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So how many people get to breakfast on a Turkey & Chicken Ham Sub followed by Cold Coffee and a Donut? #

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Forms are something that I end up coding on almost every website I make (without using a CMS, that is). Essentially, while making a form I have to:

• Write HTML code for the forms giving appropriate names and ids.
• Write PHP code that reads in these names from POST or GET and then filter them.
• Create appropriate error messages in PHP based on incorrect data provided in forms, and repopulate correctly filled fields in the form for the sanity of users.
• Write Javascript (or use a plugin from jQuery) to validate the fields inline using the exact same rules and show messages to users before submitting the form.
• Debug because I missed a character or capitalized something I shouldn't have.
• And then I realize I missed something, and then repeat.

This is also known as web developer hell. Somewhere near the inner circles.

Ideally, what would I want to do to get a form ready?

Specify what I want at one single place with some convenient format (— did anyone say JSON?)

So essentially, this post covers:

1. Specifying a (modifiable) JSON format for forms.
2. Generating HTML using PHP for those forms.
3. Generating rules in PHP using this format.
4. Generating javascript for validation using this format.

Building the specification:

Call it a whim or a fancy — I want to use JSON for my specifications. I cannot think of any other more convenient format for specifying data to be used in PHP and Javascript.

Let's take a look at all available form elements:

1. input tags:
   1. button
   2. checkbox
   3. file
   4. hidden
   5. image
   6. password
   7. radio
   8. reset
   9. text
   10. submit

   I'll only be taking a look at the types highlighted in bold text.

2. textarea
3. select
   1. option
   2. optgroup
4. button

The specification as it is now

[{
    'name' : '[form-name]' //Name and id of the form to be created.
    'class'   : '[ '[class1]', ... ]'
}, ...]

What do I need to specify for the form?

• The form structure — the JSON spec must follow the structure that the form will take. Specifying a contents array seems to be the best possible solution to that, allowing and defining fieldsets for forms nested inside forms.

  [{
      'name' : '[form-name]',
      'contents' : [
          {
              'name' : '[fieldset-name]',
              'legend' : '[fieldset-legend]',
              'class'   : '[ '[class1]', ... ]'
              'contents' : [ ... ]
          }
      ]
  }, ...]
  

• So now we get down to the meaty part. Defining elements. Each element is an object with a type, name, label, an array each for attributes and classes, and an array for validation data.

  [{
      'name'    : '[form-name]',
      'caption' : '[form-caption]',
      'class'   : '[ '[class1]', ... ]'
      'contents' : [
          {
              'name'      : '[fieldset-name]',
              'legend'    : '[fieldset-legend]',
              'contents'  : [
                  {
                      'type' : 'input-text',
                      'name' : '[name and id of the object]',
                      'label': '[its label. duh.]',
                      'attr' : [ '[attr-name]' : '[value]' , ... ],
                      'class': [ '[class1]', '[class2]' ],
                      'rules': [ ... ]
                  }
              ]
          }
      ]
  }, ...]
  

To be continued.

Making my version of facebook's fanbox -- the difference? This one points to profiles on MY site and has users from FB, GFC & normal reg. #

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In order to complete his work on time, the contractor had allegedly told the workers to demolish the lower portion of the building and start renovation work on it, without considering whether the already considerably weakened, 40 year old structure could take the weight. The inevitable occurred, with the top two floors crashing down and burying and damaging many laptops.

In the words of one of the surviving students (who has requested to remain unnamed) "They were destroying the doors beneath our room and the balcony start moving wildly, deflecting as much as 1 cm. We ran to stop them, but the [expletive deleted] workers refused to budge."

The maintenance secretary of the hostel was allegedly gallivanting somewhere in East Delhi during the incident, meeting some foreigner. On being contacted he replied that he had an urgent meeting with someone he could not name -- a fact that has been noted by the investigating authorities who have taken him into custody. We managed to get a statement from the Chief Investigator, Mr. M. Adi "We have not ruled out the involvement of the maintenance secretary, and are also considering the foreign angle", obliquely referring to the recent statement by the President of United States of Pakerica, Mr. Obama Bin Bush.

Being a holiday, most of the students were sitting in their rooms during the accident, apparently trying to block their internet access so as to be able to prepare for their upcoming examinations. A quote by one of the IICians from our archives: "Our professors believe that we can obtain everything we need to learn by surfing the internet -- in fact they maintain a check to see that all students download at least 100MB of data every day to ensure they are spending enough time on the internet. We have learnt a lot but it becomes difficult to adhere to this rule during our minor exams so trying to outsmart our professors and blocking our internet access is a favourite pass-time for IICians during the exam season."

