Outreach Technology

We’ve just released a new version of the Dining API (http://webapps.ncsu.edu/dining) and wanted to make sure everyone could be aware of the new information it provides as well as how to use it.  The main change is that you need to add a v=2 parameter to your request in order to use the new version.  The new API will return some additional information about each menu item as well as an expanded schedule for each location.  This expanded schedule gives information for the times the location is open if they have multiple sets of hours in a given day.  The new menu item information available includes special diets that the item may fall into (Weight Gain, Lose Body Fat, Iron, Calcium, Vegetarian, and Inactive Day) as well as the type of food option the item is.  Also added are the Wolf Approved, Vegan, and Trans Fat Free flags.

In addition to those changes, we now also provide menus for the non-dining hall locations that have food selections (primarily the Port City Java locations).

Support for the existing (Version 1) API will remain in place until December 31, 2010 at which point, the Version 1 will be decommissioned and Version 2 will become the default version.  Please migrate your clients to utilize Version 2 prior to that date.

Read more detailed information on how to use the API.

We have just released a new version of the code that powers http://twitter.ncsu.edu.  If you have downloaded this code in the past, it is critical that you update your code immediately or it will stop working!

Why you ask?  Twitter decided that it would be a good idea to discontinue their Basic Auth service in favor of OAuth (you can read more on twitter’s support site) for their API.  With that in mind, we have updated the code to support the OAuth spec.

Other notable features include

• Install script for easy step-by-step installation
• Packaging of Zend Framework 1.10.6 with the code
• Simplified display implementation allowing for a more direct future upgrade path

The code is available at http://twitter.ncsu.edu/download.php.  If you have questions, let us know at twitter@ncsu.edu.

No, not 2.0 like “web 2.0″.  We’re much more awesome than that…   It’s a new version!

We have just released a brand spankin’ new version of the NC State Mobile Web, located at http://m.ncsu.edu.  This release represents a complete rewrite of the entire application and infrastructure that manages NC State’s mobile presence.  On top of the rewrite, we also found time to add a few new features.

Most notably, is the new University Dining sub app.  Now, you can see all the menus for the dining halls on campus, as well as their hours.  Our part-timer, Chris, took the lead with the sub-app and did a great job.

We also added a very small sub app to provide links to our various email systems on campus.

To our users, nothing much changed.  To those of us who manage the site and are actively working on new plugins for it, the world changed.  I’ll post the specifics of the project later, but there are some really neat things going on there.  So go check out http://m.ncsu.edu on your mobile device (or on your computer, you can see it that way too) and tell us what you think.

This tutorial will show you how to convert one of the existing themes in the OT Framework, change the layout and footer, and activate the new theme for your application. There’s a few different ways you could do this, but the following steps are the easiest I’ve found. This will step through the process of creating a new theme called “My Awesome Theme.”

Creating the theme & activating it

1. Using an SVN browsing application like TortoiseSVN, export (not checkout) a copy of one of existing theme folders from the OT Framework repo to your local machine.
   • The existing theme folder is located at: https://svn.unity.ncsu.edu/svn/otframework/tags/2.3.4/public/themes/ot/default
     • Note: you should change the tag (2.3.4) in that URL to match the version of the framework that your application is using
   • You should end up with the “default” folder in one of your local directories
2. Rename the default folder to “my_awesome_theme”
3. Create a new CSS file named “myAwesomeTheme.css” and save it in the /public/css directory.
   • This should be in the same directory with the other css files for the theme.
4. Open the “config.xml” file and rename the following elements
   • <name>
   • <description>
5. Add the new “myAwesomeTheme.css” path to the <scripts> section of the config.xml, matching the format of the other css lines.
6. Save and close the config.xml file
7. Open Zend Studio (or your preferred IDE), and drag your new theme folder into the /public/themes directory. Do NOT put it inside the /public/themes/ot directory.
8. Open your application in your web browser, login, and browse to the theme management page ( http://localhost/yoursite/ot/theme )
9. Your new theme should be there, and should allow you to activate it. You’ll know it by the name you gave it in the config.xml (the thumbnail will be the same as the default theme though).

Now you have an activated theme that’s all yours to change as much as you want.

Changing the header

1. Inside your theme’s folder, open /views/layouts/layout.phtml
2. Make the changes you want, in accordance with general html/css standards.
3. Save layout.phtml, refresh your web browser and see that your changes were applied.

Changing the footer

1. Inside your theme’s folder, open /views/scripts/footer.phtml
2. Make the changes you want, in accordance with general html/css standards.
3. Save footer.phtml, refresh your web browser and see that your changes were applied.

Changing other styles via the CSS

1. If you’re editing any existing styles, like for the header or footer graphics, then you’ll edit /public/css/layout.css
2. Otherwise, you’ll edit the new CSS file that you made when creating your new theme (myAwesomeTheme.css).

Pro Tip:
When you’ve changed the theme sufficiently, take a screen-shot of your site, and replace the /public/images/theme.png file in your theme folder. This will change the thumbnail that displays on the theme switcher page in your application.

