Development – AgileAdam.com

Development, Tech Tips

Using lnav to View Live DDEV Logs

/ October 18, 2023

https://lnav.org/ is a fantastic tool to work with log files. The SQL query functionality is a lot like https://github.com/multiprocessio/dsq, which also impresses.

My quick tip is that lnav can read from stdin. This means you can pipe content into it. Here’s how I monitor my ddev environment in realtime. Hooray for colors!

Shell

ddev logs -f | lnav -q

1

ddev logs -f | lnav -q

If you haven’t explored lnav you’ll want to dive into the documentation a bit. It does a lot more than just give pretty colors to your log files / output. https://docs.lnav.org/en/v0.11.2/hotkeys.html is certainly worth bookmarking.

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Rendering null boolean values with Grid4PHP

/ September 14, 2023

I’m a big fan of Grid4PHP for adding a quick CRUD user interface to a MySQL database.

I have a lot of boolean columns, like “is_telehealth” that need to start as NULL until we make a determination about the field’s value. Grid4PHP renders null booleans as “0” in the table/edit form. This is misleading, given it’s not actually a 0 value. If you add the ‘isnull’ attribute to the column it lets you save the null value, but it still renders as a “0”.

Using a custom formatter I was able to render an empty string (nothing) instead of “0” for these null booleans:

$boolNullFormatter = "function(cellval,options,rowdata){ return cellval === null ? '' : cellval; }";
$cols[] = ['name' => 'is_in_gmb', 'isnull' => true, 'formatter' => $boolNullFormatter];
$cols[] = ['name' => 'is_property', 'isnull' => true, 'formatter' => $boolNullFormatter];
$cols[] = ['name' => 'is_telehealth', 'isnull' => true, 'formatter' => $boolNullFormatter];

$boolNullFormatter = "function(cellval,options,rowdata){ return cellval === null ? '' : cellval; }";

$cols[] = ['name' => 'is_in_gmb', 'isnull' => true, 'formatter' => $boolNullFormatter];

$cols[] = ['name' => 'is_property', 'isnull' => true, 'formatter' => $boolNullFormatter];

$cols[] = ['name' => 'is_telehealth', 'isnull' => true, 'formatter' => $boolNullFormatter];

Development

Drupal Migrate API skip_on_multiple Process Plugin

/ June 7, 2023
Here’s a Migrate API process plugin I wrote in Drupal 9 that skips a property or row when more than one value exists. My use case:
1. My source data has locations; each location has multiple associated organizations
2. My new Drupal site has locations; each location has a parent organization
3. I want to only populate the field_parent_org field (an entity reference) if there is a single organization value in the source data for the location
4. I’m using a custom module called “pdms_migrate”
I’ve stripped out all of the noise from the examples below… hopefully it’s enough to help you understand the example:
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Development, Tech Tips

Handling Daylight Saving Time in Cron Jobs

/ March 16, 2023

Our business is located in Maine (same timezone as New York; we set clocks back one hour in the Fall and ahead one hour in the Spring)
Server A uses ET (automatically adjusts to UTC-4 in the summer, and UTC-5 in the winter)
Server B uses UTC (not affected by Daylight Saving Time) – we cannot control the timezone of this server

We want to ensure both servers are always referencing, figuratively, the same clock on the wall in Maine.

Here’s what we can do to make sure the timing of cron jobs on Server B (UTC) match the changing times of Server A (ET).

# Every day at 11:55pm EST (due to conditional, commands only run during Standard Time (fall/winter)
55 4 * * * [ `TZ=America/New_York date +\%Z` = EST ] && php artisan scrub-db >/dev/null 2>&1

# Every day at 11:55pm EDT (due to conditional, commands only run during Daylight Saving Time (spring/summer)
55 3 * * * [ `TZ=America/New_York date +\%Z` = EDT ] && php artisan scrub-db >/dev/null 2>&1

# Every day at 11:55pm EST (due to conditional, commands only run during Standard Time (fall/winter)

55 4 * * * [ `TZ=America/New_York date +\%Z` = EST ] && php artisan scrub-db >/dev/null 2>&1

# Every day at 11:55pm EDT (due to conditional, commands only run during Daylight Saving Time (spring/summer)

55 3 * * * [ `TZ=America/New_York date +\%Z` = EDT ] && php artisan scrub-db >/dev/null 2>&1

Only one of the php artisan scrub-db commands will execute, depending on the time of year.

Development, Tech Tips

Using Dataview with Charts in Obsidian

/ July 28, 2022

Obsidian is my third most used application after Keyboard Maestro and Alfred. I’ve been using the dataview plugin since I got started with Obsidian. It’s an incredible plugin that gives you the ability to treat your notes like database records. In this example I’ll show how I use dataview to make my projects queryable, and then how I use Obsidian-Charts to make some bar charts of this data.

