Who is stupid: Me or Paypal?

I feel like blogging this today because the emotion is still at it’s peak.

For weeks I’ve been struggling on the error of Internal Server Error passed by Paypal API when I do DoExpressCheckoutPayment. I even posted it in Paypal Developers forum, PHPUGPH, asked a couple of people for help but no one was able to find the answer as well (you’ll find later why).

The most trivial for me is that I just copied the code from osCommerce paypal express module and the osc application works flawlessly! While in my application, whatever changes I apply, I can’t get it to work! *Starting to scratch my hand while googling*

So today I got my hands dirty because tonight is my due date and this is the only module left unfinished. Playing with the paypal module from oscommerce and with mine, compared them line by line, character by character. And finally, I got it working!

DAMN! That’s the first word I shouted when it worked. It’s a BIG BIG DAMN!!

So what was really the problem? the Number format. This is what I passed to paypal before I got the answer:

[php]
Array
(
[USER] => xxxx
[PWD] => xxx
[VERSION] => 3.2
[SIGNATURE] => xxx
[METHOD] => DoExpressCheckoutPayment
[TOKEN] => EC-xxx
[PAYMENTACTION] => Sale
[PAYERID] => xxx
[AMT] => 9.0000
[CURRENCYCODE] => USD
[BUTTONSOURCE] => paypal_express
)
[/php]

Passing those parameters produced the ffg output:

Internal_Server_Error
The_server_encountered_an_internal_error_or
misconfiguration_and_was_unable_to_complete
your_request_

Please_contact_the_server_administrator,
_ppmtps@paypal_com_and_inform_them_of_the_time_the_error_occurred,
and_anything_you_might_have_done_that_may_have
caused_the_error_

More_information_about_this_error_may_be_available
in_the_server_error_log_

And the fix that saved me from more misery:
[php]
Array
(
[AMT] => 9.00
)
[/php]

Wow! What a simple solution isn’t it??? I don’t understand how such a small error have brought such a huge problem. *scratching my head again* *sigh* *sigh* *roll eyes* *rejoice*

Hayyyyyyyyy.. Kaya ko to!

Zend Studio Installation Problem in Ubuntu Hardy

I had a very very long weekend tyring to make HP recovery works and Zend Studio show up to me! I messed up the HP recovery of my laptop last weekend and so windows vista won’t get installed. I decided then to use Ubuntu Hardy. Everything went fine until I installed Zend Studio editor. After the installation, it gave me the ffg blank screen:

and the ffg errors:

Preparing to install…
Extracting the JRE from the installer archive…
Unpacking the JRE…
Extracting the installation resources from the installer archive…
Configuring the installer for this system’s environment…

