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iD News and Blog

Integrating Flickr with vBulletin

Posted onApril 30th, 2009 by KenK

Our support forums here at iD Tech run on the popular internet forum software, vBulletin. Each year we constantly revamp the system with new upgrades, a new design, and new code plugins to make the process more specific to our business model and more accessible to our staff.

In addition, we also have a public Flickr stream. I wanted to pull these two elements together so that we could bring examples of our Flickr photos to our own support system. Here’s how I integrated them.

Download the phpFlickr API from here: http://www.phpflickr.com/
Unzip the files to your vBulletin /includes/ folder.
If you want, you can rename the files to match the vBulletin naming convention (i.e. phpflickr.php -> functions_phpflickr.php).
Optional: Create a new vBulletin product. From the admin side, choose Manage Products from the Plugins & Products menu. Then select Add/Import product. Fill in the information you need for a new product and hit save.
Add a new vBulletin plugin. From the Plugins & Products admin menu, select Add New Plugin. Select the product you created in Step 4, or vBulletin otherwise. For hook location, you’ll need to select where you want the Flickr photos displayed. I’m placing them on our vBulletin homepage, so I select forumhome_start for my hook. Enter a title (such as Flickr Integration), leave the exectution order alone, and use the PHP code shown below.
From the Styles & Templates menu, select Style Manager. Pick your style and choose Edit Templates. Find FORUMHOME (or whichever style is applicable to the hook location you chose) and double-click on it.
Find the location in the template where you want your photos displayed and enter $flickrbox, the name of the variable we are pulling from our PHP plugin.

Now let’s take a look at the code we’re placing in our plugin.

require_once("includes/phpFlickr.php");

// Create new phpFlickr object
$f = new phpFlickr("yourapikey");
$f->enableCache("db","mysql://user:password@server/database");

$limit = 11;

// Find the NSID of the username inputted via the form
$person = $f->people_findByUsername('iDTechCamp');

// Get the friendly URL of the user's photos
$photos_url = $f->urls_getUserPhotos($person['id']);

// Get the user's first X($limit) public photos
$photos = $f->people_getPublicPhotos($person['id'], NULL, NULL, $limit);
$flickrbox = "<table class='flickrbox'><tr>";

// Loop through the photos and output the html
foreach ((array)$photos['photos']['photo'] as $photo) {
    $flickrbox .= "<td><a class='flickrimg' href=$photos_url$photo[id]>";
    $flickrbox .= "<img border='0' alt='$photo[title]' "
               ."src=" . $f->buildPhotoURL($photo, "Square") . ">";
    $flickrbox .= "</a></td>";
}

$flickrbox .= "</tr></table>";

First, we require_once the phpflickr php api library. Alter this line if you choose to name your library differently. Next, we create a new phpFlickr object, $f, and supply our Flickr API key. Change this line to reflect your unique API key. Next, we optionally enable the cache available with this library by supplying our mySQL database details. If you don’t have your details, don’t worry, this step isn’t required.

We then set a limit for how many photos we want. I’ve chosen 11. We use people_findByUsername to get photos for our particular user, in this case, the company username iDTechCamp. The resulting statements will pull $limit number of photos from the public profile of our user. Lastly, we need to construct a variable that holds the output as HTML. Our variable here is $flickrbox and as you can see I’m generating a table with CSS class style named flickrbox. Each image in the table is table cell and contains a link to that particular image. We also set the image title to the photo title pulled from Flickr.

You can easily alter the PHP code here to produce tableless HTML or any other structure you like. I hope these instructions help you to integrate your board and Flickr! Email me or comment with any questions you might have.

Tags: api, changes, Classes, code, css, Design, Flickr, Flickr API, Manager, mysql, Objects, photo, photos, PHP, phpFlickr, style, tech, vBulletin
Posted in iD Tech Bloggers | 1 Comment »

What Makes a Summer Camp Thrive? It’s People!

Posted onApril 23rd, 2009 by Pete

iD Nation,

We’re rounding the corner to Summer 2009. Our camps are thriving right now, and interest is at an all-time high for our summer computer camps. But what makes a camp unique? What makes iD Tech Camps unique? SImply put: It’s people. Check out a few of the cool photos from a few of the very cool and creative people that are responsible for bringing iD Tech Camps to you.

A company that celebrates its employees is a company that thrives.

From our team of Regional Managers, Client Services Representatives, Admin folks, Field Services, IT and Marketing…the best team in the camp business is counting down the days until summer. We are ready for an amazing summer. Climb aboard!

-Pete

Tags: computer camp, computer camps, summer camp, Summer Camps
Posted in CEO's Blog, Summer Camps | No Comments »

Beta Camp Kicks off the Summer Camp Season!

Posted onApril 23rd, 2009 by Donna

Last week, iD Tech Camps launched it’s second annual Spring Break Beta Camp, held right in the heart of Silicon Valley! We invited students ages 7-17 to attend and take iD Tech Camps courses taught by trained instructors during Spring Break. We are happy to announce that Beta Camp was a huge success! (Scroll down to view more photos from Beta Camp.)

iD Tech Camps Beta Camp is a trial version or “beta version” of our summer computer camps and courses. For a fraction of the cost of a regular week of camp, our Beta Campers attended a week of day camp filled with fun camp activities and professional instruction. Like iD Tech Camps, there was a small student to instructor ratio – we wouldn’t have it any other way. Each student also got the opportunity to work with leading brand name technologies and completed a project by the end of the week.

