlugins()
{
    $plugin = Zend_Controller_Front::getInstance()->registerPlugin(
        new BinaryKitten_ModuleConfig()
    );
}

*– Or –*

We can add a line to the application.ini

resources.frontController.plugins.BKModuleConfig = "BinaryKitten_ModuleConfig"

Finally some example init code from the module bootstrap.
Please remember that the activeInit*() Functions need to be public for this to work properly

class Default_Bootstrap extends Zend_Application_Module_Bootstrap {
    public function activeInitMenus() {
        $layout = $this
                    ->bootstrap('layout')
                    ->getResource('layout');

        $view = $layout->getView();
        $config = new Zend_Config_Xml(APPLICATION_PATH.'/configs/navigation_default.xml',"menu");
        $navigation = new Zend_Navigation($config);
        $view->navigation($navigation);
    }
    public function activeInitDoSomethingElse() {
        /* some other code */
    }
    public function defaultInitSomething() {
    	/* more code */
    }
}

We can also add module inits to the application bootstrap like so:

    public function modulenameInitFunction() {
    	/* place code here */
    }

Where modulename is the lowercase version of the Modules name, eg if you have the Admin module, then you would use:

    public function adminInitFunction() {
    	/* place code here */
    }

Hopefully someone will find this code useful.

[ Edit January 5th 2010 ]
Thanks to:
Matthew Weier O’Phinney for pointing out places for update.
Rob Allen (@Akrabat) for the info that the plugin could be loaded via the application.ini
Elizabeth Marie Smith and Matthew Turland for questioning the use of the Reflection.

• Updated the Bootstrap code to properly define the functions as Public
• Removed the reflection as this wasn’t actually required any more.
• Updated Post to make clean up the order of things and to properly designate that the BinaryKitten is the “Namespace”
  “Namespace” is used to reference that we’re not using PHP5.3 Namespaces, but the Namespaces within the Zend Framework.

[ Edit January 11th 2010 ]
Thanks to:
septem for pointing out a typo where i had $boostrap instead of $bootstrap
Gerard Roche for pointing out that by default, the default module doesn’t require a module bootstrap (in my code it has one)

• Updated to fix the typos
• Added in a quick check to see if the module exists in the modules list of bootstraps
• Removed the _ from the function name that it searches for, this should please the people who are adamant over the Zend Coding Standards
• Added in the functionality to have $modulenameInit() functions as well in both active module bootstrap and the application bootstrap

[ Edit February 13th 2010 ]
Ran the code through codesniffer against the Zend Standard supplied.. updated so no errors found. 3 Warnings are left .. they are as follows:
22 | WARNING | Line exceeds 80 characters; contains 83 characters
35 | WARNING | Line exceeds 80 characters; contains 84 characters
38 | WARNING | Line exceeds 80 characters; contains 83 characters
Don’t think it’s worth the change for 3/4 characters

$data = file_get_contents("php://input");
$lines = explode("&",$data);
foreach($lines as $line) {
    list($key,$value) = explode("=",$line,2);
    $_REQUEST[$key] = $value;
}

basically this grabs the data from the php://input and then splits it up into it’s component parts and then stores that within the $_REQUEST superglobal array.
Why $_REQUEST well we’re calling a head request and not a post or get request, so where else should it go.

The php://input is handy when doing stuff like xmlRPC or jsonRPC etc ..

Hopefully this will benefit someone out there

<edit>
Thanks to Mortal of #php on OFTC (irc) for pointing out the unlimited explode

HIJAX

Basically when you replace links in a page to perform ajax instead and update content instead of refreshing, that’s Hijax.

