10
May/10

The BrownPHP Code Repository

by Douglas Brown under Site Update

I’m going to start doing some reorganizing of the site as you may have already noticed via the new site design. One thing that I would like to do at first is create a code repository.

As I’m building websites I’ve started to build a library of classes. Most of the classes I normally create and would like to share involve integration with Twitter, eBay, Amazon and others. The goal really is to make it easier on PHP coders starting out to implement some of these wonderful services into project of their very own without having to review API documentation for hours. Most of which is poorly written…

So I’ll obviously be adding a Twitter Class into the repository first. Then as time goes on, others will follow. Give me some time to go through the classes and document them properly so that developers don’t need to decipher my code. J

You can get to the BrownPHP Code Repository here or simply click the “Code” link in the top banner of the site. Let me know if there are any classes in particular that you would like me to add to the repository as priority. Most likely I already have a class for whatever you are looking for, just let me know.

If you are as involved and excited about PHP development as I am and want to help new PHP developers out there, please let them know about BrownPHP.com. I would be more than happy to plug any of the projects that you may be working on.

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6
May/10

What PHP Project Are You Working On?

by Douglas Brown under PHP Articles

So what PHP projects have you been involved with lately? Every PHP project that I get involved with seems like it is a two rapid development project. That is, PHP projects that I have been doing for the company that I work with. I have to tell you, I’m not a fan of the rapid development process.

Multiple times I have been approached asking if this type of PHP app can be done. Most of the time, the answer is yes. Then the follow up is, okay we need it done and working in two weeks. Maybe it is my fault for not arguing the due date, but I can’t help it. I get offered too few PHP projects at my 8 to 6 to pass one up.

Rapid Development Process = Poor Documentation

Well, I was able to finish the project in the allotted time given to me, but not in the fashion that I would have liked. I wouldn’t say mistakes have been made in any of these projects, but I will say most of them could have been documented much better. I have a certain feeling of remorse when I think about the next developer that needs to update the code.

Can I go back through the code to document it properly the way it should have been done in the first place when I have a free second? Sure, but with company budget cuts and co-employees being laid off (working in the heart of Michigan), I’m making less and doing twice as much. So yeah, I’ll get to it when I have a free second.

Maybe I’ll do another post on RDP in the future, because I feel this process warrants more discussion. For now however, let’s talk about our projects.

My PHP Projects

Getting away from the topic of my day job, in my moonlight hours I have been working on Auction Alerts as you may have noticed from my previous post. This site integrates the eBay API largely to help find eBay deals, although the Amazon API is being used as well, but sparingly. I was thinking about implementing the Shopping.com API into the site, but I need to look through their documentation a little more to understand how I could best integrate it into the site.

Register with Auction Alerts

I have given the site a new theme to match its blog’s. This project has been taking up most of my free time while not at work. I’m considering taking it out of beta soon because it is being used by a medium sized group of people and for the last month there haven’t been any issues. If you haven’t checked this site out, I would appreciate it if you could take a moment to look it over and tell me what you think.

What PHP projects are you working on?

If you are a developer yourself and would like a free plug to the project that you are working on or one that you have done in the past. The community here would to hear about it.

You can either email me a post explaining your project and what is does or you are always welcome to sign up with BrownPHP and I can make you an author from which you can just write the post here on this site. You would just have to let me know.

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29
Mar/10

Auction Alerts Goes Live

by Douglas Brown under My Projects

Auction Alerts LogoI’ve been working on a little side project in my spare time that I’m happy to announce that I’m now opening up the public beta. Auction alerts is an alert system that searches eBay for auctions based on keywords that members subscribe to.

I’ve been privately beta testing it for a little while now with a handful of people and things have been going along smoothly. Now I want to open it up to the public. I’m not taking the beta off however because the content and design is still fresh and I want to get some more opinions before I call anything concrete.

This site is definitely useful for people that use eBay frequently, but even if you hardly use eBay at all it can still save you money. To give you a quick idea of what the site is about, you first login after registering for free. You then click, “Create Alert”.

Now you provide a key phrase that you want to search eBay for. You also provide your max price for the auction you’re looking for and how frequently you want the site to search for new auctions. Once you add it, you can create a few more, or you can log off and wait. After the amount of time that you chose is up, the site’s algorithm search eBay for the items you want. If it finds auctions, it emails you. If it doesn’t, it won’t. Simple as that. Currently, I’m only allowing 5 alerts at one time. That’s because the site is limited per number of calls it can make to the api per day. I am awaiting a response to eBay to increase this limit. I’ll keep you updated about that.

I made this tool awhile back to save me some time so I don’t have to troll eBay for deals anymore. The site works especially well for electronics because electronics most have model numbers. Having model numbers greatly helps in finding auctions for the exact product you’re looking for.

I’m also going to try to integrate Twitter with Auction Alerts a little more closely. So look for some experimenting going on there. I’m going to do without a blog for the site. I’ll probably fold like a lawn chair and make one after awhile though, lol. I would like to provide all the information and updates for the site via Twitter. If you want to follow the Auction Alerts Twitter account check out @auctionalerts.

