Archive for the ‘PHP world news’ Category

« Previous Entries

Wicked Cool PHP: Real-World Scripts That Solve Difficult Problems

Tuesday, August 12th, 2008
Wicked Cool PHP: Real-World Scripts That Solve Difficult Problems
Title
Reviewer
Chetankumar Digambarrao Akarte
Category
PHP books
Publisher
No Starch
Authors
William Steinmetz, Brian Ward
Summary
PHP is popular web development language. Lots of tips and tutorials are freely available on the Web. But they are scattered and very difficult to decide which is the a right solution to use for each kind of problem.

During the development stage of a project, time is an important factor. This book is a handy solution on the problems commonly faced by every programmer during their PHP development experience. Therefore this book is recommended to new and enthusiastic PHP coders.


Posted in PHP world news | No Comments »

Wicked Cool PHP: Real-World Scripts That Solve Difficult Problems

Tuesday, August 12th, 2008
Wicked Cool PHP: Real-World Scripts That Solve Difficult Problems
Title
Reviewer
Chetankumar Digambarrao Akarte
Category
PHP books
Publisher
No Starch
Authors
William Steinmetz, Brian Ward
Summary
PHP is popular web development language. Lots of tips and tutorials are freely available on the Web. But they are scattered and very difficult to decide which is the a right solution to use for each kind of problem.

During the development stage of a project, time is an important factor. This book is a handy solution on the problems commonly faced by every programmer during their PHP development experience. Therefore this book is recommended to new and enthusiastic PHP coders.


Posted in PHP world news | No Comments »

Flash And SEO: Like Oil And Water

Wednesday, August 6th, 2008

Author Avatar

We often deal with clients that are planning to “revamp” their sites with Flash, with SEO having already generated tremendous gains in their sales. The thing that we most dread to hear is that they’ve hired an experienced “Flash designer” that will be taking their Web sites to the “next level.” Unfortunately, that “next level” is often the basement - at least in terms of SEO results.

The bottom line here is that a site built entirely in Flash still faces huge obstacles. While there have been recent moves from Google and Yahoo! to try to index the content from combined Flash/SEO sites, those moves have not yet, from my experience, translated into SEO results or success (at least when compared to html sites).

We should make a distinction here between embedded Flash and sites built entirely from Flash. For example, a site that contains Flash elements but still contains basic html elements will not overly suffer, as the Flash element (usually a movie in a box on the homepage or elsewhere) is externalized. A search engine spider will generally not try to parse through any files that have been externalized in the code - they will only index the code that is readily apparent on the source page.

However, from an SEO results perspective, there are still major issues with sites that are built entirely in Flash, and SEO is normally the first thing that suffers. First of all, the URL generally never changes no matter where people navigate on the site. As any decent SEO practitioner will tell you, every page of your site is a potential entry page for a search engine. With a site built in Flash, SEO suffers even more as you only have one potential entry page, which is the main URL. This cuts off dozens, hundreds, or thousands of potential pages that could otherwise be indexed in Google and Yahoo! (and all other engines). When your only potential entry page in the search engine listings is your home page, it is very difficult to target a wide assortment of keyphrases, potentially eliminating SEO results or rankings.

Content is another very large issue. Search engines rank pages based upon a number of criteria, but one of the most important to SEO results is the text that they can “understand” on individual pages. At present, search engines read primarily html text (although some also read text in the PDF format) - which means that if you decide that you want to use a rare and fancy font that must be displayed in graphic form (since the visitor may not have that particular font available on his or her computer while browsing), the engine will not read the text and therefore will not know what the page is about, which could harm SEO results. Naturally, this also includes any of the text included in Flash. While Yahoo! and Google have recently announced enhanced capabilities in reading content within Flash, I have not personally seen that translate into great SEO results for competitive keyphrases.

One other emerging aspect is that as search evolves, more and more people are looking for information while they are away from their computers. Many mobile devices are currently incapable of displaying Flash content, although recent moves by Adobe to make “Flash Lite” available may change this. However, it remains to be seen whether people that are seeking information on a mobile device will even want to navigate through Flash, especially if they can get the information that they seek from a fast-loading html page. In my opinion, lean html content will be at a premium when a company is trying to target a mobile audience.

