Hiding website directories from Johnnie Hacker using a .htaccess file

OK, here's the situation.
You're creating a website.
You want a directory called say 'classes'.
You need to access stuff contained in 'classes', but you don't want a user of your site to access the 'classes' directory through something like this http://www.yoursite.com/classes/
I'm assuming you've shown the good sense to use the apache web server here and that you haven't fallen foul of the Microsoft marketing machine or foolishly believed that you get what you pay for. That said, there are some good web servers other than apache.
I digress. Anyway, here is how to do it.


Go into the directory you wish to deny access to.
Create a file called .htaccess
Add a single line to the file namely:
deny from all
Save the file and restart apache.


If for some reason this doesn't work, it may be the way your apache server is set up.
Look for a file such as:
/etc/apache2/sites-available/default
That's if you're using a proper operating system. Goodness knows what it would be if you were using Windows.
In here you will see a few lines which look like this:

<Directory /var/www/>
Options Indexes FollowSymLinks MultiViews
AllowOverride None
Order allow,deny
allow from all
</Directory>
Change the line which says 'AllowOverride None' to 'AllowOverride All'.
Now restart apache again.

You can now add similar .htaccess files to any directories you want to control.

OOP PHP Authentication Class

This class relies upon the existence of a databases class, such as the one listed here, to go away and check of the username and password match. If they do, a session and cookie is created.


<?php
require_once 'database.class.php';

class authenticate
{
public $id;
private $username;
private $password;
private $db;

function __construct()
{
$this->db = new database;
}

function login($u, $p)
{
$this->username = mysql_real_escape_string($u);
$this->password = mysql_real_escape_string(md5($p));
$q = "SELECT * FROM users WHERE username='{$this->username}' AND password='{$this->password}'";
$result = $this->db->query($q);
if($result)
{

    $this->id = $result->id;
    $this->username = $result->username;

$this->createSessionAndCookies();
}
else
{
$this->destroySessionAndCookies();
}
}

function logout()
{
$this->destroySessionAndCookies();
}

private function createSessionAndCookies()
{
@session_start();
$_SESSION['AUTH_ID'] = $this->id;
$_SESSION['AUTH_USERNAME'] = $this->username;
$expire=time()+3600*24*30;
setcookie('AUTH_ID', $this->id, $expire);
setcookie('AUTH_USERNAME', $this->username, $expire);
echo 'session and cookie created';
}

private function destroySessionAndCookies()
{
unset($_SESSION['AUTH_ID']);
unset($_SESSION['AUTH_USERNAME']);
session_destroy();
setcookie('AUTH_ID', '', time()-3600);
setcookie('AUTH_USERNAME', '', time()-3600);
echo 'session and cookie destroyed';
}

function __destruct()
{

}
}
?>

OOP PHP Vimeo Class

This is essentially the earlier mentioned RSS class with a couple of tweaks for vimeo and search.

First, a script to call the class:

<?php
require_once 'vimeo.class.php';

$addr1 = 'http://vimeo.com/api/v2/channel/videoschool/videos.xml';
$addr2 = 'http://vimeo.com/api/v2/channel/wineaftercoffee/videos.xml';

$vimeo = new vimeo;
$vimeo->addFeed($addr1);
$vimeo->addFeed($addr2);

$arr = $vimeo->getFeed();

/* Or
$arr = $vimeo->getFeed('water');
*/

/*
Or
$searchArray = Array('glass', 'trix');
$arr = $vimeo->getFeed($searchArray);
*/

foreach($arr as $row)
{
echo '<iframe src="http://player.vimeo.com/video/'.$row->id.'" width="WIDTH" height="HEIGHT" frameborder="0" webkitAllowFullScreen mozallowfullscreen allowFullScreen></iframe><br />';
}
?>

Now, the class itself:


