Matches for tag(s) simple
Structured Query Language for Morons
Enter the wonderful world of database interaction with SQL, an easy to use but extremely powerful language. This article introduces you to the basics and will get you started quickly and easily
Google SEO Basics for Beginners
As many of us web developers already know, Google is rated by many as the number one search engine in the world. We personally know that our websites get about 90% of their search engine traffic direct from Google searches.
Search Engine Optimizing PHP Scripts
PHP pages have a reputation of being more difficult (or at least different) to SEO than static HTML pages. Here’s an overview of the major issues encountered when trying to optimize PHP script for search engines. While this focuses on PHP much of it is still relevant to SEO'ing dynamic pages in general.
The Bakery: How I Built a Web 2.0 Dating Site in 66.5 Hours
On the Bakery (the CakePHP blog), there's a new case study on how a group of developers created a "Web 2.0 dating site in 66.5 hours" (just short of 3 days worth of work).
"Let this be a testament to Web 2.0 and the effectiveness of rapid development frameworks: I built a full-featured dating website (http://mingle2.com), from concept to launch, in 66.5 hours. In a typical
9-5 job this would amount to about a week and a half. Deliverables included: the idea, planning, design, development, testing, and launch. "
The study is broken up into the (long list of) key steps that were followed:- Identify an Opportunity
- Brain-dump
- Generate ideas from your competition
- Brain-dump some more
- Have a specific goal, don't try to make the website do everything
- Keep. It. Simple. Stupid
- Minimize interference
- Avoid "feature creep"
- Web 2.0 names are going to be very tacky in a few years
- If you get stuck on something, put it on the backburner
- Prioritize features so you can give prominent real estate to those that need it
- Put a lot of work into the functional mockups
- Mix it up, keep things interesting
And finally, "The Design" where he looked at achieving balance, got a "holy crap, that's pretty" reaction, and to make things look up to date. The end result of the labor is mingle2.com, a 100% free online dating website.- Identify an Opportunity
5 Web Design Tips You Can Not Live Without
The web design world is filled with excitement and experience, creativity and skill. Often, experienced web designers utilize a set of solid, proven techniques that others may not notice. Let's take a look at a few of these techniques and how you can implement them into your own site quickly and easily.
Building An Expanding DHTML Menu With CSS and JavaScript
Today I am going to show you the different parts that make up a dropdown vertical menu for your website. This is not like your normal dropdown menu, which appears at the top of your content, however -- these menus expand and remain visible until they are collapsed with the click of a mouse. The menu content actually expands with your page content, pushing the rest of whatever is below it down - so it can actually be used for more than just a menu.
Devshed: A Login System for a PHP Email Application
DevShed continues on with their creation of an email application series with part two of the series - a look at the creation of the login system for the app.
We know from the previous article that the user ID is very important, in that it is used to retrieve various information from the database at various stages of the application. The login form sets this userID when you log in. It is the login system that will be the focus of this second part in a four-part series.
They give a simple screenshot of what the login will look like before getting into how to connect to the database, verify the user's information, logging in the user, registering new ones, and the code to work with the user's profile.php|architect: Zend Framework - A Practical Tutorial
On php|architect's site, in wake of the Zend Framework preview release previously, they've posted a step-by-step tutorial on how to get it installed, work it it, and ultimately create a simple news application.
The Zend Framework has been unveiled! Although it is still in the early stages of development, this tutorial highlights some of the best of what's available now and guides you through the process of building a simple application.
Zend has chosen to release the framework and involve the community early. In the same spirit, this tutorial is written to showcase the framework as it exists today. Because this tutorial is published online, I'll update it as the framework evolves, so that it remains relevant as long as possible.
This isn't a tutorial for those that aren't into object oriented programming with PHP yet, as it relies heavily on knowledge or classes and how they work together. In the tutorial, they take you through everything - the install, the structure, and some more detail on what the packages are (Zend_Controller, Zend_View, and Zend_InputFilter). Once all of that knowledge is in place, they start the work on the news application, creating a script that uses a more MVC approach to interface with a SQLite database and allow users to enter news items and for an admin to approve them.php|architect: November 2006 Issue Released
The latest edition of php|architect magazine has been published - the November 2006 issue. Articles included in this month's edition include:
- "Services made simple with PHP" - Caroline Maynard, Graham Charters, Matthew Peters, Megan Beynon, and Simon Laws
- "Tune Your Search Results With Ajax" - Will Fitch and Greg Black
- "Synchronizing the World" - Sherman Lilly
- "Learning from Ruby on Rails" - Chris Hartjes
as well as the latest installments the Security Corner and Test Pattern columns.
You can check out the full contents of the issue here and, if you just want to subscribe to this great PHP publication, you can check out their digital edition and print edition options.- "Services made simple with PHP" - Caroline Maynard, Graham Charters, Matthew Peters, Megan Beynon, and Simon Laws
NorthClick Blog: Tips for creating a small but solid newsletter-system
On the NorthClick blog today, there's a quick little set of hints talking about the creation of a simple ("but solid") newsletter system for your website.
