E-Learning Centre’s Web Development Training using Joomla for IT Professionals

Last week from June 21-24, 2011, I conducted another batch of Web Development Training using Joomla! with E-Leaning Centre, Inc. Ms. Yolynne Medina, OIC of the Centre, invited me to conduct the training, to educate the local IT professionals with this open source CMS; around 11 people participated the training program.

Topics discussed where HTML/CSS Basics, PHP/MySQL Recap, and of course and in-depth discussion and hands-on with Joomla! CMS like backend management, customizing Joomla! templates and even creating templates from scratch. We also explored on how to add social networking elements like Facebook plugins, Twitter buttons, YouTube videos, etc.

I’m glad that I took this opportunity to share and educate about this open source technology. I hope the participants learned something new during the course. Thanks again to E-Learning Centre for inviting me to do this training. It was fun!

If you want to contact E-Learning Centre for more IT Trainings, please call at 992-7269 or send an SMS @ 0916-1524-811(TM) and look for Ms. Yolynne Medina. Their office is located at 3F ZGU-II Bldg. Gov. Alvarez St.,
Zamboanga City, Philippines 7000.

Google I/O 2011 Live!

With the record-setting Google I/O ticket sold-out this year, that is within less than an hour, Google team decided to bring I/O 2011 live around the world to many developers who wasn’t able to get a ticket for the Moscone conference in San Francisco at the comfort of our own home or offices. They call this Google I/O 2011 Live!

(I’m suppose to go and attend Google I/O 2011 in San Francisco courtesy of the GTUG Community, but unfortunately my travel visa was not granted, sad to say. But thanks for the opporunity Google!  By the way, I am from GTUG Philippines, Zamboanga Chapter. )

The I/O conference in San Francisco will be broadcasted LIVE online on May 10-11, 2011 from 9AM to 6PM PDT on the official Google I/O website, bringing you the latest updates and happenings from Moscone Center.

So, what can we do from the Live broadcast?

• Watch livestream video feeds from our two largest session rooms from 9:00 a.m PST to 6:00 p.m. PST during both days of the conference.
• Read captions from the livestreamed sessions in real-time.
• Be one of the first to know by getting your news direct from the source.
• Submit your questions to our Sandbox developers.

Checkout the schedule of the different Google I/O Sessions that you might want to attend. Just don’t forget to do some timezone conversion since it will be broadcasting using the PST.

If you don’t want to be alone during the broadcast, you can also join the Google I/O 2011 Extended. This is also a live broadcast hosted via different GTUG Chapters worldwide. Don’t forget to follow Google I/O updates (@googleio) on Twitter.

Whois Tool: My First Google Chrome Extension

Finally, I was able to explore a little of the Google Chrome Extension development. Basically, if you know web development (HTML, JS, CSS, etc.) you’ll surely find it easy to do your own Chrome Extension.

The tool I created is a simple Whois tool. The extension directs you to the GoDaddy.com Whois page if you want to know the registry entry of the current page you’re viewing. So, if you’re using Google Chrome browser, download and try my simple tool.

For those who want to publish your Chrome Extension, you need to pay a one time Chrome Extensions Gallery Developer Registration Fee of $5.00 and after that you can publish any number of extensions.

Click this link if you want to start learning on how to.

J2ME Programming: Reading and Writing to a RecordStore (RMS)

If you are working on a mobile application project with J2ME (Java Micro Edition) and needs some sort of a data storage, you can work it with Record Management System (RMS). RMS is an API for MIDP applications which allows data persistence, facilitating data storage for your Java-based mobile phone applications. You just need to access it via javax.microedition.rms.* class. It’s like the relational database but a simpler one. If you want to learn more in-depth with RMS, please visit Databases and MIDP.

Two common methods or functions for RMS is the reading and writing to a recordstore (javax.microedition.rms.RecordStore). A RecordStore serves as the database. Read more…

Converting GPS Degree Format to Decimal for Google Maps API

One of the coolest free services of Google is the Google Code with lots of free APIs to play with. Recently, I was working on a web project which requires me to plot some points of LatLong (Latitude and Longitude, GPS) on Google Map and as the Google Maps API provided, it only accepts GPS or LatLong coordinates in a decimal format like 10.741658, 119.338733.

When I attended the Google DevFest Manila last July 6, 2010, I asked the speaker during the Q&A portion about the LatLong issue I have because the available GPS data we have is on a degree format like 10° 44′ 29.97″ N, 119° 20′ 19.44″ E. I asked if Google Maps API only accepts decimal format for LatLong (GPS) and he replied YES. So I followed up and asked if the API has this built-in function that converts it to degree format GPS to decimal format GPS. Like for instance, we have this 10° 44′ 29.97″ N, 119° 20′ 19.44″ E to 10.741658, 119.338733. The speaker said the API does not support it yet and suggested to get some third party function to do the conversion. Read more…