which was adapted from a BASIC program from the Astronomical Computing column of Sky & Telescope, April 1994
*/
function isdayofmonth($month, $day, $year)
{
$dim = array(31, 28, 31, 30, 31, 30, 31, 31, 30, 31, 30, 31);
if ($month != 2)
{
if (1 <= $day && $day <= $dim[$month - 1])
return true;
else
return false;
}
$feb = $dim[1];
if (isleapyear($year))
{
$feb++;// is leap year
}
if (1 <= $day && $day <= $feb)
{
return true;
}
return false;
}
function isleapyear($year)
{
$a = floor($year - 4 * floor($year / 4));
$b = floor($year - 100 * floor($year / 100));
$c = floor($year - 400 * floor($year / 400));
// possible leap year
if ($a == 0)
{
if ($b == 0 && $c != 0)
return false;// not leap year
else
return true;// is leap year
}
return false;
}
// compute moon position and phase
function moon_posit($month = null, $day = null, $year = null)
{
$moon = array();
if(!isdayofmonth($month, $day, $year))
{
$moon['errors'] = 'Invalid date';
}
else
{
$moon['errors'] = null;
$age = 0.0;// Moon's age in days from New Moon
$distance = 0.0;// Moon's distance in Earth radii
$latitude = 0.0;// Moon's ecliptic latitude in degrees
$longitude = 0.0;// Moon's ecliptic longitude in degrees
$phase = '';
$zodiac = '';
$YY = 0;
$MM = 0;
$K1 = 0;
$K2 = 0;
$K3 = 0;
$JD = 0;
$IP = 0.0;
$DP = 0.0;
$NP = 0.0;
$RP = 0.0;
// calculate the Julian date at 12h UT
$YY = $year - floor((12 - $month) / 10);
$MM = $month + 9;
if ($MM >= 12)
{
$MM = $MM - 12;
}
$K1 = floor(365.25 * ($YY + 4712));
$K2 = floor(30.6 * $MM + 0.5);
$K3 = floor(floor(($YY / 100) + 49) * 0.75) - 38;
$JD = $K1 + $K2 + $day + 59;// for dates in Julian calendar
if ($JD > 2299160)
{
$JD = $JD - $K3;// for Gregorian calendar
}
// calculate moon's age in days
$IP = normalize(($JD - 2451550.1) / 29.530588853);
$age = $IP * 29.53;
if ($age < 1.84566)
$phase = 'NEW';
else if ($age < 5.53699)
$phase = 'Evening crescent';
else if ($age < 9.22831)
$phase = 'First quarter';
else if ($age < 12.91963)
$phase = 'Waxing gibbous';
else if ($age < 16.61096)
$phase = 'FULL';
else if ($age < 20.30228)
$phase = 'Waning gibbous';
else if ($age < 23.99361)
$phase = 'Last quarter';
else if ($age < 27.68493)
$phase = 'Morning crescent';
else
$phase = 'NEW';
$IP = $IP * 2 * pi();// Convert phase to radians
// calculate moon's distance
$DP = 2 * pi() * normalize(($JD - 2451562.2) / 27.55454988);
$distance = 60.4 - 3.3 * cos($DP) - 0.6 * cos(2 * $IP - $DP) - 0.5 * cos(2 * $IP);
// calculate moon's ecliptic latitude
$NP = 2 * pi() * normalize(($JD - 2451565.2) / 27.212220817);
$latitude = 5.1 * sin($NP);
// calculate moon's ecliptic longitude
$RP = normalize(($JD - 2451555.8) / 27.321582241);
$longitude = 360 * $RP + 6.3 * sin($DP) + 1.3 * sin(2 * $IP - $DP) + 0.7 * sin(2 * $IP);
if ($longitude < 33.18)
$zodiac = 'Pisces';
else if ($longitude < 51.16)
$zodiac = 'Aries';
else if ($longitude < 93.44)
$zodiac = 'Taurus';
else if ($longitude < 119.48)
$zodiac = 'Gemini';
else if ($longitude < 135.30)
$zodiac = 'Cancer';
else if ($longitude < 173.34)
$zodiac = 'Leo';
else if ($longitude < 224.17)
$zodiac = 'Virgo';
else if ($longitude < 242.57)
$zodiac = 'Libra';
else if ($longitude < 271.26)
$zodiac = 'Scorpio';
else if ($longitude < 302.49)
$zodiac = 'Sagittarius';
else if ($longitude < 311.72)
$zodiac = 'Capricorn';
else if ($longitude < 348.58)
$zodiac = 'Aquarius';
else
$zodiac = 'Pisces';
// so longitude is not greater than 360!
if ($longitude > 360)
$longitude = $longitude - 360;
$moon['age'] = round($age, 2);
$moon['distance'] = round($distance, 2);
$moon['latitude'] = round($latitude, 2);
$moon['longitude'] = round($longitude, 2);
$moon['phase'] = $phase;
$moon['zodiac'] = $zodiac;
}
return $moon;
}
// normalize values to range 0...1
function normalize($v)
{
$v = $v - floor($v);
if ($v < 0)
{
$v++;
}
return $v;
}
?>