One of the highlights of Beta Camp is that our students get an exclusive sneak peak at our Summer 2009 courses and curriculum. This includes new courses like: 3D Game Design–Role Playing Games, 3D Game Design–1st Person Shooters, Graphic Arts, Digital Video Design and more.

We are thrilled to announce that the feedback we received about the new curriculum was overwhelmingly positive! But don’t take our word for it – check out what some of the student had to say:

“It was a life changing ( in a good way ) awesome and a rocking experience.”

- James, Student

“I enjoyed this camp very much…everyone here was friendly and I expanded my knowledge of making a website and animation. This was very enjoyable working with my friends and meeting new people.”

- Mayer, Student

“Graphic Arts was really fun and I liked how I got to express myself with art.”

- Jordan, student

“iD Tech Camps has always been an amazing experience for me, and this year is no exception. Excellent instructors and an excellent education program combine to form an amazing camp experience.”
- Matthew, Student

Thanks for the rave reviews; we are glad you had a great time! We would also like to thank you for helping to kick off the 2009 Camp Season and look forward to seeing you again this summer.

You can learn more about Beta Camp or register for our 2009 summer computer camps right online. Courses and locations are selling out fast so check availability at one of our 60 locations by clicking here: view all locations. We invite you to check out photos from Beta Camp below.

summer camp staff 300x226 Beta Camp Kicks off the Summer Camp Season!

Meet our awesome Beta Camp staff!

robo2 300x199 Beta Camp Kicks off the Summer Camp Season!

Just need to tighten this....got it!

Let me show you how it's done fellas....;-)

And now for the finishing touch....

Nice moves!

Hands on Tech Fun

This wasn't staged at all, we swear.....

Cutting edge technology + great staff + cool activities = Happy Campers!

Thanks again for a great week everyone!! You can view all Beta Camp photos by clicking here. See you this summer!

Team iD

Tags: spring break camps, spring camp
Posted in iD Tech Camps | No Comments »

Tech Pranks

Posted onApril 21st, 2009 by KenK

Let’s talk about pranks. Specifically, pranks involving technology. If you access to some fairly common technology, you can prank like never before. Here are a few options:

Ghost Writing

This prank is simple. If you have a coworker nearby, find an extra USB keyboard (you could even use your own) and, depending on how far you are from your coworker’s computer, one or more USB extension cords. Plug your extension into their computer when they aren’t around and discreetly run the cord over to your computer where you plug in either your keyboard or an extra one. Alternatively, you can use an extra mouse instead.

The key to this prank is subtlety. Most operating systems allow multiple input devices, so you can simultaneously use two keyboards. As you go through the day, sporadically type a few characters here and there on your extension keyboard, especially when your coworker is working on a document, or email. You don’t want them to become overly suspicious, but instead think that they are having trouble typing. Just an extra letter here and there to start.

Other methods of subtle harrassment with this technique include randomly pressing the Windows key (or some other function-type key) or turning Capslock on occasionally. Again, don’t over do it or it will raise suspicion. If you opted for the mouse instead, small movements or the occasional right-click should do just fine.

Materials:

USB extension cord(s)
USB keyboard

Hidden Friend

This prank requires any sort of device that can occasionally make noise. The original prank began with a stopwatch we received from a vendor for free, though you can use any similar device that can be set to beep on a regular interval. In this case, I set the time incorrectly so that the hourly beep wouldn’t occur on the hour for further annoyance. Just hide the watch somewhere and wait for the fun begins.
If you need a more extreme version of this prank, check out this product from ThinkGeek: http://www.thinkgeek.com/gadgets/electronic/8c52/. This version is set to random periods between beeps and designed just for this prank.

Materials:

Stopwatch or other small device that can beep routinely
ThinkGeek Annoy-A-Tron

Auricular Feedback

All you need for this prank is a stereo line-in cable. That’s the cable you use to connect your speakers to your computer. More specifically, it’s a cable with a 1/8in male headphone jack on each side. Most speakers come with one or several of these cables. Attach one end to the line-in or microphone jack on your coworker’s computer. These jacks usually have icons to represent what they are. Next, plug the other end of the cable into the speaker-out jack on your computer. Basically, the sound from your computer will be played on their computer as microphone or line-in input.
You may need to unmute or adjust the volume of their microphone/line-in while they are away. To start, set your volume very low. You don’t want to make them suspicious too soon. Make sure that no unexpected noise plays on your computer – it blows your cover quickly when your favorite mp3 starts playing on their computer. Instead, play small annoying sounds, like insect buzzes, audio tests (http://www.bbc.co.uk/wiltshire/audio/mosquito_sound.mp3, the Mosquito, a sound file with frequency that only certain ages can hear), or weird beeps and boops from Flash game sites with sample sounds. Don’t overdo it, and gradually increase either the volume or the obnoxiousness of the sounds as the day progresses for maximum effect.