<?php
class vimeo
{
public $addr = NULL;
private $outArr = Array();
function __construct($addr = NULL)
{
$this->addr = $addr != NULL ? $addr : $this->addr;
if($this->addr)
{
return $this->addFeed();
}
}

function addFeed($addr = NULL)
{
$this->addr = $addr != NULL ? $addr : $this->addr;
$rss = simplexml_load_file($this->addr);
$this->outArr = array_merge($this->outArr, $rss->xpath('/videos//video'));
}

function getFeed($input = NULL)
{
usort($this->outArr, function ($x, $y)
{
if (strtotime($x->pubDate) == strtotime($y->pubDate)) return 0;
    return (strtotime($x->pubDate) > strtotime($y->pubDate)) ? -1 : 1;
});

if(is_array($input))
{
$this->outArr = $this->getArrayFilteredFeed($input);
}
elseif(is_string($input))
{
$this->outArr = $this->getStringFilteredFeed($input);
}

return $this->outArr;
}

private function getStringFilteredFeed($s)
{
$tempArr = Array();
foreach($this->outArr as $row)
{
if(stristr($row->title,$s) || stristr($row->description,$s))
{
array_push($tempArr, $row);
}
}
return $tempArr;
}

private function getArrayFilteredFeed($arr)
{
$tempArr = Array();
foreach($this->outArr as $row)
{
foreach ($arr as $key) 
{
if(stristr($row->title,$key) || stristr($row->description,$key))
{
array_push($tempArr, $row);
}
}
}
return $tempArr;
}
}
?>

Simple PDO Class

For some reason, maybe it was my first (negative) introduction to OOP through C++, I've always hated those (::) double colons. So, when I started to look at PHP Data Objects (PDO), although it seemed like  a good idea, I couldn't get over the fact that I was opening myself up to using static class and methods with all the syntax which goes with it.

So I started to create a simple database class which made use of PDO, which would be a little friendlier to call. Humble beginnings these. First I created an ini file for all the settings, which looks something like this:

DB_TYPE = mysql
DB_HOST = localhost
DB_USERNAME = jimmy
DB_PASSWORD = password
DB_NAME = testdb

Then, I created the database class which called the ini file thus:

<?php
class database
{
private $config;
private $connection;
private $pdoString;
  function __construct()
{
$this->config = (object) parse_ini_file('config.ini', true);
$this->pdoString = $this->config->DB_TYPE;
$this->pdoString .= ':dbname='.$this->config->DB_NAME;
$this->pdoString .= ';host='.$this->config->DB_HOST;
$this->connection = new PDO($this->pdoString, $this->config->DB_USERNAME, $this->config->DB_PASSWORD);
}


public function query($q)
{
    return $this->connection->query($q);
}


function __destruct()
{
$this->connection = NULL;
}
}
?>
Finally, I created a calling page to see how it ran:

<?php
require_once 'database.class.php';
$db = new database;
$arr = $db->query('SELECT * FROM users');
foreach($arr as $row)
{
echo $row['username'].'<br />';
}
?>
It's a start.

OOP PHP RSS Reader

This is a simple RSS Reader which allows you to add multiple feeds. It also sorts the results before returning them to the calling page.
The calling page would look something like this:


<?php
require_once 'rss.class.php';
$addr1 = 'http://feeds.bbci.co.uk/sport/0/football/rss.xml';
$addr2 = 'http://feeds.howtogeek.com/HowToGeek';
$addr3 = 'http://feeds.feedburner.com/TheEdTechie';
$rss = new rss;
$rss->addFeed($addr1);
$rss->addFeed($addr2);
$rss->addFeed($addr3);
$arr = $rss->getFeed();
foreach($arr as $row)
{
echo $row->title.'-'.$row->pubDate.'<br />';
}
?>

So, here's the RSS Reader class:


<?php
class rss
{
public $addr = NULL;
private $outArr = Array();
function __construct($addr = NULL)
{
$this->addr = $addr != NULL ? $addr : $this->addr;
if($this->addr)
{
return $this->addFeed();
}
}


function addFeed($addr = NULL)
{
$this->addr = $addr != NULL ? $addr : $this->addr;
$rss = simplexml_load_file($this->addr);
$this->outArr = array_merge($this->outArr, $rss->xpath('/rss//item'));    
}


function getFeed()
{
usort($this->outArr, function ($x, $y)
{
if (strtotime($x->pubDate) == strtotime($y->pubDate)) return 0;
    return (strtotime($x->pubDate) > strtotime($y->pubDate)) ? -1 : 1;
});
return $this->outArr;
}
}
new rss;
?>

HTML5 Audio Slideshow

Here, I've created a slideshow which syncs with a piece of audio. You can add different types of image and you can set the position in the audio when the image/slide appears. All free for you to play with.