And to use it, you can do something like this

<?php
include('moon2.php');
$date = time();
$year = date('Y', $date);
$month = date('n', $date);
$day = date('j', $date);
$moon = moon_posit($month, $day, $year);
//debug results
echo '<pre>';
print_r($moon);
echo '</pre>';
if ($moon['errors'] === null)
{
//output and format what you want
}
else
{
//handle error how you want, perhaps give error message and then show today''s moon info
}
?>


I haven’t figured out how to get the percentage of illumination of the moon though.

Well one way to get around this is to setup an RSS feed for the data you are caching or outputting and access it with a query string such as “?rss=2.0″ or http://example.com/index.php?rss=2.0. Then you can check to see if the RSS variable was passed and output a RSS feed with just enough data for a feed, no need to put sensitive data in there or anything. I would suggest putting in a ttl node in the RSS feed and set it to something the aggregators like Google Reader, should obey (that way they hit your page more or less frequently, depending on your needs). The item portion of an RSS feed only needs a title or a description, although its probably a good idea to put some kind of guid in there (check the RSS 2.0 spec for more info on creating RSS feeds).

Anyway here is some sample code. It isn’t complete but gives you an idea what I mean.

if ($_GET['rss'] == 2.0)
{
//create RSS 2.0 feed
header('Content-Type: text/xml');
$output = '<' . '?xml version="1.0"?' . '>' . "\n";
$output .= '<rss version="2.0">' . "\n";
$output .= '<channel>' . "\n";
//...
//process your data and output it into RSS 2.0 format
//...
$output .= '</channel>' . "\n";
$output .= '</rss>';
}
else
{
//process your data as normal
}


Then to make sure the page is hit often, place your RSS feed into Google Reader or Bloglines or some other RSS aggregator. Then your site will be visited often and forced to update. No one else really needs to know about your RSS feeds, unless you want them to be public as well.

It’s configurable with a item_limit (number of posts to pull) and word_limit (how long the description is). However the description is just the title for the last post, so it will most often be “RE: original post title” unless the user changes it when posting. I could of done another query in a loop to the table phpbb_posts and pulled out the corresponding post_text, but didn’t want to have the overhead. Although you could easily modify that in and cache the file for say 5 or 15 minutes. Think of this as a head start to get the feeds from your forum for whatever you plan to do with them.

Create a php file at the root of your forums with this code.

