芳草苑

Blog

  • Establish a protocol of post tags

    尽管在 WordPress 里新增一个 post tag 是件很容易的事情，但我不想每次想到一个 tag 就增一个，上千个 posts 就有几千个 tag，搞得 posts 之间的 tag 联系很松散。所以，我很久不新增 tag 了，写完 post 就在已有的 tags 里挑一个或几个 tags 出来。

    时代在发展，新生事物不断出现，如果我老用几年前敲定的 tags 而不与时俱进，blog 就显得 out 了，也不利于芳草苑在新新名词方面的排名。比如，刚才一篇，想用 chrome，结果发现有 firefox 而没有 chrome，只好暂时 tag 一个 firefox，等我整理好一份 tag waiting list 再更新 post tags。

    初步想删 office, outlook 等，因为 windows 已经 out 了，我也没在 office, outlook 主题上浸淫许久，这类 posts 干脆合并一个 microsoft 或 windows software 得了。

    初步想增加 android, html5, css3, jquery, 因为它们或是日渐热门，或是已经热门，我三天两头都会讲到这类主题。现在统称为 google, html, css, javascript 似乎对它们不公平。

  • Dolphin does not work with HTML5 drag and drop

    I use Dolphin in the office, and Nautilus at home. I feel managing files in Dolphin is a little more efficient than in Nautilus, but only a marginal better.

    Today I find Dolphin does not support files drag and drop into browser for browser to upload. Drag and drop is an exciting feature of HTML5 and Google has implemented it to Chrome. I quite enjoy using it uploading files to Google Documents.

    I would like to use this feature as much as possible but at moment I have to use Nautilus to drag and drop to Chrome. I believe soon I can also use Dolphin to drag and drop to Firefox.

  • Update layout in Magento against a specific route

    I got some complaints to my bxgy module about reminder message is not showing in shopping cart as it supposed to be. But I checked over and over on my machine and did not find anything preventing reminder message being shown.

    By a chance I realise maybe those people changed Magento interface and theme in a not nice way. What is a nice way? By my definition, any extension or change to Magento original code should make sure

    • do as few changes as possible
    • Magento default theme can always be fallen back to

    I take it as a basic requirement of customisation, but I can not guarantee everyone else see it through. If I rely on a module layout xml file to trigger an action against a specific route, I get a higher chance of my layout xml file being bypassed by some incompatible theme.

    In bxgy module version 0.1.0 to 0.1.1, I wrote a layout handle checkout_cart_index in bxgy.xml, which is expected to add a message to the message block against route checkout/cart/index. If bxgy.xml is bypassed (when the theme settings do not take default theme fallback into consideration), nothing will happen. Do I have to use layout xml file to trigger an action against a specific route? Absolutely not. There are many ways around.

    In a newer version of bxgy module, I use an event observer to trigger “controller_action_postdispatch_checkout_cart_index” event, and add message to the message block in this observer. Because adding reminder message is something more relevant to functionality than presentation, the code’s logic is better if it is moved from design folder to app folder. And event observer is independent of theme settings.

    BTW, I finished coding this new version of bxgy, but I want to put together some other modules before release it.

  • My new thoughts about jQuery in Magento

    Today, I have two new thoughts about jQuery in Magento.

    Firstly, I will stop using a jQuery plugin called jQuery corner. It is a great plugin though. The reason of withdraw is jQuery corner plugin rounds elements with any radius I can specify on the fly. Once upon a time I thought dynamic cornering a great feature. However, jQuery UI comes with ui-corner classes. It has fixed value of radius for all round corners. It does not let me round different elements to different radius, but guarantees the consistency. In this case, consistency is much more important than flexibility. When I do want make exceptional larger or smaller radius for some kinds of elements (one or two kinds at most), I can code css just for that class.

    Secondly, I will start a new Magento module project called Jqol. It reads “JQuery themerOLler”, or “JQuery OnLine” (whatever you feel easier to remember). I am inspired by how easy it is to use jQuery Themeroller to build and change the look and feel of a website. It is a pity Magento does not come with jQuery. I keep mention it because I can not live without jQuery (for now). I implemented jQuery the very first thing when I started diving into Magento. While jQuery is getting stronger and more popular, I would like it play more important role in Magento. Therefore, I will let jQuery Themeroller control the look and feel for the top menu, buttons, accordion, tabs, etc. I can imagine a lot of benefits from this module: cleaner code, more semantic, and I (or even visitors to my sites) can switch the jQuery themes easily.

