You can use PHP in the template (.tpl) files and reference the values of the assigned Smarty template variables like this:

{php}
  $html_title = $this->_tpl_vars['html_title'];
  $echo $html_title;
{/php}

I’m sure Smarty users cringe at this sort of thing, being that it adds business logic to the template files. But, this is just the functionality I need to hack the JobberBase templates without mucking around in core JobberBase code.

I found this solution in the Smarty FAQ after hours of Googling.

The Setup

First off, I’m running Ubuntu-Hardy, and both my PHP 5.3 and 5.2 distributions came from dotdeb.org. I have a Production server and a Test server that I try to keep as similar as possible. The first thing I did was make a backup of my Test server with PHP 5.3 installed and my app functional. Then I began hacking away on my Test server trying to successfully downgrade to PHP 5.2. When I screwed the Test server up beyond repair, I restored from backup. Likewise, when I made progress I documented my steps, restored from backup, and tried to repeat my success. I did this several times and eventually made a script that successfully downgraded PHP. I rehearsed this script 3 times on my Test server, backed-up my Production server, then repeated the script on my Production server. IT WORKED!

NOTICE: I probably have a couple of unnecessary steps in here that I didn’t bother to investigate their necessity. You may also need to uninstall and reinstall different PHP modules than I did, depending on the requirements of your applications.

My Final Steps

1. Remove PHP
   1. sudo apt-get remove php5-common
   2. sudo apt-get remove php5-cli
   3. sudo apt-get remove php5
   4. sudo apt-get autoremove memcached
2. Update your sources list to point to PHP 5.2
   1. sudo nano /etc/apt/sources.list
   2. Remove the references to PHP 5.3 packages. For me that was:

      deb http://php53.dotdeb.org stable all
      deb-src http://php53.dotdeb.org stable all

   3. Add the following 5.2 packages:

      deb http://http.us.debian.org/debian stable all
      deb http://security.debian.org/ stable/updates main contrib
      deb http://packages.dotdeb.org/ stable all

3. Install PHP 5.2
   1. sudo apt-get update
   2. sudo apt-get install php5-cli
   3. sudo apt-get install php5
4. Reinstall any PHP modules your application requires. For me that was:
   1. sudo apt-get install memcached
   2. sudo apt-get install php5-memcache
   3. sudo apt-get install php5-curl
   4. sudo apt-get install php5-mysql
5. sudo reboot

After my production server rebooted, I had to fidget with Apache to get it started again. You may have to:

• sudo /etc/init.d/apache2 restart
• sudo /etc/init.d/apache2 stop
• sudo /etc/init.d/apache2 start

Hope this helps!

Here’s where I’m starting. If you see anything that I’m missing, or notice a data type that could be optimized let me know in the comments and I’ll update the post to reflect your suggestions.

1. First upgrade your software as is with the following two commands (just for good measure):

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade

2. Now, open up your Debian package sources list with Nano for editing using the following command:

sudo nano /etc/apt/sources.list

3. Next, add the following sources to your /etc/apt/sources.list file.

deb http://www.apache.org/dist/incubator/cassandra/debian unstable main
deb-src http://www.apache.org/dist/incubator/cassandra/debian unstable main

After you add these two lines, press cntrl+X to close Nano. It’ll ask “Save modified buffer?” Press Y. Press Enter when Nano asks “File Name to Write.”

4. Run the update to install Casandra with this command:

sudo apt-get update

5. ERROR! At this point you receive an error similar to this:

W: GPG error: http://www.apache.org unstable Release: The following signatures couldn't be verified because the public key is not available: NO_PUBKEY F758CE318D77295D

6. Use the following three commands to ignore the signature error, and continue installing:

NOTE: You must replace the key value ‘F758CE318D77295D’ with the key value you received in your error message.

gpg --keyserver wwwkeys.eu.pgp.net --recv-keys F758CE318D77295D
sudo apt-key add ~/.gnupg/pubring.gpg
sudo apt-get update

7. Install Cassandra:

sudo apt-get install cassandra

8. Next you need to change Cassandra’s default port number from 8080 to something else, because the 8080 port typically conflicts with SSH terminal connections. Use Nano to open up the Cassandra configuration file using the following command:

sudo nano /usr/share/cassandra/cassandra.in.sh

9. Then change the port number 8080 on the following line to 10036, and save the file:

-Dcom.sun.management.jmxremote.port=10036 \

10. Start Cassandra with the command:

/etc/init.d/cassandra start

Once you have Cassandra running, test it with Cassandra’s command line tool CLI. Use the example found on the Cassandra Wiki.

