My Microsoft Points Converter

[bigsteveouk]

Hi guys,

I have been playing with learning PHP and thought i would make a little converter that changes MSP (Microsoft Points) into these currencies.

USD, EURO, GBP, CAD, AUD, JPY, NOK & CHF

Check it out: http://www.mspconverter.com/

Thanks

bigsteveouk

EDIT: Added JPY, NOK & CHF
EDIT2: Changed to new URL

[Studley]

Well I'm a web developer and a tester for a living so I can give you a few little tips :thup: Nothing important, it certainly works.

#1: It's not displaying the correct number of decimal places for currencies; i.e. if the price is £12.40 then it displays £12.4. There are two ways you can deal with this; either convert the original number to two decimal places before displaying it, or do a check to see if it's only got one character after the "." symbol, and if so then pad a 0 on the end. As you're still learning PHP, I'll do the "cruel to be kind" thing and leave you to find out how to do it yourself - you'll learn more by trial and error First way is definitely easiest.

#2: Yeah, I got sneaky and looked in your code. Can't you get Yen to work? Why did you comment it out? If you don't want it to even appear in your code, use PHP comment tags rather than HTML comment tags, and it won't even be outputted to the code. PHP comment tags are definitely safer because then sneaky people like me can't see stuff that they shouldn't!

#3: You've got just the one form input field (MSP) but you're not validating it; you should really make it so that it only accepts numbers, and if you put anything else in then it displays a popup error message "Please enter a numeric value for MSP" or something. On the plus side it doesn't crash if you put a non-numeric value in... was that just luck?

Sorry for being VERY picky, it's my job! But as first PHP projects go, it's a great start. Heck it works, I couldn't break it as such, which is better than most of the projects that I put together myself... Good luck in your future work

[Cage]

Only one comment. Why isn't xboxic.com on the "Links to cool websites" page?
Other then that (and the decimal and jpy problem), great work for a first project

[bigsteveouk]

Cheers for the advice guys. Im working on the Yen as we speak!
I will have a look at adding the extra 0 to the end when needed.

Also, I have added xboxic to the links page

[Rival24]

Oh and before Curry begins whining about it: W3C thingy

[bigsteveouk]

Originally Posted by Rival24

Oh and before Curry begins whining about it: W3C thingy

Hehe... not too worried about that It's more to learn this damn php

[bigsteveouk]

fixed the lack of the extra zero with the money_format converter

[TRIGGER M4N]

Ok, I'm not a maths-magician, but if I type 1 MS point, it says that = 1 pence, I type 34 in and it converts to 28 pence, can you explain that? Shouldn't it be 34 pence?

Other than that, that site is actually really neat, and I've learned from it immediatly.

[Rival24]

Originally Posted by TRIGGER M4N

Ok, I'm not a maths-magician, but if I type 1 MS point, it says that = 1 pence, I type 34 in and it converts to 28 pence, can you explain that? Shouldn't it be 34 pence?

Other than that, that site is actually really neat, and I've learned from it immediatly.

My guess is that it's rounded off.

[TRIGGER M4N]

Yeah, I can be a bit weird like this, but he asked for feedback, and that's the only flaw I could find.

[aries]

honestly, i think u did a good job. but on the canadian funds, u are about 60 cents off. its actually 19.99 for a card that gives u 1250 points. i know its nitpicking, but i just thought id be honest. but good job with that. i could never do it lol.

[bigsteveouk]

Originally Posted by aries

honestly, i think u did a good job. but on the canadian funds, u are about 60 cents off. its actually 19.99 for a card that gives u 1250 points. i know its nitpicking, but i just thought id be honest. but good job with that. i could never do it lol.

I was working off a conversion of 1MSP = 1.55CAD. So it should be 1.59 or 1.60 per msp? Please let me know

[bigsteveouk]

Originally Posted by TRIGGER M4N

Ok, I'm not a maths-magician, but if I type 1 MS point, it says that = 1 pence, I type 34 in and it converts to 28 pence, can you explain that? Shouldn't it be 34 pence?

