User Interface Design: Key to Achieve Best Web Development
By [http://ezinearticles.com/?expert=Nikhil_Salvi]Nikhil Salvi
From early days of www, the Internet sites that are added day by day are increasing tremendously. When you will consider this pool of web, may be they are about computers, industry, entertainment, search engines, fashion, organizational or even individual, all of these sites are concerned about one major part of web development apart from the logic or programming efforts behind it is ‘User Interface Design’.
Any web site will gain your interest by its appearance in front of you as well as ease of using and understanding the contents in that particular page. Therefore many of the web developers out there are always trying to go for the best user interface design which must also be affordable, can be either done by the developer firm or by web developer individual himself or he have to outsource the site for user interface creation.
The main stages in the creation of the user interface can be roughly listed as follows:
1. Note down all the aspects of your web site,
2. Try to list items as per their priority on the web page as well as consider their categorization.
3. From this list highlight points that are required to be catchy (e.g. in most of the general web site the Chat / Mail / News are considered to be the most catchy points whereas on the online shopping site the special offers and hot selling items may be the most catchy points).
4. Then decide the color combination of your interface (As per my point of view this is the most crucial part which many of them out there do not take into consideration which results in to a web site which is nothing but a site full of color in fact site looking like a circus! (You can understand what I want to say). So if you are rally very careful about the richness of the user interface then you should not fail to consider this point.
5. Once you have decided the color combination you have already won half the battle. Now you have to draw a picture of how your web page will look like finally, where on the web page I will place the catchy points I have listed previously, what will be common between the web pages (A date and time may be there from home page to the last page of your web site).
6. Finalize placing of all the remaining points in the list prepared by you.
7. If required repeat the steps for all the succeeding pages in your web site.
8. Then and only then go for designing of the web pages using various tools.
You may take help of various image-editing softwares like Adobe Photoshop, Paintshop Pro, even normal paintbrush for giving effect to the various images, backgrounds used in the page design. You can also embody various animations in your web page to give it a nice touch. You can try Macromedia Flash, GIF Animator or Animationshop for the same.
Some important tips-n-tricks of making your web page look catchier than ever will be discussed in my next articles.
Remember more effective and easier user interface - more the number of visitor (or even customer) who will specially halt at your site to check it out.
Nikhil R. Salvi
B.E.Computer Engg.
India
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Nikhil_Salvi http://EzineArticles.com/?User-Interface-Design:-Key-to-Achieve-Best-Web-Development&id=5463
Tuesday, September 18, 2007
Monday, September 17, 2007
Illusion Technologies: PHP Developers
SQL Server ASP Websites - First Steps for Novice Developers
By [http://ezinearticles.com/?expert=Margaret_Cruise_O'Brien]Margaret Cruise O'Brien
Database-Driven Websites
Ten years ago, novice web developers worked hard to create static websites with HTML and perhaps a bit of Javascript to spice up the action. Now, novice developers are starting with database-driven web pages that let web site visitors enter data and view dynamic content. When you're learning, it's important to start small and work your way up to large complex sites. So where should the novice developer start?
Your First Web Database Application
To keep motivated, you should choose a small project that will actually be useful. A great candidate is the opt-in page: a web page that lets visitors provide their name and email address to be saved to the website database. Presumably the website owner will use this data to send out newsletters and email marketing, but we won't worry about that! This is the perfect training application: a simple but useful one-page database application.
Choosing Your Tools - the Microsoft option
Once you've decided what you're going to develop, you need to decide which tools to develop with. If you're on a budget (and who isn't), then Microsoft has released a development environment available for free. You can download and install Visual Web Developer Express from the Microsoft website, which also comes with a free version of the popular database engine Microsoft SQL Server. The free database is branded as SQL Server Express.
There are other free alternatives open to you - MySQL and PHP has traditionally been a popular choice. If you come from a Linux or Unix background, you'll probably want to go that route, but if you are used to working on Windows machines, then the Microsoft option is appealing.
Creating the Table
For the simple opt-in application, you need a database table that will store names and their email addresses - this is about as simple as it gets. Visual Web Developer Express provides a GUI to let you create tables. For this project, you'll be creating a three-column table. Of course, you need one column to store the visitor's name, and another to store the email address. So why the third?
For proper database design, you should also have a unique ID column within the table that is defined as a primary key and set as an identity field. If this terminology is alien to you, you'll need to read some tutorials on SQL and creating tables. You will find lots of online articles, including [http://www.salmontraining.com/sqlexpresszone/index.html]step-by-step walk-throughs on the process. The work you put into learning basic table creation at this stage will be invaluable for future web projects!
Creating the Web Page
The opt-in web page needs to provide two input boxes to allow the visitor to enter a name and email address. If you've already done a bit of HTML coding, that's no problem to you. The tricky bit is connecting the page to the database and ensuring that the details are written to the table.
This is where Visual Web Developer Express comes into its own. With alternative programming languages, this would take lines of code to put together (and hours of debugging when it doesn't work!). With VWD Express, you use the GUI interface and wizards to drag-and-drop ASP.Net controls to access the database - the tool creates the code you need behind the scenes.
Finding a Hosting Provider
In order to go live, your hosting provider must support ASP.Net and SQL Server. Shop around - there are a number of competing providers out there. If you're working on a budget, then you'll find Go Daddy hard to beat.
Going Live
Getting things working on your laptop or PC is a great achievement! But putting your database application live is real success.
If what's been described up to now sounds too easy - well, the development process is relatively simple with the Microsoft ASP.Net development environment. The Microsoft tools hide much of the complexity of database development.
Unfortunately, developers can hit a roadblock when they try to put their new web application live on a hosted site. Getting the web page to connect to the live database is the first hurdle as the hosting provider will most likely be using SQL Server Enterprise, the big brother of the database on the local laptop or PC. Hosting providers may insist that developers use their own Control Panel to work with the database and create the database table.
Persevere! A bit of time and effort spent going live is worth the feeling of achievement when your first website visitor enters details into the web page and the data flows successfully to the live database!
Margaret Cruise O'Brien is a database consultant, and founder of [http://www.salmontraining.com]Salmon Training Check out our website for training on [http://www.salmontraining.com/sqlexpresszone/going_live_with_vwd_and_sqlexpress.aspx]going live on Go Daddy with a simple ASP.Net SQL Server application
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Margaret_Cruise_O'Brien http://EzineArticles.com/?SQL-Server-ASP-Websites---First-Steps-for-Novice-Developers&id=684430
By [http://ezinearticles.com/?expert=Margaret_Cruise_O'Brien]Margaret Cruise O'Brien
Database-Driven Websites
Ten years ago, novice web developers worked hard to create static websites with HTML and perhaps a bit of Javascript to spice up the action. Now, novice developers are starting with database-driven web pages that let web site visitors enter data and view dynamic content. When you're learning, it's important to start small and work your way up to large complex sites. So where should the novice developer start?
