Hopefully, everyone is aware of MySQL transactions and how useful they can be.  They come in especially handy when you want to save multiple related entries into different tables in your app.  Cake actually already uses this in a behind the scenes way with the Model::saveAll() function, which does some of this for you (you can read more about saving your data with saveAll() here).

But you can easily use Transactions for anything you want to do.

Note: for this to work at all you have to make sure whatever table you’re using transactions with are of the type InnoDB, and not the standard MyISAM type.

ALTER TABLE table_name type=InnoDB;

Ok, in your model, set the variable:

var $transactional = true;

Then, in a function you want to use transactions, call the datasource object:

$db =& ConnectionManager::getDataSource($this->useDbConfig);

Then, before you start interacting with the database, you call:

$db->begin($this);

If your action is successful, run:

$db->commit($this);

Or, if there’s a failure, you can roll back your DB with:

$db->rollback($this);

Note that your DB will automatically rollback if there’s not a commit() command anyway.

In the course of a Model class, the usage of these functions could look something like this:

class YourModel extends AppModel {

var $transactional = true;

function someCoolModelAction()
{

  # Grab DataSource Object #
  $db =& ConnectionManager::getDataSource($this->useDbConfig);

  # Start Transaction #
  $db->begin($this);

  /* SQL or Model Functions for whatever you need to do go here */

  # If your database interaction was successful, then commit the changes to the Database ( I'm assuming there is some boolean
  # variable, $successVar, that describes whether the action was successful or not).

  if ($successVar === true) {
       return $db->commit($this);
  } else {
       # If it wasn't successful, rollback any changes and you're good #
       $db->rollback($this);
       return false;
  }
}

}

As you can see, it’s pretty easy. And cool.

For the past few weeks at the Ithaca Farmer’s Market, we’ve noticed a new stand with a delicious-sounding name: The Piggery.  I like Pig (meat) and I like locally-raised food, so I knew we had to check it out.

Anyway, we made our first purchase there on Sunday: two pounds of tenderloin and a couple of bratwurst.  Last night, we rubbed the tenderloin in salt and fresh cracked pepper and tossed it on the grill.  Man, was it amazing.  The Piggery raises some good pig.  I’m sure it helps that they treat them well, and that they eat pumpkins. The meat was tender and naturally juicy, without any hit of that spongy texture that most store-bought tenderloin has.  The flavor was stronger and fuller than store-bought stuff as well.

So if you dig on pig and live near Ithaca, you should check it out.  I’m hooked.

We love coffee.  It drives us.  It keeps us going through those long, grey days and those too-bright early mornings.  We also love Gimme! Coffee, our local roaster and snooty-delicious provider of the bean.

One of the many perks that comes with working here at AWP is free coffee.  And not just any coffee, we get free Gimme.

That is until we decided to experiment and try out another, Ithaca-based coffee roaster.  You know, for fun.

Well, we paid for that.  Our alternate, unnamed roaster’s coffee tasted like sweet dirt.  Or acid.  We couldn’t decide.  Maybe if a hobo decided to eat sun-baked dirt all day, and then we made him throw up after drinking too many shots of Green Apple Puckers, the resulting hot stew would be akin to what we had just purchased 10 pounds of.

Dammit.

Well, after courageously drinking as much of that swill as possible (with lots and lots of cream), we finally hit the new month, and could go back to our regular provider of coffee: our sweet, sweet Gimme.  Forgive us baby, please.  We didn’t know.

It all serves to illustrate an important point: never try anything new.

So I was trying to use it to make some simple HTTP Authentication requests for a WebTree site of ours. It turns out that whenever the Security Component is initialized in a controller, it requires that all POST-ed data in that controller be validated through the Security Component. For this to work correctly, and not spit you out into a blank page “black hole,” you have to use the Form Helper for every form that needs to be submitted, making sure to use $form->end().

It looks like the Form Helper builds a Hash number based on the name of the fields included in the form and the Security Salt that you set in the config/core.php.

When the form is submitted, a function, __validatePost(), runs automatically, there is currently no way to turn it off, and tries to make the same hash value as all the fields present in the Controller’s $data variable. If the two hash values are the same, we know that no extra data is being submitted directly to the controller, and we proceed with the normal course of things. If they don’t match, we trigger the Black Hole callback function, and go down that route.

Except that in the current RC2 release (7296), there is a bug in the Security Component that will ensure that these two hashes will never be equal.

The problem is in line 662 of /cake/libs/controller/components/security.php:

$check = md5(urlencode(Security::hash(serialize($field) . Configure::read('Security.salt'))));

Should be:

$check = urlencode(Security::hash(serialize($field) . Configure::read('Security.salt')));

Take out the md5() function. Form Helper’s security function that generates the form’s hash value does not include the extra md5 hashing function. It looks like this was fixed in the nightly build.

This will alleviate some of your potential issues using the Security Component. However, if you just want to use some aspects of the component, such as HTTP Auth, there is no way to disable the POST validation, much to my chagrin. Maybe it will change in the future.

So for those that currently use iano Iglesias’ super-helpful Sluggable Behavior, make sure to change line 121 from:

$conditions = array($Model->alias . '.' . $this->__settings[$Model->alias]['slug'] =>' LIKE ' . $slug . '%');

to:

$conditions = array($Model->alias . '.' . $this->__settings[$Model->alias]['slug'] . ' LIKE '=> $slug . '%');

The current version, 1.1.36, does not include this fix for Cake RC2. Without this, you’ll start getting duplicate slug values, lacking any numerical appending action.