<?php
//OPTIONS
$item_limit = 20;//total rss items to pull
$word_limit = 25;//word limit
//YOU SHOULDNT HAVE TO EDIT ANYTHING BELOW
require('config.php');
$db_connect = mysql_connect($dbhost, $dbuser, $dbpasswd) or die('Unable to connect to database.');
$db_select = mysql_select_db($dbname, $db_connect) or die('Could not set the database.');
header("content-type: text/xml");
//GET THE SITES DATA
$db_record_site_data = mysql_query('SELECT config_name, config_value FROM phpbb_config WHERE config_name = \'script_path\' OR config_name = \'server_name\' OR config_name = \'sitename\' OR config_name = \'site_desc\' ORDER BY config_name');
$counter = 0;
//will get the items in this order: script_path, server_name, site_desc, sitename
while ($row = mysql_fetch_array($db_record_site_data))
{
if ($counter == 0)
$script_path = $row['config_value'];
else if ($counter == 1)
$site_url = 'http://'.$row['config_value'];
else if ($counter == 2)
$site_description = $row['config_value'];
else if ($counter == 3)
$site_title = $row['config_value'];
$counter++;
}
//GET THE RECENT TOPICS, show only approved and non-reported topics
$db_record_topic_data = mysql_query('SELECT forum_id, topic_id, topic_last_post_time, topic_title, topic_last_post_subject, topic_last_poster_name, topic_first_post_id, topic_last_post_id FROM phpbb_topics WHERE topic_approved=1 AND topic_reported=0 ORDER BY topic_last_post_time DESC LIMIT ' . $item_limit);
echo '<' . '?xml version="1.0"?' . '>' . "\n";
echo '<rss version="2.0">' . "\n";
echo '<channel>' . "\n";
echo '<title>' . $site_title . '</title>' . "\n";
echo '<link>' . $site_url . $script_path . '</link>' . "\n";
echo '<description>' . $site_description . '</description>' . "\n";
while ($row = mysql_fetch_array($db_record_topic_data))
{
echo '<item>' . "\n";
echo '<title>' . htmlspecialchars(trim($row['topic_title']), ENT_QUOTES) . '</title>' . "\n";
echo '<description>';
//filter description
$post_text = htmlspecialchars(trim($row['topic_last_post_subject']), ENT_QUOTES);
//word limit
$post_text = str_replace(' ', ' ', $post_text);//get rid of multispaces
$post_word_array = explode(' ', $post_text);
$total_words = count($post_word_array);
$total_words = min($word_limit, $total_words);
for ($x = 0; $x < $total_words; $x++)
{
echo $post_word_array[$x] . ' ';
}
//ellipsis
if ($total_words > $word_limit)
echo '...';
echo '</description>' . "\n";
//echo '<description>' . substr(, 0, 128) . '</description>';//character limit
echo '<link>' . $site_url . $script_path . 'viewtopic.php?f=' . $row['forum_id'] . '&amp;t=' . $row['topic_id'] . '&amp;p=' . $row['topic_first_post_id'] . '#' . $row['topic_last_post_id'] . '</link>' . "\n";
echo '<pubdate>' . date('r', $row['topic_last_post_time']) . '</pubdate>' . "\n";//RFC822
echo '<author>' . htmlspecialchars(trim($row['topic_last_poster_name']), ENT_QUOTES) . '</author>';
echo '</item>' . "\n";
}
echo '</channel>' . "\n";
echo '</rss>' . "\n";
?>


I modified the latter (Moon Phase Calculation and used the first function listed on that page).

<?php
function moon_phase($year, $month, $day)
{
/*
modified from http://www.voidware.com/moon_phase.htm
*/
$c = $e = $jd = $b = 0;
if ($month < 3)
{
$year--;
$month += 12;
}
++$month;
$c = 365.25 * $year;
$e = 30.6 * $month;
$jd = $c + $e + $day - 694039.09; //jd is total days elapsed
$jd /= 29.5305882; //divide by the moon cycle
$b = (int) $jd; //int(jd) -> b, take integer part of jd
$jd -= $b; //subtract integer part to leave fractional part of original jd
$b = round($jd * 8); //scale fraction from 0-8 and round
if ($b >= 8 )
{
$b = 0;//0 and 8 are the same so turn 8 into 0
}
switch ($b)
{
case 0:
return 'New Moon';
break;
case 1:
return 'Waxing Crescent Moon';
break;
case 2:
return 'Quarter Moon';
break;
case 3:
return 'Waxing Gibbous Moon';
break;
case 4:
return 'Full Moon';
break;
case 5:
return 'Waning Gibbous Moon';
break;
case 6:
return 'Last Quarter Moon';
break;
case 7:
return 'Waning Crescent Moon';
break;
default:
return 'Error';
}
}
$timestamp = time();
echo moon_phase(date('Y', $timestamp), date('n', $timestamp), date('j', $timestamp));
?>


I haven’t been able to find out how to calculate the percentage for how lit up (full) the moon is yet though.

