Updating an XML template

[Jacques1]

Come back when you have an actual question and managed to turn the chaos in your head into a coherent thought.

 

You claim you got it now and will have functional code soon. I'm sceptical about that. You didn't get it the first three times, and your follow-up questions clearly indicate that you still don't get it. This has nothing to do with “thread morphing”. You're just horribly confused -- again.

[NigelRel3]

Will probably have a working website that accepts credit cards by end of the weekend.

 

Just trying to better understand things so I don't make any mistakes and leave any holes in my code.

TBH - this is what concerns me, you are asking questions about how to work with data and you are writing code which allows payments by credit cards.  With all the issues about data breaches and insecure web sites, you are continuing with something which has possibly huge impact on people and their financial details.

I'm looking for a junior role as a PHP programmer as I don't have any commercial experience in PHP and yet I see people writing code for web sites which makes me wonder!

 

If your unsure about how something works, write a SMALL test for it, try it and see what happens.  If this example fails then work out why, don't try and obfuscate the problem with all of the other stuff around it.

[SecondCity]

Come back when you have an actual question and managed to turn the chaos in your head into a coherent thought.

 

You claim you got it now and will have functional code soon. I'm sceptical about that. You didn't get it the first three times, and your follow-up questions clearly indicate that you still don't get it. This has nothing to do with “thread morphing”. You're just horribly confused -- again.

 

I have it working.

 

Looks like you are wrong again.

 

[SecondCity]

TBH - this is what concerns me, you are asking questions about how to work with data and you are writing code which allows payments by credit cards.  With all the issues about data breaches and insecure web sites, you are continuing with something which has possibly huge impact on people and their financial details.

I'm looking for a junior role as a PHP programmer as I don't have any commercial experience in PHP and yet I see people writing code for web sites which makes me wonder!

 

If your unsure about how something works, write a SMALL test for it, try it and see what happens.  If this example fails then work out why, don't try and obfuscate the problem with all of the other stuff around it.

 

I do write secure code.  

 

I just don't know cURL, XML, or OOP - which this project requires.

 

I did break down my code and look at things with a fresh head.  

 

The manual looks like most manuals written by developers - it is incoherent.  (I even got an admin at the payment gateway to agree with me on that one!)

 

Because the developers chose to write piss-poor documentation, and because the nuances of all of this is subtle, that matters

 

I figured out the missing pieces that were not documented, AND I rewrote the code provided to me in several places to make it easier to understand and thus better.

 

I know understand how this whole process works.

 

Had the people doing the documentation done their jobs - read speak clean, clear English - I could have done all of this in a few hours.

 

But through the struggle I guess I am better off in understanding.

 

Of course I still have the cross to bear that @Jacques1 thinks I am an idiot!!

[Jacques1]

I have it working.

 

If I got a dollar for every time somebody makes that claim in a help forum, I'd be a millionaire. Unfortunately, those self assessments aren't worth anything.

 

No, I don't think you're an idiot. Maybe not the smartest person on earth, but that's not the point. I think you're deceiving yourself when it comes to your level of knowledge and competence, and you like to put the blame on others when you struggle with a task. This hurts your ability to make actual progress. I've read your threads and written answers in some of them, and while many questions are perfectly fine, they do show a lack of knowledge in even the most basic areas. Then again you like to blame it on OOP, bad documentation, poor support etc. – but that's not the issue here. If you had perfect documentation and personal around-the-clock support, you would still struggle, because none of this can replace your own competence as a programmer.

 

What you do with that is completely up to you. There don't seem to be any quality standards in your job, so you may very well get away with your current knowledge (or lack thereof). But if you want to be an actual programmer, you'll need to do more than tell yourself that everything is fine.

[SecondCity]

If I got a dollar for every time somebody makes that claim in a help forum, I'd be a millionaire. Unfortunately, those self assessments aren't worth anything.

 

No, I don't think you're an idiot. Maybe not the smartest person on earth, but that's not the point. I think you're deceiving yourself when it comes to your level of knowledge and competence, and you like to put the blame on others when you struggle with a task. This hurts your ability to make actual progress. I've read your threads and written answers in some of them, and while many questions are perfectly fine, they do show a lack of knowledge in even the most basic areas. Then again you like to blame it on OOP, bad documentation, poor support etc. – but that's not the issue here. If you had perfect documentation and personal around-the-clock support, you would still struggle, because none of this can replace your own competence as a programmer.

 

What you do with that is completely up to you. There don't seem to be any quality standards in your job, so you may very well get away with your current knowledge (or lack thereof). But if you want to be an actual programmer, you'll need to do more than tell yourself that everything is fine.

 

Is this why you hang around forums?

 

To put people down and criticize?

 

The places where I was getting hung up weren't that hard to understand if you read what I originally said.  And I was thankfully able to figure things out.

 

Ranting about how inferior my skills are doesn't add much to this website, and make me wonder why you feel the need to point out perceived shortcomings in others.

 

Must be lonely being a forum guru...  

[Jacques1]

When I originally said I don't think you're an idiot, I meant it. When people act stupid in forums, they often just have a mental block, or they're too stubborn or proud to admit their problems. But in your case, it really seems to be a cognitive limitation. Too bad.