Let you have a custom field named “display_order”. This field stores integer value. Later you’ve tag like bellow to show entries in specific display order by this field –

{exp:weblog:entries  channel="channel_name"  orderby="display_order" sort="asc"  limit="15"}
content
{/exp:weblog:entries}

Above code pulls data in wrong order. Because Expressionengine creates varchar type field in table for every custom field. So if an entry has value 2 for display_order and 10, the entry with value 10 will comes first as mysql query treats them as string.

For this, you can do a quick trick. First find which field is created for the custom field you created, as per above example find out the field created for custom field “display_order”. Lets say table field for this custom field is field_id_20. Alter this field as integer type. So prepare a query like below and execute –

ALTER TABLE exp_weblog_data CHANGE `field_id_20` `field_id_20` INT(11) DEFAULT NULL

So, now see – issue is fixed

<script type="text/javascript" src="http://www.mydomain.com/cu3er/js/swfobject.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript">
	    var flashvars = {};
	    flashvars.xml = "{site_url}common/config.xml";
	    flashvars.font = "http://www.mydomain.com/cu3er/media/font.swf";
	    swfobject.embedSWF("http://www.mydomain.com/cu3er/media/cu3er.swf", "cu3er_swf", "960", "360", "9.0.28.0", "http://www.mydomain.com/cu3er/media/expressInstall.swf", flashvars, params, attributes);
</script>

I had put the files proper location(on cu3er folder), checked the rendered html was ok but the slider couldnt loads the images/data from xml file. I checked the xml file (http://www.mydomain.com/common/config.xml) is well-formed with valid data. Certainly i found the error while debugging using firebug, see the screenshot value -

Although i’ve put config xml location – http://www.mydomain.com/common/config.xml , but CU3ER sent request by adding another get var t, so requested url became http://www.mydomain.com/common/config.xml?t=123243421232 and certainly EE failed to load proper template on my server. So i’ve updated the rewrite rule on htaccess – instead of this

RewriteRule ^(.*)$ /index.php/$1 [L]

I’ve put following

RewriteRule ^(.*)$ /index.php?/$1 [L]

Added an extra question sign(?) and it works. Hope this will help you if face such problem or if you want to integrate CU3ER on your ExpressionEngine project.

http://github.com/appskitchen/ext.visitor_stats.ee_addon

or use git command if you have it

git clone git://github.com/appskitchen/ext.visitor_stats.ee_addon.git

function do_something(){
	global $SESS;
	
	print_r($SESS);
}		

function do_something($sess){
	print_r($sess);
}		

Someone asked me if it’s possible to verify an email address if exists or not without sending any message, so far i know – its not possible to verify without sending any message. Let me explain the steps little how did i do that -
1. Check the pattern, this is public method, so you can use this method only if you want
2. Verify DNS
3. Verify/Get list of MX entries
4. Create socket with MX server.
5. Send messages and receive response code and analyse. If response returns with code “250″ for “RCPT TO:” message, that means mailbox exists.

Get the sourcecode with example here -
http://github.com/appskitchen/emailverifier
or
Git command line -

git clone git://github.com/appskitchen/emailverifier.git emailverifier

Hope this will help some people.

Set security level to midium rather than high on core.php

Configure::write('Security.level', 'medium');

Define custom session handling method rather than database or php. To do this, find out the collowing line in core.php

Configure::write('Session.save', 'php');

Updated the above line to

Configure::write('Session.save', 'my_session_handler');

// app/config/my_session_handler.php
//
// Revert value and get rid of the referrer check even when,
// Security.level is medium
ini_restore('session.referer_check');

ini_set('session.use_trans_sid', 0);
ini_set('session.name', Configure::read('Session.cookie'));

// Cookie is now destroyed when browser is closed, doesn't 
// persist for days as it does by default for security
// low and medium
ini_set('session.cookie_lifetime', 0);

// Cookie path is now '/' even if you app is within a sub 
// directory on the domain
$this->path = '/';
ini_set('session.cookie_path', $this->path);

// Session cookie now persists across all subdomains
ini_set('session.cookie_domain', env('HTTP_BASE'));

Hopefully this configuration will be ok, tweak configuration as needed.

1. Published entries don’t come up?

You have published few entries which show locally but they don’t appear on the live site? This may happen if your live server’s timezone settings – because they might be consider as future entry! Modifying those content would be easy solution for this problem which will overwrite the modify date and treats entry as published entry.

