A couple years ago, I developed this concept I call “Overtake User.” Basically, in every application I build, I build in the ability for the currently logged-in support specialist or admin to become someone else. Now, this is different than just viewing the user’s information and records. This actually let’s the current user become the other user. This is helpful also for scenarios where the user is “seeing something strange” but you can’t see it.... (more…)

For the most part, ZF can capture any of your hard errors. It will generate an error 500. You’ve seen them, don’t lie… I’ve seen them way too many times. However, in my production application, I capture these with a specific controller. And because I love Unit Testing, I want to make sure that I test my implementation of my omg-this-is-broken setup. (more…)

There are two areas where user input should be filtered: on display and on storage. Luckily, Zend Framework provides tools for this… (more…)

So, since I want to save some keystrokes, I rarely will go back to the Front Controller and Bootstrap to get resources. I also like to store them in the registry in a fashion that I see fit. (more…)

Goal: Clever named site that shows local establishments close to your location. Was based on Google Ip location services. The thought was just for people to think ‘whats close to me’ and type that up. (more…)

One of the things I learned while working at “The Triangle” was the “joy” of auditing. From their point of view, auditing was extreme. Think journaling and you have a pretty good idea. Now, when we talk about auditing, make sure to understand this is referring to change tracking and not vulnerability or fault detection. (more…)

Really enjoyed my time at WordCamp Milwaukee 2012. Got to meet a lot of great people. I did a presentation on Secure Wordpress Coding. Feel free to download the slides. (more…)

There are two types of resumes out there: employed resumes vs unemployed resumes. Or that is to say bragging resumes vs qualifications resumes. There is a time and place for both… and mixing them up may not be in your best interest. (more…)

There are a number of performance arguments about combining assets to reduce HTTP requests and speed up your site. I agree! However, I do have to say that there is such a thing as overkill - to the detriment of speed and security… (more…)

I was looking at mock objects in PHPUnit the other day and started to get confused. When I asked for a Mock object, the entire object was a mock. In all actuality, it wasn’t so much a Mock of the object but a complete shell of it. Each method needed to be defined. So, if I was testing an object that required three methods to execute, I would have to mock each method. (Yeah, some... (more…)