Despite the difficulties, it is not the intent of this article to assert that Flash and SEO will always be incompatible - merely that it is the state of the current situation. You can find many differing opinions on mixing Flash and SEO on the Internet, but the true test is to try to find a Flash site (that is to say, a site built entirely in Flash) that you admire and see if it ranks well in SEO results for 50+ competitive terms that are related to the specific business (in Google or Yahoo!). In my experience, such sites that combine Flash and SEO are nearly impossible to find. If anyone out there knows of one, please let me know.

Flash can be, and often is, used for great effect on the Internet, in interactive kiosks, and in many other applications. I’m not from the “any Flash is bad” school, although I do think that many Flash practitioners tend to get a little carried away and often ignore basic usability issues. However, sites built entirely in Flash with SEO elements are still, again in my opinion, like oil and water - Flash and SEO are obviously individually useful, but they don’t mix well. Until they do, I will continue to advise my clients not to build sites entirely out of Flash - or, at the very least, to have an alternate html option for search engine and user preference purposes. At the end of the day, many clients are surprised to find out how many visitors actually prefer “old school” html.

(C) Medium Blue 2008

Scott Buresh is the founder and CEO of Medium Blue, which was named the number one organic search engine optimization company in the world by PromotionWorld in 2006 and 2007. Scott’s articles have appeared in numerous publications, including ZDNet, WebProNews, MarketingProfs, DarwinMag, SiteProNews, ISEDB.com, and Search Engine Guide. He was also a contributor to The Complete Guide to Google Advertising (Atlantic, 2008) and Building Your Business with Google For Dummies (Wiley, 2004). Medium Blue is an Atlanta search engine optimization company with local and national clients, including Boston Scientific, DS Waters, and Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center. Visit MediumBlue.com to request a custom SEO guarantee based on your goals and your data.

Posted in PHP world news | No Comments »

Creating Perfect HTML Newsletters

Wednesday, August 6th, 2008

Author Avatar

If you’re going to bother setting up a business Web site, then you’ve got to capture email addresses and send out a newsletter. This is because lots of folks are in a hurry on the web. You know how YOU surf, right? Well, your visitors are doing the same mindless butterfly-flit from one site to the next. Make sure you get them to come back for a return visit each month - with a high quality newsletter that makes it to their inbox in one piece. Some tips to keep in mind when doing email newsletters yourself:

1. What You See Is Not Always What You Get.

Do your coding in a plain text editor like Notepad, if possible. Too many WYSIWYG editors insert excess “bloat code” that, at best, will get stripped by the receiving email client, and at worst, will completely befuddle said email client, resulting in a mess of unreadable garbage. If you don’t have the chops to code your HTML in a text editor, at least run your WYSIWYG code through something like HTMLTidy (http://cgi.w3.org/cgi-bin/tidy), which will strip out unnecessary code, fix missing tags and so on.

2. A MIME Is A Terrible Thing To Waste.

Always use Multipart/Alternative MIME when sending HTML newsletters. What this means is that a plain-test version of your email is sent out with the HTML version, in case the recipient doesn’t accept HTML emails or their email client doesn’t handle them well. In many cases, spam filters also look for an embedded plain-text option and assume your emails are spam if they don’t include it.

You don’t need to worry about the tech involved in this, however. Your email handling service should have some sort of automatic MIME system that either pulls a plain-text version from the HTML or that has a place where you can paste a copy of the plain text version to be automatically embedded in the email when it’s sent.

(A word of caution: If you’re sending your newsletter through Outlook or some other on board email client, stop it right now. It looks unprofessional, it’s almost impossible to do right and it’s a huge spam flag that will get you blacklisted faster than mooning the CAN-SPAM committee during their lunch break.)

3. Get the Picture.

All images in your newsletter must be uploaded to a public server. This normally involves simply creating a folder on your public web host’s server and putting all your images there (use subfolders to organize by date, etc, if necessary). Always test your images from a friend’s or a public computer if you’re not sure if your image server is 100% publicly accessible.