Visit http://domscripting.com/blog/display/41 for more info

function smarty_block_assign_content($params, $content, &$smarty)
{
        $smarty = clone($smarty); //Copy the original class, so there's no garbage variables after we finish
        if(!isset($content))
                return;
        if (!isset($params['var'])) {
                $smarty->trigger_error("assign_content: missing 'var' parameter", E_USER_WARNING);
                return;
        }

        //Compile content to ensure all smarty tags get processed
        $smarty->assign($params['var'], $content);
                $smarty->assign($k, $v);
        return ;
}

example of usage:

{assign_content var='menu'}
  {foreach from=$menus.cats->children item='cat'}
  <div class="item{if $cat->active || $cat->expanded}_select{/if}">
    <div class="arrow"></div>
    {if !$cat->active}<a href="{$cat->link}">{/if}{$cat->text}{if !$cat->active}</a>
    {/if}
  </div>
  {if $cat->children|@count ne 0 || $cat->expanded}
    {foreach from=$cat->children item='subCat'}
      <div class="subitem{if $subCat->active}_select{/if}">
        <div class="arrow"></div>
      {if !$subCat->active}<a href="{$subCat->link}">{/if}{$subCat->text}{if !$subCat->active}</a>{/if}
      </div>
    {/foreach}
  {/if}
  {/foreach}
{/assign_content}

This will set the code we used to generate the menu and assign it to $menu for later use.
Hope you find as usefull

The basis really is simple, we have a menu item which really is just link and text. That menu item could have children, could be active and/or be selected.

In this case Selected is the currently menu item, which is also Active, and all it’s parents in the chain upwards are also active.

We also have a menu controller which makes it easier to add to the menus.

class menuHandler {
    public $menus=array();
    public function NewMenu() {
        $k = time();
        $this->menus[$k] = new menu_class();
        return $k;
    }
    public function AddMenu($key,menu_class $menu) {
        if (!isset($this->menus[$key])) {
            $this->menus[$key] = $menu;
        }
        return $this;
    }
    public function ItemCount($menuKey) {
        $menu = $this->menus[$menuKey];
        if (!($menu instanceof menu_class)) {
            return -1;
        }
        else {
            return count($menu->children);
        }
    }
    public function AddItem($menuKey,$itemKey=null,menu_class $item) {
        if (isset($this->menus[$menuKey])) {
            $menu = $this->menus[$menuKey];
            if (!isset($itemKey) or (is_numeric($itemKey) &amp;amp;amp;&amp;amp;amp; $itemKey <0)) {
                $itemKey = count($menu->children);
            }
            $menu->AddSubItem($item,$itemKey,$menuKey);
        }
        return $this;
    }
    public function SetActive($id,$from=null) {
        $menu = new menu_class();
        if ($from == null) {
            $from = $this->menus;
        }
        elseif($from instanceof menu_class) {
            $from = $from->children;
        }
        foreach ($from as $key=>&amp;amp;amp;$menu) {
            if ($key==$id) {
                $menu->active=true;
                return true;
            }
            elseif(count($menu->children) !=0) {
                $r = $this->SetActive($id,$menu->children);
                if ($r) {
                    $menu->expanded = true;
                    return $r;
                }
            }
        }
    }
}
class menu_class {
    public $children = array();
    public $myParent=null;
    public $active = false;
    public $expanded = false;
    public $link ='';
    public $text = '';
    public $additional = array();

    public function AddSubItem($item,$ID=null,$parentID=null) {
        if ($item instanceof menu_class) {
        }
        elseif(is_array($item)) {
            $item = new menu_class();
            $item->text = $details[0];
            $item->link = $details[1];
        }
        if (isset($ID)) {
            if (isset($this->children[$ID])) {
                if (is_numeric($ID)) {
                    $this->children = array_insert($this->children,$item,$ID);
                }
            }
            else {
                $this->children[$ID] = $item;
            }
        }
        else {
            $this->children[] = $item;
        }
        if (!isset($parentID)) {
            $parentID = "main";
        }
        $this->myParent = $parentID;
        ksort($this->children);
    }

    public function __construct($text=null,$link=null) {
        if(isset($text) &amp;amp;amp;&amp;amp;amp; !is_null($text)) {
            $this->text = $text;
        }
        if(isset($link) &amp;amp;amp;&amp;amp;amp; !is_null($link)) {
            $this->link = $link;
        }
    } 

    public function Format($text) {
        if (!empty($this->link)) {
            $text= str_replace("%href%",$this->link);
        }
        if (!empty($this->text)) {
            $text = str_replace("%text%",$this->text);
        }
        return $text;
    }
}