He breaks it down into the individual steps you'll need to follow:- Use a Framework
- Queue in the database
- Use SMTP
- Check Headers
- Test it
In the step involving the database, he gives the create script you'll need to get the table set up and working. It's not so much a step-by-step tutorial with all of the needed code as it is a general look at what steps to follow when rolling your own newsletter setup.- Use a Framework
How To Get Repeat Visitors To Your Website
As the proud publisher of a website I'm sure you have spent a considerable amount of time and effort to attract traffic to your site. It's not difficult to realize how it is to your advantage to get repeat visitors to your website, rather than to constantly be relying on finding someone new. A visitor who has previously viewed your website offerings is much more likely to become your customer than a first time visitor. To this end, I would like you to consider the following suggestions.
10-step plan for effective website design
If you are thinking about creating a website, there are a number of key principles you should consider before setting out. If you follow this simple ten-step plan, you will be well on your way to sharing your creation with the World Wide Web community.
DevShed: Using Abstract Factory Classes in PHP 5 to Work with Online Forms
DevShed has posted the final installment of their series looking at the creation and use of the Abstract Factory pattern. In this new part, they focus on the creation of online forms and their handling as the pattern is applied.
In this last installment of the series, I'm going to show you how to use an abstract factory class to create distinct types of form objects, logically depending on the context where they will be utilized. The idea not only sounds interesting, but it can provide you with a better understanding of how this handy pattern can be used in a real situation.
They start by defining their abstract factory form class and extending it to create a required form element and a normal form element. They make input functions for each - required input box, required radio button, required check box - and their "Normal" counterparts. Finally, they tie these all together to create a simple form with sets of an input box, radio set, and checkboxes both required and normal.
The easiest way to add tabbed navigation to your Rails app
This tutorial explains how to use the Tabnav Rails plugin, a simple and declarative way to define tabbed navigations, easy to use and customizable.
Developer Works: Fast-track your Web apps with Ruby on Rails
Ruby on Rails is a recent entry into the world of Web application development that is rapidly gaining mindshare, even while still in beta versions. Rails succeeds by automating the creation of the most common types of Web applications while not straightjacketing you if you want to add custom or atypical requirements. Moreover, compared to many Free Software libraries that perform individual aspects of a Web application, Rails contains a nicely integrated set of tools for all aspects.
Ruby on Rails is taking Web development by storm. Let's start with a refresher on the underlying technologies:
- Ruby is the free, simple, straightforward, extensible, portable, interpreted scripting language for quick-and-easy object-oriented programming that, like Perl, sports many features to process text files and perform system-management tasks.
- Rails is a full-stack, open source Web framework in Ruby for writing real-world applications with more ease and less code.
Being a full-stack framework means that all layers in Rails are built to work together so you don't repeat yourself and can use a single language from top to bottom. Within Rails, everything (templates to control flow to business logic) is written in Ruby. Rails favors reflection and runtime extensions over configuration files and annotations.
This article details the components of Rails and shows you how it works.- Ruby is the free, simple, straightforward, extensible, portable, interpreted scripting language for quick-and-easy object-oriented programming that, like Perl, sports many features to process text files and perform system-management tasks.
DevShed: Creating an RSS Reader: the Reader
In a new tutorial from DevShed today, they walk you through the creation of a simple (very simple) RSS reader in PHP.
In this article we are going to discuss how to create a PHP-based RSS reader. It would be helpful if you know something about XML, but not really necessary. RSS documents have three main tags: Title, Link and Description. And they all do exactly what their names suggest. I will go into detail about these tags in my second article dealing with building an RSS file. For now, we will only focus on the reading part of the article.
They start with an overview, showing where you'll come from and where you're headed to. They include a section introducing the XML handing functions (SAX, not DOM) and use them in a chunk of code to read in the RSS file and handle the contents.
Website speed: How fast should your website be?
How fast does your website load and how fast should it be? People in the industry often talk about the mythical sub-second page load, but how many websites actually deliver sub-second response times and is it a realistic goal or expectation?
Simple Yet Appealing: That's The Recipe For A Perfect Logo!
How do you want your logo to be? No matter what the answer is, there is only one ground where we all agree i.e. we want our logos to be popular. No matter what your logo represents, it should possess the power to make the onlookers instantly relate it to the product it is meant to represent. Logo designs thus should possess not only simplicity but also an inherent appealing power.
Create a simple hit counter using PHP and MySQL
n this article I describe how to use PHP and MySQL to produce a simple counter that can be placed on a web page. PHP and MySQL work very well together, and this article shows, hopefully, how easy they are to use to produce a useful little utility.
Build a simple Chatterblock in PHP and Mysql
This tutorial shows you how to make a ChatterBlock. ChatterBlocks are small windows where users can type in messages. They're also called Shout Boxes or TagBoards and are kind of like miniature chat rooms