Web Dev Notes

Remember back in April when I became the new writer for Web Dev Notes? I started off by introducing Joomla, PHP-Nuke, phpBB and PHP. I even recommended some cool software like the ALT-Tab Replacer, Virtual Desktop Manager and the Firebug plugin for Firefox. After a slow start, I finally got my big break when my article Formatting Text in Wordpress started to bring in steady traffic!

In my early Web Dev Notes days I stuck to covering more technical topics such as how to insert CSS on your website or how to create your first PHP page. However, after testing out the use of humor in posts like the Top Ten Stupidest Joomla! Administrator Tricks and When will GoogleBot index my Brain I discovered that this unique approach was actually quite well received! I also realized website marketing and SEO was a very popular aspect of web development so I decided to venture into this area with posts like The Battle for Traffic - SEO vs Content, No Contacts, No Money and Validate Your Website for Better SEO!

Of course, even though I would later discover that marketing and SEO would be a very popular topic on my blog, at the time I had no idea yet! Looking at my stats, the posts about PHP were the most trafficked so I decided to cover this area more extensively! In May I introduced some great web development resources and then discussed the relationship between PHP and a Web Server/Browser in order to build a solid foundation before diving right into PHP for the rest of the month. I then covered how to comment PHP code, the debate over using Print or Echo, how to use variables, how to use concatenation with variables and variable naming conventions. Using this introductory material, I was then able to go even deeper and cover topics like using arrays, if/else programming logic, nested IF/ELSE conditional statements, and PHP Loops. Since the topic of loops is already an extensively covered subject, I decided to make my articles sound unique by naming them, “The magic of WHILE Loops“, “The incredible FOR Loop Multi-Tasker“, and “The FOREACH Loop Love Affair with Mr. Array“.

In order to stay informed, I subscribed to many RSS feeds relating to my topic. In so doing I noticed that Digg and Google were two very popular topics. I decided to explore these subjects a bit with articles like, “List of Google Hoaxes“, “Who’s Digging You?“, “Google’s PageRank Explained by Phil Craven“, “Declare Warr on Digg Doondles!“, “I Hacked Google and Stole Their Robot lolol“, and “Are Your Archives Burying You Worse Than Digg“. These articles continue to bring in traffic to this day!

During the month of June I was taking a course on Interface Design so decided to cover similar topics on Web Dev Notes. I began by discussing the advantages of using personas during development and then decided to list nine causes of software error before discussing software quality and the three general principles of quality assurance. I introduced the subject of human/computer interaction and demonstrated how good design can help us better interact with computers. In fact, making the interaction between humans and computers as easy as possible is an important goal of improved user interface design. I also mentioned that building the right product is even more important than building a product right.

It was around mid-June when I also began to notice how well my SEO, blogging and marketing tips posts were doing! I therefore decided to write about the guaranteed way to generate incoming links and conquering the crowded niche! I also wrote about some issues I was having with trying to follow my own advice when I noticed my trackbacks were being kidnapped and asked if it were possible if my bullets were killing them! Not wanting to stray too far from the very roots of web development, I also introduced the Pixel Groovy website, discussed how to created animated favicons and threw in 21 CSS tutorials answering frequently asked questions.

During the month of July I continued to cover a lot of marketing topics. I created a new Top 11 Posts section and asked if people thought linking to other sites increases incoming traffic. I also started to learn a great deal about blogging and realized that my very own archives contained in itself the power to help WebDevNotes succeed. I therefore stopped considering old posts like dirty socks thrown into a laundry bin, and instead began viewing them as cornerstone content that should be linked back to frequently so that new visitors could access my best content easily.

Upon making this realization, I began offering my visitors some blogging advice with the help of Lolcats to make the posts more fun and easy to read. For example:

Don’t let Chihuahua’s hold back your website! Start working with the purrrrfect partners and plot your plan for success. Make sure you plant the seeds for success early and listen to feedback so you can feed your readers a happy meal. Make good use of article directories and other marketing techniques and never forget the secrets to writing a successful blog!

In conclusion, to those who say linking to old content is difficult, I beg to differ! Don’t let those archives go to waste

Last night I was doing some work on my BattleCity Classic website, which is powered by Joomla, when I came across this article regarding stupid things Joomla website administrators do. The article is quite informative in its own cruel way and unfortunately we are all guilty of something on that list! Here is the one that stood out the most for me:

5. Do all upgrades and extension installations right there on the live site. Who needs a development and testing server? If an installation fails, you’ll just uninstall it again. That will hopefully undo any damage the installation caused.

For a small website, having a development server may be overkill if the information on the website is not critical. In such a case the best thing you could do would just be making backups which could be restored should anything go wrong. If your site isn’t high traffic, a small amount of downtime may go largely unnoticed. Of course, this depends on the type of testing you are doing on your live server. If you are installing tons of extensions, then you should really consider taking the effort to put up a development server and testing it for a few days or weeks before launching the changes on your live site. If you are just making small modifications to a module or installing a reputable component like Community Builder or Joomlaboard, then you shouldn’t have to worry as much. Still, the best practice is to always be as paranoid as possible!