Launching installer…

Locking assertion failure. Backtrace:
#0 /usr/lib/libxcb-xlib.so.0 [0xb2800767]
#1 /usr/lib/libxcb-xlib.so.0(xcb_xlib_unlock+0×31) [0xb28008b1]
#2 /usr/lib/libX11.so.6(_XReply+0xfd) [0xaaa661bd]
#3 /tmp/install.dir.7943/Linux/resource/jre/lib/i386/xawt/libmawt.so [0xaab3fa76]
#4 /tmp/install.dir.7943/Linux/resource/jre/lib/i386/xawt/libmawt.so [0xaab2580a]
#5 /tmp/install.dir.7943/Linux/resource/jre/lib/i386/xawt/libmawt.so [0xaab25a51]
#6 /tmp/install.dir.7943/Linux/resource/jre/lib/i386/xawt/libmawt.so(Java_sun_awt_X11GraphicsEnvironment_initDisplay+0×24) [0xaab25c5c]
#7 [0xb2896b28]
#8 [0xb2890aeb]
#9 [0xb2890aeb]
#10 [0xb288e1b4]
#11 /tmp/install.dir.7943/Linux/resource/jre/lib/i386/server/libjvm.so [0xb76957ec]
#12 /tmp/install.dir.7943/Linux/resource/jre/lib/i386/server/libjvm.so [0xb7858828]
#13 /tmp/install.dir.7943/Linux/resource/jre/lib/i386/server/libjvm.so [0xb769561f]
#14 /tmp/install.dir.7943/Linux/resource/jre/lib/i386/server/libjvm.so(JVM_DoPrivileged+0x32d) [0xb76f2d1d]
#15 /tmp/install.dir.7943/Linux/resource/jre/lib/i386/libjava.so(Java_java_security_AccessController_doPrivileged__Ljava_security_PrivilegedAction_2+0x3d) [0xb73a82cd]
#16 [0xb2896458]
#17 [0xb2890a14]
#18 [0xb288e1b4]
#19 /tmp/install.dir.7943/Linux/resource/jre/lib/i386/server/libjvm.so [0xb76957ec]
Locking assertion failure. Backtrace:
#0 /usr/lib/libxcb-xlib.so.0 [0xb2800767]
#1 /usr/lib/libxcb-xlib.so.0(xcb_xlib_lock+0x2e) [0xb280081e]
#2 /usr/lib/libX11.so.6 [0xaaa65518]
#3 /usr/lib/libX11.so.6(XGetVisualInfo+0×26) [0xaaa5c0a6]
#4 /tmp/install.dir.7943/Linux/resource/jre/lib/i386/xawt/libmawt.so [0xaab246df]
#5 /tmp/install.dir.7943/Linux/resource/jre/lib/i386/xawt/libmawt.so [0xaab24970]
#6 /tmp/install.dir.7943/Linux/resource/jre/lib/i386/xawt/libmawt.so [0xaab25b98]
#7 /tmp/install.dir.7943/Linux/resource/jre/lib/i386/xawt/libmawt.so(Java_sun_awt_X11GraphicsEnvironment_initDisplay+0×24) [0xaab25c5c]
#8 [0xb2896b28]
#9 [0xb2890aeb]
#10 [0xb2890aeb]
#11 [0xb288e1b4]
#12 /tmp/install.dir.7943/Linux/resource/jre/lib/i386/server/libjvm.so [0xb76957ec]
#13 /tmp/install.dir.7943/Linux/resource/jre/lib/i386/server/libjvm.so [0xb7858828]
#14 /tmp/install.dir.7943/Linux/resource/jre/lib/i386/server/libjvm.so [0xb769561f]
#15 /tmp/install.dir.7943/Linux/resource/jre/lib/i386/server/libjvm.so(JVM_DoPrivileged+0x32d) [0xb76f2d1d]
#16 /tmp/install.dir.7943/Linux/resource/jre/lib/i386/libjava.so(Java_java_security_AccessController_doPrivileged__Ljava_security_PrivilegedAction_2+0x3d) [0xb73a82cd]
#17 [0xb2896458]
#18 [0xb2890a14]
#19 [0xb288e1b4]

And it seems Beryl is the culprit! I’ve never used Beryl before but since this is by default installed in Ubuntu Hardy, so I really never know it was there but the theme looks cool though. Anyway, it seems that Beryl is messing up with the JRE. Here is the complete information from Zend studio.

Zend Studio starts up with an empty window, or other GUI problems, due to XGL-Compiz/Beryl (with JRE) compatibility issues

Symptoms

When running Zend Studio:
1. The ZS’s main window comes up totally empty.
2. Sometimes the window has some of the frames painted, but the rest of the window is empty.
3. In the empty ZS window the mouse cursor is changing while moving around the window (as if there are objects: like buttons and other objects).
4. There were erratic mouse/window movements reported.

Summary

Zend Studio starts up with various windowing GUI problems in some linux distros, while using the XGL-Compiz/Beryl product.

Cause

1. Incompatibility between the XGL environment, the JRE, and the Zend Studio Client.
2. The decoration in the 3D environment clashes with the Java Runtime and distorts the operation and visualization of the Zend Studio client’s window.

Get the solution

I have very unique problems when installing zend studio in different versions of Ubuntu. Hmp! I hope the next version, it will work flawlessly.

Drupal Asia Conference Cancelled

I was surprised today when I received an email from drupalapc.com about the cancellation of Drupal Asia Conference in Sydney, Australia. Below is the email:

We are sorry to announce that the Drupal Asia Pacific Conference and the Full Code Press website competition have been postponed to a later date.

It was our hope that we could organise the event to coincide with the Open CeBIT conference in May. However the challenges imposed by a tight deadline and the logistics of integrating with the CeBIT expo have been too much to overcome.