Your First Web Database Application
To keep motivated, you should choose a small project that will actually be useful. A great candidate is the opt-in page: a web page that lets visitors provide their name and email address to be saved to the website database. Presumably the website owner will use this data to send out newsletters and email marketing, but we won't worry about that! This is the perfect training application: a simple but useful one-page database application.
Choosing Your Tools - the Microsoft option
Once you've decided what you're going to develop, you need to decide which tools to develop with. If you're on a budget (and who isn't), then Microsoft has released a development environment available for free. You can download and install Visual Web Developer Express from the Microsoft website, which also comes with a free version of the popular database engine Microsoft SQL Server. The free database is branded as SQL Server Express.
There are other free alternatives open to you - MySQL and PHP has traditionally been a popular choice. If you come from a Linux or Unix background, you'll probably want to go that route, but if you are used to working on Windows machines, then the Microsoft option is appealing.
Creating the Table
For the simple opt-in application, you need a database table that will store names and their email addresses - this is about as simple as it gets. Visual Web Developer Express provides a GUI to let you create tables. For this project, you'll be creating a three-column table. Of course, you need one column to store the visitor's name, and another to store the email address. So why the third?
For proper database design, you should also have a unique ID column within the table that is defined as a primary key and set as an identity field. If this terminology is alien to you, you'll need to read some tutorials on SQL and creating tables. You will find lots of online articles, including [http://www.salmontraining.com/sqlexpresszone/index.html]step-by-step walk-throughs on the process. The work you put into learning basic table creation at this stage will be invaluable for future web projects!
Creating the Web Page
The opt-in web page needs to provide two input boxes to allow the visitor to enter a name and email address. If you've already done a bit of HTML coding, that's no problem to you. The tricky bit is connecting the page to the database and ensuring that the details are written to the table.
This is where Visual Web Developer Express comes into its own. With alternative programming languages, this would take lines of code to put together (and hours of debugging when it doesn't work!). With VWD Express, you use the GUI interface and wizards to drag-and-drop ASP.Net controls to access the database - the tool creates the code you need behind the scenes.
Finding a Hosting Provider
In order to go live, your hosting provider must support ASP.Net and SQL Server. Shop around - there are a number of competing providers out there. If you're working on a budget, then you'll find Go Daddy hard to beat.
Going Live
Getting things working on your laptop or PC is a great achievement! But putting your database application live is real success.
If what's been described up to now sounds too easy - well, the development process is relatively simple with the Microsoft ASP.Net development environment. The Microsoft tools hide much of the complexity of database development.
Unfortunately, developers can hit a roadblock when they try to put their new web application live on a hosted site. Getting the web page to connect to the live database is the first hurdle as the hosting provider will most likely be using SQL Server Enterprise, the big brother of the database on the local laptop or PC. Hosting providers may insist that developers use their own Control Panel to work with the database and create the database table.
Persevere! A bit of time and effort spent going live is worth the feeling of achievement when your first website visitor enters details into the web page and the data flows successfully to the live database!
Margaret Cruise O'Brien is a database consultant, and founder of [http://www.salmontraining.com]Salmon Training Check out our website for training on [http://www.salmontraining.com/sqlexpresszone/going_live_with_vwd_and_sqlexpress.aspx]going live on Go Daddy with a simple ASP.Net SQL Server application
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Margaret_Cruise_O'Brien http://EzineArticles.com/?SQL-Server-ASP-Websites---First-Steps-for-Novice-Developers&id=684430
Friday, September 14, 2007
Illusion Technologies: PHP Developers
Warning: The Truth About Having a Web Site!
By [http://ezinearticles.com/?expert=Judith_Kallos]Judith Kallos
If you don't have a web site yet, are thinking of slapping one up or have one that simply isn't producing, this Warning is for you!
All too often folks contact me about getting a Web Site when they really have not done their due diligence in determining even if their "idea" is one worth investing in. And although they hate spam and don't believe most of it, they do tend to fall into believing much of the fast, easy and cheap noise online in existence only to line the pockets of shysters and unscrupulous developers.
Here are some questions you need to ask and investigate getting the answers to so you can realistically determine if your idea is one worth pursuing and investing in. If any "solution" tells you these questions are not of concern, raise that red flag and run as fast as you can in the opposite direction! Certainly don't give them a dime of your hard earned money!
=> What will your online expenses be for your Web server, ISP connection, E-Commerce application, Web Site development and maintenance?
=> Why will people buy this product/service from you over any of the number of Web Sites currently online?
Have you searched at Google with your top 3-5, 2-3 word keyword phrases to get an idea of the level of competition you may be up against?
=> How do you intend to get your new site found?
=> What is your marketing plan to compete with the Sites already online that are promoting the same product/service?
=> Can you offer your product or service at a competitive price and what is that?
=> Will your suppliers support your requests and potential growth/demand for the product?
=> Is the quality of your product/service in line with the price you are asking?
=> How much will it cost to have enough inventories to support orders while additional product is in transit?
=> What options will I have for shipping, where will I ship and what will I charge respectively for shipping and handling?
=> What are the issues to consider and the best rates/providers for a Merchant Account so that I can accept credit cards securely on my site?
=> What are my policies and return procedures in regard to online ordering?
=> What are the tax and legal requirements and implications I need to consider when doing business online?
Unfortunately, all too many think that by just getting your own dot com and throwing up a Web Site - selling... er… well… anything, and then just sitting back and waiting for the orders or e-mail to roll in, they will soon be on the path to IPO-dom or financial freedom.
What happens when site owners do not do their due diligence or realize after the fact that this is a business with the very same responsibilities just as in the off-line world? What if they do not get all the above questions answered and a firm understanding of what will be involved before they jump online? They end up not becoming successful while wasting a lot of their hard earned money.
Having a Web site for commercial gain is not simply a bunch of pictures and code that make a pretty presentation. It is serious business and needs to be run as such if you plan to succeed. You need to know the basics of running a business from accounting, to operational policies, to tax and legal issues. You need to be prepared to plan how your marketing program will adjust to this evolving technology both on and off-line based on data and trends; how you will adjust as well.
