Notes on codes, projects and everything
I am currently preparing myself in applying a postgrad programme and is looking for a research topic. At first I wanted to do something that is related to cloud computing but after some discussion with people around me, they suggest me to do something on semantic web. While posting my notes here, I realized that I had posted something on semantic network that looks like the base of semantic web here (Post still “Under construction” as of writing, will post the diagrams later tonight).
Recently I am being assigned to work on a FSM based workflow system to enable my other colleagues to use it in their application. I am rather impressed with the simplicity of the workflow system (initially designed by my Technical Director) and decided to post some notes here. The workflow system was developed for CodeIgniter PHP framework and Drupal CMS.
As the name implies, Resource Definition Framework, or RDF in short, is a language to represent information about resources in world wide web. Information that can be represented is mostly metadata like title (assuming the resource is a web-page), author, last modified date etc. Besides representing resource that is network-accessible, it can be used to represent things that cannot be accessed through the network, as long as it can be identified using a URI.
Writing a usable form and database library has always been a painful experience. So why bother re-inventing the wheel when there are so many to choose from already? I am writing one mostly for learning purpose. After numerous attempts, I finally get my form and database library in shape. It is nowhere complete, but nor it is perfect, but it is currently the implementation that is closest to my original design. I will keep working on it so it can be used in my personal projects in the future.
After comparing my own implementation of MVC with CodeIgniter’s, now I’m comparing Kohana’s and Zend’s. I have just shifted from CodeIgniter to Kohana recently in work and is currently learning on how to use Zend Framework to build my web-app. As everybody knows, Zend Framework is more like a collection of library classes than a framework a la Ruby on Rails, using MVC in Zend Framework would require one to begin from bootstrapping stage. However, in Kohana, just like other frameworks, bootstrapping is done by the framework itself so the developer will get an installation that almost just works (after a little bit of configuration).
Recently I find some of my pet projects share a common pattern, they all are based on some kind of grids. So I find myself writing similar piece of code over and over again. While re-inventing wheels is quite fun, especially when you learn new way of getting things done with every iteration, it is actually quite tedious after a while.