We are still committed to running a Drupal Asia Pacific event and a website building competition, but with greater lead-up time to plan speakers and arrange venues.

continue reading here…

I learned about DrupalCon a few days ago and got excited. Right then and there I started on checking on how to process my papers. Unfortunately (or shall I say fortunately?) I will not be able to make it. I really feel pity about those people who already prepared for it. Just praparing for the Visa application is already time consuming, how much more when you have already reserved for plane tickets and hotels?

Hopefully the next one will be a success and hopefully they learned something from it. I still want to feel positive about this event so I’m still looking forward to the next Drupal Con in Asia.

My First installation of Linux – Funny ^__^

Have you ever written your first experiences? Fortunately I did. I visited my old blog written 3 years ago and read some of those when I was just beginning in php and linux. I can’t stop laughing at myself specially now I know what was the problem. Hahahaha! I’ll share it here but it’s written in Tagalog. It’s a bit too long to translate it so sorry for non-Tagalog speakers.

Its around 2:30 am now and i have not finished installing any Linux distro! I think i started working on it mga 9pm or 10 na. pero no luck p rin ako! Mejo naiinis n nga ako kaya naisipan kong isulat n lang tong experience n to at pagtawanan ang sarili ko pag dumating ang time n experienced n tlg ako.. hehehe

Nauna kong na try n install ung Suse enterprise server 8 (meron din akon ubuntu 5.04 dito) kc un ang sabi sakin n i-try. so ginawa ko naman. unang attempt p lang may problema na. ayaw magboot sa cd! ngayon pala hindi nakasaksak! hehehe tanga! edi pinlug ko so ok na. nag boot n kc eh,, edi mejo ok n ako.. then may checking ng hardware.. aba cnabi b nmn s akin n not enough daw ang disk space ko samantalang 40G free and hd ko! aba linoloko ata ako ng installer n un ah.. so edi i tried to configure it (as if marunong ako, pero try lang naman eh) kaya lang alam ata n wl akong experience kaya wl p rin.. nagreboot n lang ako at nag try ulit ng same process. malay mo kc may di lang nabasangmabuti ung installer.. at saka nagkaroon nga pala kc ako ng problema kc di ko alam kung anong cd ang gagamitin ko. biruin mo 6 n cd un, 3 ata ung may cd1 na pangalan. eh ang nkalagay lang sa intruction put the cd1 into the cd drive.. hindi b tanga un nun! anyways tinry ko ung tatlo para sure at wl akong namis.. wl p ring swerte.. lalo n at ayaw mag read nung mismong cdrom.. tinry ko n rin pati ubuntu,, ayaw tlg.. disk boot failure ang lumilitaw.. ay nku.. wl n tong pagasa.. humingi n ako ng tulong sa kasama ko thru internet.. ky lang hindi ko madescribe ng mabuti ang problema kaya wl rin syang naitulong.. hanap ako sa internet.. sa mga forums.. sa mga articles.. wl p rin solusyon.. ayaw ko naman magtanong sa mga forums dhil bk okrayin lang ako kc nga di ko alam describe ung hardware ko. as in di ko alam kung anong processor meron ako at ilang ram, memory at kung ano pang pwede nilang itanong.. ang alam ko lang may 40G hd ako(buti nga my alam p ako eh). so un, mahabang pagbabasa ang nangyari pero nagsawa n ako kc nga wl akong mahanap n magandang article.. so nagtry ulit ako. malay mo kc maghimala! Aba nag himala nga! hehehe.. pero hindi sa suse kc wl p ring magandang resulta dun.. n try ko lang ang ubuntu.. nag try akong mag install ng server. ewan ko kung ano un basta nag try lang ako.. edi un ok naman ang process.. tapos nag reboot.. edi akala ko ok n kaso biglang prompt sa akin command line!! hello! malay ko b sa linux command.. acutally ang lumitaw p lang naman dun eh ‘login’ hehhe nag panic n talga ako sa gnun lang.. pano kc di ko alam kung anon isusulat ko.. nag try ako ng root, kaya lang di ko alam ang password.. nagtry ulit ako ng ibang combination hanggang sa makapasok.. so akala ko papakita n sa akin ung color brown n gui ng ubuntu.. hay naku.. command line p rin ang ibinigay!! ano BA!! eh ls at whoami lang ang alam kong command sa linux eh.. ay meron p pl.. man! hehehe wlang pag asa to ang nasabi ko n lng.. pero syempre dpt optimistic tyo so nagsearch p ako.. at saka kc ang alam ko tlg may gui un eh.. un buti n lang may nabasa ako.. ang sabi nya un palang napasukan ko eh minimal lang ang iinstall. ibig sabihin, manual ang installation ng lahat. nge! hindi un ang hanap ko.. kaya no choice ako kundi mag install ulit.. hay.. wlang katapusang installation to! buti n lang at mejo bumait sa akin ang ubuntu kaya un nag trabahong mag isa..and after 30 minutes,, hahah horray!! nakita ko na ang color brown gui ng ubuntu!! horray talaga!!