>> sudo apt-get update

>> sudo apt-get upgrade

Then add the following to your /etc/apt/sources.list file.

>> sudo nano /etc/apt/sources.list

deb http://http.us.debian.org/debian stable all
deb http://security.debian.org/ stable/updates main contrib
deb http://packages.dotdeb.org/ stable all

Finally run the update to install PHP 5.2.9.

>> sudo apt-get update

>> sudo apt-get install php5-cli

>> sudo /etc/init.d/apache2 restart

The WordPress Codex has a function called ‘wp_list_pages.’ What I wanted to do is create a new function called ‘wp_list_main_pages.’ So I simply searched my WordPress install and copied the ‘get_pages’ and ‘wp_list_pages’ functions and pasted them into my theme’s ‘functions.php’ file. From here I made a few edits to these functions. To start with, I renamed them ‘wp_list_main_pages’ and ‘get_main_pages.’

Below is the final code I’m using to display the main navigation accross blogs. I made notes in bold to help. Hope this is helpful to you Googling coders.

// You can use this function instead of 'wp_list_pages' in your theme
function wp_list_main_pages($args = '') {
	$defaults = array(
		'depth' => 0, 'show_date' => '',
		'date_format' => get_option('date_format'),
		'child_of' => 0, 'exclude' => '',
		'title_li' => __('Pages'), 'echo' => 1,
		'authors' => '', 'sort_column' => 'menu_order, post_title'
	);

	$r = wp_parse_args( $args, $defaults );
	extract( $r, EXTR_SKIP );

	$output = '';
	$current_page = 0;

	// sanitize, mostly to keep spaces out
	$r['exclude'] = preg_replace('[^0-9,]', '', $r['exclude']);

	// Allow plugins to filter an array of excluded pages
	$r['exclude'] = implode(',', apply_filters('wp_list_pages_excludes', explode(',', $r['exclude'])));

	// Query pages.
	$r['hierarchical'] = 0;
	// Right here we call our new 'get_main_pages' function
	$pages = get_main_pages($r);

	if ( !empty($pages) ) {
		if ( $r['title_li'] )
			$output .= '<li class="pagenav">' . $r['title_li'] . '<ul>';

		global $wp_query;
		if ( is_page() || $wp_query->is_posts_page )
			$current_page = $wp_query->get_queried_object_id();
		$output .= walk_page_tree($pages, $r['depth'], $current_page, $r);

		if ( $r['title_li'] )
			$output .= '</ul></li>';
	}

	$output = apply_filters('wp_list_pages', $output);

	// This line is sloppy and needs improvement.
	// You have to remove the name of the blog your currently on from you global navigation.
	// I'm doing this the simplest but least scalable way here.
	$output = str_replace("pressroom/", "", $output);

	if ( $r['echo'] )
		echo $output;
	else
		return $output;
}

// This is essentially a private function
function &get_main_pages($args = '') {
	global $wpdb;

	// This is the magic line.
	// Now when the SQL runs to pull your navigation pages, it'll use your main blogs ID.
	$wpdb->set_blog_id(1);

	// Notice here I call the original get_pages function and return the results
	$pages = get_pages($args);
	return $pages;
}

