QR Codes & URL Shorteners - The Easiest Way? - php

I'm looking for a way to create a QR Code and a shortened link when a form is submitted. I have the QR Code bit, but the link is too long for me and the QR Code looks scary and complicated. The way it works is; the user types in (in this instance) a contract number. Then, a folder is created on the server of that contract number. (www.mysite.com/QR/$contractnumber). Then, using PHP again, I create a QR Code through Google because I know that every QR code will be linking to the same place, just a different ending of the link. The only bit that changes is the $POST...
I was wondering if there was a way to shorten the link before it goes to Google? It would have to be through php. The user enters the contact number in the form, then that number(usually around 5/6 digits) will be entered into a already existing command? I'm not an expert in anything, I just know some really random snippets of code... And HTML and CSS, of course.
Any help would be appreciated and judging by the few days I have been searching this, I think it might help a few people in the future. I would also like to confirm that the solution can't be one of this visual URLShorteners. If it is, it just needs to be the back-end of it, built into a existing form and QR Generator. Simple?

We had a similar challenge with one of our internal apps, and since any shortcut system (that I know of) relies on a database to translate what the short url really means , we opted to start our work from something that had already been done, rather than re-invent the wheel and based our solution on yourls.org.
We installed that, and populated the database from within our PHP, not really using the provided interface for anything except testing and it's statistics. It's reasonably flexible, and while it does need some standards improvement, the core code that we were interested in (as you would be) was sound, and worked very well for us.

It sounds like you might be able to use the TagLabs solution. Check out the developer site; developer.taglabsinc.com and create a free account at portal.taglabsinc.com. The platform will create the QR Code and shortened url. You can manually create the QR Codes or leverage the API.

For what it's worth, that's exactly what a.zat.is for. Disclaimer: I made it.

Related

PHP Adobe Signature PDF Hand writing with mouse or stylus

I am trying to integrate Adobe Signature in PDF where end user can sign it on browser itself, I want his/her hand written signature on it. End user will use his/her mouse to draw the signature. This PDF creation is written in PHP and application contains Adobe APIs.
I referred to the Handwritten Adobe page and Adobe tags
I have also referred to Stack 1 and stack 2, not matching to my requirement.
I was able to sign the custom runtime generated PDF document using {{Sig_es_:signer1:signature}}
I checked it at several places including Stackoverflow, but i cant find any such reference document which can guide me to code for hand written signatures. i also need to understand if Hand written signatures have any limitation or drawbacks or any privacy/security issues.
Let me know if anyone knows How to proceed on this.
Draw a signature with a mouse? That will not work. I can't do that. A finger on a phone would work better. Still clumsy, but better.
Drawn signatures are old fashioned in the digital world, and require complex verifiable encryption. You would have to prove that the digital copy you have, was indeed drawn within the exact document it appears in. Digital things can, after all, be copied easily. Whenever there's a dispute you would have to prove that the signature is an inherent part of the unchangeable digital document. This is far more difficult than it seems at first. That's why it is usually quite expensive.
I would strongly advice to not go down this road. Find another solution.
You haven't explained what you want to use the signature for, which makes it difficult for me to suggest another solution, so I won't.
Re:
i also need to understand if Hand written signatures have any limitation or drawbacks or any privacy/security issues.
Yes, there are lots of limitations and drawbacks. You need to consider the issues of forgery (someone else signing as me, Larry) and non-reputability (I signed it but later claim that it wasn't me. How do you prove that it was Larry who signed it?)
There's also the overall context of the signature: what is the value of the agreement? What are the consequences of not being able to prove that the right person did sign the document?
Adobe Sign (and their competitors) have answers to all of the above. eSignatures are far more complicated than just getting something that looks like the person's signature on the PDF.
Pro-tip: how the signature looks on the PDF is the least important part of the process.

Does whatsapp ABID (Address book ID) work in php?

I am using wordpress site and sending user to open a particular chat on whatsapp. Its working fine in case of simple text send like this:
Chat
But i want to let the users to open a particular contact. I have seen this functionality in iOS but dont know weather its also applicable in php or not. Here is the code i am trying:
Chat
There are the links that i found for help:
https://www.macstories.net/tutorials/use-whatsapps-url-scheme-with-drafts-launch-center-pro-or-a-bookmarklet/
http://www.technetexperts.com/mobile/interact-with-whatsapp-from-ios-application/
What you are mentioning is NOT dealing with PHP, since PHP is a server-side language and you are only dealing with HTML (client-side).
Nevertheless, that being said, you should better use the official solution that replaces ABID need. I've mentioned it and another schema solution that also seems to be working (july 2017) in THIS OTHER ANSWER (because S.O. policies I had to put a link to the solution, no duplicates).

Clean HTML from Word documents

Ok, so my company has a client that has an interface for posting content - standard MySQL database, PHP-based, etc.
Anyway, they've continually had an intern or someone, post content to this interface straight from an MS Word doc - the interface is coded poorly, and takes this input as is, with no formatting.
My company has now been contracted out to fix this particular problem, as it is continually breaking their site, and my company has repeatedly had to manually go into the database, and delete the offending values.
Is there a quick and easy way to do this, or am I going to have to just do a replace operation on each offending character?
I see htmlentities() may be a partial solution - but as far as I know, that won't remove everything.
What's a good solution to this problem? Is there anything out there to make this easier?
We're also considering writing a content validator as well, probably just server-side (though maybe client-side, if my week is going slowly enough/I finish the rest of this quickly enough).
It depends on how many clients (or potential clients) you are supporting and how much time you have to invest. Options
Write your own function to strip out the metadata
Teach your clients to remove it themselves such as paste in notepad first,
or supply a knowledge base article to explain how to do it in the software. Perhaps a "Help" section or icon they can click on.
htttp://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;223396
Use a WYSIWYG editor such as TinyMCE which has built in functionality to remove it
But like I said in the comments, unless you are using your own function, prepare for clients to continue to paste directly and wonder why there is a problem.