Other than that, that site is actually really neat, and I've learned from it immediatly.

Ok, i think i have fixed that now. Can you tell me if it's ok?

[Curry]

Originally Posted by bigsteveouk

Hi guys,

I have been playing with learning PHP and thought i would make a little converter that changes MSP (Microsoft Points) into these currencies.

USD, EURO, GBP, CAD & AUD

Check it out on my domain. http://www.stevehunter.co.uk/

As I say, i am still learning, but any feedback or suggestions would be appreciated.

Thanks

bigsteveouk

Looks and functions good As Rival24 predicted, I will be bitching about validation (had that link on my clipboard before I read his post ) "I'm just learning this stuff" isn't an excuse, writing valid HTML is a prerequisite for learning PHP. After all, all PHP does it outputting HTML, so you'd better get the HTML completely covered before you start doing something that generates HTML. Sounds harshes than I mean it Validation errors are no worldshocking disaster, but you should always try to run the validator regularly during development. And about "I'm just learning": are you allowed to drive off the roadway during driving lessons because you are just learning? No, you're bound to basic traffic rules. Similarly, web development is bound by basic traffic rules, in this case those laid out by the World Wide Web Consortium or W3C. Follow their rules, you'll learn to appreciate it

And please ask anything you want to know, I know a lot of PHP and HTML and I'm more than willing to help with whatever you want to know. Especially now you've added that link

[bigsteveouk]

Cheers Curry, I will add a load of CSS and clean it up tonight. It's not looking the same in IE as it does in FF so need to work on that.

EDIT: All HTML Valid now

[Studley]

Originally Posted by bigsteveouk

EDIT: All HTML Valid now

You're one step ahead of Xboxic then

Seems that speech marks and apostrophes cause some major confusion...

[Curry]

Originally Posted by Studley

You're one step ahead of Xboxic then

Seems that speech marks and apostrophes cause some major confusion...

Hmm nice bug, missing a call to htmlentities there in constructing the trackers Will fix tonight if I find time

[YLA G]

don't forget the corrupt div :p

[swoosh bnd]

I found that if you put more than 316 9's in it, its calculations become really messed up . Other than that it's a really cool tool.

[Curry]

Originally Posted by swoosh bnd

I found that if you put more than 316 9's in it, its calculations become really messed up . Other than that it's a really cool tool.

You should apply for a job as Quality Assurance manager somewhere

[swoosh bnd]

Originally Posted by Curry

You should apply for a job as Quality Assurance manager somewhere

I think I made a mistake, it was more than 308 when the error occurred. The USD will always be at $115246033600500432.00 however many you add beyond that.

[Curry]

Originally Posted by swoosh bnd

I think I made a mistake, it was more than 308 when the error occurred. The USD will always be at $115246033600500432.00 however many you add beyond that.

Hmm that's a surprising amount actually, I was expecting 2 to the power of 31 or 63 Hint for bigsteve: always validate your inputs, never expect the user to follow your intended logic. Just fail for numbers of more than 10 digits or something That way you can also avoid situations like this:

[CENTER]53abc Microsoft Points is:[/CENTER]
USD 66.22 Cents
GBP 45.05 Pence
EURO 61.64 Cents
CAD 84.75 Cents
AUD 87.45 Cents
JPY ¥78.44

preg_match("[0-9]{1,10}") would solve most problems

[bigsteveouk]

Just wanted to say thanks to everyone for the tips etc. I will continue to develop the points converter. Hello to the people who send messages to my xbox too.

[| V |]

Not to be a negative nancy but you actually come round to buying MS points dont you have to buy them in clumpos of like 400,800 etc?

And the program is very nice btw

[bigsteveouk]

Originally Posted by | V |

Not to be a negative nancy but you actually come round to buying MS points dont you have to buy them in clumpos of like 400,800 etc?

And the program is very nice btw

This is true. But the reason I have made it flexible is that the content on marketplace is different prices. Example: A picture pack might be 80MSP. Or say you have 220 points left and your wondering how much is that worth?