<asp:DropDownList ID="DropDownListState" runat="server">
	<asp:ListItem Value="AL">Alabama</asp:ListItem>
	<asp:ListItem Value="AK">Alaska</asp:ListItem>
	<asp:ListItem Value="AZ">Arizona</asp:ListItem>
	<asp:ListItem Value="AR">Arkansas</asp:ListItem>
	<asp:ListItem Value="CA">California</asp:ListItem>
	<asp:ListItem Value="CO">Colorado</asp:ListItem>
	<asp:ListItem Value="CT">Connecticut</asp:ListItem>
	<asp:ListItem Value="DC">District of Columbia</asp:ListItem>
	<asp:ListItem Value="DE">Delaware</asp:ListItem>
	<asp:ListItem Value="FL">Florida</asp:ListItem>
	<asp:ListItem Value="GA">Georgia</asp:ListItem>
	<asp:ListItem Value="HI">Hawaii</asp:ListItem>
	<asp:ListItem Value="ID">Idaho</asp:ListItem>
	<asp:ListItem Value="IL">Illinois</asp:ListItem>
	<asp:ListItem Value="IN">Indiana</asp:ListItem>
	<asp:ListItem Value="IA">Iowa</asp:ListItem>
	<asp:ListItem Value="KS">Kansas</asp:ListItem>
	<asp:ListItem Value="KY">Kentucky</asp:ListItem>
	<asp:ListItem Value="LA">Louisiana</asp:ListItem>
	<asp:ListItem Value="ME">Maine</asp:ListItem>
	<asp:ListItem Value="MD">Maryland</asp:ListItem>
	<asp:ListItem Value="MA">Massachusetts</asp:ListItem>
	<asp:ListItem Value="MI">Michigan</asp:ListItem>
	<asp:ListItem Value="MN">Minnesota</asp:ListItem>
	<asp:ListItem Value="MS">Mississippi</asp:ListItem>
	<asp:ListItem Value="MO">Missouri</asp:ListItem>
	<asp:ListItem Value="MT">Montana</asp:ListItem>
	<asp:ListItem Value="NE">Nebraska</asp:ListItem>
	<asp:ListItem Value="NV">Nevada</asp:ListItem>
	<asp:ListItem Value="NH">New Hampshire</asp:ListItem>
	<asp:ListItem Value="NJ">New Jersey</asp:ListItem>
	<asp:ListItem Value="NM">New Mexico</asp:ListItem>
	<asp:ListItem Value="NY">New York</asp:ListItem>
	<asp:ListItem Value="NC">North Carolina</asp:ListItem>
	<asp:ListItem Value="ND">North Dakota</asp:ListItem>
	<asp:ListItem Value="OH">Ohio</asp:ListItem>
	<asp:ListItem Value="OK">Oklahoma</asp:ListItem>
	<asp:ListItem Value="OR">Oregon</asp:ListItem>
	<asp:ListItem Value="PA">Pennsylvania</asp:ListItem>
	<asp:ListItem Value="RI">Rhode Island</asp:ListItem>
	<asp:ListItem Value="SC">South Carolina</asp:ListItem>
	<asp:ListItem Value="SD">South Dakota</asp:ListItem>
	<asp:ListItem Value="TN">Tennessee</asp:ListItem>
	<asp:ListItem Value="TX">Texas</asp:ListItem>
	<asp:ListItem Value="UT">Utah</asp:ListItem>
	<asp:ListItem Value="VT">Vermont</asp:ListItem>
	<asp:ListItem Value="VA">Virginia</asp:ListItem>
	<asp:ListItem Value="WA">Washington</asp:ListItem>
	<asp:ListItem Value="WV">West Virginia</asp:ListItem>
	<asp:ListItem Value="WI">Wisconsin</asp:ListItem>
	<asp:ListItem Value="WY">Wyoming</asp:ListItem>
</asp:DropDownList>

Like this!

NameValueCollection nameValueCollection = HttpUtility.ParseQueryString(Request.UrlReferrer.Query);
string keyword = nameValueCollection["kw"];

“And that’s all I have to say about that.”

Anyways. Here’s a few examples of some really basic ActionScript 3.0 stuff.

Here’s an example of how to create and use a global variable in ActionScript 3.0.

var intClicks:int = 0;

function showDoves():void {
	++intClicks;
	if(intClicks >= 5){
		_movieDoves.visible = true;
	}
}

And here is an example of how to add an “on click” mouse event listener function in ActionScript 3.0.

_btnFact1.addEventListener(MouseEvent.CLICK, onClickBtnFact1);

function onClickBtnFact1(evt:MouseEvent):void {
	_fact1.visible = true;
}

That’s all I got. I just wanted to document this so I can reference it later. I hope it’s helpful to you.

After quite a bit of research I found this excellent Perl for Win32 FAQ and learned that when you setup Perl for IIS you have two options, you can use “Perl for Win32″ or you can use “PerlIS.” In my client’s case, they were running Perl for Win32 on the server with the working script and PerlIS on the server with the broken script.

Perl for Win32 = perl.exe
PerlIS = perlis.dll

They are both the same version of Perl, and both come included when you download Perl for Windows. However, even though they are the same version of Perl, they are different “interpreters.”

Perl for Win32 and PerlIS are mostly alike, but PerlIS requires that your scripts include the HTTP response status line as well as all headers for the response. Using Perl for Win32 you only need to specify the headers.

PerlIS is about two times faster than Perl for Win32. However, most CGI script that you purchase, or download for free, do not specify the HTTP response status line. This is because most scripts are not written for PerlIS. (Ok, I can’t backup that claim, but that seems to be the case in my experience.)

If your Perl scripts are displaying the content-type at the top of the page, try configuring your IIS server to run Perl using perl.exe instead of perlis.dll.