Also be sure to link to your images using absolute urls instead of relative urls. An absolute url will contain the entire web address, like so: http://www.yoursite.com/images/peach.jpg. A relative url would look like this: /peaches.jpg - and works on your Web site, but doesn’t translate to email.

4. Keep Your Code In Line.

Create your newsletter using only inline HTML or CSS codes. If you try to create a universal style by putting CSS in the header, it will just end up getting stripped out by web clients like Gmail and Hotmail so that your commands don’t override their commands. Also, CSS positioning like divs won’t work either. Use tables, shim.gifs and other old-school positioning tricks, instead.

5. Don’t Go Out Of Bounds.

Unlike regular web pages, HTML emails need to fit into a preview pane, not the width of the user’s monitor. Stick with either fluid-width tables or keep the width at 500 pixels or less.

Finally: Test, test, test. Sign up for as many different free email accounts as you can, and install as many alternate email clients and as many versions of those clients as possible (enlist friends for versions you don’t want to or can’t install on your own computer).

Or, just sign up for a service like MailChimp Inbox Inspector (http://www.mailchimp.com/add-ons/inboxinspector/), which will preview your HTML email in everything from AOL to LotusNotes, and let you know what isn’t working. Plus it runs your email through a spam filter check and other analysis to make sure that your email is lean, clean and mean before it goes out.

Finally, always send yourself a test copy. Make sure every link works, every image loads and every table renders properly in every email client and version. After all, nothing says “amateur” like a code-riddled, spam-blocked email full of misaligned columns, unloadable images and unclickable links.

Copyright 2008 Dina Giolitto, Wordfeeder.com Copywriting and Marketing. All rights reserved.

Liked this article? Have more of the same emailed to your inbox each month. Sign up for the Copywriting and Marketing Ezine from Wordfeeder.com today.

Posted in PHP world news | No Comments »

Are You Ready To Outsource SEO?

Wednesday, August 6th, 2008

Author Avatar

If you’re going to bother setting up a business Web site, then you’ve got to capture email addresses and send out a newsletter. This is because lots of folks are in a hurry on the Web. You know how YOU surf, right? Well, your visitors are doing the same mindless butterfly-flit from one site to the next. Make sure you get them to come back for a return visit each month - with a high quality newsletter that makes it to their inbox in one piece. Some tips to keep in mind when doing email newsletters yourself:

1. What You See Is Not Always What You Get.

Do your coding in a plain text editor like Notepad, if possible. Too many WYSIWYG editors insert excess “bloat code” that, at best, will get stripped by the receiving email client, and at worst, will completely befuddle said email client, resulting in a mess of unreadable garbage. If you don’t have the chops to code your HTML in a text editor, at least run your WYSIWYG code through something like HTMLTidy (http://cgi.w3.org/cgi-bin/tidy), which will strip out unnecessary code, fix missing tags and so on.

2. A MIME Is A Terrible Thing To Waste.

Always use Multipart/Alternative MIME when sending HTML newsletters. What this means is that a plain-test version of your email is sent out with the HTML version, in case the recipient doesn’t accept HTML emails or their email client doesn’t handle them well. In many cases, spam filters also look for an embedded plain-text option and assume your emails are spam if they don’t include it.

You don’t need to worry about the tech involved in this, however. Your email handling service should have some sort of automatic MIME system that either pulls a plain-text version from the HTML or that has a place where you can paste a copy of the plain text version to be automatically embedded in the email when it’s sent.

(A word of caution: If you’re sending your newsletter through Outlook or some other on board email client, stop it right now. It looks unprofessional, it’s almost impossible to do right and it’s a huge spam flag that will get you blacklisted faster than mooning the CAN-SPAM committee during their lunch break.)

3. Get the Picture.

All images in your newsletter must be uploaded to a public server. This normally involves simply creating a folder on your public Web host’s server and putting all your images there (use subfolders to organize by date, etc, if necessary). Always test your images from a friend’s or a public computer if you’re not sure if your image server is 100% publicly accessible.