oldo masaya n ako sa gnun pero alam ko start p lang ito ng mas madugong karanasan.. hay.. ano kaya itong napasukan ko.. just wish me luck ok..

Geez, my composition is horrible! hahahaha. I hope it’s better now. Is it?

About Linux, I still have not tried to install a linux distro by myself but I might again and while reading this blog!

I’m beginning to become a Drupal convert

I had this discussion today with our QA lead for a Drupal project. I’ll try to translate it in english the best way I can

QA: lola (a term we call each other)
QA: parang wla na akong nakitang error (I think I did not encounter any error)
Me: WOW
QA: kasi drupal functionalities namn ginamit nyo (just because you used drupal functionalities)
QA: hehehe
Me: achievement yan lola!!! (That’s an achievement lola!!!)
QA: maliban na lng sa sizes ng navigation box (except for the navigation box sizes)
QA: hahaha
QA: at links na may page not found (and pages not found)
Me: meron? (there was?)
QA: uu (yes)
Me: san? (where?)
QA: yung xx page sa xx affiliate (on the page for xx affiliate)
Me: ah ok
Me: nagcleanup ako ng xx pages (I cleaned up the xx pages)
QA: ahhhh
QA: maganda yung reason ko no? wlang errors kasi drupal functionalities yung ginamit (My reasoning is good, right? that there were no errors because you used drupal functionalities, right?)
QA: =))
Me: di ko n nkita ung last statement (I actually did not see your last statement)
Me: n record lang ung una (the only recorded part for me was the first [statement])
Me: =))
QA: kaya kng ako sa inyo (that’s why if I were you)
QA: drupal na lng gamitin nyo? (use drupal instead)
Me: mag drupal n lang for life (use drupal for life)
Me: =))
Me: pag iisipan ko yang mabuti (i’ll think carefully about that)
QA: wag ka na mag cake php (don’t use cakephp anymore)
Me: bihira lang ako ma 0 error eh (I rarely get 0 errors)
QA: nyahaha
QA: pero mag te test pa rin ako (I’ll still make some tests though)
Me: hahahah
QA: malay mo…may error (You’ll never know, there are still errors)
Me: cge lang.. para may reason nmn ako n di solid ang drupal (go on, so that atleast I have a reason not to use drupal)
Me:
QA: hahaha

I never heard any bug reports from her today though. For the record, I did extend a module for that project which took me a week or more to finish. But still, thanks to drupal we were able to create this project in just 2 weeks! It could probably took us like a month if I had to do it using cakephp.

Pidgin over Digsby, why?

I like digsby eversince I installed it in my pc but I rarely use it now after a few days of testing and went back to my pidgin.

Digsby is really cool! It is one of the tools I’ve been wanting. It is a multiprotocol IM client that lets you chat with all your friends on AIM, MSN, Yahoo, ICQ, Google Talk, and Jabber with one simple to manage buddy list. It is also an email notification tool that alerts you of new email and lets you perform actions such as ‘Delete’ or ‘Report Spam’ with just one click. And one of the coolest feature this toy has, it is a social networking tool that alerts you of events like new messages and gives you a live Newsfeed of what your friends are up to. I just use twitter on this one though. It has also an alert feature when someone logs in and that is what is missing in pidgin. Yeah it has the buddy pounce but I like it if was more of the ym or digsby type.

Digsby needs users to register first so that they can save all client’s settings, accounts and password in their server. One thing that my friends questioned me when they installed it, is it secure? The digsby team made an effort to answer that. There has also been a lot of discussion from users questioning why this software needs to store their accounts and password in the digsby server but that was already answered in the forum too and I think it will be far from too soon that they will change that.

