oEmbed fun

I’m way behind the times, I know, but I’ve finally had the opportunity to help build an oEmbed provider. Check it out in action:

To get the chart in to this post I used the ChartBlocks wordpress plugin.

The plugin adds ChartBlocks as an oEmbed provider for WordPress. This means that when I insert the URL:

http://public.chartblocks.com/c/5437d110c9a61dad23313fdd/

in to the post on its own line, the blog visits the oEmbed page at:

http://embed.chartblocks.com/1.0/oembed/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fpublic.chartblocks.com%2Fc%2F5437d110c9a61dad23313fdd%2F&format=json

to find out how to embed the chart.

This saves me having to grab the embed code for the chart, or update if it it ever changes. The internet is awesome sometimes!

ChartBlocks goes in to beta

A project I’ve been working on for some time now has hit public beta. It is called “ChartBlocks” and allows you to design and publish charts online in a number of formats, with analytics and sharing built right in.

This will be the first public embed of a chart from the platform:

If you’re looking to create vector charts, which you can download and publish, or share with the internet (through Facebook, twitter, an embed on your website) sign up for the beta here.

PHP Kent – The first meetup

Thursday 18th April 2013 at the LOL Bar in Maidstone.

It’s been a long time coming (the idea started in 2010), but my business partner and I have finally got around to organising a local PHP user group in Kent (UK).

I attend PHP London frequently, but am hoping to meet local developers and share ideas outside of that. Not able to get enough of PHP user groups, I plan to attend both on a monthly basis! 🙂

For more information on the meetup, like when the next event is scheduled, and to RSVP – please head over to the meetup page.

RB Fitocracy wordpress plugin released

I’ve just released a new WordPress plug-in to display Fitocracy stats on your blog. Give it a whirl and let me know what you think: http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/rb-fitocracy/

The next version will have more information available (total points, most recent workout, etc). As soon as its possible (via some sort of official Fitocracy API) I’ll be removing the need to enter your own account details too!

Running phing from its phar

As of phing 2.4.10 you can download phing as a phar file, perfect for using phing on servers with PHP > 5.3 but without access to PEAR. Quite new to phar files I struggled to get started, but it turns out its actually really easy! Failing to find any resources online myself, hopefully this will help somebody else.
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