Replacing if and else with perchance and otherwise is an act of genius, and there’s more if you just click on this link.

HT to the Codeproject newsletter. I highly recommend it.

Installing the widget

Click on Plugins and then Add new. Search for Executable PHP widget by Otto. Once installed go to the Widgets page. Drag and drop PHP code to the desired sidebar. Enter a title.

The Code

<p>This month we are praying for:<br/>
<?php
$prayermonth = date("m");

switch ($prayermonth)
{
case 1:
echo "January Streets";
break;
case 2:
echo "February Streets";
break;
default:
echo "everywhere";
}
?>
</p>

You don’t really need to see all the months to get the idea of what’s going on.

Editing month data

Look for the numbers that correspond with the month number and edit the text within the speech marks. Don’t delete the speech marks or the widget will display an error message. In fact it is a good idea to copy all the text in this box to a separate text editor (with my standard plug for Notepad++) and leave it there until you are sure everything is working.

When you have finished editing the streets, click on the Save button at the bottom of the widget. A small circle will appear while it is saving. This is the only sign that anything is happening. Before doing anything else, open another tab in your browser and check that it is working. If it is you can move on to something else. Otherwise copy and paste the text from the text editor back into widget box and start again (You did make that backup step didn’t you?)

How it works

This is about as simple as it gets with PHP and it’s a good example of how PHP and HTML work together. Remember that PHP is executed by the web server not the browser (in contrast to Javascript), so you won’t see any of the PHP code if you look at the source code of the home page. Here goes…

<p>This month we are praying for:<br/>
Well this is pretty straightforward. We start the paragraph, insert the text that never changes ending with a line break

<?php
This tells WordPress (and the web server) that some PHP is coming up

$prayermonth = date(“m”);
The creates a variable called prayermonth. The $ symbol marks this as a variable. Rather than give it a single value, we use the date function to give the current month number with “m”. Note the ; at the end of the line. As an aside, I’m assuming that month is a reserved word as that didn’t work.

switch ($prayermonth)
{
This is the clever bit. A switch statement is like an If … ElseIf… statement but a lot easier to work with when there are lots of variables; twelve in this case. It looks at $prayermonth and then does different things depending on what the variable contains. For example….

case 1:
echo “January Streets”;
break;
This is what happens if prayermonth contains 1. It prints January Streets into the widget. That’s what you’ll see in the web browser.The break command tells the server to skip to the end of the switch statement

default:
echo “All of Copthorne”;
A good idea to include, the default case is what is displayed if there is no matching case. That’s unlikely with this script but that’s no reason not to foster good habits.

}
?>
</p>
The { finishes the Switch statement. The ?> ends the PHP code and the </p> closes the paragraph

Databases for websites such as this one are something I regard as a means to an end rather than something I’m an expert in. The usual tool, phpMyadmin, is very powerful but not always the  most friendly to the newcomer. An alternative that works with a familiar program got me quite excited.

Installation is as simple as installing any other OpenOffice extension although you will need to do this from a different program in OpenOffice than Base, unless you are willing to create a database first.

After that, there’s an option for MySQL in the ‘Connect to an existing database’ menu. You can test the connection before finishing the wizard. A useful touch I’m always pleased to see as it avoids significant frustration in the event of typos.

You can find my day job review and the download link here.

OK, I probably shouldn’t get excited about such things, I’m only human.

Installation is simple and includes checking for updates online. Activation is also required. The internet is the simplest way of doing this but it also possible over the phone or by post. We would recommend copying the resources onto the hard disk to use the software without the CD in the drive.

The library is organised by several different criteria including author, relevant Bible book or subject matter. Books can be accessed as if they were a physical book, open and start reading, or by using some of the more sophisticate tools. The Home page is a quick way of accessing these and includes the Passage Guide. This tool quickly finds all the resources that have been installed for a passage in the bible. It also provides a useful summary of common words in the passage.

When a Bible and commentary are opened together they are linked so that they follow the place in the text of the other. A glowing star shows the position in each window. Translation notes in Bible texts can be quickly accessed by clicking on the superscript letter indicating the note.

The Libonix software offers more beyond these study tools and there are various addins that can be purchased and installed. The Personal Study Tools cost $20 and can be used to create a personal Bible study plan and a daily prayer list. Others include pronunciation guides

It’s a shame there are not portable versions suitable for use with PDAs or phones as these are a convenient way to read books, or as a quick reference in study groups.

It may seem like paying twice to add this CDROM to a study collection but it really is worth it for bringing the texts of these books together if preparing study material or sermons. If you just want to read the texts, it is still probably best to buy the paper books but this is a great study tool none the less, especially as it can grow with

System Requirements
500Mhz Pentium III (1Ghz recommended)
CD/DVD drive
Microsoft Windows 98/98SE/Me/NT4 (SP6a)/2000/XP/Vista
Internet Explorer 6 or later
192MB memory (512MB recommended)
550MB hard disk space
800×600 display (1024×768 recommended)

First published on The Sheep Dip,  a Christian-run website offering quality material for church newsletter and magazine editors to use for a small fee.

Well I’ve been helping out moving the church website I used to administer over to a new design and platform. Joomla was just too capable for the parish and was putting people off. Myself included, trying to sort out both sections and categories for a relatively simple site became quite a headache.

Anyway, given the current situation a static website seemed the best plan with Dreamweaver the editor in use. I use Microsoft Expression Web myself so I sorted out the template first and then had a go at transferring it over.

To my delight it worked very well. The template file, .dwt, was opened without any comment and we got started creating pages very quickly.

Dreamweaver was pretty impressive just in some basic editing over a couple of hours, hence I considered the change. It’s a shame there’s no crossgrade path from Expression Web, £400 is just too much to make it a possible buy.

It’s nothing spectacular but hopefully gives you an idea of what can quickly be achieved using software like Magix Music Maker 14. The music was generated from the samples included with Music Maker, I didn’t have to play any instruments. That’s for a later project…

I have to admit that the Summer Chill samples weren’t really to my taste, though I can’t fault the sound quality. The Ultimate Samples Collection Vol 3 was another matter however. Plenty of really good drum samples, both individual drums and patterns.

I’m looking forward to trying them out with some songs. If you’re interested I’m mostly using Magix Music Maker 14 these days. Very underrated software in my opinion and with some great features for playing live at church. I reviewed the previous version last year and thought it was pretty good. It was XXL version that comes with a MIDI/USB keyboard, which I’m still using.

Registration is free and only requires an email address

The only snag was at the end of the service when the words I had entered for ‘The Spirit Lives to set us free’ turned out to be different from those in the hands of the singers. Luckily we have a second monitor that points towards the music group so they were able to switch to that without any problems.

Being a techie I find myself casting around for a solution that involves some form of electronic wizardry. Perhaps it is time to push harder for internet access in the church.  Then we could have a central place to store information about the service.

Another solution is to run through the service in more detail (or indeed at all) before Sunday, as per the excellent advice to be found in the podcasts of Creative Synergy. As much as I agree however, it is harder for a small parish church with a limited headcount.

Perhaps this also inspires a feature request for OpenSong. A portable version would allow me to carry it around on a USB key so I would always know exactly what is on the notebook. Part of the problem was the service organiser had looked on the notebook for the words but I had copied them straight from Junior Praise that included an extra verse.

Of course, as OpenSong is opensource, there’s no reason for me not to have a go myself, perhaps it’s time to stop just lurking in the forum.

Then again, maybe I’m dwelling too much on the negative. It was only one song, and the rest of the service went without any problems.

Also check out some of the videos on the page, especially those of  Abraham Laboriel Jr.