This tutorial describes how to get a fully functional project using TortoiseSVN, Zend Studio, Zend Framework, OT Framework, your own SVN Repository and a local development environment (WAMP) on a PC…all in about 15 minutes. If you’re interested in finding out all the neat features that the OT Framework provides, look at this post.

• TortoiseSVN -  http://tortoisesvn.tigris.org
• Zend Studio – http://www.zend.com/products/studio/
• Zend Framework – http://framework.zend.com
• OT Framework – http://ot.ncsu.edu/projects/
• WAMP – http://www.wampserver.com/en/

You must already have:

• WAMP successfully running on your local machine (including MySQL)
• A completely empty SVN Repo ready for your application
• Zend Studio installed
• TortoiseSVN installed
• The ability to follow instructions

There are alternatives for these applications, and you could probably follow along anyway, but these are the applications I used to create this tutorial.

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We’ve been working for a very long time to secure an Apple iPhone Developer Program membership for the University.  Today, that has finally become a reality.

“NC State is now officially part of the Apple iPhone Developer Program.  With this program, we can develop, test and distribute applications for the iPad, iPhone and iPod touch from within NC State’s App Store.  A committee to manage NC State’s mobile presence is currently being formed.  In the meantime, OIT’s Outreach Technology will be managing the review of applications and the management of the NC State iPhone Developer Program.”

So what does this mean for NC State?  It means that we can being developing and distributing all kinds of applications and distribute them through Apple’s App Store to the millions of folks who own iPhones, iPod touches, and the newly released iPad.  No official announcements yet about what apps are coming, but stay tuned.  This is really exciting and great news!

Zend Server CE is an awesome product.  We had installed it just after it’s release but hadn’t really delved into all it’s features until today.  We were just using it as a quick web server, but we weren’t doing any development in the environment.  But that is about to change.  We decided to re-work some architecture to enable development on our local computers (24″ iMacs with OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard FTW).  With that decision, it meant we had to setup a solid, testable environment locally, so we decided to really put Zend Server CE to the test.  That action should have been much easier than it ended up being…

Basically, Zend Server CE and Snow Leopard don’t really play well together.  Out of the box, Zend Server CE’s management console does not work at all.  We actually found this out a few weeks ago when we were passively using Zend Server CE.  It has to do with the watchdog service in OS X.  Hopefully this will be solved in the next version of Zend Server CE.  Here is a work-around to get past the issue.

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Zendcon is over, so like every year I like to look back at what worked and what I think could be improved for next year.  This year was a very different experience for me because Garrison didn’t get to go, so I was on my own.  I think it made me reach out more and talk to more people who I wouldn’t normally talk with.  I made it a point to sit down at a few tables where I knew no one and talk to people.  It was cool getting to know other folks in the community, not just the “famous” ones

I also tweeted a lot during the conference (#2!) which helped connect me with a host of new followers.  I found myself following the twitter page more than hanging out in the IRC chat room this time.  That is just a great source of information at a conference like this.  Everything from networking to finding what was for dinner was coordinated through twitter.  Good times.

Anyway, on to my review:

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The last day of ZendCon 2009 is always bittersweet.  ZendCon is very intense for the few days you are here, and while it is awesome and the people are awesome and the learning is awesome, you are so exhausted that you are almost glad it’s over.  So here is what I did on day 3.

Right Where You Belong: The PHP Community – Chris Cornutt

I met Chris the day before when I was talking to him about joind.in.  His talk was really good for people who are interested in becoming part of the PHP Community (or really any community).  He talked about how to contribute to the community as a whole, even if you are not a strong programmer (documentation FTW).  This topic is really relevant to me as I enjoy being part of the PHP Community a lot.  I find us PHPers are much different than most tech groups.  You don’t often find PHPers who have that holier-than-thou attitude, which I think is because many of us who have been doing PHP for a long time have grown up and matured with the language.  There is not a single person in the PHP community who can claim that they always wrote excellent code, so you don’t typically get people who have an overly high opinion of themselves.  There are exceptions to the rule, but I find PHPers to be some of the best people in the business.  Many of them “get it” and I appreciate that.  Chris’s talk was all about getting involved and I thought he did a great job with it.

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Day 2 of Zendcon is always the longest.  There are lots of sessions and plenty of awesome information to be had.  Here is my rundown of day 2.

Keynote – Standing Out In The Crowd – Kirrily Robert

Kirrily’s keynote was about the importance of diversity and transparency in open source projects.  She talked a lot about the lack of women in Open Source projects (only 1.5% of OS participants are women) and some of the struggles that her and her fellow female programmers go through.  The point of her session was diversity, transparency and acceptance.  And while she did accomplish making her point, she also ruffled some feathers as with a few generalizations of her own.  This hit a nerve with quite a few in the room and you could tell from the tweets coming out of it.  That is all I am really going to say about it since this is not the place, but let’s just say it was controversial and it got people talking…maybe that was the point all along.

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