ElbertF Blog

Swiftlet 1.1 Stable

I released a new stable version of Swiftlet a few days ago together with a new web page at swiftlet.org. Swiftlet is a light-weight framework written in PHP aimed to make website development faster and easier.

Version 1.1 comes with a few new plugins that bring CMS-like features to Swiftlet. See the changelog for the full list of changes.

The documentation has also been updated and can now be found at swiftlet.org/docs. If you need support or have any requests, feel free to start a thread at swiftlet.org/community.

Swiftlet documentation update

The documentation for Swiftlet 1.0, a light-weight PHP framework I’ve been working on, is now pretty much complete.

I’ve already begun working on Swiftlet 1.1 which is now in Alpha (unstable and not suited for live environments).

Automated direct messages on Twitter

I’m a bit over the amount of spam I receive through Twitter’s messaging system. I get a fair number of direct messages every day and most of them are automated. I do read them all in case someone sends me a genuine message.

It shouldn’t be to hard for Twitter to detect automated messages, they could give me an option to block messages that have been send out more then ten times by a single user (I could create an application to do this myself but simply don’t have the bandwidth to handle that many messages, it would need thousands of active users to be effective).

Instead, I created a Twitter app to report users who send auto DMs to. Just tweet “@stopautodm @username” and they will be placed on the Hall of Shame. Perhaps at some point I could add an option to automatically unfollow the most reported users.

Website: elbertf.com/stopautodm
Twitter: @stopautodm

IE6ify Bookmarklet

Today I created yet another utterly useless (but hopefully mildly entertaining) application; IE6ify.

It’s a bookmarklet that brings the joy of browsing the web with Microsoft Internet Explorer 6 to modern browsers. For almost a decade IE6 has managed to intrigue me by breaking standards-compliant websites in the most unpredictable ways. Whatever you did to fix a problem only made things worst, like an ugly dragon that grows two heads every time you cut one off.

Since it’s not possible to run IE6 natively on Windows Vista or 7 and IE6 in Linux Wine is a nightmare, I figured a lot of you would miss the old days. With IE6ify you can break any website in true IE6 fashion.

Website: elbertf.com/ie6ify.

Swiftlet 1.0.0 Stable

Swiftlet, the light-weight PHP framework that I’ve been working on for a while, is now stable.

Feature-wise not much has changed since the Beta and Release Candidate cycles but the code has been thoroughly tested and improved where possible. If you’re planning on building a PHP website, give Swiftlet a try.

I moved the project page and documentation away from Google Code, if you go to swiftlet.org you’ll find the new page. It’s powered by a documentation system that I custom coded (dubbed Pintail). If there is any interest I will release the code behind it as Open-Source as well.

Swiftlet Beta

Swiftlet is now in beta, after 15 alpha cycles I’m confident that it’s now pretty much feature complete (there core that is, there will be plenty more plug-ins) and relatively stable.

One of the most important recently added features is the plug-in installer. It checks for compatibility with the core code and creates and populates database tables with a click of the mouse. Plug-ins that don’t require a database connection don’t need to be installed; they’re plug-and-play (and Swiftlet runs fine without a database).

I also added plug-ins to handle user sessions and authorization. This should make it easy to create a website that requires a login system.

Download: code.google.com/p/swiftlet/downloads/list

Swiftlet — light-weight PHP framework

I just released an early alpha version of Swiftlet, an Open Source, light-weight PHP framework released under the GPL license.

It’s targeted at developers who want to built simple websites that don’t require large and complex frameworks, but do want a solid base to work from. Swiftlet provides basic security features such as user input sanitizing, is highly extensible thanks to the deeply integrated hook system, completely Object Oriented and separates logic from design (MVC).

Even the most basic features such as connecting to a database and output buffering are implemented as plug-ins. This means they can be modified, extended and removed without hacking into the core code.

Website: http://swiftlet.org

First Twitchance winner announced

I just announced the first winner on Twitchance: @benjaminluk gets the $500!

6S Marketing made a bold move supporting Twitchance by being the first sponsor. The concept was unproven and perhaps a bit controversial but they were curious and decided is was worth a try. I encourage you to follow them on Twitter.

The next draw is on April 20, this time sponsored by Hover who provided another $500 and 20 smaller prizes.

We decided to make a small concept change: instead of randomly selecting a winner the sponsor and I pick the most creative message on Twitter and award the author with the prize.

To join, simply follow the instructions on the Twitchance website.

Twitchance

A few days ago I launched Twitchance, a free Twitter lottery. It’s a viral marketing experiment where I’m going to give away some cash ($500.- on the first draw).

The concept is simple; participants post a message from a sponsor on Twitter. After some time a winner is randomly selected and awarded the prize. The sponsor receives amplified outreach to the online world.

Many companies offer services for free on the internet, often powered by advertisements. I figured the same could be done with a lottery. Twitter has a huge user base and tracking specific messages is easy, making it the perfect place for a project like this.

Anyone can join, all you need is a Twitter and Paypal account.