I converted the other code in another blog post. Calculating the Moon Phase Part 2

If you use SOAP there are many methods to grab the data, but if you use REST there are only 2. With REST you can either use DWMLgen which lets you get a little more specific information or NDFDgenByDay which is a little simpler and lets you pick either 12 hour or 24 hour increments (so you can get each day broken in half as in day and night or the full day). The response is sent back as XML for either method so you can format the data how you like.

For the example we are doing, we are going to keep it simple and use a single location, NDFDgenByDay and a 24 hourly period. We will also set it up so that we send the longitude and latitude for Austin, TX, the current date as the start date and request 7 days worth of data.

You’ll want to get the longitude of the location you want the forecast for. The simplest way is to use Google Maps and type in your city and state and search. Then put your cursor slightly below the green arrow, basically as soon as it is not linking to the arrow. Now double click and the map may shift slightly. Now click on the Link to this page text and you will get a box and copy whats in the first textfield. You’ll get a huge URL like the one below.

http://maps.google.com/maps?ie=UTF8&oe=utf-8&client=firefox-a&q=Austin,+TX,+USA&ll=30.270928,-97.742615&spn=0.432311,0.6427&z=11

What we want is the longitude and latitude. In that long URL you’ll see &ll= and after it will be the longitude and latitude separated by a comma. And in this case it is 30.270928,-97.742615.

So let’s make the request and write it to a file. Here is the PHP to do that.

<?php
//custom function to write a file
simple_write_file($filename, $data)
{
//write file
$fp = @fopen($filename, 'w'); //suppress error
if ($fp)
{
flock($fp, LOCK_EX);//lock file for writing
fwrite($fp, $data);
flock($fp, LOCK_UN);//release write lock
fclose($fp);
$output = '';
}
else
$output = 'Failed to open file.';
return $output;
}
$parameters = array('lat' => 30.270928, 'lon' => -97.742615, 'startDate' => gmdate('Y-m-d'), 'numDays' => 7, 'format' => urlencode('24 hourly'));
$data = file_get_contents('http://www.weather.gov/forecasts/xml/sample_products/browser_interface/ndfdBrowserClientByDay.php?&lat='.$parameters['lat'].'&lon='.$parameters['lon'].'&format='.$parameters['format'].'&startDate='.$parameters['startDate'].'&numDays='.$parameters['numDays']);
simple_write_file('forecast.xml', $data);//NOTE: this will write the error to the file if it encounters one, but this is just for testing purposes
?>


The NWS recommends to make a new request 15 minutes after the hour and to cache the data for an hour. So you’ll want to write the code to cache it, but for this example we can just check the file and see if it’s good and then play with that file without having to make requests each time. Now here is some PHP code using SimpleXML to parse through the data in that file.

