Programming languages

Sep

2020

How to run TamperMonkey function after window.location.href change

When automating workflows using TamperMonkey scripts, you often have a situation where you want to run some function, then set window.location.href and after that page has loaded, run another part of your code. However, since the browser physically reloads the page, the Tampermonkey script is also reloaded – hence, your original function will stop being executed.

Fixing this is easy once you grasp the concept:

Before reloading the page, we set a specific key in sessionStorage, indicating what we want to do once the page has finished loading
Then we can set window.location.href
On each page load, we check if the key is set and, if so, we run the appropriate function and delete the key

Note that in the TamperMonkey context, this is limited to pages that are included in the @match configuration of the script (otherwise, the script won’t be executed on the new page that is being loaded):

// ==UserScript==
// @name         TamperMonkey continuation example
// @namespace    http://tampermonkey.net/
// @version      0.1
// @author       You
// @match        https://techoverflow.net
// @grant        none
// ==/UserScript==

(function() {
    'use strict';
    const continuationKey = "_my_script_continuation_key"; // This sessionstorage key

    // Check continuation
    const continuationActions = {
        "printMsg": onPrintMsg
    };
    const _continuation = sessionStorage.getItem(continuationKey);
    if(_continuation) {
        sessionStorage.removeItem(continuationKey);
        const action = continuationActions[_continuation]
        if(action) {action();}
    }

    function onPrintMsg() {
        console.log("This is run after reloading the page");
    }

    function onAltQ() {
        console.log("Will now reload the page...");
        sessionStorage.setItem(continuationKey, "printMsg");
        window.location.href = window.location.origin + "/";
    }

    function onKeydown(evt) {
        // Use https://keycode.info/ to get keys
        if (evt.altKey && evt.keyCode == 81) {
            onAltQ();
        }
    }
    document.addEventListener('keydown', onKeydown, true);
})();

Sep

2020

How to go to URL within same domain in Javascript

In order to go to an URL relative to the current domain name in Javascript, use window.location.origin like this:

window.location.href = window.location.origin + "/myurl"

Sep

2020

Minimal TamperMonkey template for keypress-triggered events

This template allows you to build your own TamperMonkey scripts that react on keypresses on a specific page.

This script shows an alert message when you press Alt+Q.

// ==UserScript==
// @name         TamperMonkey keypress example
// @namespace    http://tampermonkey.net/
// @version      0.1
// @description  try to take over the world!
// @author       You
// @match        https://techoverflow.net/*
// @grant        none
// ==/UserScript==

(function() {
    'use strict';

    function onAltQ() {
        alert("Alt Q pressed!");
    }

    function onKeydown(evt) {
        // Use https://keycode.info/ to get keys
        if (evt.altKey && evt.keyCode == 81) {
            onAltQ();
        }
    }
    document.addEventListener('keydown', onKeydown, true);
})();

Sep

2020

How to get duration of WAV file in Python (minimal example)

Use

duration_seconds = mywav.getnframes() / mywav.getframerate()

to get the duration of a WAV file in seconds.

Full example:

import wave

with wave.open("myaudio.wav") as mywav:
    duration_seconds = mywav.getnframes() / mywav.getframerate()
    print(f"Length of the WAV file: {duration_seconds:.1f} s")

Sep

2020

How to fix “OTGS Installer, responsible for receiving automated updates for WPML and Toolset, requires the following PHP component(s) in order to function:cURL” on Ubuntu 20.04

Problem:

Your WordPress installation running on Ubuntu 20.04 shows you this error message:

OTGS Installer, responsible for receiving automated updates for WPML and Toolset, requires the following PHP component(s) in order to function:cURL

Learn more: Minimum WPML requirements

Solution:

You need to install the curl package for your PHP version.

Typically you can use

sudo apt -y install php7.4-curl

Doing this should immediately fix the issue (just reload your WordPress dashboard). In case you’re using PHP 7.2 you need to sudo apt -y install php7.2-curl instead.

In case the issue is still not fixed after doing this, try restarting your webserver (e.g. sudo service apache restart or sudo service nginx restart), try restarting PHP-FPM by using sudo service php7.4-fpm restart or sudo service php7.2-fpm restart or try rebooting your server. In case that doesn’t help either, you need to manually check which PHP instance the wordpress site is using and install the curl package for that PHP instance.