<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
<meta charset="UTF-8">
<meta http-equiv="X-UA-Compatible" content="IE=edge,chrome=1">
<title>HTML5 Audio Slideshow</title>
<!--[if IE]>
<script src="http://html5shim.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/html5.js"></script>
<![endif]-->
<link rel="stylesheet" href="http://meyerweb.com/eric/tools/css/reset/reset.css" />
<style>
audio img
{
display:none;
}
#display_meta
{
width:300px;
min-height:225px;
}
</style>
<script src="http://www.google.com/jsapi"></script>
<script>
google.load("jquery", "1");
google.load("jqueryui", "1");
</script>
</head>
<body>
<br />
<img id="display_meta" src="1.png" /><br />
<audio id="greeting" controls="controls">
<source src="http://dl.dropbox.com/u/17154625/greeting.ogg" type="audio/ogg" />
<img src="jimmy.png" data-seconds="2" />
<img src="johnnie.png" data-seconds="4" />
<img src="julie.png" data-seconds="6" />
</audio>
<script>
var allImages = new Array(3);
var inc = 0, foundie = 0;
$('audio img').each(function()
{
allImages[inc] = new Array(3);
allImages[inc][0] = $(this).attr('src');
allImages[inc++][1] = $(this).data('seconds');
});
(function()
{
var displayTime = function()
{
var rVer = Math.round(greeting.currentTime);
foundie = giveBackImageName(rVer);
if(foundie != 0)
{
document.getElementById('display_meta').src = foundie;
}
}

var giveBackImageName = function(vr)
{
for (var i = 0; i < allImages.length; i++)
{
    if(allImages[i][1] == vr)
    {
    return allImages[i][0];
    }
}
return 0;
}
$('#greeting').bind('timeupdate', displayTime);
})();
</script>
</body>
</html>

OOP PHP POST handler in 2 parts

Actually, I'm wrong before I've even started. The class I give you below will also handle GET requests too. I've described it in 2 parts. The first is some HTML and jQuery which can be used to test the class. Then there is the class itself.

The HTML delivers a form with an input field and submit button. It also contains a jQuery call to the POST handler. Here, I pass the method within the class which will be called to handle the data. Then I pass the data. In this case, the contents of the input field. Finally, An alert catches any data coming back from the class.

The POST handler accepts the POST request as and converts it into an object. It checks to see if a method has been called and that the method exists. If so, the method is invoked. If not, an error message is returned.

Enjoy!

The HTML

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
<title>Post test</title>
<style>
body
{
font-family:Sans-serif;
line-height:1.5em;
}
</style>
<script src="http://www.google.com/jsapi"></script>
<script>
google.load("jquery", "1");
google.load("jqueryui", "1");
</script>
</head>
<body>
<form>
<label for="myname">Type your name</label>
<input type="text" name="myname" id="myname" />
<button type="submit">Submit</button>
</form>
<script>
(function()
{
$('form').submit(function()
{
$.post('posthandler.php',
{
method:'getContent',
myname:$(this).find('#myname').val()
}, function(data)
{
alert(data)
});
return false;
});
})();
</script>
</body>
</html>

The Class

<?php
class posthandler
{
private $postObject;
function __construct($p)
{
$this->postObject = (object) $p;
if($this->postObject->method && (method_exists($this, $this->postObject->method)))
{
$evalStr = '$this->'.$this->postObject->method.'();';
eval($evalStr);
}
else
{
echo 'Invalid method supplied';
}


}
function getcontent()
{
echo $this->postObject->myname;
}
}
new posthandler($_POST);
?>