Do you want to have your very own successful online enterprise that you worked hard at, built to be successful and are proud of based on sound business practices and proven principles? Or do you prefer to throw money at the hype that negates the need for any serious efforts? The choice is yours to make - not the developer or promotion touting Fast!, Cheap!, Easy!. Remember to use your common sense - if it sounds too good to be true when it comes to becoming successful online, it is!
About the Author:
Judith Kallos is an authoritative and good-humored Technology Muse
who has played @ http://www.TheIStudio.com for over a decade. Check out her popular Technology Cheat Sheets @: http://www.LearnAndThrive.com
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Judith_Kallos [http://ezinearticles.com/?Warning:-The-Truth-About-Having-a-Web-Site!&id=37101 ]http://EzineArticles.com/?Warning:-The-Truth-About-Having-a-Web-Site!&id=37101
By [http://ezinearticles.com/?expert=Judith_Kallos]Judith Kallos
If you don't have a web site yet, are thinking of slapping one up or have one that simply isn't producing, this Warning is for you!
All too often folks contact me about getting a Web Site when they really have not done their due diligence in determining even if their "idea" is one worth investing in. And although they hate spam and don't believe most of it, they do tend to fall into believing much of the fast, easy and cheap noise online in existence only to line the pockets of shysters and unscrupulous developers.
Here are some questions you need to ask and investigate getting the answers to so you can realistically determine if your idea is one worth pursuing and investing in. If any "solution" tells you these questions are not of concern, raise that red flag and run as fast as you can in the opposite direction! Certainly don't give them a dime of your hard earned money!
=> What will your online expenses be for your Web server, ISP connection, E-Commerce application, Web Site development and maintenance?
=> Why will people buy this product/service from you over any of the number of Web Sites currently online?
Have you searched at Google with your top 3-5, 2-3 word keyword phrases to get an idea of the level of competition you may be up against?
=> How do you intend to get your new site found?
=> What is your marketing plan to compete with the Sites already online that are promoting the same product/service?
=> Can you offer your product or service at a competitive price and what is that?
=> Will your suppliers support your requests and potential growth/demand for the product?
=> Is the quality of your product/service in line with the price you are asking?
=> How much will it cost to have enough inventories to support orders while additional product is in transit?
=> What options will I have for shipping, where will I ship and what will I charge respectively for shipping and handling?
=> What are the issues to consider and the best rates/providers for a Merchant Account so that I can accept credit cards securely on my site?
=> What are my policies and return procedures in regard to online ordering?
=> What are the tax and legal requirements and implications I need to consider when doing business online?
Unfortunately, all too many think that by just getting your own dot com and throwing up a Web Site - selling... er… well… anything, and then just sitting back and waiting for the orders or e-mail to roll in, they will soon be on the path to IPO-dom or financial freedom.
What happens when site owners do not do their due diligence or realize after the fact that this is a business with the very same responsibilities just as in the off-line world? What if they do not get all the above questions answered and a firm understanding of what will be involved before they jump online? They end up not becoming successful while wasting a lot of their hard earned money.
Having a Web site for commercial gain is not simply a bunch of pictures and code that make a pretty presentation. It is serious business and needs to be run as such if you plan to succeed. You need to know the basics of running a business from accounting, to operational policies, to tax and legal issues. You need to be prepared to plan how your marketing program will adjust to this evolving technology both on and off-line based on data and trends; how you will adjust as well.
Do you want to have your very own successful online enterprise that you worked hard at, built to be successful and are proud of based on sound business practices and proven principles? Or do you prefer to throw money at the hype that negates the need for any serious efforts? The choice is yours to make - not the developer or promotion touting Fast!, Cheap!, Easy!. Remember to use your common sense - if it sounds too good to be true when it comes to becoming successful online, it is!
About the Author:
Judith Kallos is an authoritative and good-humored Technology Muse
who has played @ http://www.TheIStudio.com for over a decade. Check out her popular Technology Cheat Sheets @: http://www.LearnAndThrive.com
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Judith_Kallos [http://ezinearticles.com/?Warning:-The-Truth-About-Having-a-Web-Site!&id=37101 ]http://EzineArticles.com/?Warning:-The-Truth-About-Having-a-Web-Site!&id=37101
Thursday, September 13, 2007
Illusion Technologies: PHP Developers
Web Hosting Php Mysql - Guide
By [http://ezinearticles.com/?expert=Lee_Brooker]Lee Brooker
Put web hosting php mysql together and you have yourself a dynamic website! Getting web hosting, php, MySQL opens the door for your business to develop in areas that your never thought possible.
Standard web hosting is fine when nothing much needs to happen to your site. Adding PHP enables you to create or use existing opt in forms or maybe a membership software package you may have purchased. You know the ones I mean. With username and password verification and all that technical stuff!
Having PHP and MySQL is the standard and most popular choice for most webmasters and website developers.
This may sound pretty obvious, but web hosting PHP MySQL do not all come as standard in hosting packages! One may not come with the other. But not only this, you must also be aware or the different versions of PHP and SQL. MySQL is a vendor for the SQL as is Ms Windows and Oracle.
Check and double check everything before committing yourself to any web hosting PHP MySQL set up. Like I said before this may seem a little obvious, but you will be amazed at the amount of people that actually over look not only the compatibility of web hosting PHP and MySQL but make the mistake in automatically thinking that they are all going to work together.
If your web hosting PHP MySQL is all in one then its safe to assume they all work together! Its when you are putting a bespoke hosting package together that the importance of making sure you kow your SQL and PHP versions.
If I any doubt at all, do not hesitate to email the company that you are considering purchasing your web hosting PHP and MySQL from. Its not good practice to think inferior of yourself and refrain from asking the simplest question regarding this type of service. Its complicated if its an unchartered area of your online business knowledge.
Not asking about web hosting PHP MySQL questions will result in many headaches and frustration not to mention valuable lost time!
Find Out More About The VodaHost Experience Here http://hubpages.com/hub/reliable_web_hosting_service
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Lee_Brooker http://EzineArticles.com/?Web-Hosting-Php-Mysql---Guide&id=645344
By [http://ezinearticles.com/?expert=Lee_Brooker]Lee Brooker
Put web hosting php mysql together and you have yourself a dynamic website! Getting web hosting, php, MySQL opens the door for your business to develop in areas that your never thought possible.
Standard web hosting is fine when nothing much needs to happen to your site. Adding PHP enables you to create or use existing opt in forms or maybe a membership software package you may have purchased. You know the ones I mean. With username and password verification and all that technical stuff!
Having PHP and MySQL is the standard and most popular choice for most webmasters and website developers.