Aug

2020

How to emulate Page up / Page down key in Puppeteer

To emulate a keypress to the Page up key in Puppeteer, use

await page.keyboard.press("PageUp");

To emulate a keypress to the Page down key in Puppeteer, use

await page.keyboard.press("PageDown");

Jul

2020

How to run Nextcloud “php occ” in a docker-compose configuration

Use this command to run php occ inside a running docker Nextcloud container:

docker-compose exec -u www-data nextcloud php occ [command]

where:

nextcloud is the name of your container in docker-compose
-u www-data tells docker-compose to run the command as the www-data user that owns all the Nextcloud files.
Replace [command] by the php occ command you want to run, for example versions:cleanup. If you want to see a list of all available commands, just omit [command]

Note: You need to run this command in the directory where your nextcloud docker-compose.yml is located.

Example:

docker-compose exec -u www-data nextcloud php occ versions:cleanup

or:

docker-compose exec -u www-data nextcloud php occ trash:cleanup --all-users

Jun

2020

mbed STM32 timer interrupt example

You can use the mbed Ticker API to add a timer interrupt to your mbed application. This example will use a Ticker-based timer interrupt to toggle the LED once per second, for example on the STM32F429I-DISCO board:

#include <mbed.h>

DigitalOut led1(LED1);
Ticker ticker;

/**
 * This function will be run once per second
 */
void timerTick() {
  // Toggle LED
  led1 = !led1;
}

int main() {
  ticker.attach(timerTick, 1.0 /* seconds */);

  // What you do in the main loop is not important
  while(1) {
  }
}

Jun

2020

How to create filename containing date/time in Python

In datalogging quiten often you have to create a new log file once you start to log data.

Often it’s convenient to include the current date and time in the log file. In Python, this is pretty easy to do:

from datetime import datetime

filename = f"Temperature log-{datetime.now():%Y-%m-%d %H-%m-%d}.csv"

This will create filenames like

Temperature log 2020-06-17 22-37-41.csv
Temperature log 2019-12-31 00-15-55.csv

Note that if you use another Date/time format, you need to avoid special characters that must not occur in filenames. The rules for which filename is correct are much easier on Linux than on Windows, but since you should be compatible with both operating systems, you should always check the Windows rules.

These characters are forbidden for Windows filenames:

<>:"/\|?*

The date-time format we used above, %Y-%m-%d %H-%m-%d is specially crafted in order to avoid colons in ISO-8601-like date/time formats such as 2020-04-02 11:45:33 since colons would be illegal in Windows filenames (they would work in Linux filenames, though). %Y-%m-%d %H-%m-%d only contains spaces and dash (-) characters in order to avoid any issues with filename rules.

Jun

2020

How to fix PlatformIO fatal error: stm32f429i_discovery_lcd.h: No such file or directory

Problem:

You are trying to compile your PlatformIO application using the LCD_DISCO_F429ZI library, but you see an error message like

 #include "stm32f429i_discovery_lcd.h"
          ^~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
compilation terminated.
*** [.pio\build\disco_f429zi\src\main.o] Error 1
In file included from .pio\libdeps\disco_f429zi\LCD_DISCO_F429ZI_ID2432\LCD_DISCO_F429ZI.cpp:19:0:
.pio\libdeps\disco_f429zi\LCD_DISCO_F429ZI_ID2432\LCD_DISCO_F429ZI.h:25:10: fatal error: stm32f429i_discovery_lcd.h: No such file or directory

Solution:

First, ensure that BSP_DISCO_F429ZI is listed is library dependency in platformio.ini like this:

[env:disco_f429zi]
platform = ststm32
board = disco_f429zi
framework = mbed
lib_deps =
    LCD_DISCO_F429ZI
    BSP_DISCO_F429ZI

Replace the line

#include "stm32f429i_discovery_lcd.h"

in LCD_DISCO_F429ZI.h with

#include "Drivers/BSP/STM32F429I-Discovery/stm32f429i_discovery_lcd.h"

Jun

2020

How to fix PlatformIO fatal error: ../Fonts/fonts.h: No such file or directory

Problem:

You are trying to compile a PlatformIO application using the BSP_DISCO_F429ZI library, but you see an error message like

In file included from .pio\libdeps\disco_f429zi\BSP_DISCO_F429ZI_ID2208\Drivers\BSP\STM32F429I-Discovery\stm32f429i_discovery_lcd.c:75:0:
.pio\libdeps\disco_f429zi\BSP_DISCO_F429ZI_ID2208\Drivers\BSP\STM32F429I-Discovery\stm32f429i_discovery_lcd.h:49:10: fatal error: ../Fonts/fonts.h: No such file or directory
 #include "../Fonts/fonts.h"
          ^~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
compilation terminated.