2. Date/Time shows wrong on entry?

Check your localization settings from “Admin › System Preferences › Localization Settings”, adjust it as needed. This is not enough – need ne more setting change – go “My Account › Localization Settings “, adjust time accordingly. In fact, you need to follow this step first.

Hope this will helpful for newbies.

<?php if (!defined('BASEPATH')) exit('No direct script access allowed.');

/**
 * CodeIgniter encode_email Helpers
 * * 
 * @subpackage	Helpers
 * @category	Helpers
 * @author		Musa
 * @link		http://kodegeek.wordpress.com/2010/04/17/encode_email_codeigniter_helper/
 */

// ------------------------------------------------------------------------


	/*
	 * Find out all email address and encode accordingly
	 * 
	 * @param string $content
	 * 
	 * @return string
	 */
	function find_encode_email($content=null){
		if(is_null($content))	return false;
		
		//Regular Expression For Email Address
		$regex = "/[a-z0-9.-_]{3,}[@][a-z]{1,}[.]co(m|[.][a-z]{2})/";
		$content = preg_replace_callback($regex, 'my_callback', $content);
		
		return $content;
	}
	
	/*
	 * Call back function use to replace pattern
	 * 
	 * @param array $matches
	 * 
	 * @return string
	 */
	function my_callback($matches) {
		if(isset($matches[0]))
			return encode_email($matches[0]);
		else
			return $matches[1];
	}

	
	/*
	 * Encode email address
	 * 
	 * @param string $email
	 * @param string $title
	 * @param boolean $anchor
	 * @param string $encode_type
	 * 
	 * @return string $buffer	- encoded email address	
	 */
	function encode_email($email, $title='', $anchor=false, $encode_type=null){
						
						if ($title == "")
            				$title = $email;
						
						//if javascript off
						if($encode_type=='noscript')
						$email = str_replace(array('@', '.'), array(' at ', ' dot '), $email);

						$bit = array();
					    if ($anchor == TRUE)
        				{ 
            				$bit[] = '<'; $bit[] = 'a '; $bit[] = 'h'; $bit[] = 'r'; $bit[] = 'e'; $bit[] = 'f'; $bit[] = '='; $bit[] = '\"'; $bit[] = 'm'; $bit[] = 'a'; $bit[] = 'i'; $bit[] = 'l';  $bit[] = 't'; $bit[] = 'o'; $bit[] = ':';
        				}
				        for ($i = 0; $i < strlen($email); $i++)
				        {
            				$bit[] .= " ".ord(substr($email, $i, 1));
				        }

					        $temp	= array();
        
					        if ($anchor == TRUE)
					        {        
					            $bit[] = '\"'; $bit[] = '>';
					            
					            for ($i = 0; $i < strlen($title); $i++)
					            {
					            	$ordinal = ord($title[$i]);
								
									if ($ordinal < 128)
									{
										$bit[] = " ".$ordinal;            
									}
									else
									{
										if (count($temp) == 0)
										{
											$count = ($ordinal < 224) ? 2 : 3;
										}
									
										$temp[] = $ordinal;
									
										if (count($temp) == $count)
										{
											$number = ($count == 3) ? (($temp['0'] % 16) * 4096) + (($temp['1'] % 64) * 64) + ($temp['2'] % 64) : (($temp['0'] % 32) * 64) + ($temp['1'] % 64);
							
											$bit[] = " ".$number;
											$count = 1;
											$temp = array();
										}   
									}
					            }
					            
					            $bit[] = '<'; $bit[] = '/'; $bit[] = 'a'; $bit[] = '>';
					       }
       				        
				        $bit = array_reverse($bit);
				        ob_start();
				        
				        ?>
<script type="text/javascript">
//<![CDATA[
var l=new Array();
<?php
    
    $i = 0;
    foreach ($bit as $val)
    {
?>l[<?php echo $i++; ?>]='<?php echo $val; ?>';<?php
    }
?>

for (var i = l.length-1; i >= 0; i=i-1){ 
if (l[i].substring(0, 1) == ' ') document.write("&#"+unescape(l[i].substring(1))+";"); 
else document.write(unescape(l[i]));
}
//]]>
</script>				<?php

        $buffer = ob_get_contents();
        ob_end_clean(); 
        
		return $buffer;				
	}

/* End of file encode_email_helper.php */
?>

Use it like other Codeigniter helper, Here is example to call this function from view

  echo find_encode_email(PAGE_CONTENT_HERE); //this will find an email address on text and replace with encoded value
  echo encode_email(YOUR_EMAIL_ADDRESS_HERE); //this will encode email address
 echo encode_email(YOUR_EMAIL_ADDRESS_HERE, TITLE, true );//this will generate an anchor with encoded value

Thanks

Auth, ACL Component/Library
CakePHP has very strong Auth component with Core.
In CodeIgniter – you have to create or find a suitable plugin for you, although CodeIgniter has many classes which are rarely used(such as ftp class) i wonder why it’s not there. It’s vary important for the most of the applications.

