[How to] Add your Twitter feed to your blog - Picture tutorial

Hello everyone!

As you may notice on the bottom right corner of the page, I added my Twitter feed to The rob Point ;-)
I spent quite a long time searching for a plugin, a lot of them didn't work for some reasons... Finally I discovered that I just had to use a plugin from my Twitter account, which is really easy to implement :D

So here you go, this is how we add a twitter feed to one's blog or website in three simple steps:
(note that this also works if you want to obtain the feed of a random other person on Twitter)


//1/ Create the widget in your Twitter account

To achieve that, just go to the "Edit profile" menu, and click on the "Widget" tab...

Then hit the "Create new" button!

//2/ Configuration

Enter the username of the person you want to follow the feed here, e.g. you if you want yours

If you want to add the widget to a banner or to the side of your page, I recommend you adjust its height. Note that the width is automatically adjusted

To suit your blog theme, it is a good idea to change the color of the links in the widget...

This step is a bit tricky if you're using a platform that adapt the url to the country of the reader (like me). In that case, you should put various urls like in the example, or the widget won't work in the excluded countries. I didn't found a better way to do it until now...

Don't forget to save. You will be able to edit these properties at anytime. ;-)

//3/ Add the widget to your blog or website!

This step varies depending on your editing interface. I'll show it in pictures for blogger, but i think the steps are almost the same on every platform ;-)

Click on the widget's html code below the preview panel to select it, and copy it

Create a blank widget in your blog administration panel

Note: If you use brute html to modify your blog model, you can always copy the code straight in your html file and it will work anyway

Add the html code from your Twitter widget in your blog's blank widget :-)

Note: You don't have to add a title, because the widget already includes one, so it will look weird...

                                                 

And there you go! :D

This widget can take any width, so if you want you can also easily use it on a dedicated page, or on top (or bottom) of your page as a banner. You'll just have to put in the correct height in Twitter.

Note that if you want to modify your widget, the only way to do it is via your twitter account. The html code is only to get the widget configuration from Twitter.

I hope these helps some of you!

And... a very happy new year 2013, to all of you! ;-)

[ASM] How to use the windows API in NASM

Hellooow everybody! ;-)

Today I will give you a short guide on how to use windows API in ASM programming! (at least in programs compiled with NASM because this is the one I'm using and as I'm quite noob about the different versions of asm, I prefer not risk to tell wrong things) This is because I wanted to learn some asm stuff and make little programs on windows, and quickly realized that windows was too protected to use pure asm and that we need to use the windows C++ API, including console I/O.

What is the windows API?

It's a library of C++ functions. You have to use it if you want to make any program on windows. So that means you will have to call these functions in your asm code.

It's called kernel32.dll for 32bits systems, and normally it's in the path :-)

Here is the official documentation:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/ff818516%28v=vs.85%29.aspx

Here is the documentation for console stuff:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/ms682087%28v=vs.85%29.aspx

How to call a windows API function in asm?

1) Don't forget the header!

You have to declare any function you want to use in your code by specifying them as external functions. Basically at this point all you have to do is to put a line like this in the begining of your file:

  extern    Function1Name, Function2Name, FunctionNName

example (console I/O):

  extern    ExitProcess, GetStdHandle, WriteConsoleA, ReadConsoleInputA

/!\ If you want to use any windows constant in the function calls, you also have to declare those.

For example for the GetStdHandle, these can come in handy :

  STD_OUTPUT_HANDLE    equ -11
  STD_INPUT_HANDLE     equ -10

But of course you can directly pass the constant value as an argument (if you wanna do it in the hardcore way :p) 

2) Function calls in asm

Function calls in asm aren't really more complicated than in any other language. You just have to pass the arguments the function needs and call the function's name.

In asm your pass the arguments by pushing them on top of the stack:

  push    arg

(more info about the stack: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stack_%28abstract_data_type%29)

/!\ Always remember that as the stack goes decreasing, (unlike a stack of papers) you have to pass the arguments in the reverse order:

  push    arg3

  push    arg2

  push    arg1

Once all the arguments are sent to the stack, you can call the function:

  call    function

Example: WriteConsole call

  push    NULL

  push    buffer_out

  push    msg.len

  push    msg

  push    dword[handleOut]

  call    WriteConsoleA

How to compile and link a program that uses win API functions? (using nasm and golink)

This is the easy part! Just open a console and eventually cd in the right directory.

To compile, type something like:

>> nasm -f win32 yourProgram.asm -o yourProgram.obj

and to link the library using golink:

>> GoLink.exe /console /entry starting_point_of_your_asm_program yourProgram.obj kernell32.dll

Or, you can do a makefile:

  yourProgram: yourProgram.obj

  GoLink.exe /console /entry starting_point_of_your_asm_program yourProgram.obj kernell32.dll

  yourProgram.obj: yourProgram.asm 

  nasm -f win32 yourProgram.asm -o yourProgram.obj

NB: 

If you don't already know GoLink, it's a linker, which means it's able to link your file with the libraries you want. (in this case the kernel32.dll file)

You can download it here: (direct download of last version)

http://www.godevtool.com/Golink.zip

Manual:

http://www.godevtool.com/GolinkHelp/GoLink.htm

NB2:

In order to use these commands, the source folders for nasm and GoLink.exe have to be in the path. So when you install them don't forget to add these at the end of the path variable. (right click on computer => advanced system parameters => environment variables... => find "path" in the system variables table, hit "modify" and add your new paths at the end, separated by a ';')

Working example: system("pause")

  STD_OUTPUT_HANDLE   equ -11

  STD_INPUT_HANDLE    equ -10
  NULL                equ 0  global start
  extern ExitProcess, GetStdHandle, WriteConsoleA, ReadConsoleInputA

  section .data    ;message we want to display on console
  msg                 db "Press a key to continue...", 13, 10, 0
  msg.len             equ $ - msg
  consoleInHandle     dd 1

  section .bss     ;buffers declaration
  buffer_out          resd 2
  buffer_in           resb 32

  section .text
    start:       ;starting point of our program
        push    STD_OUTPUT_HANDLE
        call    GetStdHandle   ;call to get a handle to the
        push    NULL           ;specified mode (input, output...)
        push    buffer_out
        push    msg.len
        push    msg
        push    eax            ;contains the GetStdHandle result
        call    WriteConsoleA  ;call to print our msg in console

    read:
        push    STD_INPUT_HANDLE
        call    GetStdHandle        ;new call to get input handle
        push    NULL
        push    1
        push    buffer_in
        push    eax
        call    ReadConsoleInputA   ;call to detect user input
                                    ;this function will wait til
    exit:                           ;it detects enough keypresses

        push    NULL                ;(in this case, 1)
        call    ExitProcess

Manual pages for the functions used in this code:

- ExitProcess

 http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/ms682658%28v=vs.85%29.aspx

- GetStdHandle

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/ms683231%28v=vs.85%29.aspx

- WriteConsole (A stands for ANSI version)

 http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/ms687401%28v=vs.85%29.aspx

- ReadConsoleInput (A stands for ANSI version)

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/ms684961%28v=vs.85%29.aspx

I hope this helped some of you! See ya around and have fun coding ;-)

Additional source for this article:

This thread I posted on stackoverflow.com when I was having a hard time understanding all this: ;-p

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/13571791/assembly-dealing-with-user-input-in-windows-nasm