Let’s say that we have one large text document and we have a a bunch of keywords that we want to parse the document for.  We don’t care how many times times the keyword appears — we just care that it’s been used.  When we find a keyword, we need to record that keyword been found so that we may check at a later time.

Inefficient Method:  Array Collection and Search

The first method to record that a keyword has been found is by pushing the keyword into one array:

//Assume an array called "foundKeywords" was defined above
if(shouldSave(keyword)) {
	foundKeywords.push(keyword);
}

At the end of the document search, we’d end up with an array like:

//the foundKeywords array looks like:
//['keyword1','keyword2','keyword2',...]

When it comes to checking this array for the existence of a given keyword, this method will prove inefficient.  Why?  Because we’d need to loop through the array and search until we found the given keyword (if ever).  Those are a lot of “wasted” or fruitless cycles, even if we break the loop when the keyword was found.  Inefficient is the only word to describe this process.

The Efficient Method:  Object with Index

The fastest method of checking a storing keywords for later reference is by object (in JavaScript) or associative array (in PHP).  Instead of adding the keyword to an array, we add the keyword as an index to a master object, giving the value as 1:

//Assume an object {} called "foundKeywords" was defined above
if(shouldSave(keyword)) {
	foundKeywords[keyword] = 1;
}

Why is this faster?  No wasted cycles looking blindly through an array.  The check is quick and simple:

if(foundKeywords[keyword]) { //FOUND!
	//do something
}

It’s either an index or it’s not!  In PHP, we’d save the keyword to an associative array:

//Assume an array called "$found_keywords" was defined above
if(shouldSave($keyword)) {
	$found_keywords[$keyword] = 1;
}

//Later: checking if the keyword was there...
if($found_keywords[$keyword]) { //or array_key_exists($keyword,$found_keywords)
	//FOUND!
}

In a word…awesome.  Not only fast but simple!

I cannot provide a benchmark because the speed of execution depends on how large the keyword array is.  Suffice to say, for the sake of simplicity and speed, using an object with keyword index is definitely the way to go!

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Full David Walsh Blog Post: Quick Tip: Object Indexing vs. Array Collection

Related posts:

1. Element Collection Manipulation Shortcut Using MooTools 1.2
2. Implementing an Array.count() Method in JavaScript
3. dojo.connect: A Powerful Object and Event Listener
4. Implement Array Shuffling in MooTools
5. Access JavaScript Object Variable Properties

Changing the Slug

You can very easily change the category slug within WordPress’s admin panel by navigating to Settings >> Permalinks:

I changed the slug from “sugar” to “tutorials.”

WordPress Redirection

So why do we need the Redirection plugin?  Because search engines like Google and users who have bookmarked your site will try to reach the old address.  Thus, we need an appropriate redirect to push them to the new address.  Not only do we need a redirection plugin but we need it to be reliable.  I’ve been using Redirection for years so I knew this would be the best route.

While Redirection allows you to make a simple URL to URL redirection, I needed something a bit more powerful since almost anything could be after “/sugar/” in the URL.  What I did was use Redirection’s regular expression capabilities to create a wildcard search on the URL to redirect all “/sugar/” URLs to “/tutorials/” URLS:

And there I have it;  all category URLs are redirected as they should be! The (*) in the source URL grabs the text after “/sugar/” in the URL and the $1 in the Target URL places that text after the new category slug!

The Redirection plugin for WordPress is outstanding.  As I mentioned above, I’ve used it for years, have hundreds of redirections in place, and it’s always been one of my most trusted plugins.  Thanks to John Godley for his great plugin!

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Full David Walsh Blog Post: Change Category Slug within WordPress

Related posts:

1. PHP: Get WordPress Post Categories
2. iPad Detection Using JavaScript or PHP
3. April Fools! Change Your PHP Pages to ASP…Or Not
4. Change the PHP Query String Variable Separator Using php.ini
5. PHP Redirect Function

The CSS

table.db-table 		{ border-right:1px solid #ccc; border-bottom:1px solid #ccc; }
table.db-table th	{ background:#eee; padding:5px; border-left:1px solid #ccc; border-top:1px solid #ccc; }
table.db-table td	{ padding:5px; border-left:1px solid #ccc; border-top:1px solid #ccc; }

The CSS I’m styling the table with is as basic as it gets — style as you wish!

