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Laravel News Links

https://opengraph.githubassets.com/9e1417cda6be8de3b732d6f87a48dfaa325b403c9cc0e961ddac0a1330482fb5/icehouse-ventures/laravel-chartjs

composer require icehouse-ventures/laravel-chartjs

IcehouseVentures\LaravelChartjs\Providers\ChartjsServiceProvider::class

php artisan vendor:publish --provider="IcehouseVentures\LaravelChartjs\Providers\ChartjsServiceProvider" --tag="config"

// Publish Chartjs version 4 assets
php artisan vendor:publish --provider="IcehouseVentures\LaravelChartjs\Providers\ChartjsServiceProvider" --force --tag="assets"

// Publish Chartjs version 3 assets 
php artisan vendor:publish --provider="IcehouseVentures\LaravelChartjs\Providers\ChartjsServiceProvider" --force --tag="assets-v3

// Publish Chartjs version 2 assets 
php artisan vendor:publish --provider="IcehouseVentures\LaravelChartjs\Providers\ChartjsServiceProvider" --force --tag="assets-v2"

$service = app()->chartjs
    ->name()
    ->type()
    ->size()
    ->labels()
    ->datasets()
    ->options();

    options: {
        scales: {
            x: {
                type: 'time',
                time: {
                    displayFormats: {
                        quarter: 'MMM YYYY'
                    }
                }
            }
        }
    }

        $chart->optionsRaw("{
 legend: {
 display:false
 },
 scales: {
 xAxes: [{
 gridLines: {
 display:false
 } 
 }]
 }
 }");

$chart->optionsRaw([
    'legend' => [
        'display' => true,
        'labels' => [
            'fontColor' => '#000'
        ]
    ],
    'scales' => [
        'xAxes' => [
            [
                'stacked' => true,
                'gridLines' => [
                    'display' => true
                ]
            ]
        ]
    ]
]);

// ExampleController.php

$chartjs = app()->chartjs
        ->name('lineChartTest')
        ->type('line')
        ->size(['width' => 400, 'height' => 200])
        ->labels(['January', 'February', 'March', 'April', 'May', 'June', 'July'])
        ->datasets([
            [
                "label" => "My First dataset",
                'backgroundColor' => "rgba(38, 185, 154, 0.31)",
                'borderColor' => "rgba(38, 185, 154, 0.7)",
                "pointBorderColor" => "rgba(38, 185, 154, 0.7)",
                "pointBackgroundColor" => "rgba(38, 185, 154, 0.7)",
                "pointHoverBackgroundColor" => "#fff",
                "pointHoverBorderColor" => "rgba(220,220,220,1)",
                'data' => [65, 59, 80, 81, 56, 55, 40],
            ],
            [
                "label" => "My Second dataset",
                'backgroundColor' => "rgba(38, 185, 154, 0.31)",
                'borderColor' => "rgba(38, 185, 154, 0.7)",
                "pointBorderColor" => "rgba(38, 185, 154, 0.7)",
                "pointBackgroundColor" => "rgba(38, 185, 154, 0.7)",
                "pointHoverBackgroundColor" => "#fff",
                "pointHoverBorderColor" => "rgba(220,220,220,1)",
                'data' => [12, 33, 44, 44, 55, 23, 40],
            ]
        ])
        ->options([]);

return view('example', compact('chartjs'));


 // example.blade.php

<div style="width:75%;">
    {!! $chartjs->render() !!}
</div>

// ExampleController.php

$chartjs = app()->chartjs
         ->name('barChartTest')
         ->type('bar')
         ->size(['width' => 400, 'height' => 200])
         ->labels(['Label x', 'Label y'])
         ->datasets([
             [
                 "label" => "My First dataset",
                 'backgroundColor' => ['rgba(255, 99, 132, 0.2)', 'rgba(54, 162, 235, 0.2)'],
                 'data' => [69, 59]
             ],
             [
                 "label" => "My First dataset",
                 'backgroundColor' => ['rgba(255, 99, 132, 0.3)', 'rgba(54, 162, 235, 0.3)'],
                 'data' => [65, 12]
             ]
         ])
         ->options([]);

return view('example', compact('chartjs'));