Using Dataview Variables

Here’s an example of a Project file in my Obsidian vault:

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Development

Testing Cookie Modification in Laravel 8

/ February 4, 2022

If there’s a better way to pass a cookie from one request to another, in a phpunit feature test in Laravel, please let me know! Here’s one way to handle it:

<?php

namespace Tests\Feature;

use Illuminate\Cookie\CookieValuePrefix;
use Tests\TestCase;

class DiveDeeperTest extends TestCase
{

    /**
     * Tests if the diveDeeper route appends the passed value to the cookie arr.
     * @return void
     */
    public function test_it_updates_path_cookie()
    {
        // Post a deeperPath to the diveDeeper route (with a starter cookie).
        // This should append the "deeperPath" value to the "path" cookie array.
        $resp = $this->withCookie('path', serialize(['/']))
            ->post(route('diveDeeper'), [
                'deeperPath' => 'Users'
            ]);

        // Assert that the cookie has been modified.
        $resp->assertCookie('path', serialize(['/', 'Users']));

        // If we make another post request here, it won't include our
        // modified "path" cookie. We have to retrieve it, then pass it
        // through to the next request.

        // Decrypt the cookie (now modified by the diveDeeper route).
        $cookieValue = CookieValuePrefix::remove(app('encrypter')
            ->decrypt($resp->getCookie('path')->getValue(), false));

        // Hit the diveDeeper route again using the modified cookie value.
        $resp = $this->withCookie('path', $cookieValue)
            ->post(route('diveDeeper'), [
                'deeperPath' => 'adam'
            ]);

        // Assert that the cookie has been modified again.
        $resp->assertCookie('path', serialize(['/', 'Users', 'adam']));

        // Etc...
    }
}

<?php

namespace Tests\Feature;

use Illuminate\Cookie\CookieValuePrefix;

use Tests\TestCase;

class DiveDeeperTest extends TestCase

{

/**

* Tests if the diveDeeper route appends the passed value to the cookie arr.

* @return void

public function test_it_updates_path_cookie()

{

// Post a deeperPath to the diveDeeper route (with a starter cookie).

// This should append the "deeperPath" value to the "path" cookie array.

$resp = $this->withCookie('path', serialize(['/']))

->post(route('diveDeeper'), [

'deeperPath' => 'Users'

]);

// Assert that the cookie has been modified.

$resp->assertCookie('path', serialize(['/', 'Users']));

// If we make another post request here, it won't include our

// modified "path" cookie. We have to retrieve it, then pass it

// through to the next request.

// Decrypt the cookie (now modified by the diveDeeper route).

$cookieValue = CookieValuePrefix::remove(app('encrypter')

->decrypt($resp->getCookie('path')->getValue(), false));

// Hit the diveDeeper route again using the modified cookie value.

$resp = $this->withCookie('path', $cookieValue)

->post(route('diveDeeper'), [

'deeperPath' => 'adam'

]);

// Assert that the cookie has been modified again.

$resp->assertCookie('path', serialize(['/', 'Users', 'adam']));

// Etc...

}

Development

Any Random Saturday Using Faker

/ January 5, 2022

Here’s a quick one, folks. I’m using Faker in Laravel factories to generate realistic data. I have a “week end date” field in one of my models that must always be a Saturday. Here’s how I generate a unique random Saturday:

PHP

date('Y-m-d', strtotime('next Saturday ' . $this->faker->unique->date()))

1

date('Y-m-d', strtotime('next Saturday ' . $this->faker->unique->date()))

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Development

Using “php artisan serve” with xdebug and PHPStorm

/ October 29, 2021

This is more of a person note for myself. This posts assumes some knowledge of php, Laravel, artisan, Homebrew, and xdebug.

I’ve been using php artisan serve to serve Laravel applications locally. It’s quick and it works well.

It’s probably not a great solution if you’re working with other people on a project, or if you want to implement a good CD/CI workflow. Having said that, it’s what I’m using today, so I figured I’d document how I got xdebug working with it (on my Mac).