The PHP / MySQL

/* connect to the db */
$connection = mysql_connect('localhost','username','password');
mysql_select_db('my_db',$connection);

/* show tables */
$result = mysql_query('SHOW TABLES',$connection) or die('cannot show tables');
while($tableName = mysql_fetch_row($result)) {

	$table = $tableName[0];
	
	echo '<h3>',$table,'</h3>';
	$result2 = mysql_query('SHOW COLUMNS FROM '.$table) or die('cannot show columns from '.$table);
	if(mysql_num_rows($result2)) {
		echo '<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="db-table">';
		echo '<tr><th>Field</th><th>Type</th><th>Null</th><th>Key</th><th>Default<th>Extra</th></tr>';
		while($row2 = mysql_fetch_row($result2)) {
			echo '<tr>';
			foreach($row2 as $key=>$value) {
				echo '<td>',$value,'</td>';
			}
			echo '</tr>';
		}
		echo '</table><br />';
	}
}

The first step in the process is accessing all of the tables within the database.  Once all tables have been fetched, the next step is to loops through the array of tables we receive and, for each table, build a new HTML table with column information.

Nothing groundbreaking but surely has use.  I’ve also written a blog post about backing up your MySQL database with PHP titled Backup Your MySQL Database Using PHP; check that out if you’d prefer to backup your databse information in SQL format!

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Full David Walsh Blog Post: Build HTML Tables From MySQL Tables with PHP

Related posts:

1. PHP / MySQL Database Optimization Function
2. Backup Your MySQL Database Using PHP
3. Build a Calendar Using PHP, XHTML, and CSS
4. PHP, Microsoft SQL Server (MSSQL), and IIS: Connect and Query with ODBC
5. Create a Basic Web Service Using PHP, MySQL, XML, and JSON

The SQL

SELECT post_title, post_name 
FROM wp_posts 
WHERE post_type = 'post' 
AND post_status = 'publish' 
ORDER BY post_date DESC 
LIMIT 5

I’m simply choosing to pull the post title and slug — you can use “*” to pull in all fields or select additional fields by naming them. The key to the SQL is making sure you use the WHERE conditionals above so you avoid pulling in revisions and unpublished posts.

The PHP

$query = "SELECT post_title, post_name FROM wp_posts WHERE post_type = 'post' AND post_status = 'publish' ORDER BY post_date DESC LIMIT 5";
$result = mysql_query($query,$dblink);
if(mysql_num_rows($result)) {
	echo '<ul>';
	while($post = mysql_fetch_assoc($result)) {
		echo '<li><a href="/blog/',$post['post_name'],'">',stripslashes($post['post_title']),'</a></li>';
	}
	echo '</ul>';
}

The PHP above outputs the posts returned by our query into a nice UL/LI list. As always, feel free to style the list as you wish!

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Full David Walsh Blog Post: Create a “Recent Posts” Module Outside of WordPress

Related posts:

1. Create a Basic Web Service Using PHP, MySQL, XML, and JSON
2. Create WordPress Page Templates with Custom Queries
3. Know Your Environment: PHP Server Module Reporter
4. Using MooTools ScrollSpy to Load More Items via JSON/AJAX
5. Using MooTools 1.2 For Drag, Drop, Sort, Save

The PHP

/* returns the shortened url */
function get_bitly_short_url($url,$login,$appkey,$format='txt') {
	$connectURL = 'http://api.bit.ly/v3/shorten?login='.$login.'&apiKey='.$appkey.'&uri='.urlencode($url).'&format='.$format;
	return curl_get_result($connectURL);
}

/* returns expanded url */
function get_bitly_long_url($url,$login,$appkey,$format='txt') {
	$connectURL = 'http://api.bit.ly/v3/expand?login='.$login.'&apiKey='.$appkey.'&shortUrl='.urlencode($url).'&format='.$format;
	return curl_get_result($connectURL);
}

/* returns a result form url */
function curl_get_result($url) {
	$ch = curl_init();
	$timeout = 5;
	curl_setopt($ch,CURLOPT_URL,$url);
	curl_setopt($ch,CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER,1);
	curl_setopt($ch,CURLOPT_CONNECTTIMEOUT,$timeout);
	$data = curl_exec($ch);
	curl_close($ch);
	return $data;
}

/* get the short url */
$short_url = get_bitly_short_url('http://davidwalsh.name/','davidwalshblog','xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx');

/* get the long url from the short one */
$long_url = get_bitly_long_url($short_url,'davidwalshblog','xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx');

All you really need to is pass your appkey and login (you must sign up for their API service), the long or short URL, and the format which you’d like the result to be returned in. If you just want a simple URL with no other information, use the default “txt” format. Retrieving the XML or JSON formats will provide you more information about the URL.