 // example.blade.php

<div style="width:75%;">
    {!! $chartjs->render() !!}
</div>

// ExampleController.php

$chartjs = app()->chartjs
        ->name('pieChartTest')
        ->type('pie')
        ->size(['width' => 400, 'height' => 200])
        ->labels(['Label x', 'Label y'])
        ->datasets([
            [
                'backgroundColor' => ['#FF6384', '#36A2EB'],
                'hoverBackgroundColor' => ['#FF6384', '#36A2EB'],
                'data' => [69, 59]
            ]
        ])
        ->options([]);

return view('example', compact('chartjs'));


 // example.blade.php

<div style="width:75%;">
    {!! $chartjs->render() !!}
</div>

php artisan vendor:publish --provider="IcehouseVentures\LaravelChartjs\Providers\ChartjsServiceProvider" --tag="views" --force

Laravel News Links

https://cdn.arstechnica.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/71V3DbiEJfL._AC_SL1500_-760×380.jpg

In April, Microsoft announced that it would stop selling Microsoft-branded computer peripherals. Today, Onward Brands announced that it’s giving those discarded Microsoft-stamped gadgets a second life under new branding. Products like the Microsoft Ergonomic Keyboard will become Incase products with "Designed by Microsoft" branding.

Beyond the computer accessories saying "Designed by Microsoft," they should be the same keyboards, mice, webcams, headsets, and speakers, Onward, Incase’s parent company, said, per The Verge. Onward said its Incase brand will bring back 23 Microsoft-designed products in 2024 and hopes for availability to start in Q2.

Incase also plans to launch an ergonomic keyboard that Microsoft designed but never released. Onward CEO Charlie Tebele told The Verge that there’s "potential" for Incase to release even more designs Microsoft never let us see.

Licensing deal

The return of Microsoft peripheral designs resurrects (albeit in a new form) a line of computer gear started in 1983 when Microsoft released its first mouse, the Microsoft Mouse.

Neither Onward nor Microsoft shared the full terms of their licensing agreement, but Onward claims that Incase will leverage the same supply chain and manufacturing components that Microsoft did, The Verge noted.

"Microsoft will still retain ownership of its designs, so it could potentially bring back classic mice or keyboards itself in the future or continue to renew its license to Incase," The Verge reported, pointing out that Onward isn’t licensing every single one of Microsoft’s computer peripherals. Some classics, like the Intellimouse or its modern iterations, for example, don’t make the Incase reboot list.

For its part, Microsoft is still "convicted on going under one single" Surface brand, Nancie Gaskill, general manager of Surface, told The Verge.

That said, in Microsoft’s old designs, Incase, whose website is currently filled with backpacks, bags, and laptop and AirPod cases, suddenly finds itself selling keyboards, mice, and other peripherals. Onward’s other brands, Griffin, Incipio, and Survivor, also don’t sell the types of products that Incase is licensing here. If all goes well, Incase could build its own computer accessories portfolio.

Microsoft’s initial departure from Microsoft-brand peripherals meant it would only focus on more expensive, higher-end designs worthy of Surface branding. But that left a gap for the numerous users who felt satisfied with Microsoft’s various designs that were simpler and more affordable. Incase’s venture could help serve those customers, while Microsoft’s legacy with such products can continue without major investment from the tech giant.

Here’s a full list of the Microsoft-designed peripherals that Incase plans to bring back in 2024:

Keyboards

• Bluetooth Keyboard
• Bluetooth Number Pad
• Designer Compact Keyboard
• Ergonomic Keyboard
• Sculpt Comfort Desktop
• Sculpt Ergonomic Desktop
• Sculpt Ergonomic Keyboard
• Wired Desktop 600
• Wired Keyboard 600
• Wireless Comfort Desktop 5050 AES
• Wireless Desktop 850
• Wireless Desktop 900

Mice

• Bluetooth Ergonomic Mouse
• Bluetooth Mouse
• Mobile Mouse 1850
• Modern Mobile Mouse
• Sculpt Ergonomic Mouse

Audio

• Audio Dock
• Modern USB Headset
• Modern USB-C Headset
• Modern USB-C Speaker
• Modern Webcam
• Modern Wireless Headset

Ars Technica – All content

https://laracoding.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/laravel-call-external-api.png

In this tutorial, we’ll create a Laravel application that interacts with an external API to fetch and display a paginated list of posts. We’ll also implement buttons that trigger delete and update calls to the external API. Calling external APIs allow us to integrate with any third parties that exposes their functionality accordingly.