You will notice that i’ve used the array_insert function from my previous posting. This was why it was created, so that i could insert without worry that i would overwrite the code

here’s an example of using the code

$menus = new menuHandler();
$menus->AddMenu("main",new menu_class());
 $menus->AddItem("main",-1,new menu_class("TEXT","link.php"));
 $menus->AddItem("main",-1,new menu_class("TEXT2","link2.php"));
//we want this item to be 1st!
 $menus->AddItem("main",0,new menu_class("1st Link","homelink.php"));

So far I pass the $menus out to smarty in the usual assignment method and process like as follows

 {foreach from=$menus.main->children item="mItem"}
  <div class="mainbutton"><a href="{$mItem->link}">{$mItem->text}</a></div>
 {/foreach}

For a cascaded menu i’ve used the following

{foreach from=$menus.cats->children item='cat'}
  <div class="item{if $cat->active || $cat->expanded}_select{/if}">
    <div class="arrow"></div>
    {if !$cat->active}<a href="{$cat->link}">{/if}{$cat->text}{if !$cat->active}</a>
    {/if}
  </div>
  {if $cat->children|@count ne 0 || $cat->expanded}
    {foreach from=$cat->children item='subCat'}
      <div class="subitem{if $subCat->active}_select{/if}">
        <div class="arrow"></div>
      {if !$subCat->active}<a href="{$subCat->link}">{/if}{$subCat->text}{if !$subCat->active}</a>{/if}
      </div>
    {/foreach}
  {/if}
  {/foreach}

As usual any comments gratefully recieved

$array[position] = "newdata";

But unfortunately this is not so good if you only wanted to insert the newdata into that position and move the others the out of the way. So with a little help from Derick Rethans and Tetraboy I came up with this little solution.

Any comments gratefully recieved.

function array_insert(&$array,$element,$position=null) {
  if (count($array) == 0) {
    $array[] = $element;
  }
  elseif (is_numeric($position) && $position < 0) {
    if((count($array)+position) < 0) {
      $array = array_insert($array,$element,0);
    }
    else {
      $array[count($array)+$position] = $element;
    }
  }
  elseif (is_numeric($position) && isset($array[$position])) {
    $part1 = array_slice($array,0,$position,true);
    $part2 = array_slice($array,$position,null,true);
    $array = array_merge($part1,array($position=>$element),$part2);
    foreach($array as $key=>$item) {
      if (is_null($item)) {
        unset($array[$key]);
      }
    }
  }
  elseif (is_null($position)) {
    $array[] = $element;
  }
  elseif (!isset($array[$position])) {
    $array[$position] = $element;
  }
  $array = array_merge($array);
  return $array;
}

and no code would be without it’s example:

// create the array
$x = array("apples","bananas","pears");
//insert "oranges" at position 1
array_insert($x,"oranges",1);
var_dump($x);
//insert "pineapples" 2 from the end
array_insert($x,"pineapples",-2);
var_dump($x);
//insert "strawberries" at the end
array_insert($x,"strawberries");
var_dump($x);
//insert "plums" at position 0 - (because the negative position goes beyond 0)
array_insert($x,"pineapples",-10);
var_dump($x);

or alternatively

// create the array
$x = array("apples","bananas","pears");
//insert "oranges" at position 1
$x = array_insert($x,"oranges",1);
var_dump($x);
//insert "pineapples" 2 from the end
$x = array_insert($x,"pineapples",-2);
var_dump($x);
//insert "strawberries" at the end
$x = array_insert($x,"strawberries");
var_dump($x);
//insert "plums" at position 0 - (because the negative position goes beyond 0)
$x = array_insert($x,"plums",-10);
var_dump($x);

I’ve been trundling through the latest site (http://www.gamers.uk.net) which is been working well for the most part..

Over the last few days I’ve not really wanted to do any sort of work on it at all or anything else really. Friday is the deadline and so the next few nights I’m going to have to put in some late nights to get it all complete.

Things that are bugging me:

1. Why couldn’t the client tell me about the postage when I asked them before?
2. Why is it so difficult to get the energy to work when you work from home?

Oh well, suppose I best put myself back to work

BK

Recently I looked into preloading images via Javascript. I found all the usual ones which require you have a list of all the images you wish to preload. For me though, specifying the images is rather annoying. Also I much prefer CSS roll overs to Javascript ones so I created this to make it easier.