This may sound pretty obvious, but web hosting PHP MySQL do not all come as standard in hosting packages! One may not come with the other. But not only this, you must also be aware or the different versions of PHP and SQL. MySQL is a vendor for the SQL as is Ms Windows and Oracle.
Check and double check everything before committing yourself to any web hosting PHP MySQL set up. Like I said before this may seem a little obvious, but you will be amazed at the amount of people that actually over look not only the compatibility of web hosting PHP and MySQL but make the mistake in automatically thinking that they are all going to work together.
If your web hosting PHP MySQL is all in one then its safe to assume they all work together! Its when you are putting a bespoke hosting package together that the importance of making sure you kow your SQL and PHP versions.
If I any doubt at all, do not hesitate to email the company that you are considering purchasing your web hosting PHP and MySQL from. Its not good practice to think inferior of yourself and refrain from asking the simplest question regarding this type of service. Its complicated if its an unchartered area of your online business knowledge.
Not asking about web hosting PHP MySQL questions will result in many headaches and frustration not to mention valuable lost time!
Find Out More About The VodaHost Experience Here http://hubpages.com/hub/reliable_web_hosting_service
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Lee_Brooker http://EzineArticles.com/?Web-Hosting-Php-Mysql---Guide&id=645344
Wednesday, September 12, 2007
Illusion Technologies: PHP Developers
Consuming RSS Feeds With ColdFusionBy [http://ezinearticles.com/?expert=Benjamin_Cortese]Benjamin Cortese
ColdFusion doesn't seem to get the respect it deserves amongst the dedicated Java or .NET or even PHP development circles, but having worked in all of those environments, I'd like to state for the record, that completing a large scale development project AHEAD of schedule, keeping your Business Managers and Projects Managers happy, and let's not forget the most important of all... THE CLIENT...Well, that's priceless. Well worth any investment made towards ColdFusion.
Web services, RSS, XML, SOAP to name several, are all welcomed friends to the ColdFusion web development language. This article will focus on the likes of RSS and XML.
Definition:
RSS is a family of web feed formats used to publish frequently updated digital content, such as blogs, news feeds or podcasts. Consumers of RSS content use special browsers called aggregators to watch for new content in dozens or even hundreds of web feeds. The initials "RSS" are variously used to refer to the following standards:
Really Simple Syndication (RSS 2.0)
Rich Site Summary (RSS 0.91, RSS 1.0)
RDF Site Summary (RSS 0.9 and 1.0)
RSS formats are specified in XML (a generic specification for data formats). RSS delivers its information as an XML file called an "RSS feed", "webfeed", "RSS stream", or "RSS channel".
That's the Wikipedia definition for an RSS feed. What's not mentioned is that developers are able to take advantage of the content provided by these RSS feeds to display current and changing data on their websites, which adds value to the website and hopefully bring return visitors for more of the information that you provide.
Consuming an RSS feed in ColdFusion can be as simple or as complicated as you want it to be. There are several ways or more, to do this in ColdFusion. Parsing through array elements and defining the parent elements to children and testing for grandchildren elements, and recursive behaviors etc. But this article is not for the experienced ColdFusion developer. This article is for someone who might like to see some of the "ease of operation" of ColdFusion and how it relates to a popular web practice known as RSS.
We'll look at a fun and popular feed from RollingStone Magazine. Located here http://www.rollingstone.com/rssxml/album_reviews.xml as of the time of this article.
It's a feed that I have implemented on several of my websites. Now it's important to note that you should select feeds that are relevant to your website, I have several music based websites and thus having an "Album Review" feed was appropriate. Ok, so now what do we do with this feed you ask? Well, basically there are only 3 steps to consuming and parsing an XML/RSS feed.
1. Read the Feed in
2. Loop through the elements of the feed
3. Display the feed
Am I simplifying things a bit? Not really, the purpose here is to show how ColdFusion can do much of the 'heavy lifting' as it pertains to application development making many day to day programming tasks much less tedious.
Here's an example:
In ColdFusion we read the feed in like this.
< url="< /cfhttp >
< album_reviews_xml="XMLParse(cfhttp.FileContent)">
What this does is utilize the CFHTTP tag in ColdFusion which has many many uses, in this case it performs the request for the XML document on the server.
The second line defines a variable called "album_reviews_xml" and gives it the value of the http response. Using the built in function "XMLParse()" in ColdFusion takes the http response and delivers it to your browser in XML format or as an XML Object for you OOP guys.
If you would like to have ColdFusion show you a 'pretty' presentation of the XML you can simply add a cfdump statement to your document and you will see a nicely rendered and easy to read xml structure.
The next step is parsing or looping through the elements of the XML Object.
You do that like this:
<>
< index="x" from="1" to="#ArrayLen(album_reviews_xml.rss.channel.item)#">
Title: #album_reviews_xml.rss.channel.item[x].title.xmlText#
Link: < href="#album_reviews_xml.rss.channel.item[x].link.xmlText#">click here< /a >
Description:#album_reviews_xml.rss.channel.item[x].description.xmlText#
< /cfloop >
< /cfoutput >
This loop as shown, iterates through all of the elements of the document and displays the most common items in an RSS feed which are the TITLE, LINK and DESCRIPTION. Some feeds aren't formed entirely to standard and may have other elements designs, and of course this is not all of the data that you can get from an RSS feed, again it's just the most common and standard elements returned through RSS. But if the document provided by the RSS feed generator is to standard and well formed, you will see these 3 elements in most every RSS feed.
As you can see displaying an RSS feed in ColdFusion is easy and provides real time up to date information that you can provide to your visitors on your website.
You can apply style sheets and html formatting to your feeds and present the information in a pleasant looking way that visitors will enjoy reading.
An example where I use these feeds can be seen in action here http://www.news-junkie.net/. This is a personal site that I had developed a while ago that is a simple news aggregation website with a number of different topics. I found it fun to develop and good practice working with xml and ColdFusion. The information is constantly updated and visitors to my site see fresh new articles everyday, and all I have to do now that it is built, is keep the domain name active and maybe switch around a few of my affiliate links which hopefully provide a little income to pay for the hosting of the site.
Thanks for reading and Happy Coding!
Ben Cortese is a developer and business analyst for the financial industry and enjoys developing personal websites. View some of them at [http://www.inetsite.net/]http://www.blogger.com/www.InetSite.net
Copyright 2007. Article can be reprinted as long as author credits are given and content remains unchanged and intact.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Benjamin_Cortese http://EzineArticles.com/?Consuming-RSS-Feeds-With-ColdFusion&id=403246
ColdFusion doesn't seem to get the respect it deserves amongst the dedicated Java or .NET or even PHP development circles, but having worked in all of those environments, I'd like to state for the record, that completing a large scale development project AHEAD of schedule, keeping your Business Managers and Projects Managers happy, and let's not forget the most important of all... THE CLIENT...Well, that's priceless. Well worth any investment made towards ColdFusion.