Note the data will be fetched externally but the updates and deletes will be simulated since the test API (jsonplaceholder.typicode.com) we’re using is read-only.

We will be using the Laravel built-in Http facade to send the API calls. While you could also use Guzzle to do this, using the Http facade is the recommended way to go about it. Using the Http facade offers a concise syntax that is in line with Laravel and adds more features like mocking HTTP responses for automated testing.

Let’s get started!

Step 1: Set Up Your Laravel Project

Create a new Laravel project or use an existing one:

laravel new blog-cms
cd blog-cms

Step 2: Create Controller

Create a controller by running:

php artisan make:controller PostController

Step 3: Add Controller Code

Now let’s add code to the PostController to implement methods to show, update, and delete posts by triggering calls to the external posts API:

app/Http/Controllers/PostController.php

<?php

namespace App\Http\Controllers;

use Illuminate\Http\Request;
use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Http;

class PostController extends Controller
{
 public function index()
 {
 $response = Http::get('https://jsonplaceholder.typicode.com/posts');
 $posts = $response->json();

 return view('posts.index', ['posts' => $posts]);
 }

 public function edit($id)
 {
 $response = Http::get('https://jsonplaceholder.typicode.com/posts/' . $id);
 $post = $response->json();

 return view('posts.edit', ['post' => $post]);
 }

 public function update(Request $request, $id)
 {
 // Simulates update logic for a real application (not supported by this API)
 $response = Http::put('https://jsonplaceholder.typicode.com/posts/' . $id, [
 'title' => $request->input('title'),
 'body' => $request->input('body'),
 ]);

 // Simulated response for successful or failed update
 if ($response->successful()) {
 return redirect()->route('posts.index')->with('success', 'Post updated successfully!');
 } else {
 return redirect()->route('posts.index')->with('error', 'Failed to update post. Please try again.');
 }
 }

 public function destroy($id)
 {
 // Simulates deletion logic for a real application (not supported by this API)
 $response = Http::delete('https://jsonplaceholder.typicode.com/posts/' . $id);

 // Simulated response for successful or failed deletion
 if ($response->successful()) {
 return redirect()->route('posts.index')->with('success', 'Post deleted successfully!');
 } else {
 return redirect()->route('posts.index')->with('error', 'Failed to delete post. Please try again.');
 }
 }
}

Step 4: Define Routes

Define routes for post actions in routes/web.php as follows:

routes/web.php

use App\Http\Controllers\PostController;

Route::get('/', [PostController::class, 'index'])->name('posts.index');
Route::get('/posts/{id}/edit', [PostController::class, 'edit'])->name('posts.edit');
Route::put('/posts/{id}', [PostController::class, 'update'])->name('posts.update');
Route::delete('/posts/{id}', [PostController::class, 'destroy'])->name('posts.destroy');

Step 5: Create a Base Layout

Let’s use a simple layout that is based on bootstrap 5 that can show any content along with any success or error message that may occur. Create a file resources/views/layouts/app.blade.php and add:

resources/views/layouts/app.blade.php

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
 <!-- Other meta tags -->
 <link href="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/bootstrap@5.3.0/dist/css/bootstrap.min.css" rel="stylesheet">
 <link href="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/bootstrap-icons/font/bootstrap-icons.css" rel="stylesheet">
 <!-- Other CSS -->
</head>
<body>

 <div class="container mt-4">

 <!-- Display success or error messages -->
 @if (session('success'))
 <div class="alert alert-success">
 
 </div>
 @endif

 @if (session('error'))
 <div class="alert alert-danger">
 
 </div>
 @endif

 @yield('content')