This is going to be an ongoing project for me while I’m not at my day job. I already have a few features that I’ve started working on to add to the site. So I would love to hear any feedback from you guys. Look forward to hearing your ideas.

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30
Jan/10

JavaScript – Create a Better Experience

by Douglas Brown under JavaScript Articles

If you’ve been surfing the net for a while, you must likely have encountered websites created using JavaScript.

JavaScript is a programming language used to develop dynamic websites which run at the client side. This means that the language will not execute at the server but will run with your web page on the browser of the user. It is often used to manage online advertisements, validation of forms, and check on the ID of the browser. It doesn’t conflict with other languages such as PHP or ASP when you design a website.
Features

This language has been in use for several years now to produce websites with nice effects. Here are some highlights of what it can do:

•Browser Integrated Support – You don’t have to install any plug-ins to view sites using JavaScript programming. Most of the web browsers support the language. You only have to handle some specific features of the browsers so it will run properly

Changing Structure Run time – Web pages can be modified during run time since it has access to Document Object Model. It can also be used from the server side for script changes to better manage web contents

•Functional – JavaScript can be assigned to a function or variable where each can return also as a function. This language doesn’t worry about tagging names to functions, as long as the programming is working, everything will just be fine

Object Oriented – This language is easy to learn and handles most programming objects with no conflict. Being a loose object oriented language make me love it!

Benefits of the JavaScript Language

The JavaScript websites are commonly designed to check for validating the inputs of users on an online form. Let say you have an order form on your website and a client forgets to fill up the fields for home address and postal code, the browser will prompt her to supply the needed information before continuing. This saves time instead of the process being checked by the server which handles a lot of data. ASP and PHP programming may also solve the problem but in a more time consuming way for the customer.

This programming language is also used to design vibrant web pages which may feature rolling over graphic components. This is also done from the side of the user through their web browser.

Other features like links and images can be manipulated using this scripting language. Other special effects for navigation can also be added to your website.

Sample Sites and Sample Script

Menu Bar Example – JavaScript was used in combination with HTML. The menu bar will be highlighted when you point the mouse to it. There will also be a drop down menu where each of the content will also be highlighted

Display Information as a Splash Screen – This is a great effect where information about your website or anything under the sun can be displayed on a splash screen.

Make a News Ticker – This allows you to tell web surfers that there are changes in your websites. The display will be text scrolling upward.

Help Users Navigate Your Site – a box will pop up when a user points her mouse to an item. It can be instruction, description, or reminders that you want to tell them.

JavaScript can be a great tool for designing exciting and functional websites. Just make sure that you maximize the features of this language so you can enhance the performance and appeal of your web pages.
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20
Jan/10

Take Control of Your Web Presence With a PHP Tutorial Script

by Douglas Brown under PHP Articles


A PHP tutorial script is a way to learn PHP language. PHP scripting is a powerful computer language for creating flexible, attention grabbing and interactive websites. Once you have learned by practicing in a PHP tutorial script you can script your own websites on the server-side of whatever Internet service provider you are using.

A PHP tutorial script will give you the ability to use the widespread, free, and open source alternative language to others such as Microsoft’s ASP. PHP tutorial script learning is perfectly suited for Web development and the code itself can be embedded directly into the HTML code of the Internet.

The PHP tutorial script will show you how the syntax of the language is very similar to Perl and C two other language precursors to PHP. PHP is often used in combination with Apache, a web server program on various operating systems such a Windows, Vista and Mac OSX. It also supports ISAPI and can be used with Microsoft’s IIS on Windows.

To make best use of the PHP tutorial scripts for learning and then developing websites you really need a basic grasp of HTML, the mother tongue of the Internet and some scripting experience. PHP actually stands for Hypertext Preprocessor and is very like ASP in that you do not need to use your computer capacity to use it as it sits on the server of the ISP yo are working with.

The PHP tutorial script lessons will quickly make you familiar with real PHP scripts that run on the server. PHP tutorial scripts will also let you see how PHP works with

Many databases such as MySQL, Informix, Oracle, Sybase, Solid, PostgreSQL, Generic ODBC, etc.

The PHP tutorial script qualification will give you entry into the PHP open source software community where you will contribute to the development of this web design tool. The PHP tutorial scripts and the PHP sotware is free to download and use.

The PHP tutorial scripts will be just like real PHP files and can contain text, HTML tags and scripts. When you script in PHP it is uploaded to the browser as plain HTML but PHP files have a file extensions of “.PHP”, “.PHP3″, or “.phtml”

If you have a server that supports PHP you don’t need to do anything. Simply use your PHP tutorial script knowledge to create some .PHP files in your web directory, and your server will parse them for you. Precisely because it is free, most web hosts offer PHP support.

When PHP reads a file, it picks out the opening and closing tags, which are PHP flags to start and stop operating the code between them. Parsing in this way allows PHP to be linked into all sorts of different documents, as everything outside of the opening and closing tags is unreadable the PHP parser. Most of the time, as the PHP tutorial scripts show, you will see PHP embedded in HTML documents.

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