How to implement SASS in Laravel 5.1 (with pure PHP)

Hi Everybody,

In this blog we will discuss about how to implement SASS in Laravel 5.1

This is a super-simple PHP script – loaded via Composer – that compiles your SASS stuff to CSS every time you run your application (while in development for sure).

It’s extremely simple (one line of code in a default setup), and built on top of the excellent scssphp SASS compiler, a tool that does exactly what Ruby’s SASS compiler does, but it is written in pure PHP. And by the way, it also works with any other modern PHP-framework too, you’ll just have to edit the folder paths.

This will compile your entire SASS files to CSS every X seconds. A little bit weird, but in the beginning I thought this might be the better solution.

For this tutorial we assume you already have Laravel installed and running.

The installation

Add this to your composer.json, please note that this is a require-dev, not a normal require. This devides real dependencies from ones you only need for local development.

"require-dev": {
    "panique/laravel-sass": "dev-master"
}

Then edit your index.php (in folder “public”) and put this line right before $app->run().

SassCompiler::run("scss/", "css/");
// some people said this does not work in their installation, so if you have trouble, try these paths:
// SassCompiler::run("public/scss/", "public/css/");

The first parameter is the folder where your SASS files are, the second one if the folder where your CSS are or should be. If you don’t have these folder, create them. Also make sure PHP has write-rights to the css folder, so do a

sudo chmod -R 777 public/css

while being in var/www. Please note that this is just for development, on a production server we don’t need the css folder to be writeable in any way.

Now install the Composer dependencies via

composer install
or
composer update

Composer automatically installs everything in require and require-dev by default.

Now edit app/views/hello.php and put something like

<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="css/style.css">

into the head to make sure we really load a .css file. Also delete the entire default style block (so it don’t confuses you in any way).

Create a style.scss in public/scss and put some basic SASS rules in it, like

$color_one: green;
$color_two: yellow;

body {
    background-color: $color_one;
    .welcome {
        background-color: $color_two;
    }
}

and run your app. You should instantly see the startscreen with weird colour, defined by the above SASS file.

In production

When going to production, make sure you install your Composer dependencies without the stuff defined in require-dev (which is just for development purposes), via

composer install --no-dev

Also make sure to comment out the new line in your index.php Future version of the script will contain a development / production switch that doesn’t need manual actions.

Thanks!!!

How to implement asynchronous processes in PHP

Hi Everybody,

In this blog we will discuss about how to implement asynchronous processes in PHP.

There's certainly more than one way to skin asynchronous tasks in PHP.

One of the main reasons we need asynchronous processes in PHP is to allow something very time consuming to happen in the background, but not keep the client “on hold” for that entire duration; as PHP is typically synchronous, anything that takes a long time on the server will appear to take a long time for the client.

In that scenario, one solution would be to “detach” the client from the currently loading page, and let them have control of their browser back while the PHP script continues to do it's thing. We should be able to make this happen by sending some headers to the client to say “ok, we’re done here, connection ends”, even though PHP is still running.


class Service
{
    const HEADER_NEW_LINE = "\r\n";

    public function store()
    {
        /*code for reduce process time*/
        self::closeConnection('true');
//do your code that take much more time e.g. upload a video or import an excel that take more time
    }

    public static function closeConnection($instantOutput = '') {
        set_time_limit(0);
        ignore_user_abort(TRUE);
        header('Connection: close' . self::HEADER_NEW_LINE);
        header('Content-Encoding: none' . self::HEADER_NEW_LINE);
        ob_start();
        echo $instantOutput;
        $size = ob_get_length();
        header('Content-Length: ' . $size, TRUE);
        ob_end_flush();
        ob_flush();
        flush();
    }
}

There are another way to implement asynchronous in php like open socket, log file, fork a curl process etc, but as per my requirement i did choose this 'detach client' method, you are free to choose any method as per your requirement.

Thanks.

How to generate a Certificate Signing Request (CSR) - Apache 2.x

Hi Everybody,

Today we will discuss about how to generate a Certificate Signing Request (CSR) for Apache 2.x web server.

Follow these instructions to generate a certificate signing request (CSR) for your Apache Web server. When you have completed generating your CSR, cut/copy and paste it into the CSR field on the SSL certificate-request page.

To Generate a Certificate Signing Request for Apache 2.x

1. Log in to your server's terminal (SSH).

    At the prompt, type the following command:

    openssl req -new -newkey rsa:2048 -nodes -keyout yourdomain.key -out yourdomain.csr

    Replace yourdomain with the domain name you're securing. For example, if your domain name is       coolexample.com, you would type coolexample.key and coolexample.csr.

    

2. Enter the requested information:

     2.1.  Common Name: The fully-qualified domain name, or URL, you're securing.

        If you are requesting a Wildcard certificate, add an asterisk (*) to the left of the common name where you want the wildcard, for example *.coolexample.com.

     2.2.  Organization: The legally-registered name for your business. If you are enrolling as an individual, enter the certificate requestor's name.

     2.3.  Organization Unit: If applicable, enter the DBA (doing business as) name.

     2.4.  City or Locality: Name of the city where your organization is registered/located. Do not abbreviate.

     2.5  State or Province: Name of the state or province where your organization is located. Do not abbreviate.

     2.6. Country: The two-letter International Organization for Standardization (ISO) format country code for where your organization is legally registered.

        If you do not want to enter a password for this SSL, you can leave the Passphrase field blank. However, please understand there might be additional risks.

3. Open the CSR in a text editor and copy all of the text.

    Paste the full CSR into the SSL enrollment form in your account.

Thanks.