Web services, RSS, XML, SOAP to name several, are all welcomed friends to the ColdFusion web development language. This article will focus on the likes of RSS and XML.
Definition:
RSS is a family of web feed formats used to publish frequently updated digital content, such as blogs, news feeds or podcasts. Consumers of RSS content use special browsers called aggregators to watch for new content in dozens or even hundreds of web feeds. The initials "RSS" are variously used to refer to the following standards:
Really Simple Syndication (RSS 2.0)
Rich Site Summary (RSS 0.91, RSS 1.0)
RDF Site Summary (RSS 0.9 and 1.0)
RSS formats are specified in XML (a generic specification for data formats). RSS delivers its information as an XML file called an "RSS feed", "webfeed", "RSS stream", or "RSS channel".
That's the Wikipedia definition for an RSS feed. What's not mentioned is that developers are able to take advantage of the content provided by these RSS feeds to display current and changing data on their websites, which adds value to the website and hopefully bring return visitors for more of the information that you provide.
Consuming an RSS feed in ColdFusion can be as simple or as complicated as you want it to be. There are several ways or more, to do this in ColdFusion. Parsing through array elements and defining the parent elements to children and testing for grandchildren elements, and recursive behaviors etc. But this article is not for the experienced ColdFusion developer. This article is for someone who might like to see some of the "ease of operation" of ColdFusion and how it relates to a popular web practice known as RSS.
We'll look at a fun and popular feed from RollingStone Magazine. Located here http://www.rollingstone.com/rssxml/album_reviews.xml as of the time of this article.
It's a feed that I have implemented on several of my websites. Now it's important to note that you should select feeds that are relevant to your website, I have several music based websites and thus having an "Album Review" feed was appropriate. Ok, so now what do we do with this feed you ask? Well, basically there are only 3 steps to consuming and parsing an XML/RSS feed.
1. Read the Feed in
2. Loop through the elements of the feed
3. Display the feed
Am I simplifying things a bit? Not really, the purpose here is to show how ColdFusion can do much of the 'heavy lifting' as it pertains to application development making many day to day programming tasks much less tedious.
Here's an example:
In ColdFusion we read the feed in like this.
< url="< /cfhttp >
< album_reviews_xml="XMLParse(cfhttp.FileContent)">
What this does is utilize the CFHTTP tag in ColdFusion which has many many uses, in this case it performs the request for the XML document on the server.
The second line defines a variable called "album_reviews_xml" and gives it the value of the http response. Using the built in function "XMLParse()" in ColdFusion takes the http response and delivers it to your browser in XML format or as an XML Object for you OOP guys.
If you would like to have ColdFusion show you a 'pretty' presentation of the XML you can simply add a cfdump statement to your document and you will see a nicely rendered and easy to read xml structure.
The next step is parsing or looping through the elements of the XML Object.
You do that like this:
<>
< index="x" from="1" to="#ArrayLen(album_reviews_xml.rss.channel.item)#">
Title: #album_reviews_xml.rss.channel.item[x].title.xmlText#
Link: < href="#album_reviews_xml.rss.channel.item[x].link.xmlText#">click here< /a >
Description:#album_reviews_xml.rss.channel.item[x].description.xmlText#
< /cfloop >
< /cfoutput >
This loop as shown, iterates through all of the elements of the document and displays the most common items in an RSS feed which are the TITLE, LINK and DESCRIPTION. Some feeds aren't formed entirely to standard and may have other elements designs, and of course this is not all of the data that you can get from an RSS feed, again it's just the most common and standard elements returned through RSS. But if the document provided by the RSS feed generator is to standard and well formed, you will see these 3 elements in most every RSS feed.
As you can see displaying an RSS feed in ColdFusion is easy and provides real time up to date information that you can provide to your visitors on your website.
You can apply style sheets and html formatting to your feeds and present the information in a pleasant looking way that visitors will enjoy reading.
An example where I use these feeds can be seen in action here http://www.news-junkie.net/. This is a personal site that I had developed a while ago that is a simple news aggregation website with a number of different topics. I found it fun to develop and good practice working with xml and ColdFusion. The information is constantly updated and visitors to my site see fresh new articles everyday, and all I have to do now that it is built, is keep the domain name active and maybe switch around a few of my affiliate links which hopefully provide a little income to pay for the hosting of the site.
Thanks for reading and Happy Coding!
Ben Cortese is a developer and business analyst for the financial industry and enjoys developing personal websites. View some of them at [http://www.inetsite.net/]http://www.blogger.com/www.InetSite.net
Copyright 2007. Article can be reprinted as long as author credits are given and content remains unchanged and intact.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Benjamin_Cortese http://EzineArticles.com/?Consuming-RSS-Feeds-With-ColdFusion&id=403246
Tuesday, September 4, 2007
Illusion Technologies: PHP Developers
Choose Wisely: PHP Templates and Search Engine Rank
By [http://ezinearticles.com/?expert=Jacob_Filipp]Jacob Filipp
This article is intended for PHP web developers who create template systems for consistently presenting website content. PHP designers who create their own template systems should be concerned about how their choices affect the website's position in search engines. Below is a discussion of three types of systems, their impact on search ranking and a recommendation for the best approach.
Webpage as a CGI Argument
In this architecture one PHP script contains the entire template, and plugs in content from a file it reads in - getting the file name from a CGI parameter. These types of systems are not only prone to security problems (as users can modify the path argument to retrieve arbitrary files) but are also ineffective for search engine optimization.
This particular design does not allow for titles and keyword/description meta-tags to be associated with individual pages. This is because the header portion of the template includes the section within it, and only allows for one site-wide title and set of meta-tags. Titles are one of the most important page elements, and having one title - unrelated to the actual content retrieved - results in a lower rank in search engines.
There are two other detrimental SEO effects this type of system has. The first is that each unique page is viewed as an aspect of the template script, rather than as a unique standalone page. This can result in search engines lowering the importance of individual content pages relative to the template script - which is often not the desired result. The other weakness of this approach is that having individual pages set up as CGI arguments makes site metrics harder to track, as statistics often show a visit to a specific page as a visit to the general template script. The popular web statistics packages AWstats and Webalizer are most affected by this.