Bit.ly is awesome. I mean, Twitter uses them — what more of an endorsement would you need.

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Full David Walsh Blog Post: Create Bit.ly Short URLs Using PHP: API Version 3

Related posts:

1. Create Bit.ly Short URLs Using PHP
2. Create Short URLs Using U.Nu
3. Create Digg URLs Using PHP
4. Create an Is.Gd URL Using PHP
5. Create a TinyURL with PHP

The hottest device out there right now seems to be the iPad. iPad this, iPad that, iPod your mom. I’m underwhelmed with the device but that doesn’t mean I shouldn’t try to account for such devices on the websites I create. In Apple’s developer tip sheet they provide the iPad’s user agent string:

Mozilla/5.0 (iPad; U; CPU OS 3_2 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/531.21.10 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0.4 Mobile/7B334b Safari/531.21.10

Given that string we can create a few code snippets to determine if the user is being a smug, iPad-using bastard.

The JavaScript

var isiPad = navigator.userAgent.match(/iPad/i) != null;

A quick String.match regular expression test can check for the presence of “iPad” in the user agent string.

The PHP

$isiPad = (bool) strpos($_SERVER['HTTP_USER_AGENT'],'iPad');

This time we look for the position of “iPad” in the user agent string.

The .htaccess

RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^.*iPad.*$
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://ipad.yourdomain.com [R=301]

Using some logic from Drew Douglass’ excellent mobile redirection post, we can redirect users to a mobile version of your website if you so desire.

So what would you the above tests for? You may want to redirect iPad users to a different version of your website. You may want to implement different styles to your standard website if your user is surfing on an iPad.

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Full David Walsh Blog Post: iPad Detection Using JavaScript or PHP

Related posts:

1. iPhone & iPod Detection Using JavaScript
2. Allow Google Into Password Protected Areas
3. Set the User Agent With PHP cURL
4. PHP Redirect Function
5. Prevent Page Zooming in Mobile Browsers

Two years ago Chris Coyier wrote an outstanding tutorial detailing how you can generate a photo gallery based on the images within two directories: a thumbnails directory and an originals directory. I’ve decided to take his tutorial a step further by showing you how to generate thumbnails for the gallery using PHP. I’ve also implemented a MooTools lightbox: Smoothbox. The following code will show you how to create a beautiful photo gallery by simply dumping your photos in a directory.

The CSS

.clear			{ clear:both; }
.photo-link		{ padding:5px; margin:5px; border:1px solid #ccc; display:block; width:200px; float:left; }
.photo-link:hover	{ border-color:#999; }

The images/links will be floated next to each other. The other option would be to use a table. Booooo.

The PHP: Utility Functions

/* function:  generates thumbnail */
function make_thumb($src,$dest,$desired_width) {
	/* read the source image */
	$source_image = imagecreatefromjpeg($src);
	$width = imagesx($source_image);
	$height = imagesy($source_image);
	/* find the "desired height" of this thumbnail, relative to the desired width  */
	$desired_height = floor($height*($desired_width/$width));
	/* create a new, "virtual" image */
	$virtual_image = imagecreatetruecolor($desired_width,$desired_height);
	/* copy source image at a resized size */
	imagecopyresized($virtual_image,$source_image,0,0,0,0,$desired_width,$desired_height,$width,$height);
	/* create the physical thumbnail image to its destination */
	imagejpeg($virtual_image,$dest);
}

/* function:  returns files from dir */
function get_files($images_dir,$exts = array('jpg')) {
	$files = array();
	if($handle = opendir($images_dir)) {
		while(false !== ($file = readdir($handle))) {
			$extension = strtolower(get_file_extension($file));
			if($extension && in_array($extension,$exts)) {
				$files[] = $file;
			}
		}
		closedir($handle);
	}
	return $files;
}

/* function:  returns a file's extension */
function get_file_extension($file_name) {
	return substr(strrchr($file_name,'.'),1);
}

We’ll use three utility functions to make the system work: get_files (retrieves all of the files in a given directory), get_file_extension, and make_thumb (generates a thumbnail image from a source image). These are good functions to keep at hand for other purposes too.