Also be sure to link to your images using absolute urls instead of relative urls. An absolute url will contain the entire Web address, like so: http://www.yoursite.com/images/peach.jpg. A relative url would look like this: /peaches.jpg - and works on your Web site, but doesn’t translate to email.

4. Keep Your Code In Line.

Create your newsletter using only inline HTML or CSS codes. If you try to create a universal style by putting CSS in the header, it will just end up getting stripped out by Web clients like Gmail and Hotmail so that your commands don’t override their commands. Also, CSS positioning like divs won’t work either. Use tables, shim.gifs and other old-school positioning tricks, instead.

5. Don’t Go Out Of Bounds.

Unlike regular Web pages, HTML emails need to fit into a preview pane, not the width of the user’s monitor. Stick with either fluid-width tables or keep the width at 500 pixels or less.

Finally: Test, test, test. Sign up for as many different free email accounts as you can, and install as many alternate email clients and as many versions of those clients as possible (enlist friends for versions you don’t want to or can’t install on your own computer).

Or, just sign up for a service like MailChimp Inbox Inspector (http://www.mailchimp.com/add-ons/inboxinspector/), which will preview your HTML email in everything from AOL to LotusNotes, and let you know what isn’t working. Plus it runs your email through a spam filter check and other analysis to make sure that your email is lean, clean and mean before it goes out.

Finally, always send yourself a test copy. Make sure every link works, every image loads and every table renders properly in every email client and version. After all, nothing says “amateur” like a code-riddled, spam-blocked email full of misaligned columns, unloadable images and unclickable links.

Copyright 2008 Dina Giolitto, Wordfeeder.com Copywriting and Marketing. All rights reserved.

Liked this article? Have more of the same emailed to your inbox each month. Sign up for the Copywriting and Marketing Ezine from Wordfeeder.com today.

Posted in PHP world news | No Comments »

SEO Elite: New SEO Software!

Wednesday, August 6th, 2008

Author Avatar

Uncover the brutally effective SEO software that “average Joes and Janes” are using to quickly and easily blow up their bank accounts, explode their traffic, and triple their sales — with little or no extra work…

Version 4.0 just released!

A measly one time only investment ends all your traffic woes, fattens your list, boosts your sales, increases your profits without having to spend an additional red dime, AND increases your free time! Read the copy, the proof, testimonials, and endorsements by leading SEO experts.

You’ll agree that this could possibly be the best investment you’ll ever make!

Posted in PHP world news | No Comments »

Delphi for PHP 2.0

Tuesday, July 22nd, 2008
Delphi for PHP 2.0
Title
Reviewer
Manuel Lemos
Category
Development tools
Publisher
CodeGear
Summary
Overall, Delphi for PHP 2 is great update to first version released last year. If you were already using it version 1, this version is well worth the upgrade.

If you were not using Delphi for PHP because you did not know it before, or because of the misconceptions mentioned in the beginning of this review, you may want to give it a better look, as it provides many features that can significantly enhance your PHP development productivity.

If you were not considering using Delphi for PHP 2 because you were not aware that it can now run on Linux or Mac OS X, now you may want to reconsider, as the latest versions of Wine finally made that possible.


Posted in PHP world news | No Comments »

Delphi for PHP 2.0

Tuesday, July 22nd, 2008
Delphi for PHP 2.0
Title
Reviewer
Manuel Lemos
Category
Development tools
Publisher
CodeGear
Summary
Overall, Delphi for PHP 2 is great update to first version released last year. If you were already using it version 1, this version is well worth the upgrade.

If you were not using Delphi for PHP because you did not know it before, or because of the misconceptions mentioned in the beginning of this review, you may want to give it a better look, as it provides many features that can significantly enhance your PHP development productivity.

If you were not considering using Delphi for PHP 2 because you were not aware that it can now run on Linux or Mac OS X, now you may want to reconsider, as the latest versions of Wine finally made that possible.


Posted in PHP world news | No Comments »

Drupal: Creating Blogs, Forums, Portals and Community Websites

Sunday, July 13th, 2008