<ul id="list">
	<li>1</li>
	<li>2</li>
	<li>3</li>
</ul>

we can use the following code to find out the number of list items under the UL

var count = $('#list').size() //here the value in count will be 3

If you want to find out the number of elements of all types under a particular elelment, then you can use  *

<div id="first">
<span>Span element 1</span>
<span>Span element 2</span>
<p>paragraph</p>
<span>Another span</span>
<div>another div</div>
</div>

If you want to find out the total number of ‘span’ elements under the div with id “first”, use the following code

var count = $("#first > span ").size() //value in the var 'count' will be 3

we can use the following code to get the number of elements of all types under the div with id “first”

var count = $("#first > *").size() //value in the var count will be 5

I will show you how to override a module’s layout with the help of an example. One of the most important module in Joomla is the menu module. Its files are located inside the  mod_menu directory inside the modules directory. The layout files of this particular module are located inside the tmpl directory. If you want to override these layout files, you have to move the layout files to your current template’s directory. My current template name is beez5 ( beez5 comes with Joomla) and I am going to move these layout files(files in side the tmpl directory) to the beez5 folder, before moving all the files, we have to make a few directories inside the template(beez5) directory. I have to create a new folder with name “html” inside the template folder to override the layout file (html folder is present in most of the templates) .I have to create one more folder inside the “html” directory as the name of the overriding module, so I have created a new folder with name “mod_menu”, then we have to paste the entire files in the tmpl directory to this directory. You can make what ever changes you need in the layout in the new files and when Joomla renders module mod_menu’s output, it takes the layout files from the mod_menu directory in the template folder.

PHP code to short URL using to.ly

function shortit($url)
{
	$curl = curl_init();
	curl_setopt($curl, CURLOPT_URL, "http://to.ly/api.php?longurl=".urlencode($url));
	curl_setopt($curl, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER,1);
	curl_setopt($curl, CURLOPT_HEADER, 0);
	$shorturl = curl_exec ($curl);
	curl_close ($curl);
	return $shorturl;
}
$url = "http://phpxpert.com/";
echo shortit($url);

PHP code to short URL using  tinyurl.com

function shortit($url)
{
	$url = "http://tinyurl.com/api-create.php?url=" . $url;
	$shorturl = file_get_contents($url);
	return $shorturl;
}

$url = "http://phpxpert.com/";
echo shortit($url);

function getDetails()
{
     $options = array();
     $options['driver']   = 'mysql';
     $options['host']     = 'localhost';
     $options['user']     = 'dbuser';
     $options['password'] = 'dbpassword';
     $options['database'] = 'databasename';
     $options['prefix']   = 'tblprefix_';
     $db = & JDatabase::getInstance($options);
     $query = "SELECT * FROM #__example_table";
     $db->setQuery($query);
     return $db->loadAssocList();
}

htaccess stands for “Hypertext Access” and according to Apache .htaccess files (or “distributed configuration files”) provide a way to make configuration changes on a per-directory basis. A file, containing one or more configuration directives, is placed in a particular directory, and the directives apply to that directory, and all subdirectories thereof.

Most of the hosting companies enabled directory indexing in the server configuration file. If the directory indexing is enabled and you dont have a default directory file (index.html, index.php etc..) in the directory  then all the files in the directory get listed on the browser as in the following image

On the other hand if the directory indexing is disabled in the server and if you dont have a default file (index.html, index.php etc..) in the directory, you get a message like in following image on the browser and we can access one file by specifying its name.

If your server disabled directory indexing and you need directory indexing you can use the following directive in the htaccess file  to show the file list on the browser.

Options +Indexes

If the server enabled directory indexing and you don’t need directory indexing, you can use the following directive to disable the directory indexing.

Options -Indexes

It is also possible to hide files of specific format, for example the following directive hide all the gif and html files in the directory from the files list.

IndexIgnore *.gif *.html

You can also change the default directory file by an htaccess directive.

DirectoryIndex about.html

The above htaccess directive set about.html as the default file in the directory.

If you want to show more details in the index such as Last modified time, Size etc.. then you can use the fancy indexing directive in the htaccess file

IndexOptions FancyIndexing
or
IndexOptions +FancyIndexing

The above command in the htaccess file shows more details of the files in the index as the following image.

If FancyIndexing is enabled in the server and you want to remove fanyindexing use the following directive in the htaccess file

IndexOptions -FancyIndexing

The __toString() method allows a class to decide how it will react when it is treated like a string.This method must return a string.

