Category: Development

PHP8 and function list() = each()

Time to write something about PHP again. With PHP 7.2, the function each() is deprecated. The documentation says: “Warning This function has been DEPRECATED as of PHP 7.2.0. Relying on this function is highly discouraged.“.
If you ignored this warning before, in PHP8 you will now get the following error: Fatal error: Uncaught Error: Call to undefined function each() in /path/file.php:line
So, what do you do when you find this in your old code or in some library that you use, but is not being updated anymore? Stackoverflow to the rescue…

Continue reading PHP8 and function list() = each()

How to encode and decode Base64 in VB.NET

Because sometimes you just need a string with ‘normal characters’ instead of funky ones…

Public Function EncodeBase64(input As String) As String
	Return System.Convert.ToBase64String(System.Text.Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(input))
End Function

Public Function DecodeBase64(input As String) As String
	Return System.Text.Encoding.UTF8.GetString(Convert.FromBase64String(input))
End Function

Have a nice day!

WordPress Auto Logout

When you click on the “Remember Me” option on the login page of your WordPress website, it will keep you logged in for 2 weeks. If you don’t, it will keep your login active for 2 days. However, you can extend the auto logout period in WordPress by adding a little code snippet. Keep in mind that it will affect site’s security by keeping user logged in for too long.

function keep_me_logged_in_for_1_year($expirein) {
     return 31536000; // one year in seconds
}
add_filter( 'auth_cookie_expiration', 'keep_me_logged_in_for_1_year' );

The above code will keep your authentication cookie for a year.

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Basic HTML

Dana Sallow wrote me a note:

“Hello – I read your page markohoven.com/2020/05/15/css-stylesheet-selectors/ and have two words: incredibly useful! I loved the HTML-related resources you mention there. I shared your post with a co-worker, and he shared with me a very helpful guide on how to use HTML. https://www.websiteplanet.com/blog/html-guide-beginners/ Since your readers might need this for either their work or personal life, I do believe they’ll find it useful if you add it to your page. Thanks again for the resource! Best, Dana.”
So here it is:

Continue reading Basic HTML

Unix timestamp in VB

Okay, remember these date functions?
Here is another one when asked to submit a date/time as a Unix timestamp…

Calculated in seconds from January 1st, 1970 in Visual Basic.

Public Function fncConvertToUnixTimestamp(datDate As DateTime) As Double
    Dim datOrigin As DateTime = New DateTime(1970, 1, 1, 0, 0, 0, 0, DateTimeKind.Utc)
    Dim diff As TimeSpan = datDate.ToUniversalTime() - datOrigin
    Return (Math.Floor(diff.TotalSeconds))
End Function

Have a nice day!