Web hosting: the bane of our existence. Time spent preparing servers, publishing code, dealing with deployment issues — as opposed to throwing money at unreliable oversold shared servers. Here’s why you should leave web hosting to the professionals When it comes to web hosting, I never run my own servers. I’m a developer, not a [...]
GOTO, the infamous much-loathed feature of languages in decades gone by, is (sort of) coming to PHP. Read on to see why it’s actually a good thing. Luckily, it’s not that bad. In fact, it’s quite handy. Take a look at the following scenario: while($var) { foreach ($var as $val) { if ($val) break 2; [...]
In this tutorial, we’ll take a look at the technique of geotargeting, or serving content to users based
on their physical location. The technology is invaluable; with simple techniques, you can target
advertising to specific users, collect more accurate usage statistics, serve content in different
languages for different regions and provide local information like weather reports to your visitors.
It’s a common point of heated debate between Ruby on Rails and PHP developers – can we really compare Rails with PHP? While most PHP developers would contest it, it’s a perfectly good comparison. Here’s why. First, here’s a bit of background. Rails is a web application framework for the Ruby scripting language. Until a [...]
When it comes to choosing a framework, PHP developers are very much spoilt for choice. From Rails-alternatives, to .net-in-PHP attempts, beginner-oriented procedurals to full-on enterprise systems, and even those that let you code however you like, there’s bound to be a framework out there for you. Of course, if there isn’t, you can always take [...]
So, you’re about to build an entire web application in PHP. You’ve worked out how you’re going to do it, you’ve got a general idea what it’ll look like, maybe you’ve even chosen a framework (if you don’t have any to choose from, find some). Before you go any further, take a step back and [...]
One of the main advantages of using CSS is the large reduction in web page download time. To style text, you used to have to use the font tag over and over again. You probably also laid out your site with tables, nested tables and spacer gifs. Now all that presentational information can be placed in one CSS document, with each command listed just once.
I’m regularly reviewing candidates for PHP development positions, and I’ve noticed some very interesting trends with regard to the qualifications people list on their resumes. As with anything, here’s the good, the bad, and the downright ugly. The Good Despite general opinions from the community that it better reflects your ability to remember textbook concepts [...]
This tutorial walks you through the steps of creating a really cool looking MP3 player using Adobe Photoshop. It is illustrated along the way for clarity.
The vast majority of PHP applications out there use native PHP files for configuration. One or more standard PHP files declares a number of variables used for configuration. Given the syntax constraints of PHP – e.g. you can’t put a quote inside quoted values – a culture of developers insisting on managing config files is [...]