However, this type of templating system is popular and sucessfully used in the world of e-commerce. In such systems, product information is stored in a database and is inserted into the template when a product is requested by its code. This means that both a unique title and a set of meta-tags can be stored alongside the product data (or generated on the fly), and inserted into the global template effectively. The only detrimental effects that remain are the latter mentioned two, and are usually an acceptable tradeoff for the increased ease of administration that a database-driven system provides.
Template as an Include
In this architecture, each page on the website has its own filename with a .php extension. The top and bottom portions of the template are stored in separate files that are included (using include_once() ) by each content file. This technique increases the importance of the page with search engines, as each page is its own standalone page rather than a CGI argument. This type of template system also makes it simple to track page views through regular website statistics software.
On the other hand, this type of template system still has the weakness of having one title and one set of meta-tags for the entire site. This is, again, because the header portion of templates has to include everything from the opening of the tag to the end of the code for the header portion of the template. And this area includes the title and meta-tags. One workaround for this type of system is to code the top template page to check which file it is being called from, and to substitute a suitable pre-coded title. Although effective, such a system is cumbersome to maintain as each new page that is published warrants a new title and meta-tag entry in this secondary system.
Body-Only Includes
The ideal PHP templating system will permit content producers to enjoy the reusability of templates, while maintaining unique titles and metadata for each page with ease. The system that meets all of these SEO needs is a "body-only include" system: a system where each php content page includes the top and bottom portions of the template (as in the previous approach), but only includes the elements below the body tag. This translates into a document that has its own html, head, title and meta tags, has an include_once() statement which is called at the top of the body element and includes the top portion of the template, has the content, and an include for the footer portion of the template. Such a system allows for individual editing of the title and meta-information during the creation of documents and solves the problems that both of the aforementioned systems face.
I find this system the most search-engine friendly, because it keeps the title information and the content together - allowing for the presence of relevant, unique titles for each page. This system is also the most human friendly, as storing the title information in the same file as the page content allows for fast updating and avoids maintaining a second "workaround" system that attempts to match titles to content.
Conclusion
The types of template system that PHP developers choose to implement for clients' sites have a crucial impact on the future search-engine popularity of the client's webpages. Important factors to consider when developing a template solution are: relevant titles tied to content, relevant meta-tags, standalone files and ease of statistics tracking. The popular approaches of page-as-an-argument and template-as-an-include do not effectively provide these functions. Including template information after the body tag, and keeping headers intact is the best way to ensure that sites are optimized for search engines - and this is why you should consider using the Body-Only Includes model during your next project.
Jacob Filipp is a Canadian search engine optimization specialist at [http://powerspiritonline.com/contact.html]Powerspirit. Jacob has 7 years of experience as a web developer and webmaster.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Jacob_Filipp http://EzineArticles.com/?Choose-Wisely:-PHP-Templates-and-Search-Engine-Rank&id=597857
By [http://ezinearticles.com/?expert=Jacob_Filipp]Jacob Filipp
This article is intended for PHP web developers who create template systems for consistently presenting website content. PHP designers who create their own template systems should be concerned about how their choices affect the website's position in search engines. Below is a discussion of three types of systems, their impact on search ranking and a recommendation for the best approach.
Webpage as a CGI Argument
In this architecture one PHP script contains the entire template, and plugs in content from a file it reads in - getting the file name from a CGI parameter. These types of systems are not only prone to security problems (as users can modify the path argument to retrieve arbitrary files) but are also ineffective for search engine optimization.
This particular design does not allow for titles and keyword/description meta-tags to be associated with individual pages. This is because the header portion of the template includes the section within it, and only allows for one site-wide title and set of meta-tags. Titles are one of the most important page elements, and having one title - unrelated to the actual content retrieved - results in a lower rank in search engines.
There are two other detrimental SEO effects this type of system has. The first is that each unique page is viewed as an aspect of the template script, rather than as a unique standalone page. This can result in search engines lowering the importance of individual content pages relative to the template script - which is often not the desired result. The other weakness of this approach is that having individual pages set up as CGI arguments makes site metrics harder to track, as statistics often show a visit to a specific page as a visit to the general template script. The popular web statistics packages AWstats and Webalizer are most affected by this.
However, this type of templating system is popular and sucessfully used in the world of e-commerce. In such systems, product information is stored in a database and is inserted into the template when a product is requested by its code. This means that both a unique title and a set of meta-tags can be stored alongside the product data (or generated on the fly), and inserted into the global template effectively. The only detrimental effects that remain are the latter mentioned two, and are usually an acceptable tradeoff for the increased ease of administration that a database-driven system provides.
Template as an Include
In this architecture, each page on the website has its own filename with a .php extension. The top and bottom portions of the template are stored in separate files that are included (using include_once() ) by each content file. This technique increases the importance of the page with search engines, as each page is its own standalone page rather than a CGI argument. This type of template system also makes it simple to track page views through regular website statistics software.
On the other hand, this type of template system still has the weakness of having one title and one set of meta-tags for the entire site. This is, again, because the header portion of templates has to include everything from the opening of the tag to the end of the code for the header portion of the template. And this area includes the title and meta-tags. One workaround for this type of system is to code the top template page to check which file it is being called from, and to substitute a suitable pre-coded title. Although effective, such a system is cumbersome to maintain as each new page that is published warrants a new title and meta-tag entry in this secondary system.
Body-Only Includes
The ideal PHP templating system will permit content producers to enjoy the reusability of templates, while maintaining unique titles and metadata for each page with ease. The system that meets all of these SEO needs is a "body-only include" system: a system where each php content page includes the top and bottom portions of the template (as in the previous approach), but only includes the elements below the body tag. This translates into a document that has its own html, head, title and meta tags, has an include_once() statement which is called at the top of the body element and includes the top portion of the template, has the content, and an include for the footer portion of the template. Such a system allows for individual editing of the title and meta-information during the creation of documents and solves the problems that both of the aforementioned systems face.
I find this system the most search-engine friendly, because it keeps the title information and the content together - allowing for the presence of relevant, unique titles for each page. This system is also the most human friendly, as storing the title information in the same file as the page content allows for fast updating and avoids maintaining a second "workaround" system that attempts to match titles to content.
Conclusion
The types of template system that PHP developers choose to implement for clients' sites have a crucial impact on the future search-engine popularity of the client's webpages. Important factors to consider when developing a template solution are: relevant titles tied to content, relevant meta-tags, standalone files and ease of statistics tracking. The popular approaches of page-as-an-argument and template-as-an-include do not effectively provide these functions. Including template information after the body tag, and keeping headers intact is the best way to ensure that sites are optimized for search engines - and this is why you should consider using the Body-Only Includes model during your next project.