Code Generation
CakePHP’s Bake console can create any of CakePHP’s basic ingredients: models, views and controllers, can create a fully functional application in just a few minutes.

Very badly, Codeigniter doesn’t has code generation from console, you’ve to find out a plugin.

ORM
CakePHP comes with ORM(Object Relational Mapping is a programming technique for converting data between incompatible type systems in databases and object-oriented programming languages) while in CodeIgniter, you have to depend on third parties.

Scaffolding
CodeIgniter’s Scaffolding feature provides a fast and very convenient way to add, edit, or delete information in your database during development which is deprecated from version 1.6.0.
CakePHP scaffolding is a technique that allows a developer to define and create a basic application that can create, retrieve, update and delete objects. Scaffolding in CakePHP also allows developers to define how objects are related to each other, and to create and break those links.

Ajax
CakePHP comes with Ajax helper which can be used in various ways. i didn’t see this with CodeIgniter core.

PHP Version
Both runs on PHP4 and PHP5 but both doesn’t take any facility of PHP5 while runs on PHP5 Machine. CakePHP declared, their upcoming version 2.0 will runs only on PHP 5.2 which definitely take advantage of PHP5′s OOP and ohter killer features.

Simplicity
I believe CodeIgniter is simple and working with this, it’s so easy while in CakePHP coding process is quicker for expert but its hard to find out what’s going on For Newbie.

MVC
Both of them are MVC supported framework but in Codeigniter you can build your project without Model which may lead messy and unsecured code sometimes(if anybody place direct query without any filtering). Codeigniter Model supports Method Chaining(PHP5 only) feature that’s fantastic. Most important is Model association, which absent in Codeigniter! In CakePHP, query are very simple to get value from a table by any field with related data.

Console
Cakephp came with console features. You can generate code or upgrade db schema from your console. If you are working with a team remotely and you don’t allow other user to handle your db directly – you can use this feature.

CodeIgniter doesn’t has this feature.

Validation
In Codeigniter, validation is handled by a validation class. The validation class can also help automate some of the process of setting error messages for specific fields.
In CakePHP, validation rules are defined in Model, can be validate data before save or at saving. I like CakePHP validation, it’s fantastic.

View/Layout
CakePHP handles this fairly well by using a default layout, easy to implement header , footer, sidebar while CodeIgniter takes a very straightforward approach – something like buiding a application from scratch. CodeIgniter allows caching mechanism for your view which is pretty good.

File Uploading
I love CodeIgniter’s file uploading class by which it’s very easy to handle uploading files. CakePHP doesn’t has this.

Other Classes
Codeigniter has many classes such as ftp, compression, cart etc etc classes. You may need certain classes for your project which already in CodeIgniter and not with CakePHP but you may find out component most of the time.

Web Services
Both has web services in built in. CakePHP has REST while CodeIgniter has XML-RPC but both doesn’t has SOAP, you need to find out component/plugin.

Auto Calling Functions/Other Functions
In CakePHP, there are few functions which are automatically called every time you refresh/hit a page and executed if you defined them such as beforeSave, afterSave, beforeRender etc – I just love these. I found a function called requestAction in cakephp that calls a controller’s action from any location and returns data from the action, sometimes its very useful.

Helpers
I found CakePHP helpers(such as form helper, it highlight input field for validation error automatically) are powerful than CodeIgniter.

Learning Curve
The learning curve of CakePHP is slightly higher than CodeIgniter. As CakePHP is a shade of ruby on rails, so its easy to get rails or cakephp developer to get them accordingly.

Support
CakePHP has solid support, you will get your answer very shortly while in CodeIgniter, i am still waiting for a answer in CodeIgniter forum, strange!

Documentation
Both are well-documented so far.

CodeIgniter comes with many classes, less of them are frequently used but missed important classes such as auth, straight forward but no automagic feature, MVC but not strict. I missed these features while i was working on a project using CodeIgniter. You may or may not face few problems while learning CakePHP but once you learnt, I believe – you’ll like it for its automagic, strict convention, faster development and for many more wonderful features.

Notes – This comparison was based on the documentation for CodeIgniter 1.7.2 and having used CakePHP 1.2.