Jun 11, 2008

Installing PHP locally for Web Development

Almost all of the web servers nowadays are using PHP for web page development or dynamic web pages, HTML alone cannot do it since hypertext machine language (HTML) interprets only basic tags the web has to offer. Since a lot of business people wants their records encoded in the web for record saf keeping and easy access whenever or wherever, PHP offers an answer for this journey. PHP has a lot of functions and techniques that are useful for web business.
As an aspiring web developer, I have collected simple steps for you to lit the candle on your web development path using PHP combined with MySQL (the back - end database you will be using, Apache (your web's interpreter) and the PHP (the one that delivers and processes tags abd commands/instructions for web pages). We will be using XAMPP -a package for Windows that has all you need for web development, in short, an installer for the abovce mentioned softwares we mentioned lately, it is a free package and is downloadable from the internet. The following procedures discusses step by step on how to install PHP+MySQL and Apache using XAMPP. Let us assume, we are using Windows operating system.


  • First off, you will be needing to download a copy XAMPP from here - XAMPP is an open source package that lets you use the software under GPL Agreement.


  • In a little while, there will be a window that would pop-up letting you choose to save the file or not. Please click "Save" button and wait until the file has finished downloading.


  • What's next after the downloading is finished? Since this file is an installer, all you need to do is to double-click the file from the location where you have saved it and follow on screen instructions.


  • Specify the location where you want your XAMPP installed, as a beginner, it should be in C:\, you might get into trouble if you experiment installing it on to another location on the first time you try to do it and you don't know how to configure it later on.


  • Select the services you want from the choice presented in front of you by the installer. If possible, select all of the checkbox, or you may want to leave default choices to avoid later conflicts on the configurations.


  • Wait for the package to fully install your XAMPP, windows might pop-up from time to auto-configure your system and getting ready for use, on this process, don't click anything on the installtion XAMPP window in front of you, be sure to undersand everything before you go clicking on the buttons while installation is on going.


  • A window will let you know that the installation is finished and will asks you to either launch XAMPP Control Panel or not, well, of course, you have to click "Yes" on it, to start Control Panel for XAMPP.


  • Last thing, to test if your installation is successful, launch your browser, then at the address bar, type the following: http://localhost/. If your browser brings you to screen like this
    The default language if French, but of course, you have to click on the Language options at the lower left of the screen to fit your language preferences.


  • On the extra note, place your project folder at [XAMPP installation directory]\XAMPP\httdocs\ folder, then type in http://localhost/[your project folder]/ to see your project.




This is a product of PHP created site.

Confused? Please let us know at thewebpromoter[at]gmail[dot]com.

Jun 1, 2008

My anyinput Free Online Data Inventory

I have created an account at anyInput to monitor and have a record of my internet service provider's performance for future reference, this is also one form of my Free Online Data Inventory since the term "monitoring" is also related to inventory. The following is my step by step procedures on how did I made an account as well as how did I encoded my records in the system.

anyInput Account Creation:
1. At the web browser address bar, type http://www.anyinput.com
2. Click on the "Sign Up" link
3. Provide for your desired username,email address, and password. Username is what one of the required data you need to enter the system as well as password, so better think of a unique combination of username and password, the system has a built-in module to detect whether a certain user already owned that username you want. You should remember your username and password combination, if in case you did forgot them, your email address canbe used for the rescue. The system will provide you with all the necessary information regarding account information retrieval.
4. When everything is fine, look for the "Submit" button and after a while, your account is created. Congratulations!

Encoding your records for monitoring and free data inventory at anyInput System
1. Choose or create a Category
2. Modify or Edit your Fields
3. Encode your Listings/Records on the Items. You can add another item after current item is being encoded.
4. Save and Refresh your browser.
5. Congratulations, you have now your account and records in the anyInput system.

So keep on logging in and updating your records and everything you want in your Free Online Data Inventory records.

To see your records without logging in the system, you have to type: http://www.anyinput.com/<your username>. confused? Please do tell us at email address: thewebpromoter@gmail.com

May 26, 2008

What Makes A Good Site?

Everyday, hundreds and thousands of sites are added in the cyberspace on different categories may it be for kids, adults, general information, science and technology, humanity, all about computers and information technology. These sites may be for free or with commercial value. Millions of sites everyday and millions of information travels around the globe, since internet is GLOBAL, anyone could access anything.

Now, on the above mentioned categories, which one makes a good site? Which one makes one's interests awake and which one makes people visits a site again and again?

The following are points on boosting your site and make it the apple of everybody's eyes:
Make your site related to the topic that the users are looking in the web. There are of course a lot of sites all over the internet but some of these sites are non-related sites when you try to search on a particular topic. Some users have short patience on reading non-related content of the site. But if your site makes a sense, then you're up on their site bookmark lists.

Make your site informative. People wants an informative content and as much as possible, a trivial type of information. People loves trivia, as it add information on them, basically rare to find trivia and information on history, bizaare things trivia, science and technology, and a lot more.

Create a forum with a free "Looking to Hire" category. Most of the people are looking for jobs in the internet especially those who are an has knowledge in IT (Information Technology). They comes back again and again and again for more jobs.

Free Free Free. Make a site that offers free useful stuffs. Like http://www.avaxsphere.com, http://www.rapidshare.com, http://www.piratebay.org and a lot more. anyInput.com belongs here, it offers online data collection, free online data storage, information sharing, data exchange, online file sharing, online file storage, movie collection, data collection, free online catalog, web data collection, internet data collection, open information sharing, data collection services,online storage, free online storage, online file storage, free online file storage, online data storage. People loves free stuff. anyInput offers free online notes for your important things or any information that you want to share and let people know about.