Jacob Filipp is a Canadian search engine optimization specialist at [http://powerspiritonline.com/contact.html]Powerspirit. Jacob has 7 years of experience as a web developer and webmaster.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Jacob_Filipp http://EzineArticles.com/?Choose-Wisely:-PHP-Templates-and-Search-Engine-Rank&id=597857
Monday, September 3, 2007
Illusion Technologies: PHP Developers
Choose Wisely: PHP Templates and Search Engine Rank
By [http://ezinearticles.com/?expert=Jacob_Filipp]Jacob Filipp
This article is intended for PHP web developers who create template systems for consistently presenting website content. PHP designers who create their own template systems should be concerned about how their choices affect the website's position in search engines. Below is a discussion of three types of systems, their impact on search ranking and a recommendation for the best approach.
Webpage as a CGI Argument
In this architecture one PHP script contains the entire template, and plugs in content from a file it reads in - getting the file name from a CGI parameter. These types of systems are not only prone to security problems (as users can modify the path argument to retrieve arbitrary files) but are also ineffective for search engine optimization.
This particular design does not allow for titles and keyword/description meta-tags to be associated with individual pages. This is because the header portion of the template includes the section within it, and only allows for one site-wide title and set of meta-tags. Titles are one of the most important page elements, and having one title - unrelated to the actual content retrieved - results in a lower rank in search engines.
There are two other detrimental SEO effects this type of system has. The first is that each unique page is viewed as an aspect of the template script, rather than as a unique standalone page. This can result in search engines lowering the importance of individual content pages relative to the template script - which is often not the desired result. The other weakness of this approach is that having individual pages set up as CGI arguments makes site metrics harder to track, as statistics often show a visit to a specific page as a visit to the general template script. The popular web statistics packages AWstats and Webalizer are most affected by this.
However, this type of templating system is popular and sucessfully used in the world of e-commerce. In such systems, product information is stored in a database and is inserted into the template when a product is requested by its code. This means that both a unique title and a set of meta-tags can be stored alongside the product data (or generated on the fly), and inserted into the global template effectively. The only detrimental effects that remain are the latter mentioned two, and are usually an acceptable tradeoff for the increased ease of administration that a database-driven system provides.
Template as an Include
In this architecture, each page on the website has its own filename with a .php extension. The top and bottom portions of the template are stored in separate files that are included (using include_once() ) by each content file. This technique increases the importance of the page with search engines, as each page is its own standalone page rather than a CGI argument. This type of template system also makes it simple to track page views through regular website statistics software.
On the other hand, this type of template system still has the weakness of having one title and one set of meta-tags for the entire site. This is, again, because the header portion of templates has to include everything from the opening of the tag to the end of the code for the header portion of the template. And this area includes the title and meta-tags. One workaround for this type of system is to code the top template page to check which file it is being called from, and to substitute a suitable pre-coded title. Although effective, such a system is cumbersome to maintain as each new page that is published warrants a new title and meta-tag entry in this secondary system.
Body-Only Includes
The ideal PHP templating system will permit content producers to enjoy the reusability of templates, while maintaining unique titles and metadata for each page with ease. The system that meets all of these SEO needs is a "body-only include" system: a system where each php content page includes the top and bottom portions of the template (as in the previous approach), but only includes the elements below the body tag. This translates into a document that has its own html, head, title and meta tags, has an include_once() statement which is called at the top of the body element and includes the top portion of the template, has the content, and an include for the footer portion of the template. Such a system allows for individual editing of the title and meta-information during the creation of documents and solves the problems that both of the aforementioned systems face.
I find this system the most search-engine friendly, because it keeps the title information and the content together - allowing for the presence of relevant, unique titles for each page. This system is also the most human friendly, as storing the title information in the same file as the page content allows for fast updating and avoids maintaining a second "workaround" system that attempts to match titles to content.
Conclusion
The types of template system that PHP developers choose to implement for clients' sites have a crucial impact on the future search-engine popularity of the client's webpages. Important factors to consider when developing a template solution are: relevant titles tied to content, relevant meta-tags, standalone files and ease of statistics tracking. The popular approaches of page-as-an-argument and template-as-an-include do not effectively provide these functions. Including template information after the body tag, and keeping headers intact is the best way to ensure that sites are optimized for search engines - and this is why you should consider using the Body-Only Includes model during your next project.
Jacob Filipp is a Canadian search engine optimization specialist at [http://powerspiritonline.com/contact.html]Powerspirit. Jacob has 7 years of experience as a web developer and webmaster.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Jacob_Filipp http://EzineArticles.com/?Choose-Wisely:-PHP-Templates-and-Search-Engine-Rank&id=597857
By [http://ezinearticles.com/?expert=Jacob_Filipp]Jacob Filipp
This article is intended for PHP web developers who create template systems for consistently presenting website content. PHP designers who create their own template systems should be concerned about how their choices affect the website's position in search engines. Below is a discussion of three types of systems, their impact on search ranking and a recommendation for the best approach.
Webpage as a CGI Argument
In this architecture one PHP script contains the entire template, and plugs in content from a file it reads in - getting the file name from a CGI parameter. These types of systems are not only prone to security problems (as users can modify the path argument to retrieve arbitrary files) but are also ineffective for search engine optimization.
This particular design does not allow for titles and keyword/description meta-tags to be associated with individual pages. This is because the header portion of the template includes the section within it, and only allows for one site-wide title and set of meta-tags. Titles are one of the most important page elements, and having one title - unrelated to the actual content retrieved - results in a lower rank in search engines.
There are two other detrimental SEO effects this type of system has. The first is that each unique page is viewed as an aspect of the template script, rather than as a unique standalone page. This can result in search engines lowering the importance of individual content pages relative to the template script - which is often not the desired result. The other weakness of this approach is that having individual pages set up as CGI arguments makes site metrics harder to track, as statistics often show a visit to a specific page as a visit to the general template script. The popular web statistics packages AWstats and Webalizer are most affected by this.
However, this type of templating system is popular and sucessfully used in the world of e-commerce. In such systems, product information is stored in a database and is inserted into the template when a product is requested by its code. This means that both a unique title and a set of meta-tags can be stored alongside the product data (or generated on the fly), and inserted into the global template effectively. The only detrimental effects that remain are the latter mentioned two, and are usually an acceptable tradeoff for the increased ease of administration that a database-driven system provides.
Template as an Include
In this architecture, each page on the website has its own filename with a .php extension. The top and bottom portions of the template are stored in separate files that are included (using include_once() ) by each content file. This technique increases the importance of the page with search engines, as each page is its own standalone page rather than a CGI argument. This type of template system also makes it simple to track page views through regular website statistics software.