The PHP: Setting and HTML Generation

/** settings **/
$images_dir = 'preload-images/';
$thumbs_dir = 'preload-images-thumbs/';
$thumbs_width = 200;
$images_per_row = 3;

/** generate photo gallery **/
$image_files = get_files($images_dir);
if(count($image_files)) {
	$index = 0;
	foreach($image_files as $index=>$file) {
		$index++;
		$thumbnail_image = $thumbs_dir.$file;
		if(!file_exists($thumbnail_image)) {
			$extension = get_file_extension($thumbnail_image);
			if($extension) {
				make_thumb($images_dir.$file,$thumbnail_image,$thumbs_width);
			}
		}
		echo '<a href="',$images_dir.$file,'" class="photo-link smoothbox" rel="gallery"><img src="',$thumbnail_image,'" /></a>';
		if($index % $images_per_row == 0) { echo '<div class="clear"></div>'; }
	}
	echo '<div class="clear"></div>';
}
else {
	echo '<p>There are no images in this gallery.</p>';
}

The first step is to define a few simple settings which will dictate image paths, the width by which all thumbnails will be created, and the number of images per row. The action begins with rounding up all of the files. With every image in the gallery, we check to see if a thumbnail exists. If a thumbnail doesn’t exist, we use PHP and the utility function above to generate one. When the thumbnail is generated (or there was one there in the first place), we output the HTML link/image. I’ve given the A element the “smoothbox” CSS class so that Smoothbox will make the larger image display in the lightbox.

The MooTools JavaScript / Smoothbox

All you need to do is include the JavaScript file. Sweet.

That’s it! Have any features you’d like to see added? Let me know!

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Full David Walsh Blog Post: Automatically Generate a Photo Gallery from a Directory of Images: Updated

Related posts:

1. Create Image Thumbnails Using PHP
2. Create a Quick MooTools Slideshow with Preloading Images
3. Remove Internet Explorer’s Gallery Image Toolbar
4. PNGCRUSH a Directory of Images
5. Password Protect a Directory Using .htaccess

Last July I wrote an epic dominant unbelievable fantastic outstanding awesome NetTuts post called Create a Twitter-Like “Load More” Widget Using CSS, HTML, JSON, and jQuery or MooTools where I used a MooTools/AJAX/JSON system for loading additional items when the user clicks a “Load More” link. The functionality is sweet but I see room for improvement. If a user scrolls down toward the end of the container, why not load more items for them automatically? Armed with the premier MooTools scrolling plugin, ScrollSpy, we can do so.

The HTML

	
	

	
	
Load More

As you can see, the page starts with very little HTML. Obviously this isn’t solution which will work without JavaScript enabled. Making this system work without JavaScript wouldn’t be too difficult…but we’ll skip that in this tutorial.

The CSS

#posts	{ height:300px; overflow:scroll; }

The CSS from my original NetTuts stays the same — we simply added the #posts selector properties.

The MooTools JavaScript

Quite a bit gets added to the original tutorials so I’ll point out each change individually:

/* via @appden, Scott Kyle, http://appden.com/javascript/fun-with-custom-events-on-elements-in-mootools/ */
Native.implement([Element, Window, Document, Events], {
	oneEvent: function(type, fn) {
		return this.addEvent(type, function() {
			this.removeEvent(type, arguments.callee);
			return fn.apply(this, arguments);
		});
	}
});

The code above represents a function that gets run only once per element. We’ll use this in a moment.

//NEW!
var spy;
var spyContainer = $('posts');
var spyAct = function() {
	var min = spyContainer.getScrollSize().y - spyContainer.getSize().y - 150 /* tolerance */;
	spy = new ScrollSpy({
		container: spyContainer,
		min: min,
		onEnter: function() {
			loadMore.fireEvent('click');
		}
	});
};
//wait for first load...
window.oneEvent('load',function() {
	spyAct();
});

We create the ScrollSpy listener to keep track of scrolling. If the user scrolls within 150 pixels of the bottom, we fire a virtual click on the “Load More” link.