This “plugin” for jQuery just allows you to preload All the images based in url enclosures within the css files attached to the current page.
I call it a “plugin” rather than a plugin as technically it doesn’t actually need jQuery at all so just remove the “jQuery.” on the function

/* jQuery.preloader - v0.9 - K Reeve aka BinaryKitten
*
* v0.9
* 	Fixed .toString being .toSteing
*
* v0.8
*		Fixed sheet.href being null error (was causing issues in FF3RC1)
*
* v0.7
*		Remade the preLoadImages from jQuery to DOM
*
* v0.6
* 		Fixed IE6 Compatability!
*		Moved from jQuery to DOM
*
* v0.5
* 		Shifted the additionalimages loader in the preLoadAllImages so it wasn't called multiple times
* 		Created secondary .preLoadImages to handle additionalimages and so it can be called on itself
*/
jQuery.preLoadImages = function(imagesList) {
	var pic = new Array();
	if (typeof imageList != 'undefined') {
		if (imageList.constructor.toString().indexOf('Array') != -1) {
			var l = imageList.length;
			for(apicsIdx=0;apicsIdx<l;apicsIdx++) {
				var c = pic.length;
				pic[c] = new Image();
				pic[c].src = imageList[apicsIdx];
			};
		}
		else {
			var c = pic.length;
			pic[c] = new Image();
			pic[c].src = imageList;
		}
	}
	pic = undefined;
}
jQuery.preLoadAllImages =  function(additionalimages) {
	var regex = new RegExp("url\((.*)\) ",'i');
	var pic = new Array();
	var l = document.styleSheets.length;
	for (sheetIdx=0;sheetIdx < l;sheetIdx++){
	var sheet = document.styleSheets[sheetIdx];
	if (typeof sheet.href == 'string' &amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp; sheet.href.length > 0) {
		var spl = sheet.href.split('/');
		var filename = spl.pop();
		var path = spl.join('/')+'/';
	}
	else {
		var path = './';
	}
	myRules = sheet.cssRules ? sheet.cssRules : sheet.rules;
	for (ruleIdx=0;ruleIdx<myRules.length;ruleIdx++) {
		var Rule = myRules[ruleIdx];
		txt = Rule.cssText ? Rule.cssText : Rule.style.cssText
		var match = regex.exec(Rule.cssText);
		if (match != null) {
			if ( match[1].substring(0,1) == '/') {
				var pic2Load = match[1];
			}
		else {
			var pic2Load = path+match[1];
		}
		if (typeof console != 'undefined')
			if (typeof console.log != 'undefined')
				console.log(pic2Load);
				var c = pic.length;
				pic[c] = new Image();
				pic[c].src = pic2Load;
			}
		};
		sheet = undefined;
		match = undefined;
		styleList = undefined;
		Rule = undefined;
	}
	if (typeof additionalimages != 'undefined') {
		if (additionalimages.constructor.toString().indexOf('Array') != -1) {
			var l = additionalimages.length;
			for(apicsIdx=0;apicsIdx<l;apicsIdx++) {
				var c = pic.length;
				pic[c] = new Image();
				pic[c].src = additionalimages[apicsIdx];
			};
		}
		else {
			var c = pic.length;
			pic[c] = new Image();
			pic[c].src = additionalimages;
		}
	}
	regex = undefined;
	pic = undefined;
};

Thanks to Roberto for pointing this out, I forgot to add how to use it and what it does..

What it does:
Basically the $.preLoadAllImages() function cycles through all your style sheets looking for background images and creates an array that will handle them. After this is done, it cycles through this array and creates a cached image for each file.
If you passthrough an array or filname to the function it will preload those/that image(s) as well.

Finally the $.preLoadImages just preloads images passed to it.. be it a single item or an array of items.

Usage
This really is the simple part.

1. copy the code above to a new file.. save it as jquery.Preloader.js
2. make sure you know the relative filepath to this new js file
3. add jquery to the list of included files by doing
4. add the new js file to the page:
5. Finally call the function you want.. you don’t have to use jquery’s document ready, as really you might want to have the images ready before hand.. but that’s down to you.. just call $.preLoadAllImages(); and Voila!