<?php
$output = '';
//php5
if (file_exists('forecast.xml'))
{
$today = date('l');
$today_index = -1;
$xmlstr = file_get_contents('forecast.xml');
$xml = simplexml_load_string($xmlstr);
$xml_weather = $xml->data->parameters;//shorthand
$count = count($xml_weather->temperature->value);
$output .= '<ul id="weather_forecast">';
for($x = 0; $x < $count; $x++)
{
$output .= '<li>';
//convert time to timestamp
$timestamp = strtotime($xml->data->{'time-layout'}->{'start-valid-time'}[$x]);
$day = date('l', $timestamp);
//get the day of the week
$output .= '<strong class="day_of_week">';
if ($today == $day)
{
$output .= 'Today';
$today_index = $x + 1;
}
else if ($today_index == $x)
$output .= 'Tomorrow';
else
$output .= $day;
$output .= '</strong>';
//store it for shorthand multiple use
$condition = $xml_weather->weather->{'weather-conditions'}[$x]->attributes()->{'weather-summary'};
//icon image
$output .= ' ';
$output .= '<img src="';
$output .= basename($xml_weather-/>{'conditions-icon'}->{'icon-link'}[$x]);//get the filename, we are going to host the icons on our server
$output .= '" alt="' . htmlentities($condition, ENT_QUOTES) . '" />';//alt text is the condition
//conditions
$output .= ' ';
$output .= '<strong class="condition">';
$output .= $condition;
$output .= '</strong>';
//NOTE: 7th day low will usually be null, so dont bother showing the high
if ($x < 6)
{
//high and low
$output .= ' ';
$output .= '<span class="temperature">';
$output .= '<span class="temperature_high">' . $xml_weather->temperature[0]->value[$x] . '&deg;</span>';//high
$output .= ' / ';
$output .= '<span class="temperature_low">' . $xml_weather->temperature[1]->value[$x] . '&deg;</span>';//low
$output .= '';
}
//NOTE: precipitation is broken into 12hr periods and the 7th day's evening precipitation will usually be null
$output .= '';
}
$output .= '</ul>';
$output .= '<p class="credits">Weather by <a href="' . $xml->head->source->credit . '">NOAA</a></p>';
}
echo $output;
?>


The benefits to the NWS service are: you can make a request for up to 200 locations in one call, you can get weather from the past or several days ahead and use it on a commercial site.

Now combine this code with code I did before on getting current conditions and you one step closer to building your own portal. As I mentioned before, you can’t claim to have copyright on the data, but it is public domain information.

Gallery 2

• Multiple uploads via JavaScript (can add more file upload boxes)
• Uploads by e-mail, ZIP or multiple image files
• Configurable to run from multiple sites from one install
• Reorder album via JavaScript
• Ratings
• Plugins available
• Can’t protect original sizes of images

Zenphoto

• Multiple uploads via JavaScript (can add more file upload boxes)
• Uploads by ZIP or multiple image files
• Spam filter options (Akismet, CAPTCHA, SpamAssassin, …)
• Reorder album via JavaScript
• AJAX editing of albums and images
• Ratings
• Watermarks
• Can’t protect original sizes of images (except with a watermark)
• RSS feed

Plogger

• No multiple uploads via JavaScript (can’t add more file upload boxes)
• Uploads by ZIP or single image files
• Import from folder (you can FTP all images to a folder and have it import the images from that folder)
• You can protect the original size images
• RSS feed

All of these have a clean interface and design, search, EXIF data, subfolder/album creation, cruft-free URLs (for SEO), and comments (Gallery requires the comments plugin to be enabled).

It comes down to what your needs are, if you want something that can run on multiple sites Gallery 2 is the app to choose. If you have to protect your original size images you’ll want to use Plogger. I personally think Zenphoto has the most to offer and the best design out of the bunch, but they are all very well done. I went through all the ones on OpenSourceCMS and these were the best. Coppermine is popular but it’s too ugly and the admin is kind of confusing.

Here is some code for PHP5 (it uses SimpleXML) on doing this (assuming you’ve already grabbed the XML file from their site and have a way to cache it). It even has some code calculating the sunrise, sunset and civil twilight which PHP5 can do with date_sun_info() and since the XML file gives the date, latitude and longitude, you can calculate it dynamically.