//Request.JSON above....
onSuccess: function(responseJSON) {
	//reset the message
	loadMore.set('text','Load More');
	//increment the current status
	start += desiredPosts;
	//add in the new posts
	postHandler(responseJSON);
	//spy calc!
	spyAct();
},
//more below....

Lastly, we call the worker function on the JSON request’s success event. Here’s the entire MooTools JavaScript snippet:

/* via @appden, Scott Kyle, http://appden.com/javascript/fun-with-custom-events-on-elements-in-mootools/ */
Native.implement([Element, Window, Document, Events], {
	oneEvent: function(type, fn) {
		return this.addEvent(type, function() {
			this.removeEvent(type, arguments.callee);
			return fn.apply(this, arguments);
		});
	}
});


//safety closure
(function($) {
	//domready event
	window.addEvent('domready',function() {
		//settings on top
		var domain = 'http://davidwalsh.name/';
		var initialPosts = ;
		var start = ;
		var desiredPosts = ;
		var loadMore = $('load-more');
		//NEW!
		var spy;
		var spyContainer = $('posts');
		var spyAct = function() {
			var min = spyContainer.getScrollSize().y - spyContainer.getSize().y - 150 /* tolerance */;
			spy = new ScrollSpy({
				container: spyContainer,
				min: min,
				onEnter: function() {
					loadMore.fireEvent('click');
				}
			});
		};
		//wait for first load...
		window.oneEvent('load',function() {
			spyAct();
		});
		//function that creates the posts
		var postHandler = function(postsJSON) {
			postsJSON.each(function(post,i) {
				//post url
				var postURL = '' + domain + post.post_name;
				//create the HTML
				var postDiv = new Element('div',{
					'class': 'post',
					events: {
						click: function() {
							window.location = postURL;
						}
					},
					id: 'post-' + post.ID,
					html: '' + post.post_title + '
' + post.post_content + '
Read more...
'
				});
				//inject into the container
				postDiv.inject($('posts'));
			});
			
		};
		
		//place the initial posts in the page
		postHandler(initialPosts);
		
		//ajax!
		var request = new Request.JSON({
			url: 'load-more.php', //ajax script -- same page
			method: 'get',
			link: 'cancel',
			noCache: true,
			onRequest: function() {
				//add the activate class and change the message
				loadMore.addClass('activate').set('text','Loading...');
			},
			onSuccess: function(responseJSON) {
				//reset the message
				loadMore.set('text','Load More');
				//increment the current status
				start += desiredPosts;
				//add in the new posts
				postHandler(responseJSON);
				//spy calc!
				spyAct();
			},
			onFailure: function() {
				//reset the message
				loadMore.set('text','Oops! Try Again.');
			},
			onComplete: function() {
				//remove the spinner
				loadMore.removeClass('activate');
			}
		});
		//add the "Load More" click event
		loadMore.addEvent('click',function(){
			//begin the ajax attempt
			request.send({
				data: {
					'start': start,
					'desiredPosts': desiredPosts
				}
			});
		});
	});
})(document.id);

The PHP

The following PHP loads more items. My example uses WordPress posts:

/* settings */
session_start();
$number_of_posts = 5; //5 at a time
$_SESSION['posts_start'] = $_SESSION['posts_start'] ? $_SESSION['posts_start'] : $number_of_posts;

/* loading of stuff */
if(isset($_GET['start'])) {
	/* spit out the posts within the desired range */
	echo get_posts($_GET['start'],$_GET['desiredPosts']);
	/* save the user's "spot", so to speak */
	//$_SESSION['posts_start']+= $_GET['desiredPosts'];
	/* kill the page */
	die();
}

/* grab stuff */
function get_posts($start = 0, $number_of_posts = 5) {
	/* connect to the db */
	$connection = mysql_connect('localhost','username','password');
	mysql_select_db('blogname',$connection);
	$posts = array();
	/* get the posts */
	$query = "SELECT post_title, post_content, post_name, ID FROM wp_posts WHERE post_status = 'publish' ORDER BY post_date DESC LIMIT $start,$number_of_posts";
	$result = mysql_query($query);
	while($row = mysql_fetch_assoc($result)) {
		preg_match("/
(.*)<\/p>/",$row['post_content'],$matches);
		$row['post_content'] = strip_tags($matches[1]);
		$posts[] = $row;
	}
	/* return the posts in the JSON format */
	return json_encode($posts);
}

A Few Thoughts

• This type of system only works well if you remember how many items were last loaded. Making the user start from the default number is annoying as hell.
• I’ve found that listening for scrolling is browsers is shotty — sometimes browsers simply don’t fire the scroll event properly, which makes the “Load More” link all the more important.

