Syntax Highlighter Chrome Extension: Sight

Last week a colleague introduced me to a handy Chrome Extension called Sight that allows syntax highlighting in your browser and "makes reading code on the browser a joy".

After using it for few days I have to admit that it does make javascript a lot easier on the eye. It has optional line numbers and supports syntax for about 35 different languages.

Sadly it doesn't support view-source highlighting, but apparently it's next on the to-do list and is still worth installing in it's current state.

If you're using Chrome you can get the extension from here https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/epmaefhielclhlnmjofcdapbeepkmggh

WordPress Form Helper Functions

Setting the state of checkboxes, radio buttons and selected items in dropdown lists in html forms can become tiresome, so I was pleased to recently discover WordPress has some built-in helper functions. I've found these to be pretty handy in building admin forms for Wordpress plugins and hopefully they can save you some time too.

checked( $checked, $current = true, $echo = true )

This function compares two given values (for example, a saved option vs. one chosen in a form) and, if the values are the same, adds the checked attribute to the current radio button or checkbox. This is essentially the same as comparing values with if(), but results in more concise code. The third parameter determines if the result is echoed or just returned which is handy if you are concatenating to a string, etc.

This function has been defined since WordPress v1.0 and is documented here.


selected( $selected, $current = true, $echo = true )

This function is for use in dropdown form fields. Compares two given values (for example, a saved option vs. one chosen in a form) and, if the values are the same, adds the selected attribute to the current option tag. Again, the third parameter determines if the result is echoed or just returned which is handy if you are concatenating to a string, etc.

This function has been defined since WordPress v1.0 and is documented here.


disabled( $disabled, $current = true, $echo = true )

This function compares two given values (for example, a saved option vs. one chosen in a form) and, if the values are the same, adds the disabled attribute to a form input field. Again, the third parameter determines if the result is echoed or just returned which is handy if you are concatenating to a string, etc.

This function was not defined until WordPress v3.0 and is documented here.

These functions are all located in wp-includes/general-template.php.

Using Recycle Files (REX) With Logic Express

This week I made the leap from using Cubase 5 on Win32 to Logic Express on OS X. I don't get as much recording done lately as I would like, so thought I would try Logic Express first before committing to the more expensive Logic Pro.

One of the problems I found was that Logic Express was not recognising my REX files and prompting me to install a REX Shared Library from Propellerheads.se. Searching the Propellerheads site didn't seem to turn up the results until I eventually I spotted this link hidden away in the last column of the footer of the Downloads page.

http://www.propellerheads.se/download/index.cfm?fuseaction=get_article&article=rexsharedlibrary

There are a few versions there so I downloaded this one as it matched my setup

REX Shared Library 1.7 - Universal Binary
For owners of Logic 9.1.2 and later
http://www.propellerheads.se/download/files/Install_Rex_1_7_library.pkg

The install all appeared to work properly but Logic Express was still reporting the same error.
I tried restarting Logic Express, but the error persisted.
I tried restarting my machine, but the error persisted.
I tried reinstalling and carefully read every screen - nothing was wrong there.

I started searching various forums and found there were confusing opinions about the probable cause, most of them quite out of date and that there were multiple possible install paths.

After much reading I found that the files had been installed to /Library/Application Support/Propellerhead Software/REX but the red icon on the folder in Finder told me that I did not have permission to access that folder. It seems that the installer has an issue setting permissions.

I opened a Terminal window, navigated to that folder and entered this command: sudo chmod REX 777 to set the permissions wide open.

After that Logic Express was able to process REX files properly.

WordPress Post ID from Permalink

Lately I've been migrating a few websites from Movable Type to WordPress. One of the SEO issues involved with that is supporting the old site's URLs so that existing page rankings don't drop off en masse.

A common Movable Type URL format appends the entry id to the URL which makes it easy to redirect to the correct content IF you have preserved the entry id from MT as the new post id in WP, other times it can be a lot more convoluted.

One of the functions I sometimes need to employ is pretty uncommon, (which is not surprising due it's rare use), so I thought I'd create a quick post here so I can can easily find it next time I need it.

The function is url_to_postid()

This function returns the id for a post or page from a given URL. I like to this of this function as the reverse of the commonly used get_permalink().

It's pretty hard to turn up any useful search results for this function so hopefully this page will help somebody when they need it.