How to install and configure Roundcube

Posted by Raffael on 12/12/201412/12/2014 Posted in Linux, PHP, Tutorials Tagged how to install roundcube, How to install Roundcube on Ubuntu server, how to setup your own webmail, Roundcube, roundcube installation guide, Roundcube tutorial, webmail

how to install roundcube Today we’ll be talking about installing the webmail client Roundcube on your website or web server. However, before we begin I’d like to say a few words about why a webmail client is a good idea in the first place and why I decided to use Roundcube. If you’re just interested in the installation procedure, you can skip directly to the next paragraph (“Basic requirements”).
Why install a webmail client? I can answer that question only for me and my specific case. I have several email addresses – one is a Gmail address and the others are addresses for my websites and blogs that all have the format @website-name.net.
So when I want to see my emails, I don’t want to open five different websites and three programs. I’d like for everything to be in one […]

Benchmark: strtotime() vs DateTime vs getTimestamp in PHP

Posted by Raffael on 12/19/2013 Posted in PHP Tagged benchmark, comparison strtotime Datetime, DateTime, DateTime vs strtotime, getTimestamp, PHP, strtotime, strtotime performance, Timestamp

Recently I wrote about how one can implement date comparison in PHP. In the article I presented two approaches. Firstly, using the strtotime() method and another with the DateTime class.
Then, in the comments on the german division of this blog, it was pointed out that the strtotime() variant is probably faster. Because I wasn’t sure about this, I decided to make a small performance test and share the results with you in this article.
How did I test the performance?

Since the question aims on strtotime() vs. DateTime, the DateTime class is contrary to the strtotime() function. So because DateTime class offers more functionality, I had first to create the DateTime object and then get the timestamp of it, because the strtotime function gives a timestamp as return value and I wanted to compare the time needed to generate the identical output.
As input I have taken a date without a custom time […]

How to compare dates in PHP

Posted by Raffael on 12/17/201311/03/2017 Posted in PHP, Test Tagged compare dates in php, compare two dates in php, date, DateTime, how to, strtotime, Tutorial

How to actually compare 2 dates in PHP with each other? The question sounds easier than it is. The first thought that usually comes is the following. We store both dates as strings and compare them.
Preliminary

<?php
$date1 = "2012-1-12";
$date2 = "2011-10-12";

if ($date1 > $date2)
echo "$date1 is newer than $date2";
else
echo "$date1 is older than $date2";
?>

Output:

2012-1-12 is newer than 2011-10-12

At first glance this seems to be a workable solution. But what if the two data is in a different format?

<?php
$date1 = "12-1-12";
$date2 = "2011-10-12";

if ($date1 > $date2)
echo "$date1 is newer than $date2";
else
echo "$date1 is older than $date2";
?>

Output:

12-1-12 is older than 2011-10-12

Now the date in 2012 is declared to be older than the date in 2011, which is of course wrong. However, from PHP’s point of view, this behavior is correct, because two strings were […]

How to implement your own social media buttons

Posted by Raffael on 12/14/201305/08/2014 Posted in HTML, JavaScript, PHP, Tutorials, Wordpress Tagged Custom Like button, Gravatar, jQuery, JSON, Like-Button, Like-Counter, Share-Button

Nowadays you will hardly find a website without it. What is it what I’m taling about? Did you already guess it? I mean Like buttons, Share buttons, Like counter, avatars, etc. – if you look at today’s network landscape, it’s hard to imagine that there was a time before all that fancy stuff.
And that’s why I want to show you today how to install functionalities like Facebook’s share button, Twitter’s tweet button and counter, as well as Gravatar’s user-image service. In the following tutorial you will learn how to implement these functionalities into your website.
I deliberately say “functionality” because I do not want to show you how to use the finished and standardised components, but how to address the core functionality, so you can afterwards operate quite freely, for example in the design of […]

RadioduinoWRT – a do it yourself webradio

Posted by Raffael on 11/05/201303/21/2015 Posted in Arduino, Hardware Hacks, HTML, OpenWrt, Personal stuff, PHP, Tutorials Tagged Arduino radio, Arduino web radio, MPC, MPD, OpenWrt, OpenWRT MPD, OpenWRT web radio, RadioduinoWRT, TP-Link WR703N, WR703N hacks, WR703N lighthttpd, WR703N lighttpd, WR703N web radio

RadioduinoWRT Today I want to present you one of my larger craft projects. This time it is not just about software, but also about the associated hardware. What is it? A web radio!
I like to listen to internet radio stations, but I didn’t want to run my pc only for listening to webradios. Connecting my phone to my stereo either wasn’t a solution, since I’d rather wear this with me, because I don’t want to run for each SMS / Whatsapp message to the music system. And because I always like to tinker, it was obvious to build a web radio as a standalone device myself.
As this article has become a bit longer, there is a brief overview of the following sections of the article, so that everyone can quickly find what he looks for.