  • 汇丰在我心中形象大损

    最近发生几件事情让我觉得汇丰大大的不好。

    首先，它不肯给我按揭。也罢，就这个只能说它古板。

    随后，我又发现同品种存款利率汇丰仅是人家的1/4！

  • Magento adminhtml getUrl

    $this->getUrl($route) can be used in templates to generate an absolute URL based on route, but it only works for frontend URLs. As for adminhtml URLs, unless you say No to “Add Secret Key to URLs” in System >> Configuration >> Admin, a valid adminhtml URL should have a secret key.

    $this->getUrl($route, $params) can take ‘_current’ as one of parameters, but it only attaches current URL’s parameters. Adminhtml URL secret keys vary with controller and action names. So how to get unique secret key by controller and action names? Easy peasy, just use:

    Mage::getSingleton('adminhtml/url')->getSecretKey($controllerName, $actionName);

    How to get URL to adminhtml route (attach the secret key automatically if it is enabled)? Just use:

    Mage::helper('adminhtml')->getUrl($route);

  • Double quotes or single quotes inside html tag, which one is the better?

    If you google “Double quotes or single quotes inside html tag, which is better”, you might hear someone is talking about using double quotes in html won’t pass XHMTL validation. I think it is nonsense.

    Both of these characters are valid for XHTML, i.e. both 

    <tag att="value">

    and 

    <tag att='value' >

    are valid. However, I have a good reason to encourage you to stick to double quotes.

    When value is taken from user input, it is a must to convert all applicable characters to HTML entities by htmlentities(), and htmlentities() default flag is ENT_COMPAT which convert double quotes but leave single quotes alone. That is to say,

    If I use 

    <tag att="(value taken from user input)">

    constantly in templates, and if htmlentities() converts all double quotes in user input, whatever user input is, it will not break html output.

    I used to use double quotes and single quotes interchangeably, but I learned from Magento. Magento sticks to using double quotes. Its htmlEscape() bridges to htmlspecialchars() but it does not let you pass in a flag to control how to convert double quotes or single quotes. So, if you use 

    <tag att='(value taken from user input)'>

    , and if you rely on Magento htmlEscape() to convert special charcters for you, when user input has some single quotes, it ruins html output. I am sure you do not want it happens, so stick to using double quotes, always.

  • Social network is rabbish, but we have to use it

    我不是 social network 的积极使用者，可能因为我笨，看不出 social network 为什么把 A 和 B 连起来。比如，在 live social 里，我被问到：

    您和 Jing Feng 不是好友。 添加为好友？

    我就奇怪了，我和他如果不是好友，你问我干吗？

    还有，大家把帖子转来转去，有几个人愿意跟我一样关注原创？

    但 social network 无孔不入，消极逃避不是办法。广告铺天盖地，如果你是单纯看广告，就会烦；如果我是广告商，我轰得你烦，那我至少也有点成就感。

  • Which part of MVC do Magento blocks belong to?

    Someone said Magento was not strictly MVC structured. I am intended to accept this point. But MVC does give people an easy way to understand how system works. So if I regard Magento as an MVC system, which part of MVC do Magento blocks fall into?

    I used to think blocks were Views because they were tied with templates. As time goes, now I think blocks are Models because blocks implement a lot of business logic as Magento model classes. Today I have another reason to support blocks are Models:

    When a frontend_model is initialised for a Sytem Configuration field or an EAV attribute field, it is actually a block class.

  • Lack of ideas to manage javascript in Magento

    In Magento System >> Configuration >> Catalog >> Frontend, when List Mode selected value is changed, some fields (i.e. Products per page on Grid allowed values, Products per Page on Grid default value, Products per Page on List allowed values, Products per Page on List default value) are shown/hidden accordingly.

    List mode showing both grid and list options
    List mode showing both grid and list options

    List mode showing only grid options
    List mode showing only grid options

    I had thought List Mode had a special frontend model defined so it could interact with other fields. I spent an hour to search for special settings of List Mode but did not find any. Instead I was disappointed to find out the frondend interaction is not defined in xml or php class, but by app/design/adminhtml/default/default/template/system/config/js.phtml.

    The way Magento did this kind of interaction is not replicable, which is a pity. By and large, the way how Magento uses javascript is messy. Maybe I am asking too much from Magento. What I am keen on is a “Google Web Toolkit” way, that means no need to manage javascript at all because javascript is compiled from server end script.