Most of the students were taken by surprise as the building came crashing down on them, and more than 50 laptops have been reported missing and are assumed to still be buried under the rubble, while 10 damaged (2 critically) laptops have been recovered. One or 2 lucky laptops survived on their battery life and were discovered as they were playing heavy rock and could be heard through the concrete. Worried students at IIC have kept a candle light vigil outside the laptop repair shop, with the very best technicians of the top laptop manufacturers including Nosy Baio, Sell and Compact working tirelessly to save the laptops. More technicians are expected to arrive from around the world soon. Excavation work to locate the remaining laptops is also underway.

Many IICians are still in shock, with many roaming around in a daze. A particularly sad case is that of a few students, who, being deprived of access to their laptops and the Facebook live feed appear to have devolved to animals -- with one imitating a bull, another squealing in French like a pig and the  worst affected keeps trying to fly off the top of the hostel and is constantly restrained by his friends. It is currently not clear whether he has delusions about being a bird or being the Man of Steel (both being able to fly).

What has made this accident even more unique is the fact that there have been various reports of the accident being a complete fabrication and fallacy as people have allegedly communicated with the missing residents of the hostel (using their own laptops). In the public interest, we reiterate that the accident has happened and any such rumours must be disregarded as utter nonsense.

There have been suspicions of paranormal activity at the site of the accident because of these apparent messages and the top investigative news channel in India -- IndiaTV -- has sent its best reporter to find out the truth. The initial findings of the reporter will be presented on tomorrow's primetime show at 8 p.m. -- "IIC ke khooni engineer". Insiders (who wish to remain unnamed) have said that such a tragic parting of nerds with their computers can cause their ghosts to linger on till they manage to complete their last wish: to update their status messages. Only then will they be able to pass on to the afterlife. As always, there are many skeptics who have denounced this theory, claiming that the ghosts need to play one last LAN game of AoE.

In a surprise turn of events, famed teen impersonator and actor Aamir K. and ex-IICian and MBA B. Chetan came together in support of the missing laptops. They said that they has put aside all differences to be able to garner even more publicity for their film/book as people had stopped discussing their recent disagreements.

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I have a HSD Reliance ZTE datacard/modem which I had been unable to run on Linux till tonight. The interesting bit is, I have had this card for around 7 months now -- and it was forcing me to use Windows Vista (the horror, the agony, the pain!).

As a log (in case my computer gets formatted sometime in the future -- a likely, but not hoped for occurrence -- ) as well as a possible guide to others, here are the steps I followed.

Note: I'm using Ubuntu 9.10 with a Reliance NetConnect ZTE AC8710 modem.

1. Connect to the net using some other, temporary connection
   1. Get usb-modeswitch. Those with access to a repository can simply do

      sudo apt-get install usb-modeswitch
      

      Others can get the latest version from http://www.draisberghof.de/usb_modeswitch/ .

   2. You will also need (do an apt-get as required)

      lsusb, libusb-dev, wvdial, modprobe
      

2. Connect your modem and run

   lsusb
   

   You should see one of the usb ports having your modem -- it will probably be classified as ONDA and have a vendor/product id specified. Along the lines of

   192d:fff6
   

   The fff6 indicates that it has been detected as a flash drive/cd rom and not as a modem.

3. Also do a

   dmesg | tail
   

   And observe where the modem has gone -- usbtty0 / 1 / 2/ 3 etc.

4. Edit the usb-modeswitch configuration to make your computer recognize it as a modem

   sudo vim /etc/usb_modeswitch.conf
   

   Navigate till you find the settings for your vendor id/product id.

   ########################################################
    568 # ZTE AC8710
    569 #
    570 # Two ID variants known; check your default
    571 #
    572 # Contributor: Michael Khurtsiya
    573
    574 ;DefaultVendor=  0x19d2
    575 ;DefaultProduct= 0xfff5
    576
    577 ;TargetVendor=   0x19d2
    578 ;TargetProduct=  0xffff
    579
   <strong> 580 # No. 2
    581
    582 ;DefaultVendor=  0x19d2
    583 ;DefaultProduct= 0xfff6
    584
    585 ;TargetVendor=   0x19d2
    586 ;TargetProduct=  0xfff1
    587
    588 # only for reference
    589 # MessageEndpoint=0x05</strong>
    590 <strong>
    591 ;MessageContent="5553424312345678c00000008000069f030000000000000000000000000000"</strong>
   

   And remove the ';' before the required lines. Save and exit.
   Run it.

   sudo usb_modeswitch

5. Check whether it's worked -- do another

   lsusb
   

   and see that the product id has changed to fff1 (or whatever your target product was).