The method __toString() is defined in the class Japplication. (class Jsite is a subclass of Japplication) so when code echo $app execute it calls the method __toString() defined in the class Japplication which in turn return the site contents.

To see the use of front page template, make a copy of page.tpl.php file located in your theme directory and rename it to page-front.tpl.php and make some changes in the file. The changes will be visible only in the front page. So if you want to have different layout for your home page just change the structure of the page-front.tpl.php file according to your home page design.

A lot of dynamic templates are available in drupal. If you have a number of contents in your Drupal site,  you can have a separate layout or design for each of your contents. In Drupal each content has an ID associated with it, for example the first content has ID 1 and second has ID 2 and so on. you can find out the ID from the page URL. If you would like to have a separate layout for the content with ID 1, just create a copy of page template (page.tpl.php) file and rename it to  page-node-1.tpl.php and if you need a separate template for the content with ID 2, you can create a page template file with name page-node-2.tpl.php so you can have a separate layout for each of your contents. You can also use page-node-edit.tpl.php template file for editing the content in the site.

If you would like to have a separate layout for each of your node type, it is possible by creating a copy of your node.tpl.php and renaming it accordingly. Basically drupal has two node types Story and Page. If you want to have separate layout for each of these types, make two copies of node.tpl.php and rename as node-story.tpl.php and node-page.tpl.php and change the layout of both the files. All the story type contents will be rendered on the template file node-story.tpl.php and page type contents will be rendered on node-page.thp.php file.

You can also define dynamic templates for blocks based on the regions in the page. You can have a template for each of your regions. To do so create a copy of block.tpl.php file located in your theme directory and rename it in the format  block-[region-name].tpl.php, you have to use the the appropriate region name in the template file like  block-footer.tpl.php or block-left.tpl.php and change the structure of the new block template file. You will see the changes in the corresponding blocks.

You can also define a template for a module in a block for example if you want to define a layout a for the block of user module, you can use the dynamic template block-user.tpl.php in the format block-[module-name].tpl.php. If the user module has more than one block you use the block’s delta value to define the template, for example block-user-1.tpl.php or  block-user-2.tpl.php. You can find out the delta value of a block by checking its HTML code

 <div class="block block-{module}" id="block-{module}-{delta}">

You can also define a template for your comment section, you can have separate comment template for each node type in the.format comment-[nodetype].tpl.php  example comment.story.tpl.php

After installing Drupal in the server or in your localhost, you will get a home page similar to the following image

When you add your first content (story type) to drupal it comes to the front page as follows and if you want to read the entire content you have to click on the read more link.

when you add more contents to the site,  latest post comes to the top in front page as follows.

If you need a particular node on home page then you can set it from the Drupal admin panel. Please got to Administrator > Site configuration > Site information. You will see a lot of configuration options in this page and at the bottom you can see Default front page You can set your default home page content from here. You have to use the node id to set a default home page. Each content has an ID associated with it, you can find the ID from the the content URL. Put the id of the node in the text box  as follows and Save configuration.

If you have a separate design or layout for the home page then you have to do something with the theme files. Currently my demo site using Garlent theme, and if you check the files in the Garlent theme folder, there is a file calld page.tpl.php. This page will be display the content section. By default this file is responsible for all the pages and if you need separate layout for the home page just make a copy of this file and rename it as page-front.tpl.php and change the layout of the second file. So the home page will  be following the second page template file page-front.tpl.php. If you want to know more about dynamic templates please read this post http://phpxpert.com/2011/08/17/dynamic-templates-in-drupal/

The following CSS code includes the style sheet stylesheet-ie.css in all versions on internet explorer.

<!--[if IE]>
	<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="stylesheet-ie.css" />
< ![endif]-->

It is possible to load style sheets for a specific version of Internet explorer. Fox example the following code include the style sheet for stylesheet-ie7.css IE7 only

<!--[if IE 7]>
	<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="stylesheet-ie7.css" />
< ![endif]-->

It is also possible to add conditional statements for targeting more than one version of internet explorer.

<!--[if gt IE 7]> file path  <![endif]-->  targets IE8 and above
<!--[if lt IE 7]> file path  <![endif]--> targets IE6 and below
<!--[if gte IE 7]> file path <![endif]--> targets IE7 and above
<!--[if lte IE 7]> file path <![endif]--> targets IE7 and below

Thanks