I have a huge Ping list and want to clean it.
Using PHP I have already removed duplicated, checked for 404s, redirects etc.
I was wondering what I could send to the URLs to see if they are actually functioning and open for submissions?
There is the XML-RPC Introspection de facto standard which you could try first. If the server doesn't offer introspection you could just try to send a randomly generated method call. If it is a working XML-RPC Server you should get back a fault object.
Related
I've successfully managed to use POST to run a PHP script on my website, which allows the phone application to add a new entry to the database (MySQL), and delete an entry.
The next step is the one I have been struggling with for the last few hours now, and that is getting the information FROM the DB onto the phone!
I would like a method that initially just connects to the DB upon starting the activity and populating listview or something will all entries, and later down the line I plan on copying the information to a SQLite DB within the phone.
What is the easiest method I can look into for achieving this?
I can be resourceful but I just need to know what I'm looking for!
you have many options.
higher level abstraction over HTTP (REST/SOAP/etc) like already mentioned
HTTP as a proxy for plaintext/CSV data (without abstraction)
a direct JDBC connection from android device to the MySQL
database data export/import
I guess you're looking for option 3. That is syncing a remote database to local (SQlite on android) and then working with local data? In this case you just get a mysql-client jar (JDBC drivers) into your app and you can start. There're some restrictions though, like Sébastien Renauld already mentioned in the comment. Yet, those issues can be worked around, i.e. with custom configuration of MySQL or with option (2) which can be implemented in generic way (write once)
In general you need to create server API: choose some format to talk to between your web service and android application.
Then you'll always be need to request some data from server, that will be returned to you in format described above in a body of network response of some sort.
Next all you need is parse this data and populate to your adapters or whatever.
Note that networking operation might take quite some time depending on your connection, so you can't wait while it ends to show your UI - you need to do this in async manner, and give user a feedback that data is retrieving.
Nowadays json format passed in body of http post requests are quite popular. Take a look at this tutorial on how to parse json on android and this video about how to create json api in php.
Of course you can try to connect to remote MySQL server directly.. It really is more simple solution in some cases (you don't need to code server-side api), but might be not so accessible because standard MySQL ports aren't opened in all networks. Also your API server might hide some implementation details on how is data stored in reality, thus allowing you to migrate for example from MySQL to PostgreSQL without pain for android application.
Don't forget to secure your data from unauthorized access!
EDIT
It's 2017 and what would be the easiest option now is to use opensource project which will provide rest api for your database, for instance ArrestDB or postgrest
I personaly had to develop this following REST API Service (based on Laravel framework, which I call it lRapi) for an iOS and Android devices, and works great (the version in use for the apps, is much more complex).
https://github.com/w0rldart/lRapi
There are plenty Models and Controllers there that you may use to get started. Responses are JSON formatted, with proper headers.
I still have to add some more documentation to it, but there is some on the main example view, which you may access by just setting the virtual host and opening the root page in browser.
Laravel is a MVC PHP Framework, and it's really easy to get used to it.
This a good way to avoid to do most of the work, and just focus on implementing what else you need.
I have an application that retrieves some info and give them to user from a certain public website. However, i am not sure whether i should let my app immediately connect to the target website or it should get the info through my web server using a simple PHP script (JSON).
Actually I am using Jsoup to get the information and I tried both and they worked perfectly ( immediate and PHP) using Jsoup. However, I have not published my app yet due to the confusion aforementioned.
Use the web service. If your client has logic to parse the HTML, it can break when the web page changes. The web service can absorb this change and make corrections, but your client cannot. Not unless you release another version of your app, and that can be a pain.
im trying to access a php rest service on a different server with silverlight, but everytime i do the
request.EndGetResponse(ar) as HttpWebResponse;
it throws a SecurityException any idea how i can fix this?
Take a look at the URL Access Restrictions in Silverlight:
Also try adding the <allow-from http-request-headers="*"> statement in the clientaccesspolicy.xml on the php site.
When in doubt, run fiddler so you can see the exact sequence of web calls.
I'm developing a project using Javascript, PHP and OpenLayers. A lot of maps are loaded using and HTTPS connection against an external OGC server.
When I try to load the map using HTTPS, they doesn't load (instead of, they show me an "Error loading the map, try again later").
I think that the problem is because of Digital Certificate. If I load directly from the server (using a WMS call) like this (look the last parameter):
https://serverurl/ogc/wms?service=WMS&version=1.1.0&request=GetMap&layers=ms1:lp_anual_250&styles=&bbox=205125.0,3150125.0,234875.0,3199875.0&width=306&height=512&srs=EPSG:4326&format=application/openlayers
The browser ask me for my authorization to see it. If i accept the Digital Certificate, I can see the map. After that, and because of my browser now accepts the certificate, I can see my own map from my own application.
So, the question is: Is there any way to ask for the Digital Certificate mannually when the user access to my web?
Thanks in advance!
PS: solutions using PHP are welcome too because I'm using CodeIgniter to load views
You could try opening the WMS URL in a div or perhaps a hidden iframe - that may cause the browser to pop up its 'Unknown cert' dialogue.
Im going to quote another user (geographika) from gis.stackexchange. I hope can help to someone with my issue:
You can use a proxy on your server so
all client requests are made to your
server, which deals with the
certificate, gets the request and
passes it back to the client. For PHP
have a look at
http://tr.php.net/manual/en/function.openssl-verify.php
If you are also using WMS software
(MapServer, GeoServer) you could
implement the same technique using a
cascading WMS server.
For details on how to do this in
MapServer see
http://geographika.co.uk/setting-up-a-secure-cascading-wms-on-mapserver
I have already heard about the curl library, and that I get interest about...
and as i read that there are many uses for it, can you provide me with some
Are there any security problems with it?
one of the many useful features of curl is to interact with web pages, which means that you can send and receive http request and manipulate the data. which means you can login to web sites and actually send commands as if you where interacting from your web browser.
i found a very good web page titled 10 awesome things to do with curl. it's at http://www.catswhocode.com/blog/10-awesome-things-to-do-with-curl
One of it's big use cases is for automating activities such as getting content from another websites by the application. It can also be used to post data to another website and download files via FTP or HTTP. In other words it allows your application or script to act as a user accessing a website as they would do browsing manually.
There are no inherent security problems with it but it should be used appropriately, e.g. use https where required.
cURL Features
It's for spamming comment forms. ;)
cURL is great for working with APIs, especially when you need to POST data. I've heard that it's quicker to use file_get_contents() for basic GET requests (e.g. grabbing an RSS feed that doesn't require authentication), but I haven't tried myself.
If you're using it in a publicly distributed script, such as a WordPress plugin, be sure to check for it with function_exists('curl_open'), as some hosts don't install it...
In addition to the uses suggested in the other answers, I find it quite useful for testing web-service calls. Especially on *nix servers where I can't install other tools and want to test the connection to a 3rd party webservice (ensuring network connectivity / firewall rules etc.) in advance of installing the actual application that will be communicating with the web-services. That way if there are problems, the usual response of 'something must be wrong with your application' can be avoided and I can focus on diagnosing the network / other issues that are preventing the connection from being made.
It certainly can simplify simple programs you need to write that require higher level protocols for communication.
I do recall a contractor, however, attempting to use it with a high load Apache web server module and it was simply too heavy-weight for that particular application.