//PHP5
if (file_exists('KADS.xml'))
{
$xmlstr = file_get_contents('KADS.xml');
$xml = simplexml_load_string($xmlstr);
$datetime = strtotime($xml->observation_time_rfc822);
$latitude = (float)$xml->latitude;
$longitude = (float)$xml->longitude;
$sun_info = date_sun_info(date('Y-n-j', $datetime), $latitude, $longitude);//calculate sunrise,sunset,...
echo '<ul id="current_conditions">';
echo '<li>' . date('l, F j, Y', $datetime) . '</li>';
echo '<li class="weather_loc">' . $xml->location . '</li>';
echo '<!--' . $xml->observation_time . '-->';
echo '<li><img src="' . $xml->icon_url_base . $xml->icon_url_name . '" alt="' . $xml->weather . '" /></li>';
echo '<li class="weather_temp"><strong>' . $xml->temp_f . '&deg;' . '</strong></li>';
echo '<li class="weather_sum"><strong>' . $xml->weather . '</strong></li>';
echo '<li>Wind: <strong>' . $xml->wind_dir . ' ' . round($xml->wind_mph) . ' mph</strong></li>';
echo '<li>Humidity: <strong>' . $xml->relative_humidity . '%</strong></li>';
if ($xml->heat_index_f != 'NA')
echo '<li>Heat Index: <strong>' . $xml->heat_index_f . '</strong></li>';
if ($xml->windchill_f != 'NA')
echo '<li>Windchill: <strong>' . $xml->windchill_f . '</strong></li>';
echo '<li>Barometer: <strong>' . $xml->pressure_in . '&quot;</strong></li>';
echo '<li>Visibility: <strong>' . $xml->visibility_mi . ' mi</strong></li>';
echo '<li>Dewpoint: <strong>' . $xml->dewpoint_f . '&deg;</strong></li>';
echo '<li class="weather_credit">weather by <a href="' . $xml->credit_URL . '" title="' . $xml->credit . '">NOAA</a></li>';
echo '</ul>';
echo '<ul id="sunrise_sunset">';
echo '<li>Sunrise: <strong>' . date('g:i a', $sun_info['sunrise']) . '</strong> <span class="civil_twilight">Civil Twilight: <strong>' . date('g:i a', $sun_info['civil_twilight_begin']) . '</strong></span></li>';
echo '<li>Sunrise: <strong>' . date('g:i a', $sun_info['sunset']) . '</strong> <span class="civil_twilight">Civil Twilight: <strong>' . date('g:i a', $sun_info['civil_twilight_end']) . '</strong></span></li>';
echo '</ul>';
}


You will probably want to cache that output once you have it formatted how you like.

Here is the function

//CREATE CSS BASED ON DATE
function create_age_css_class($date_sent)
{
/**
$date_sent should be in the following format: YYYYMMDDHHMMSS
Based on doRelativeDate() By Garrett Murray, http://graveyard.maniacalrage.net/etc/relative/
**/
$in_seconds = strtotime(substr($date_sent,0,8).' '.
substr($date_sent,8,2).':'.
substr($date_sent,10,2).':'.
substr($date_sent,12,2));
$diff = time()-$in_seconds;
if ($diff < 86400)
$css_class = 'age_today';
else if ($diff < 604800)
$css_class = 'age_days';
else if ($diff < 1209600)
$css_class = 'age_week';
else if ($diff < 2630880)
$css_class = 'age_weeks';
else
$css_class = 'age_month';
return $css_class;
}


Here is how I call it

$data .= '<li><a href="'. $item->get_permalink();
//SET CLASS BASED ON DATE/AGE
$data .= ' class="' . create_age_css_class($item->get_date('YmdHis')) . '"';
$data .= '>';


You don’t have to use SimplePie for this function, but it’s what inspired me to modify it.

Now for an screenshot

Here is the HTML I used for that

<ul id="type3">
<li class="age_today">Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet</li>
<li class="age_days">Etiam iaculis nulla iaculis mauris</li>
<li class="age_week">Suspendisse at odio</li>
<li class="age_week">Nullam volutpat aliquam lacus</li>
<li class="age_weeks">Nunc dapibus eros vitae mauris rutrum laoreet</li>
<li class="age_weeks">Suspendisse sed nisl</li>
<li class="age_month">Nulla scelerisque gravida neque</li>
<li class="age_month">Leo imperdiet metus, ut adipiscing nisi lacus et pede</li>
</ul>


And here is the CSS used

<style type="text/css">
body {font-family:Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; color:#000; background-color:#fff;}
ul {list-style:none;}
#type3 .age_days {font-size:150%; color:#555;}
#type3 .age_week {font-size:100%; color:#777;}
#type3 .age_weeks {font-size:80%; color:#999;}
#type3 .age_month {font-size:60%; color:#ccc;}
</style>


Added screenshot and sample CSS