 </div>
</body>
</html>

Step 6: Create a View to Show Posts From API

Generate a Blade view to display the paginated list of posts. Create a file resources/views/posts/index.blade.php and add:

resources/views/posts/index.blade.php

@extends('layouts.app')

@section('content')
 <div class="container mt-4">
 <h1>Posts</h1>
 <div class="table-responsive mt-3">
 <table class="table table-striped">
 <thead>
 <tr>
 <th>Title</th>
 <th>Body</th>
 <th>Actions</th>
 </tr>
 </thead>
 <tbody>
 @foreach($posts as $post)
 <tr>
 <td></td>
 <td></td>
 <td>
 <div class="d-flex">
 <a href="" class="btn btn-sm btn-primary me-2">
 <i class="bi bi-pencil"></i>
 </a>
 <form action="" method="POST">
 @csrf
 @method('DELETE')
 <button type="submit" class="btn btn-sm btn-danger">
 <i class="bi bi-trash"></i>
 </button>
 </form>
 </div>
 </td>
 </tr>
 @endforeach
 </tbody>
 </table>
 </div>
 </div>
@endsection

Step 7: Create Blade View for Edit Post From API

Create a Blade view for the post edit form in resources/views/posts/edit.blade.php. Include the form with populated data, the correct action/route, and @csrf:

resources/views/edit.blade.php

@extends('layouts.app')

@section('content')
 <div class="container mt-4">
 <h1>Edit Post</h1>
 <form action="" method="POST">
 @csrf
 @method('PUT')
 <div class="mb-3">
 <label for="title" class="form-label">Title</label>
 <input type="text" class="form-control" id="title" name="title" value="">
 </div>
 <div class="mb-3">
 <label for="body" class="form-label">Body</label>
 <textarea class="form-control" id="body" name="body"></textarea>
 </div>
 <button type="submit" class="btn btn-primary">Update</button>
 </form>
 </div>
@endsection

Step 8: Test the Application

Run your Laravel server using php artisan serve and navigate to http://localhost:8000 in your browser. You’ll have a paginated list of posts with functional delete and edit buttons, and an edit form ready for updates.

Note: The buttons will work to show edit form and trigger updates as well as deletes calls to the external API. However, the data in the API will not actually change since it is a public read-only API made for testing purposes.

Conclusion

Good job! You’ve successfully created a Laravel application that fetches and displays posts from an external API. You’ve also added buttons to delete posts and update by sending the respective API calls from your controller. I’ve also covered some basic error handling that redirects with either a success or an error message whichever applies.

While the placeholder API I showed here is read-only and the edits and deletes have no effect on the data, the principle is the same for a real API.

With this knowledge you can go ahead and start integrating real-world REST API’s into your Laravel application. Happy coding!

References:

Laravel News Links

https://theawesomer.com/photos/2024/01/tic_tac_toe_t.jpg

Link

We assumed there were thousands of different ways that a game of tic-tac-toe could turn out. While the game board allows for more than 255,000 combinations of Xs and Os, there are far fewer gameplay outcomes. Musician and coder Marc Evanstein ran the numbers and argues there are only 14 different games to be played. (Thanks, Orion!)

The Awesomer

https://i0.wp.com/toolguyd.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/McMaster-Carr-Website-Screen-Capture-2024.jpg?resize=600%2C468&ssl=1

McMaster-Carr is one of the best online suppliers, period.

I’ve ordered all kinds of tools, parts, and materials from McMaster-Carr over the years. While they are perhaps best known to engineers, fabricators, industrial professionals, and other such users, I’m sure they also cater to artists and all kinds of other people.

Looking back at my email history, I have been ordering from McMaster Carr for more than 17 years.

Not every experience has been perfect, but their excellent customer service is always quick to help.

There’s been one exception – I never succeeded in getting a printed catalog.

I placed a new order the other day and received my shipping confirmation today via email.

With this shipping confirmation, I realized that McMaster is now highlighting what’s on the way.