Solution:

The BSP_DISCO_F429ZI package includes fonts.h from the wrong directory. Replace

#include "../Fonts/fonts.h"

#include "Utilities/Fonts/fonts.h"

in order to fix the issue. You might need to do that multiple times (in multiple files) in order to fix your build.

Jun

2020

How to toggle the STM32F429I-DISCOVERY LED using mbed + PlatformIO

This simple firmare toggles the LED on the STM32F429I-DISC1 discovery board.

#include <mbed.h>

DigitalOut myled(LED1);

int main() {
  while(1) {
    myled = !myled;
    wait(0.5);
  }
}

This will toggle the green (PG13) LED twice per second.

The program is simple: We toggle the LED using myled = !myled; and then use wait(0.5) for 0.5 seconds.

Jun

2020

How to create filename containing date/time in C#

In datalogging, often you have to create a new log file once you start to log data.

In most cases, it’s convenient to include the current date and time in the log file. Here’s how you can do that in C# without using external libraries:

string filename = String.Format("Temperature logging {0}.csv",
                                DateTime.UtcNow.ToString("yyyy-MM-dd HH-mm-ss"));

This will create filenames like

Temperature log 2020-06-17 22-37-41.csv
Temperature log 2019-12-31 00-15-55.csv

These characters are forbidden for Windows filenames:

<>:"/\|?*

The date-time format we used above, yyyy-MM-dd HH-mm-ss is specially crafted in order to avoid colons in ISO-8601-like date/time formats such as 2020-04-02 11:45:33 since colons would be illegal in Windows filenames. yyyy-MM-dd HH-mm-ss only contains spaces and minus (-) characters in order to avoid any issues, now and in the future.

Jun

2020

How to fix C/C++ error: call of overloaded ‘abs(uint32_t)’ is ambiguous

Problem:

You are trying to compile a C/C++ program but you see an error message like

src\main.cpp:127:21: error: call of overloaded 'abs(uint32_t)' is ambiguous

that refers to a line like

long timedelta = abs(millis() - startTime);

Solution:

Cast the argument to abs() to int or another suitable type:

long timedelta = abs(((int)millis() - startTime));

That should fix the error.

The reason for the error message is that millis() and startTime are both unsigned integers (uint32_t), hence their difference (millis() - startTime) is also an uint32_t. However it makes no sense to compute the abs() of an unsigned integer since the absolute value of an absolute-value integer is always the same as the input argument.

Then, the compiler tries to cast the uint32_t to any type that is compatible with abs(), like int, float, double, … but it doesn’t know which of those types is the correct one to cast it to.

By saying call of overloaded abs() the compiler is trying to tell you that there are multBiple argument types with which you can call abs(), including int, float, double, … – a function with the same name but different argument types is called overloaded.

By saying is ambiguous, the compiler is telling you that it doesn’t know which of those variants of abs() it should call.

Note that the compiler does not know that all overloaded variants of abs() fundamentally do the same thing, so it won’t just cast your uint32_t into any arbitrary type. Also, there are tiny details in how the abs() variants work – for example, float abs(float) will do a different calculation compared to double abs(double) since it computes with 32-bit floating point numbers (float) as opposed to 64-bit floating point numbers (double).

Hence, the compiler can’t just assume that they are all the same and it doesn’t matter which one it calls, even though they represent the same underlying mathematical operation

Jun

2020

How to fix C/C++ round(): error: invalid operands of types ‘float’ and ‘int’ to binary ‘operator&’

Problem:

You are trying to compile a C/C++ program but you see an error message like

src\main.cpp:357:21: error: invalid operands of types 'float' and 'int' to binary 'operator&'

that refers to a line like

long m = round(v) & 0x7FF;

Solution:

The result of round() is a floating point number. You are trying to use the & operator to perform bitwise AND of a float and an int (0x7FF in the example above). However, you can not perform bitwise operation on floats in C/C++.

In order to fix this, case the result of round() to int:

long m = ((int)round(v)) & 0x7FF;

That should fix the compiler error.

Jun

2020

What fraction of the year has passed until a given Timestamp in pandas?