Sure!

Well, the point is, if you haven’t yet: get Firefox.  As a Mac user, I am blown away by the improvements in speed and memory management in 3.0.  I honestly did not enjoy the Firefox 2.0 Mac experience, and used Safari as much as I could.  Windows users on the other hand, should already be using Firefox (boo, Internet Explorer), and 3.0 should be an upgrade.

The Firefox download site was down earlier today (did they not expect the traffic?!?) but we managed to get access by the end of the day.  I couldn’t wait that long and used BitTorrent to download what turned out to be an Italian version of 3.0 (I’ve sense switched back to English).

I’ve already stated my initial reactions.  The new look is great, too, it really opens up some more screen real-estate, which is something we always wrangle with as designers.

Compatibility-wise, there are updates availble for the Google Toolbar, Web Developer Toolbar, and the YSlow Firebug extension.  Firebug itself has a beta that works with 3.0, but the Firebug site has been down for the past few days.  You can find a mirror that has the code and a list of Firebug mirrors here.

Other than that, I’ve been enjoying the new experience.  I’m sure other AWP-ers will chime in over the next few days.

Did I mention boo Internet Explorer?  (explanation of previous link).

As I mentioned earlier, eastern Iowa is experience record flooding. Cedar Rapids is getting hit particularly hard, with the Cedar river flooding at roughly twice the previous record, and destroying their downtown and city hall.

Iowa City, my home, luckily does not have its downtown near the river, but the University of Iowa has the majority of its arts quad right in the current flood plane, and is getting hit pretty hard. My Dad works in the Voxman Music building, seen here:

As you can see, it’s pretty bad. The river isn’t supposed to crest until today, though they more storms yesterday, so I don’t know how that will change things. Sandbagging in continues at a frantic pace, as they are now trying to protect the UI Main Library from the increasing flood waters.

From my Dad:

Here’s some history to put it in perspective. Cedar Rapids had their worst flood in 1920 when the river crested at 20 feet. This flood was predicted to crest at 22 feet, it actually crested at over 31 today, and thankfully is now slowly receding.

Iowa City had it’s worst flood in 1993, where the Iowa River crested at 19 feet. This flood is predicted to crest at 26 feet. That’s 7 feet higher. In addition, due to bridges and other factors, the level of the river near the UI campus could be as high as 29 feet or more. It’s just mind boggling that water could get that high, but after what I’ve seen in CR, nothing seems impossible.

Most of the bridges across the river are closed. As far as I know, there is one bridge that sill allows traffic (Burlington Bridge) which may or may not close today. If that bridge closes, Iowa City is essentially cut in two, and to get from one side to the other will require an hour-long drive looping around several highways.

Above is the bridge across what used to be City Park. I have more photos from my Dad posted up in my Flickr account. It’s pretty amazing. Here’s what that bridge usually looks like:

Today, the bridge looks even worse.

More updates as I have ‘em.

There’s a lot of times, though, where the standard Blueprint setup just doesn’t work. Maybe you want a site thinner than 950 pixels, or need larger spacing between columns, or any number of issues that are a pain with the standard Blueprint setup. Usually, to change things like this, you have to go and recalculate your column sizes widths and margins, and then write them all in by hand.

But hey, someone went and did the hard work for you, and though this is linked off of the Blueprint Code site, it needs to be better known: a javascript page to generate your own Blueprint CSS Grid. Just type in your max size, number of columns, desired margins, etc, and it creates it all for you, it even has a compressed version.

Nice.

It’s finally happened! Ancient Wisdom Productions is now officially AWP (short for Ancient Wisdom Productions). It’s just a little easier to say, easier to write, and takes up less space in your Browser Location bar.

So Yeah! We’re AWP, website: http://www.awpny.com

You may also notice our fantastic new logo by Tyler (one of our star designers). I’ll let him go into the details about it later, but suffice to say: it rocks. We turned a lot of heads the other day at the Tompkins County Showcase.

We hope you enjoy the brand-new, beautiful, WebTree-powered site of ours. We spent a lot of hours in the past few weeks putting this together, and it debuted yesterday. We’re still working out a few kinks, but it’s mostly there. Make sure to check out the brand new project portfolio page, and our new Welcome Video on the home page.

With the new site, you’ll see a lot more content from us, including regular WebTree tips by Casey, essays on design and process, and more details about our company, from its people, to its products.

So go forth and enjoy the new site. If you haven’t worked with us before, you should! Give us a heads up at our project inquiries page, or drop us a line through the feedback form if you just want to say hi.

So relax, browse around, and welcome to the new AWP.

I grew up in Iowa City, which is cut down the middle by the Iowa River. Most of the time, things work out ok. The river behaves, and you can boat on it. Everyone wins. Occasionally, though, it can out of hand.

This year we’re flooding again. My parents, luckily, live on high land, and are not affected by this, however, large portions of the performing arts center, the city park, and several main streets are. My Dad, who tends to know something about the performing arts scene in Iowa City, took these photos yesterday:

I’ve heard that the flooding this year may be worse than ‘93. Hopefully this will not be the case.

And to think, last year was a drought.