The subject line reads:

Shipped: Dowel Pins, Shafts, and Socket Head Screws

The email more or less says the same, and includes a printable packing slip attachment and UPS tracking information:

We shipped the dowel pins, shafts, and socket head screws on your December 31st order. You will receive them tomorrow. Track your shipment using UPS [redacted]

It’s increasingly rare to see usability improvements like this.

Telling me that order 1234ABCDE has shipped with “2 items on the way” isn’t very helpful if it requires a couple of clicks to get more details.

In general, I feel that McMaster-Carr respects my time more so than a lot of other online suppliers.

When working on larger projects, I might place multiple McMaster orders over the course of a week or month. Highlighting the top parts of an order in the subject line is going to help me sort through order notifications more quickly.

This is a very minor change, but one that provides added convenience. That’s increasingly rare these days, as too often “improvements” end up making things less user friendly.

Related Posts:

These 16 Hex Tools are Anything But Ordinary

Milwaukee M18 12.0Ah Battery and LED Worklight Compatibility Info

Why I Bought a Makita XGT Cordless Vacuum

ToolGuyd

The announcement of Gaston Glock’s death last week, at the age of 94, has brought forth a wave of obituaries and reminiscences about "the way things used to be" in the firearms industry.  Very few individuals can be said to have changed the way arms manufacturers designed, built and marketed their products.  Glock stands tall in the most illustrious of that group, including inventors such as John Moses Browning, Samuel Colt and Hiram Maxim.  He does so, not because he improved the technology in the market at the time, but because he drastically streamlined and improved the productivity of the industry.  Since then, no-one’s looked back.

Glock got into semi-auto pistol manufacturing in 1980 when by chance, he overheard two Austrian Army officers discussing the bidding process for a new service sidearm.  Initially rebuffed by the military powers that be, because he’d never built a firearm before and they presumed him to be ignorant, he took his case to the Austrian Minister of Defense and gained permission to compete for the Army’s handgun program.  He won the contest, and – over the next couple of decades – the worldwide handgun market as well.

"That I knew nothing [about guns] was my advantage," Mr. Glock said in an interview. He bought a number of handguns and disassembled them in his workshop, examining each component for its function while weighing potential improvements. He made prototypes and test-fired them with his left hand; if he was maimed by an explosion, he could still draw blueprints with his right. The product of his efforts was a nine-millimeter semi-automatic pistol that he designated the Glock 17 because it was his 17th invention.

Most notably, the frame of the new Glock pistol was built of industrial plastic, making it lighter and more resistant to corrosion than the conventional all-steel guns in use up to that time. The handgun’s various parts were housed in separate subgroups, making them easy to remove and replace. There was no safety or decocking lever to confuse the user. (The safety was built right into the trigger.) All told, the Glock 17 was a revolutionary new version of a weapon that had remained largely unchanged for a century.

There’s more at the link.

Glock was in the right place at the right time, with a thoroughly modern engineering approach to his work that defied older stereotypes.  While more "traditional" manufacturers made each of their successive models an improvement over their predecessor, never differing that much from their forebears, Glock was willing to ask every time, "Why should this be done like that?  Is there any good reason to uphold the status quo, or can we get rid of older, more time-consuming, more material-dependent processes and use modern engineering to come at the problem(s) in a completely new way?"  To everyone’s surprise, asking that question was the key to the handgun market;  and Glock made very sure to grab hold of that key and retain it as long as he possibly could.  Today, his firm dominates the handgun industry, with many clones of his designs available worldwide.

I liked the Glock from the first time I handled one.  It was lighter than most of its early competitors, and had far fewer parts (34 of them in most full-size Glocks).  That’s a major step forward in simplicity.  As one who’d seen combat in the worst terrain in Africa, where complex weapons systems tended to get chewed up and spat out by the surrounding landscape at the drop of a hat, I’d long been a believer in the old proverb, "Keep It Simple, Stupid!" (K.I.S.S.).  In my personal firearms today, I continue to maintain that perspective, which is why I own more Glocks than any other brand of pistol.  They may look and feel clunky compared to a race-tuned competition pistol, and lack all the little details that illustrate that a gun is a prized possession that’s been "tweaked" to express its owner’s pride of ownership;  but they’ve never let out a "Click" instead of a "Bang!" when failure was not an option.  That sort of reliability in a personal defense weapon is worth gold, and then some.