Create a blog that tackles about current news and events. Although selective people are interested in news and current events, it pays off when you posts on intriguing and news related infos. Some other sites creates blogs related to sex and pornographic content although it's not recommended since a lot of children uses internet and they can read and witness this sweet taboo on our society articles. If you are planning to have this type of content, you should device a system that warns or prohibits minor ages to enter the web or blog site.

May 23, 2008

Digging up PHP

PHP: (Hypertext Preprocessor) is a computer scripting language, originally designed for producing dynamic web pages. It is for server-side scripting, but can be used from a command line interface or in standalone graphical applications.

While PHP was originally created by Rasmus Lerdorf in 1995, the main implementation of PHP is now produced by The PHP Group and serves as the de facto standard for PHP as there is no formal specification. Released under the PHP License, the Free Software Foundation considers it to be free software.

PHP is a widely-used general-purpose scripting language that is especially suited for web development and can be embedded into HTML. It generally runs on a web server, taking PHP code as its input and creating web pages as output. It can be deployed on most web servers and on almost every operating system and platform free of charge. PHP is installed on more than 20 million websites and 1 million servers, although the number of websites with PHP installed has declined since August 2005. It is also the most popular Apache module among computers using Apache as a web server. The most recent major release of PHP was version 5.2.6 on May 1, 2008.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PHP

In relation to the article I have wrote previously entitled, "The Power of Open Source" came to my mind on the most used web scripting today, its an open source type of programming technology, and a versatile programming languages, it comes to a many different frameworks, to mention a few, there's the Smarty, CodeIgniter, Symfony (the framework that was used in building anyInput.com and anyAssets.com), and many other frameworks in cyberspace, we might not know, the future maker of a new framework based on PHP programming language is you, who knows?

PHP is used in building dynamic websites, wherein it elaborates the use of basic HTML codes plus a combination of Cascading Style Sheet (CSS) and your site will be an overwhelming and dynamic one. There is also an option if you want to make your site very useful where you may want to encode and save records, another tool that was used in combination with what is called phpMyAdmin, its a tool to manage a set of databases and record tables where your data are stored. Some PHP-based websites are run by a database, wherein all the commands needed to run a dynamic website are stored in a database, it is called "database-driven website", anyInput.com and anyAssets.com are very obvious examples of a database driven sites. PHP also supports image development through the use of the basic image HTML code. It also supports audio and multimedia file types, and it has also a capability of uploading and downloading of files.

PHP is truly a useful and the most versatile web scripts among others in web development. So you can try them right now and start making wonderful, dynamic and useful sites out of PHP web scripting. You can start learning everything about PHP in this link.

May 20, 2008

The Power of Open Source

Open source is a development methodology, which offers practical accessibility to a product's source (goods and knowledge). Some consider open source as one of various possible design approaches, while others consider it a critical strategic element of their operations. Before open source became widely adopted, developers and producers used a variety of phrases to describe the concept; the term open source gained popularity with the rise of the Internet, which provided access to diverse production models, communication paths, and interactive communities.

The open source model of operation and decision making allows concurrent input of different agendas, approaches and priorities, and differs from the more closed, centralized models of development. The principles and practices are commonly applied to the development of source code for software that is made available for public collaboration, and it is usually released as open-source software.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_source

Open source usually gains a little in the part of the developers, but it is practical, cheap and reliable in terms of sharing and collaboration of software projects among developers, even worldwide software developers can participate in another group of programmers without leaving the newbies in terms of codes, methodology, framework used and file exclusion issues on one's projects.

Take for example, the Linux Operating System, this software package comes into a lot of versions in a fast phase, from time to time Linux OS developers releases new versions of their project, Ubuntu, one of their projects has already 6 major version releases such as Ubuntu 6.06 LTS which was released 1st of June 2006, Ubuntu 6.06.1 LTS released on August 10, 2006, Ubuntu 7.04 released April 19, 2007, Ubuntu 7.10 - October 2008 and the previously released version is the Ubuntu 8.04 LTS which was released April 24, 2008. Look closely at the span of time between each release, the releases are very fast, why is that so? Its all because of the Open Source Technology which invites a lot of collaborative developers and the saying "The More, The Merrier", applies to this type of software development practices, since there are a lot of programmers who joins hand in hand, the software can be finished as early as possible, can you imagine thousands of developers for just a single project. Class, modules and codes are very easy to understand since it uses standard language among its developers which makes them understand each other.

This technology is also a very cheap and low costing project development, since Open Source organization don't need to pay for the developers itself but needs a sponsor and donation makes every volunteer keep them alive. Everyone who has the heart to help others and share knowledge as well as has a very extensive knowledge on Linux scripting and programming can be one of the volunteer, just research for a way on how to join their organization and start becoming an Open Source developer. I don't have the idea on joining them though.

As a result, Open Source technology now grows so fast, there are a lot of development software on the internet rises as this kind of framework, to mention a few, PHP, AJAX, JavaScript, and a lot more.

On the other note, we can interpret Open Source as free stuffs and sharing. And it is also what anyInput is doing in the internet world, free listings of anything you want to share, any information that can amaze the world, any amazing stuff that can surprise humankind and the readers who searches for truth, who searches for knowledge.

May 18, 2008

Free Links Exchange for Data Collection, Data Inventory topics here

As I go reading on most of the forums, specifically at forums.digitalpoint.com, especially on the link development or link building and SEO topics to promote our site, anyInput, the free online data collection, free online data inventory resources, I usually see link exchanges and link improvement. So I thought accepting link exchanges with other webmaster or SEO personnel of other sites will benefit both parties.

So guys out there, if you want to have a 3 way link exchange with us, don't hesitate to write me at thewebpromoter[at]gmail.com, and I will be happy to exchange links with you.


NOTE: replace [at] with @ symbol, thanks and hear from you soon.