On the other hand, this type of template system still has the weakness of having one title and one set of meta-tags for the entire site. This is, again, because the header portion of templates has to include everything from the opening of the tag to the end of the code for the header portion of the template. And this area includes the title and meta-tags. One workaround for this type of system is to code the top template page to check which file it is being called from, and to substitute a suitable pre-coded title. Although effective, such a system is cumbersome to maintain as each new page that is published warrants a new title and meta-tag entry in this secondary system.
Body-Only Includes
The ideal PHP templating system will permit content producers to enjoy the reusability of templates, while maintaining unique titles and metadata for each page with ease. The system that meets all of these SEO needs is a "body-only include" system: a system where each php content page includes the top and bottom portions of the template (as in the previous approach), but only includes the elements below the body tag. This translates into a document that has its own html, head, title and meta tags, has an include_once() statement which is called at the top of the body element and includes the top portion of the template, has the content, and an include for the footer portion of the template. Such a system allows for individual editing of the title and meta-information during the creation of documents and solves the problems that both of the aforementioned systems face.
I find this system the most search-engine friendly, because it keeps the title information and the content together - allowing for the presence of relevant, unique titles for each page. This system is also the most human friendly, as storing the title information in the same file as the page content allows for fast updating and avoids maintaining a second "workaround" system that attempts to match titles to content.
Conclusion
The types of template system that PHP developers choose to implement for clients' sites have a crucial impact on the future search-engine popularity of the client's webpages. Important factors to consider when developing a template solution are: relevant titles tied to content, relevant meta-tags, standalone files and ease of statistics tracking. The popular approaches of page-as-an-argument and template-as-an-include do not effectively provide these functions. Including template information after the body tag, and keeping headers intact is the best way to ensure that sites are optimized for search engines - and this is why you should consider using the Body-Only Includes model during your next project.
Jacob Filipp is a Canadian search engine optimization specialist at [http://powerspiritonline.com/contact.html]Powerspirit. Jacob has 7 years of experience as a web developer and webmaster.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Jacob_Filipp http://EzineArticles.com/?Choose-Wisely:-PHP-Templates-and-Search-Engine-Rank&id=597857
Saturday, September 1, 2007
Illusion Technologies: PHP Developers
Free PHP Web Hosting - Where To Find The Best Free PHP Web Site Hosting
By [http://ezinearticles.com/?expert=Karin_I_Manning]Karin I Manning
There are many benefits to a free PHP web hosting service. This article will reveal everything you need to know about php web hosting and the essentials of the best web site hosting service.
PHP was initially developed in 1994 by Rasmus Lerdorf. He created it as a tool to help website designers. What he developed was the ability to allow users to place macros in static html pages and codes. However, it wasn't till 1997 that it became a fully-fledged programming language.
Nowadays this tool is used with Apache in millions of websites worldwide and its popularity is ever on the increase.
How this application works is that it allows users to create dynamic applications and web pages. It allows website developers to insert several states into an easy simple tag. It has numerous multimedia capabilities and is also able to be used with audio streaming.
There are a large number of free hosting companies that offer it. It is often less expensive when compared with other hosting options and it can actually support numerous databases including MySQL and Oracle, just to name a few.
However, there are considerable disadvantages when using a free alternative.
The response may be very slow which could mean they are hosting more domains than they are really capable of managing. This may make it extremely difficult for website visitors to fully access and read your websites.
Another disadvantage is that generally speaking the customer service and tech support is very poor.
Banner ads are also a frequent eyesore on these websites and are a great distraction to your visitors who you are trying to promote or sell to.
While it is proving more and more popular I would recommend that you stay away from a free web hosting service and considerable a reliable but very inexpensive paid service. Some of these services only cost a few dollars a month. However, the difference to your bottom line is truly immeasurable.
For the latest information about the best web hosting options check out the website below today!
Copyright 2007. We've had enough of crook webhosting companies charging the earth and not delivering. For this reason we reviewed a range of web hosting companies that promise the best value for money and superior service. However, NOT all web hosting packages are created equal. Nor do they live up to their claims. Learn the shocking truth about webhosts at my [http://best-web-hosting-services-review.blogspot.com/]web hosting review site by visiting http://best-web-hosting-services-review.blogspot.com now!
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Karin_I_Manning http://EzineArticles.com/?Free-PHP-Web-Hosting---Where-To-Find-The-Best-Free-PHP-Web-Site-Hosting&id=670470
By [http://ezinearticles.com/?expert=Karin_I_Manning]Karin I Manning
There are many benefits to a free PHP web hosting service. This article will reveal everything you need to know about php web hosting and the essentials of the best web site hosting service.
PHP was initially developed in 1994 by Rasmus Lerdorf. He created it as a tool to help website designers. What he developed was the ability to allow users to place macros in static html pages and codes. However, it wasn't till 1997 that it became a fully-fledged programming language.
Nowadays this tool is used with Apache in millions of websites worldwide and its popularity is ever on the increase.
How this application works is that it allows users to create dynamic applications and web pages. It allows website developers to insert several states into an easy simple tag. It has numerous multimedia capabilities and is also able to be used with audio streaming.
There are a large number of free hosting companies that offer it. It is often less expensive when compared with other hosting options and it can actually support numerous databases including MySQL and Oracle, just to name a few.
However, there are considerable disadvantages when using a free alternative.
The response may be very slow which could mean they are hosting more domains than they are really capable of managing. This may make it extremely difficult for website visitors to fully access and read your websites.
Another disadvantage is that generally speaking the customer service and tech support is very poor.
Banner ads are also a frequent eyesore on these websites and are a great distraction to your visitors who you are trying to promote or sell to.
While it is proving more and more popular I would recommend that you stay away from a free web hosting service and considerable a reliable but very inexpensive paid service. Some of these services only cost a few dollars a month. However, the difference to your bottom line is truly immeasurable.
For the latest information about the best web hosting options check out the website below today!
Copyright 2007. We've had enough of crook webhosting companies charging the earth and not delivering. For this reason we reviewed a range of web hosting companies that promise the best value for money and superior service. However, NOT all web hosting packages are created equal. Nor do they live up to their claims. Learn the shocking truth about webhosts at my [http://best-web-hosting-services-review.blogspot.com/]web hosting review site by visiting http://best-web-hosting-services-review.blogspot.com now!
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Karin_I_Manning http://EzineArticles.com/?Free-PHP-Web-Hosting---Where-To-Find-The-Best-Free-PHP-Web-Site-Hosting&id=670470
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