Want my formated DIV to be converted to PDF and sent through email on a single click. Is it possible?

I have a PHP page powered by jQuery. A singel page has four steps, controlled by jQuery.
In diffrent steps, user selects two Images from two galleries (step 1 & 2), fromats a table by arranging divs inbetween (setp 3) then filling a form (step 4).
I want: when user clicks "Finish" on step 4. All the above information be converted to PDF and emailed to the provided email address.
Please suggest me idea, tool, plugin or code to do so!
The last time that I tried to auto-generate PDFs as you mentioned, I used a php library called fpdf. As I recall, it was difficult and cumbersome. My lack of knowledge/experience/patience definetly made me not have much fun working with it. Give it a shot and see if looks like it is feasible for you. The site has some getting started examples, and a quick Google search should yield some examples too. URL: http://www.fpdf.org/
I just stumbled across another library that looks promising: http://code.google.com/p/dompdf/ I have not used it, but, if I need to do this again in the future, I would try this before going back to fpdf.
I don't know of any javascript/jQuery plugins that can generate a PDF, so I think you are stuck with PHP in this scenario.
Hope that helps a bit!
EDIT: The email part is simple, I really like Swift Mailer: http://swiftmailer.org. It is simple to use, lots of examples, and supports a variety of options, like, attachments. Also handles the encoding issues that generally plague emails sent directly from php mail().
One more thing, if you are not too far into development, take a look at using Kohana as a php framework. It's light and easily extensible. They follow decent coding standards, and have an active open source community. Plus, there is a module for SwiftMailer that almost sends the mail for you-Not really...but I think you get the point. ;)
Have a look at http://andreasgal.github.com/pdf.js/

Xhtml instead of Php?

I want to develop a site that will allow be to publish information to users, and give them and opportunity to subscribe to a mailing list so they can be updated each time I make a change to the site.
*Add new information, etc.
I also would like for the users to be able to add comments about reviews posted, and give me suggestions...Things that will encourage user interaction
I understand that this is possible with php...
But I do not know php, and to learn and test it I apparently need a domain to begin with...etc.
Is it possible that I use Xhtml/Html to get the same results?
--
I know I can use the
Mail
but that would also leave my email open to spam...Any suggestions?
And I do apologize if this question has been posted before, I did some research and found no such thing.
All helpful responses are appreciated.
XHTML and HTML are essentially the same thing, just xhtml is based on an xml standard (thats where the x comes from), therefore being a bit more stricter.
HTML/XHTML is generally used for structure of your webpage, where as PHP is a server based language, meaning it works behind the scenes.
You could use html, but it'd be hideously complex to make, so i'd say you'd be better of biting the bullet and making a start on your first php app:) Don't worry it's very easy to get your head around. You do not need a domain to get started with the development, simply install WAMP (for windows), or MAMP (if your apple freak like me), these programs act as self contained mini servers, very useful for development!
Then i'd suggest trying it all out using html for starters, just so you get used to the WAMP/MAMP sever, before heading over to http://devzone.zend.com/article/627 for a brilliant set of tutorials on PHP!
EDIT: Another poster mentioned wordpress, its a great platform too! But i always favour learning the basics so in the event of something going wrong, or not working the way you want it to, you'll know what to do, or at least have an idea. Therefore i'd stick with your own php solution as a starter, then progressing to wordpress, when you feel comfortable.
I hope this helps :)
(X)HTML is the markup language that's interpreted by the browser, to display your web pages.
PHP is a language, used on the server, that can :
Generate that HTML markup
Act as a 'glue' with other systems, such as a database, for data-persitence.
(X)HTML by itself it not dynamic : it's only used to display data.
And PHP by itself doesn't display much information : it generates them.
So, basically, you'll need to use both (X)HTML and PHP :
PHP for everything thats' dynamic
like interaction with a database, a form, ...
HTML (possibly generated by the PHP code) to display the data.
No, you will need some kind of server side scripting language to be able to interrogate a database, print out comments and send the generated HTML to the browser.
If you don't know how to use PHP, how about using an open source solution like WordPress, this is a bloging platform but offers all the things you listed.
I would suggest using WordPress because:
It is easy to learn, the documentation is excellent
There are thousands of free plugins to add functionality to your site
There is a plugin, Contact Form 7, that will allow your users to send your email while doing a good job of curbing spam
There is a built in RSS feed to push out to your users notices when your site is updated
WordPress can be installed on shared hosting, virtual private hosts, and almost any machine with the LAMP stack
If you are new to creating websites, WordPress has free themes which are a good starting place
Finally, to answer your question, XHTML and PHP do different things. XHTML is like the idea of a picture. You can see it, it has shapes, outlines, sometimes words, etc. Where as PHP is like film where viewers can see something, but there is something in the background that is updating and moving.
HTML is just a markup language used by the browser to format data to display to users.
Most hosting solutions provide form mailer scripts that just take an HTML form and email the fields to a specified email address which you can configure.
They also provide mailing list functionality.
So, maybe check for a (PHP) hosting solution that provide this functionality and you won't need to write any PHP until you require more complex, custom functionality.

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