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Archive for April 2010

Top 10 Web Developer Questions About PHP

Most developers use PHP programs (WordPress, for example) on a daily basis and, for most of us, PHP is the language of choice for server side scripting.  HTML Goodies has assembled the following list of the top ten web developer questions about PHP:

  1. What is PHP?
  2. Is there online documentation and tutorials that can help me learn PHP?
  3. Can I run PHP locally on my PC?
  4. How do you upload images (or other files) using PHP?
  5. How can I create a CMS (Content Management System) with PHP?
  6. I get an error at line number X when I run my PHP script, but I don't see any problem on that line.
  7. My script isn't working right, but I can't figure out why.
  8. How can I ask a PHP question in a forum and get it answered?
  9. How can I use PHP to create login-controlled web pages?
  10.  How do I send e-mails   

    with PHP?

You will find answers to the questions here.

Finding Domain Names

Finding an available domain name is getting harder and harder these days as domains are being registered by the millions by developers and domain speculators. In this article, written for web developers,  the author provides some tips to help find that valuable domain that hasn't been thought of–yet.  

Adobe CS5 Web Premium

Adobe CS5 Web Premium is expected to start shipping in mid-May.  You can preorder now for $1,799; the upgrade from CS4 Web Premium is $599. You can learn more about it here.

Jakob Nielsen’s Top 10 Web Design Mistakes

Jakob Nielsen started his "Top 10" list in 1996 and last updated it in 2007.  He says he hasn't updated the list since 2007 because Web designers are still making the same basic mistakes.

  1. Bad Search – Stick to a simple box, which is what users look for, and make sure your search engine can handle typos and other common variants of search terms.
  2. PDFs for online reading – They break users' flow and are hard to navigate. Save them for printing and convert your information to Web pages.
  3. Not changing the color of links users have already visited – Users need to know where they've been.
  4. Text that's hard to scan — Add subheds and bulleted lists, highlight keywords, and keep your paragraphs short and devoid of fluff.
  5. Fixed font sizes – Let users resize them if needed.
  6. Page titles that have low visibility in search engines – Start with the company name or other most relevant few words.
  7. Any design that looks like an ad — Users will ignore it.
  8. Lack of design consistency – Users should know what to expect.
  9. Opening new browser windows – Users get confused (see 8).
  10.  Not providing basic, up-to-date information, like your price lists or your menu — That's what users want most.      

For more information, visit his site.

What’s Coming In CS3?

HTML Goodies has an article titled "What's Coming in CSS 3.0: A Web Developer's Perspective."  Some of the new features are border-radius (rounded corners), word-wrap, and text-shadow.