If you want an in-depth description of the system, please read the original post at NetTuts.

Cool functionality though, huh?

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Full David Walsh Blog Post: Using MooTools ScrollSpy to Load More Items via JSON/AJAX

Related posts:

1. Create a Basic Web Service Using PHP, MySQL, XML, and JSON
2. Scrolling “Agree to Terms” Component with MooTools ScrollSpy
3. google.load(): Utilize Google’s AJAX Libraries API
4. Dynamically Load Stylesheets Using MooTools 1.2
5. Get a URL’s Reddit Score Using PHP and JSON

The PHP

function generate_id($uri) {
	/* regular expressions */
	$regex1 = '/[^a-zA-Z0-9]/'; //remove anything but letters and numbers
	$regex2 = '/[\-]+/'; //remove multiple "-"'s in a row
	$regex3 = '/^[-]+/'; //remove starting "-"
	$regex4 = '/[-]+$/'; //remove ending "-"
	/* return... */
	return preg_replace(
				array($regex1,$regex2,$regex3,$regex4),
				array('-','-','',''),
				$_SERVER['REQUEST_URI']
			  );
}

/* do it! */
$body_id = generate_id($_SERVER['REQUEST_URI']);

The above code uses preg_replace to find “bad” or repeated characters and replace them with dashes or nothing. I don’t claim to be a regular expression genius so there may be a better way to construct the preg_replace regex parameters. Let’s take a look at some example usages:

//assuming the page URI is:  /some-directory/deeper/my-page
$body_id = generate_id($_SERVER['REQUEST_URI']);
//returns:  some-directory-deeper-my-page
echo '<body id="',$body_id,'">';

The above uses the page URI to build out the body ID, joining the “page name” with its directory.

//assuming the page URI is:  /some-directory/deeper/my-page?category=mootools
$body_id = generate_id($_SERVER['REQUEST_URI']);
//returns:  some-directory-deeper-my-page-category-mootools
echo '<body id="',$body_id,'">';

The above uses the page URI, including the GET parameters.

//assuming the page URI is:  /some-directory/deeper/my-page.php?category=mootools
$body_id = generate_id($_SERVER['REQUEST_URI']);
//returns:  some-directory-deeper-my-page-php-category-mootools
echo '<body id="',$body_id,'">';

The above shows how a non-search-engine-friendly URL being parsed. If you’d like, you can remove the “.php” file extension from the URI.

Using CSS

body#my-dir-my-page	{ /* custom formatting for this page */ }

The above shows you how you can leverage the new ID to your advantage when it comes to specialty CSS for the given page.

A Few Thoughts

• I’ve chose to use the ID attribute — you could easily make it a CSS class instead. Since this generated string should be unique (at least theoretically), I prefer the ID.
• If you aren’t using SEF links, I recommend removing the file extension — if not just for cleanliness.
• Keep the query string parameters if they’re relevant/unique per that page. You may want to make the page the ID and add a class of the querystring parameters:

  //assuming the page URI is:  /some-directory/deeper/my-page?category=mootools
  list($id,$class) = explode('?',$_SERVER['REQUEST_URI']);
  echo '<body id="',$id,'" class="',$class,'">';
  //returns:  <body id="some-directory-deeper-my-page" class="category-mootools">
  

What are your thoughts? Do you do anything like this?

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Full David Walsh Blog Post: ID Your Body Using PHP

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//replaces pre content with html entities
function pre_entities($matches) {
	return str_replace($matches[1],htmlentities($matches[1]),$matches[0]);
}
//to html entities;  assume content is in the "content" variable
$content = preg_replace_callback('/<pre.*?>(.*?)<\/pre>/imsu',pre_entities, $content);

I use this for just about every post I write. You could also stick this in your CMS if you have clients that may have use for PRE tags.

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Full David Walsh Blog Post: Replace Content in PRE Tags with HTML Entities

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