Well, Mr. Glock has now gone to his reward.  I wonder if he was met with an honor guard of Glock-toting angels at the Pearly Gates?  If ever a man deserved such an accolade, it’s him.

Peter

Bayou Renaissance Man

The pt-query-digest is my go-to tool in order to perform slow query analysis, improve query performance and thus overall MySQL performance. In this blog post, I’m going to highlight the…

The post How to filter MySQL slow queries using pt-query-digest first appeared on Change Is Inevitable.Planet MySQL

https://theawesomer.com/photos/2023/12/car_repair_sounds_t.jpg

Link

Auto mechanics hear all kinds of weird stories about cars and the problems they’re having. Just Rolled In offers up another amusing video of strange sounds that cars are making, then follows them up with the description provided by each customer. Our favorite is the defective blend door actuator, which sounds exactly like the intro to Hot for Teacher.

The Awesomer

https://www.ammoland.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/SandstormPR_Rifle-500×320.jpg

The Civilian Marksmanship Program (CMP) is excited to announce the launch of Combine 2 in its Sightline series of Esports games – Sandstorm!

In November, the CMP began its venture into Esports through Sightline, Combine 1, which had over 100,000 unique users and aimed to present versatile marksmanship training through gameplay that can later be translated to a live range. Combine 2 expands upon that notion by engaging users in breath control, crosswind and shot visualization – featuring fresh gameplay mechanics within a desert environment.

“Sightline Sandstorm adds several features which increase the marksmanship challenges,” said Will Dantzler, CMP’s Chief Information & Technology Officer. “With a new environment including incentives, the game keeps bringing you back to do better!”

Similar to Combine 1, users in Combine 2 will play from a perspective set behind the firearm to simulate range scenarios for action pistol, rifle and shotgun. Users will enter a 3D arena where he or she will be given a series of nine tasks to complete. The player uses a keyboard and mouse to control the speed of play and the movement of the firearm itself.

New elements in Sightline Sandstorm include exclusive rewards, like earning your own custom firearm skin for a more personal feel, as well as score history/past shot display to verify which shots earned the most points based on proximity to the bullseye.

In pistol, precision and speed are tested within tasks such as Target Frenzy, Tempo Precision and Drone Wave. Shotgun challenges each user’s reflexes through Trap Shoot, Maze Race and Zone Defend – firing at clay pigeons while navigating through a winding labyrinth or defending against a horde of targets. Rifle tasks focus on breath control, simulated through sway motion during gameplay, along with accuracy and crosswind compensation with scope and iron sights.

Global leaderboards will be collected within each task. Finish within the Top 100 of users and earn a special Title! Users may go back and play as many times as they’d like, so keep playing, share with your friends and earn those rewards while absorbing marksmanship fundamentals along the way!

Those interested in playing may access Sightline Sandstorm by following this step-by-step setup guide through the Steam and Aimlabs gaming platforms. Unfortunately, MacOS is currently unsupported by Aimlabs, meaning Sightline is only accessible to PC/Windows users until a later date. Note that download times may vary due to user internet connectivity and available hard disk space.

CMP’s Esports Mission:

The CMP is dedicated to finding ways of expanding its footprint and base participation, especially with youth, outside of its static ranges in Ohio, Alabama and at travel competition sites across the country. Making a move to the virtual world, the CMP is launching a series of “Combines” for users to enter gameplay. Each Combine will present a new series of tasks using a variety of firearms and training techniques through engaging settings, with the hope of migrating marksmanship gameplay to real-world applications.

About the Civilian Marksmanship Program

The Civilian Marksmanship Program is a federally chartered 501 (c) (3) non-profit corporation. It is dedicated to firearm safety and marksmanship training and to the promotion of marksmanship competition for citizens of the United States. For more information about the CMP and its programs, log onto www.TheCMP.org.

Restricted 18+ in CA in compliance with CA State Assembly Bill 2571 prohibiting the marketing of firearms to minors in the State of CA.

AmmoLand Shooting Sports News