App Engine 1.4.3 Released

Python API Changes
Prospective Search API: The experimental Prospective Search API allows Python runtime users to detect and take action on datastore entities that match certain criteria when they are written. For the experimental release, users will be allowed 10,000 subscriptions with the Prospective Search API. Pricing will be announced once the feature is fully launched.

Testbed Unit Test Framework: The Testbed suite for Python provides an easy interface for using App Engine API stubs in integration tests similar to the previously existing Java Testing Framework. You can create tests for your application that do not rely on calling App Engine production services, which speeds up the time your tests take to complete, and eliminates dependencies for your test on external services.

Files API: The new Files API in Python and Java allow you to programatically read and write data using Blobstore. This API can be used to generate reports, export data, or do anything that your heart desires that requires large, binary objects.

full announcement

Titanium Studio Preview

Appcelerator have announced a preview release of Titanium Studio, an IDE built on top of Aptana (Eclipse) for Titanium Mobile development. It includes all the features of Aptana 3.0 as well as code completion for all Titanium APIs and the ability to debug Titanium Mobile applications. The Mobile debugger allows developers to set breakpoints, examine the call stack and modify application variables while the application is being run in the emulator.

Javascript Regular Expression API Overview

Axel Rauschmayer, a writer for Dzone, has posted an overview of the methods for executing regular expressions in Javascript. It covers the exec, test, replace and split methods. While the post doesn’t focus on regular expression syntax, it does cover escape characters, group matching and case sensitivity. Anyone not confident in regular expressions would benefit from reading this article.

jquery.qrcode

jquery.qrcode.js is jquery plugin for a pure browser qrcode generation. It allow you to easily add qrcode to your webpages. It is standalone, less than 4k after minify+gzip, no image download. It doesnt rely on external services which go on and off, or add latency while loading. It is based on a library which build qrcode in various language. jquery.qrcode.js wraps it to make it easy to include in your own code.

Usage is simple:

<script type="text/javascript" src="jquery.qrcode.min.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript">$('#qrcode').qrcode("this plugin is great");</script>
<div id="qrcode"></div>

9 Super Useful PHP Snippets

The CatsWhoCode blog has put together a list of 9 useful PHP snippets. The majority of the snippets are framework agnostic and would be useful in a wide variety of circumstances. Some of the snippets provide ways to:

• Calculate Paypal fees
• Get Latitude and Longitude given an address (via Google Maps)
• Force a file to start downloading
• Get local weather (via Google APIs)