funkatron.com

It’s been many months since I’ve posted about Spaz here, but I’ve actually still been working on it quite a bit. Spaz recently had its 1 year anniversary, which is a pretty good milestone for one of my projects – I usually lose interest well before this. Not only is Spaz one of the oldest Twitter desktop clients still under development, but it’s also one of the few FOSS clients. I also believe Spaz is one of the most sophisticated AIR HTML apps out there, and is a good example of what can be done with HTML and JavaScript on the desktop.

The newest release of Spaz, which came out a couple days ago, adds some significant new features:

• Image uploading via Twitpic.com
• Crossposting support via Ping.fm. Try beta code “vivalaping”
• Support for microblogging services with Twitter-compatible APIs, including Identi.ca
• A Dock icon badge with the unread message count. This is probably less significant if you are not running OS X.

You can read the whole fat list of what’s new. Also, if you want to talk to other users or help with development, here are some resources:

• Spaziki – The Spaz Wiki and FAQ
• Spaz-users Google Group
• Spaz-SVN Google Group
• IRC: #spaz on irc.freenode.net

Just a quick note that I wrote an article for the new C7Y PHP community site on Inspekt:

• Step Away From the SuperGlobals! An Introduction to Inspekt

If you’re interested in Inspekt and have questions or would like to contribute, please check out the Inspekt user group.

I use a service called 103bees to track what search terms and questions are directing people to Funkatron.com. Here’s this week’s selections:

Search terms

• lil wyte photo

  I have no idea.

• download hardly wait juliette lewis

  I really like that version of the PJ Harvey song, as sung by Juliette Lewis in the film Strange Days

• free .mac account mail only

  Not here!

• funkatron twitter air

  Presumably someone who heard Spaz mentioned on MacBreak Weekly

• visualize kcachegrind os x

  I think I posted about how much of a gigantic pain in the ass this was to get running on OS X.

• ghetto fackin

  mmmmm no.

• spry click tab reload data

  I have talked about Spry a fair bit here, so I guess that makes sense.

• matt sink

  No idea

• debian parallels tools

  Ah, I did make a post about getting Debian running on Parallels. Or more accurately, the fact that I got it running

• spaz app

  I’ve heard of this

Questions

• how to use monospace fonts in illustrator cs2

  I’ve posted a tip about rounded rect corners in Illustrator, and monospaced fonts for programming

• what are the things on my penis

  Can’t help you, bro. I did write once that I’m scared to put things in my penis, tho.

• php 6 when is coming out

  I don’t know when, but I know why I’m looking forward to it!

• what are the chances of getting tax audited

  I reposted something about this.

• there was an error: typeerror: undefined value flickr mac os x

  Pretty much every app I’ve ever written has tons of errors in it, so this could be anything.

I’ve uploaded the 0.3 release of Inspekt, the input filtering and validation library for PHP4 and 5. With this release, Inspekt completes the goals of the original specification for the OWASP SpoC007 project . I believe it is ready for “real-world” use.

Along with this release, there are new support and install options:

• Brand new user documentation - written by an actual human (well, me, so close enough)
• Updated API documentation generated with phpDocumentor
• A PEAR channel (pear.funkatron.com) for quick packaged installs
• A discussion group/mailing list for support, suggestions and discussion

What’s new in this release:

• Automated filtered via external config files
• Cleanup and fixes to docblocks
• More example code
• A fruity logo

What’s in the future:

• Interact with developers to get feedback and implement suggestions
• Add new options for URI, email, phone # validators
• Work with framework developers to integrate Inspekt with their platforms
• Better support the special requirements of session data
• Integration with PHP5’s filtering API when available
• Integration with other filtering and escaping systems like PHPIDS and HTML Purifier

If you are interested in contributing to Inspekt in any way, I highly encourage you to join the mailing list. I’m especially looking for development assistance and “real-world” feedback.

Clearly the free booze and other gifts provided to the php|arch team is paying off, as two of my talks have been accepted for php|tek 2008 in Chicago. I’ll be speaking on desktop app development with AIR, and the PHPSecInfo project. The full schedule of talks will help you plan on how best to avoid me.

Desktop app dev with AIR has been something near and dear to my heart lately, as I’ve spent a lot of time in the past several months developing Spaz, a Twitter client based on AIR. In the process I’ve learned a whole heck of a lot about Javascript development, and learned intimately what works well in AIR and what doesn’t. Combining PHP on the server side and Javascript/HTML on the client side makes a lot of sense for me, then. Getting the two sides to work together has gotten a fair bit easier with the JSON extension that was added in PHP 5.2.0. With that, exchange of data structures carries a lot less overhead.

PHPSecInfo has been quiet for a while on the development side, but I’m hoping things will pick up a bit with the introduction of public SVN access to the project. The trunk version has some extra stuff in it, like the beginnings of a new view system to output results in various formats. I’ve also added Paul Reinheimer as a contributor, so feel free to guilt him into making updates as well. If you’re interested in contributing patches or updates to PHPSecInfo, drop me a line and we’ll chat.