To compute what fraction of the year has passed since the start of the year, use this function:

import pandas as pd

def fraction_of_year_passed(date):
    """Compute what fraction of the current year has already passed up to the given date"""
    start_of_year = pd.Timestamp(now.year, 1, 1)
    start_of_next_year = pd.Timestamp(now.year + 1, 1, 1)
    # Compute seconds in entire year and seconds since start of year
    entire_year_seconds = (start_of_next_year - start_of_year).total_seconds()
    seconds_since_start_of_year = (date - start_of_year).total_seconds()
    return seconds_since_start_of_year / entire_year_seconds

Usage example:

print(fraction_of_year_passed(pd.Timestamp("2020-03-01"))) # prints 0.16393442622950818

Detailed explanation:

First, we define that start of the calendar year date belongs to, and the start of the calendar year after that:

start_of_year = pd.Timestamp(now.year, 1, 1)
start_of_next_year = pd.Timestamp(now.year + 1, 1, 1)

Now we compute the number of seconds in the entire year and the number of seconds passed between the start of the year and date:

entire_year_seconds = (start_of_next_year - start_of_year).total_seconds()
seconds_since_start_of_year = (date - start_of_year).total_seconds()

The rest is simple: Just divide seconds_since_start_of_year / entire_year_seconds to obtain what fraction of the year has passed until date.

Jun

2020

How to compute number of days in a year in Pandas

In our previous post we showed how to used the pendulum library in order to compute the number of days in a given year using the pendulum library.

This post shows how to achieve the same using pandas:

import pandas as pd
def number_of_days_in_year(year):
    start = pd.Timestamp(year, 1, 1)
    end = pd.Timestamp(year + 1, 1, 1)
    return (end - start).days)

Usage example:

print(number_of_days_in_year(2020)) # Prints 366
print(number_of_days_in_year(2021)) # Prints 365

Explanation:

First, we define the start date to be the first day (1st of January) of the year we’re interested in:

start = pd.Timestamp(year, 1, 1)

Now we generate the end date, which is the 1st of January of the following year:

end = pd.Timestamp(year + 1, 1, 1)

The rest is simple: Just compute the difference (end – start) and ask pandas to give us the number of days:

(end - start).days

Jun

2020

How to generate range of dates in pandas

In this example, we’ll create a list of pandas Timestamp objects that represent 100 consecutive days, starting at a fixed date:

start_date = pd.Timestamp("2020-03-01")

Generating the 100 consecutive days is easy:

all_days = [start_date + pd.Timedelta(d, "days") for d in range(100)]

Note that range(100) will generate all numbers from 0 up to and including 99. Hence, [pd.Timedelta(d, "days") for d in range(100)] will generate a list of Timedeltas that represent 0 days, 1 days, 2 days, …, 99 days.

Full example:

import pandas as pd

start_date = pd.Timestamp("2020-03-01")
all_days = [start_date + pd.Timedelta(d, "days") for d in range(100)]

print(all_days)

Jun

2020

How to compute number of days in a year in Python using Pendulum

Also see How to compute number of days in a year in Pandas

We can use the excellent pendulum library to find the number of days in a given year

import pendulum

def number_of_days_in_year(year):
    start = pendulum.date(year, 1, 1)
    end = start.add(years=1)
    return (end - start).in_days()

Usage example:

print(number_of_days_in_year(2020)) # Prints 366
print(number_of_days_in_year(2021)) # Prints 365

Explanation:

First, we define the start date to be the first day (1st of January) of the year we’re interested in:

start = pendulum.date(year, 1, 1)

Now we use pendulum‘s add function to add exactly one year to that date. This will always result in the 1st of January of the year after the given year:

end = start.add(years=1)

The rest is simple: Just ask pendulum to give us the number of days in the difference between end and start:

(end - start).in_days()

Jun

2020

How to fix Keil EFM8 Warning C280: unreferenced local variable

Problem:

You have a C function like

int myfunc(int value) {
  return 0;
}

but you see a Keil compiler warning like

*** WARNING C280 IN LINE 7 OF C:\Users\uli\MyProject\src\main.c: 'value': unreferenced local variable

Solution:

'value': unreferenced local variable means that you don’t use that variable value in any way.

In the function shown above, you can see that value is the argument of myfunc but myfunc never actually uses the variable.

Do you think that variable should be used in this function?

You need to check your function for typos – the variable is never used at all. Possibly you are using the wrong variable or your function is missing some part of its logic.

Don’t want to use that variable at all?

Usually you can tell the compiler that you don’t want to use that variable by using

(void)value;

but that will produce an expression with possibly no effect warning.

*** WARNING C275 IN LINE 7 OF C:\Users\uli\MyProject\src\main.c: expression with possibly no effect

You can use this hack to avoid this warning:

r = r; // Avoid unused local variable

Problem:

Solution:

Problem:

Solution:

Problem:

Solution:

Problem:

Solution:

Problem:

Solution:

Usage example:

Detailed explanation:

Usage example:

Explanation:

Usage example:

Explanation:

Problem:

Solution:

Do you think that variable should be used in this function?

Don’t want to use that variable at all?

Search

Categories