What is a development server you may ask? Basically, a development server is just another copy or your website. If you have installed Apache, PHP and MySQL on your computer, then you will likely be using your own machine as a development server by hosting a local copy of your website on which you first test all changes and extensions. This is the best thing you can do!

Unfortunately, most people running Joomla are not interested in doing all the setup required to run Joomla locally, as many just want a software package they can quickly and easily install on their web-hosting to manage their content and website. If you fall in this boat, you can still set-up a development server. Just install a second copy of Joomla on your web-hosting in an obscure location such that nobody will accidentally fall upon it. Then test your extensions on this second copy of Joomla before installing them on the live version visited by your users. The reason you don’t want anybody to know the URL to the development server is just for extra security, in case you do install an extension which causes a problem or creates an exploit, which could then potentially damage your live site as both are hosted on the same machine.

Most importantly though, take the time to make backups. You may find it to be a hassle, but the day you need your backup, you will be happy its not 4 months old! Don’t count on your web host for backups. While they may be able to help you, the process to retrieve the backup may lead to extended downtime for your website or they may even charge your for the backup!

Update: Have you been making backups? I now have a backup folder on my desktop in order to remind myself to make backups as often as possible. I just took a look inside the folder though and noticed that I haven’t made any new backups in over 3 months!

Time flies. It feels like I made my last backups just a few days ago, but it’s already been months. If I were to lose 3 months worth of information from my website, I would be completely devastated! In fact, I even have a few new websites that have absolutely no backup at all! After the amount of time it took to setup these new sites in the first place, it would be extremely discouraging to have to start over again from the beginning! You never know when there might be a Glitch in the Matrix…

If you plan on doing any serious web development, you will inevitably have to use some form of server-side scripting. PHP (Hypertext Preprocessor) is one of the options available. ASP.NET and JSP are two other widely used server-side scripting languages.

PHP is a widely-used general-purpose scripting language that is especially suited for Web development and can be embedded into HTML. - www.php.net

If you are just getting started with web development, you may be interested in setting up a content management system. A content management system is a piece of software that you install on your web server which you can then log into to make updates easily to your website. For a full website management system I would recommend the following systems:

• Joomla
• PHP-Nuke

Both of the above systems are available for free and are written in PHP. If you really want to learn PHP, I suggest installing either of the above systems and then customizing them to meet the needs of your website. After you’ve successfully modified some of the code, try creating your own modules. If that seems a little too over-whelming, you may prefer getting started with this introductory tutorial.

Another good place to start if you don’t need a large system like PHP-Nuke or Joomla is with either of the following two systems:

• phpBB
• Wordpress

phpBB is forum system and Wordpress is a blogging system. Again, both are written in PHP, so customizing and editing them is a great way to learn PHP.

In order to use either Joomla, PHP-Nuke, phpBB or Wordpress, you will also need access to a MySQL database. Most web hosting companies will have MySQL databases available for you. You can also download and install PHP & MySQL on your computer for free to test locally.

Here are some more great tutorials which will help you get started:

• PHP & MySQL Tutorial

I first was introduced to Moodle when I was learning my current trade, web development. I was talking a year long certificate in web design a Malaspina College. They ran the course through Moodle.

Afterwards, when I figured out the Apache/MySQL/PHP thing I downloaded Moodle and gave it a try. It is really easy to install and run. I put together a course for a client a few months back and gave full credit to the developers when the client said how impressed he was with the end result.

I think they are in the corner though with respect to a Blackboard Patent. Check out this article at the Software Freedom Law Centre. Can’t say I know all the ins and outs of Patents, but hope the SFLC can help these guys out.

Arnold

If most people are like me I hate installing software that changes a lot of start up files and alters the behavior of my computer. I am currently working on a PHP/MySQL site and had to create a localhost development environment. So, rather than install all this on my PC or my laptop I created a VM Ware virtual machine.

I bought VMWare Workstation and had an extra copy of Windows XP. I then downloaded Apache 2.0 PHP 5, and MySQL and loaded and configured them on the Virtual XP OS. It works great. I then added the Macromedia Studio 8, and was off and running. I can even test my websites on another computer by navigating to localhost/devsite.

It works for me, but the software was a little steep.

Arnold

Tonight I did a great tutorial that I found at Web Monkey. I have to see it is tres cool. I have often wondered how to brdige Flash and php and this is what I was looking for. I spent more time learnind Ruby on Rails than php and regret it some. I have picking up quite a bit of work lately and everyone wants php and are reluctant to venture into RoR. Oh, well there money is still good with me, but my learning curve never seems to end.

Check out the lesson, its worth the time. Its called Building with Flash and MySQL.

Arnold