The above issue is a lesser concern for me though. Compared to the benefit it gives me, i actually did not worry. I do not enter my important accounts in softwares like these. What moved me to use my ol’ pidgin is the total memory it consumes. It’s big and I experienced lag times when I used digsby. My firefox crashes more often than what I was experiencing before. I already feel irritated when firefox crashes and how do you think I felt more when it did more often than the usual? Miserable! I also notice when I am chatting, the time I send my message, it does not automatically reflects in the textarea which sometimes confuses me. I hate that!

I still look forward to this software’s updates. I still want it because it just amazes me! Hope they can fix those issues sooner…

The New Thing in Web … Again

Web 3.0? Web 4.0? What???

After the AJAX hit, Web 2.0 buzzword and Facebook API’s, another new word popped out somewhere when I was surfing. Adobe AIR. They say it is the new thing now! Oh my! I haven’t even mastered AJAX nor the APIs yet!

Now, now, now, what’s Adobe AIR again?

The Adobe® AIR™ runtime lets developers use proven web technologies to build rich Internet applications that deploy to the desktop and run across operating systems. AIR stands for Adobe Integrated Runtime

Does that mean I can run this kind of app on and offline? Yes indeed. According to this very helpful article by BlueClock, AIR finds the best of both worlds. It can interact with online resources if connected or use local storage (via SQLite) and synchronise data when next connected. It runs well in Windows, Linux and OS X (isn’t that nice..).

I downloaded Google Analytics Reporting Suite to test what kind of application this technology has brought. Looks very cool. I quite actually liked this app compared to the web version. It’s fast and I do not have to worry about Firefox crashing again. And most of all, I do not have to worry cluttering my browser again with pages from analytics. In years, I have thought about this technology, and now look, it’s just a single download away from us. Try it!

After this, what’s next? Can you just please wait for me to study this app before coming up with another new technology????? Hehe.. how I wish *roll eyes*

PDF Vista reader Sucks!!

It was just last night that I gave up using PDF vista. Simple word search and jumping from one link to another doesn’t work correctly. Adobe Reder is just the best! It saved me a lot of trouble going round and round the files. I did not know why I had waited for such long before deciding PDF vista isn’t just right. d*rn!

** ranting ** just another bad day **

The Software Developer’s Prayer

Lord, make me an instrument of Your peace
where there is code that I should have completed
where there are defects that I should have fixed
where there are deadlines that I should have met.

O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much as seek as
to be understood as to understand irate clients
to be supported as to support difficult applications
to be valued as to value quality software design.

For it is in debugging that we find errors,
it is in requirements that we find clarity,
and it is in camaraderie that we find harmony in work.

Amen.

I don’t know if Neri wrote it by herself but one thing for sure I CAN RELATE! I love it!

Microsoft IE8 passed Acid2

Wow this is nice and hot news! Finally IE is taking the standards seriously. The lawsuit of Opera to IE might have an effect afterall..

As a team, we’ve spent the last year heads down working hard on IE8. Last week, we achieved an important milestone that should interest web developers. IE8 now renders the “Acid2 Face” correctly in IE8 standards mode.

Now, with all that context, I’m delighted to tell you that on Wednesday, December 12, Internet Explorer correctly rendered the Acid2 page in IE8 standards mode. While supporting the features tested in Acid2 is important for many reasons, it is just one of several milestones for the interoperability, standards compliance, and backwards compatibility that we’re committed to for this release. We will blog more on these topics. Here’s a relevant video.

For IE8, we want to communicate facts, not aspirations. We’re posting this information now because we have real working code checked in and we’re confident about delivering it in the final product. We’re listening to the feedback about IE, and at the same time, we are committed to responsible disclosure and setting expectations properly. Now that we’ve run the test on multiple machines and seen it work, we’re excited to be able to share definitive information.

Ok, you might be wondering what is Acid2 Test. I myself was not familiar with it until now.

The Acid2 test was developed by the Web Standards Project (WaSP) as a challenge to browser developers. In a single page, the test makes use of a broad range of features from several different web standards that developers have wanted to have in browsers for some time, and it uses them to display a deceptively simple smiley face.

Now we can sleep real tight that in the coming future, developers and designers will have less headache making their website CSS based Happy New Year IE!