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Development

Using Carbon to Generate Random Dates and Times

/ October 27, 2021

There are a number of ways to generate random dates/times in PHP. Here are some examples using the Carbon library:

// Between now and 180 days ago
Carbon::today()->subDays(rand(0, 180))
> 2021-09-02 00:00:00
> 2021-06-23 00:00:00
> 2021-05-23 00:00:00

// Between now and 180 days ago with random time
Carbon::today()->subDays(rand(0, 179))->addSeconds(rand(0, 86400));
> 2021-06-11 22:35:03
> 2021-10-24 13:19:53
> 2021-06-09 20:47:44

// Between now and 180 days ago

Carbon::today()->subDays(rand(0, 180))

> 2021-09-02 00:00:00

> 2021-06-23 00:00:00

> 2021-05-23 00:00:00

// Between now and 180 days ago with random time

Carbon::today()->subDays(rand(0, 179))->addSeconds(rand(0, 86400));

> 2021-06-11 22:35:03

> 2021-10-24 13:19:53

> 2021-06-09 20:47:44

Development

Adding a Global Function to Cypress for a Date {num} Months Ago

/ October 25, 2021

I’m working on a COVID-19 booster shot registration form. On this form I ask the user when they received their last COVID-19 vaccine shot. This is three simple fields (the month values are 01, 02, 03, etc.):

Date of last covid shot

Each vaccine brand (Pfizer, Moderna, J&J) has different eligibility criteria as it relates to the time since the individual received their original vaccine series. Pfizer, for example, is 6 months. My form needs to reject a user who says they received Pfizer less than 6 months ago.

Using Cypress I wanted some test coverage of this functionality. Original I had hard-coded a date value of 5 months ago:

cy.get('select[name="datelastvax_month"]').select('08');
cy.get('select[name="datelastvax_day"]').select('01');
cy.get('select[name="datelastvax_year"]').select('2021');

cy.get('select[name="datelastvax_month"]').select('08');

cy.get('select[name="datelastvax_day"]').select('01');

cy.get('select[name="datelastvax_year"]').select('2021');

As you can imagine this would work well for a while. Fast-forward a few months from now… the time ago will eventually be more than 6 months ago. I don’t want to have to keep updating this code with a recent date. The obvious solution is to dynamically choose the dates based on the current date. A global helper function would be ideal as I need to use this in many tests. Here’s a simple solution:

Step 1: Define the Function in index.js

The support/index.js file is loaded before each Cypress run. Creating a global function here is a quick way to introduce a reusable piece of code.

/**
 * Returns a simple object for {num} months ago, containing YYYY, MM, DD.
 *
 * @param {number} num
 *   Number of months to subtract from current date.
 *
 * @return object
 *   Object containing three properties (year:YYYY, month:MM, day:DD)
 */
cy.getDateMonthsAgo = (num) => {
    const dateObj = new Date(
        new Date().getFullYear(),
        new Date().getMonth() - num,
        new Date().getDate()
    );

    return {
        year: dateObj.getFullYear().toString(),
        month: ('0' + (dateObj.getMonth() + 1)).slice(-2),
        day: ('0' + dateObj.getDate()).slice(-2),
    }
}

/**

* Returns a simple object for {num} months ago, containing YYYY, MM, DD.

* @param {number} num

* Number of months to subtract from current date.

* @return object

* Object containing three properties (year:YYYY, month:MM, day:DD)

cy.getDateMonthsAgo = (num) => {

const dateObj = new Date(

new Date().getFullYear(),

new Date().getMonth() - num,

new Date().getDate()

);

return {

year: dateObj.getFullYear().toString(),

month: ('0' + (dateObj.getMonth() + 1)).slice(-2),

day: ('0' + dateObj.getDate()).slice(-2),

}

There are many solutions to handle getting a date from {num} months ago. If you start looking around for “What is a month, really?” you will find many different opinions. The code I’m using above responds like most humans do: give the same day of the month from {num} months ago. With a {num} of 5 (five months ago), on October 25, 2021 the result would be May 25, 2021.

WARNING: Please note the following:

new Date(2021, 1, 28) ==> February 28, 2021
new Date(2021, 1, 29) ==> March 1, 2021
new Date(2021, 1, 30) ==> March 2, 2021
new Date(2021, 1, 31) ==> March 3, 2021
new Date(2021, 1, 32) ==> March 4, 2021

new Date(2021, 1, 28) ==> February 28, 2021

new Date(2021, 1, 29) ==> March 1, 2021

new Date(2021, 1, 30) ==> March 2, 2021

new Date(2021, 1, 31) ==> March 3, 2021

new Date(2021, 1, 32) ==> March 4, 2021

Step 2: Use the Function

const fiveMonthsAgo = cy.getDateMonthsAgo(5);
cy.get('select[name="datelastvax_month"]').select(fiveMonthsAgo.month);
cy.get('select[name="datelastvax_day"]').select(fiveMonthsAgo.day);
cy.get('select[name="datelastvax_year"]').select(fiveMonthsAgo.year);

const fiveMonthsAgo = cy.getDateMonthsAgo(5);

cy.get('select[name="datelastvax_month"]').select(fiveMonthsAgo.month);

cy.get('select[name="datelastvax_day"]').select(fiveMonthsAgo.day);

cy.get('select[name="datelastvax_year"]').select(fiveMonthsAgo.year);

Using Dataview Variables

Step 1: Define the Function in index.js

Step 2: Use the Function