6. Now we need to do a modprobe

   modprobe usbserial vendor=0x19d2 product=0xfff1
   

   Replace vendor and prodcut as you require.

7. Once that's done, you need to make your wvdial.conf file. To edit the file:

   sudo vim /etc/wvdial.conf
   

   Copy paste the following in it.

   [Dialer Defaults]
    Username = <enter your 10 digit modem number here>
    Password = <enter your 10 digit modem number here>
    Init1 = ATZ
    Init2 = ATQ0 V1 E1 S0=0 &C1 &D2 +FCLASS=0
    Modem Type = Analog Modem
    Phone = #777
    ISDN = 0
    SetVolume = 0
    FlowControl = Hardware (CRTSCTS)
    Modem = /dev/ttyUSB0 <modify based on the results of your dmesg>
    Dial Command = ATDT
    Baud = 460800
    Stupid Mode = 1

8. Once that's done, you should be good to go. Simply run

   sudo wvdial
   

And you should be connected. Hopefully this helps someone and prevents them from wasting as much time as I did.

Sources:

• http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1333535
• http://travisneotyler.blogspot.com/2009/07/back-on-wireless-web.html

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Cartoon by Hugh Macleod

It may be because I have nothing to do; or I've lost interest in what I was doing for some reason -- it being too repetitive, etc.; I have too little to do; what I'm working on doesn't seem to have any apparent purpose; or even if only some senses are occupied and others left alone.

I try to get over this foible of mine by listening to music -- hence the headphones hanging around my neck or on my ear, 24 by 7 by 4 by 12 by ~20. At least, by keeping my ears occupied I can relax, and possibly not get bored. This has also resulted in my having a 70GB music + video collection on my iPod.

But I digress.

I have come to realize that if I did not get bored so easily -- I would have achieved less than half of what I have today. There would be no reason for me to tread on the fine line of just enough work to do; I could have relaxed a bit more -- and perhaps enjoyed a bit less.

On the other hand, I have abandoned certain projects because I found out that they were no-where near as challenging as I'd imagined and hoped for, and were rather achievable -- and no longer interesting; because I no longer believed that the work I was doing served any purpose.

What pushes me -- and also stops me from working -- is my characteristic of getting bored so quickly. Paradoxically, it makes me give up and move ahead at the same time.

And ever since I've had more to do -- or more that I want to do -- I lose my patience with other things even more quickly. I can no longer comfortably watch a film in a cinema hall -- my hands are unoccupied, and depending on the film -- perhaps even my brain.

Doing only one thing at a time is possible only if it is interesting enough to merit my full concentration. Hence the rabid multi-tasking -- reading a book with lunch while listening to music or maybe watching television. Coding while watching a film or having a conversation. Social Networking while reading a comic. etc. etc.

What about you?

The plans to move this blog are still underway, just a bit blocked by certain other stuff I'm doing right now. How many of these posts survive the transition is a point I have not yet decided. A few certainly; all -- definitely lot.

Back to the point -- from The Ground Beneath Her Feet / Salman Rushdie

These things are bad for you: sex, high-rise buildings, chocolate, lack of exercise, dictatorship, racism! No, au contraire! Celibacy damages the brain, high rise buildings bring us closer to God, tests show that a bar of chocolate a day significantly improves children's academic performance, exercise kills, tyranny is just a part of our culture so I'll thank you to keep your culture-imperialist ideas of my fucking fiefdom, and as for racism, let's not get all preachy about this, it's better out in the open than under some  grubby carpet. That extremist is a moderate! That universal right is culturally specific! this circumcised woman is culturally happy! That Aboriginal whistlecockery is culturally barbaric! This image has been faked! Free the press! Ban nosy journalists! The novel is dead! Honor is dead! God is dead! Aargh, they're all alive, and they're coming after us! That star is rising! No, she's falling! We dined at nine! We dined at eight! You were on time! No, you were late! East is West! Up is Down! Yes is No! In is Out! Lies are Truth! Hate is Love! Two and two makes five! And everything is for the best, in this best of all possible worlds.

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Did my first bit of work for foodies. #red #

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Finally received the retweet beta . Also, do try google image swirl. #

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