Employee Contacts (Part 3) – Building the Data Access Layer with PHP

1. Building the MySQL database.
2. Building a Data Abstraction Layer with PHP
3. Building the Data Access Layer with PHP
4. Building the Business Object Layer with PHP
5. Building the Presentation Layer with PHP & HTML

Part 1 of this series covered building the MySQL database. In Part2, we built the data abstraction layer. With Part 3, we will begin to build our data access layer. The data abstraction layer provided basic database calls. At the data access layer, we will start interacting with the database through the data abstraction layer.

Employee Contacts (Part 2) – Building a Data Abstraction Layer with PHP

1. Building the MySQL database.
2. Building a Data Abstraction Layer with PHP
3. Building the Data Access Layer with PHP
4. Building the Business Object Layer with PHP
5. Building the Presentation Layer with PHP & HTML

Part 1 of this series covered building the MySQL database. If you are following along with us, you may want to go back and create the database from part 1. In Part2, we will be building the data abstraction layer. This will allow you to make yor basic database calls from a central location. Back when I created my first PHP application, I was using the PEAR DB class. The tutorial that I read had you make all of the calls from each function. Everything worked fine until I changed to using PEAR MDB2. Some of the calls are different, so I had to go back to all 8 class files and change about 100 functions. This was very time consuming and should have been avoidable. If I would have created my own data abstraction layer that referenced the PEAR DB class, I could have just made a few minor changes there and the rest of the application would have been fine.

Employee Contacts (Part 1) – Building the MySQL database.

1. Building the MySQL database.
2. Building a Data Abstraction Layer with PHP
3. Building the Data Access Layer with PHP
4. Building the Business Object Layer with PHP
5. Building the Presentation Layer with PHP & HTML

I remember back when I built my very first web application. The company I was working for hired me to be desktop support. But there were only 2 of us in the IT department. They had an intranet site where they would keep all the contact information for their employees. It also had all the details for every construction site they had worked on. The receptionist would enter the details into an excel spreadsheet then save it as an HTML file. It wasn’t pretty and it wasn’t very useful. I had never done any programming, database development, or even basic HTML, but I was determined to provide a more dynamic and user friendly environment. I was able to find a book on ASP that basically led you through building an entire ASP website that provided the basic functionality I was looking for. I learn best by seeing a real working example, so this made it extremely easy for me to pick up ASP and to get the site up in only a matter of a couple of weeks.

C# StringBuilder Class

Have you ever had an extremely long string you needed to use in an ASP.NET web page? Or after it is displayed, have you ever wanted to view the source of the page to see what the string is outputting? Well, if you want to do this with a standard string, then you either get one long line string or you have to add line breaks where you want them. Personally, I don’t like adding the line breaks, as it is one more place I can have something break. Thankfully Microsoft has addressed this with the StringBuilder class, which I graciously use every time I have long strings to deal with.

Branding SharePoint 2007 – Make it Personal

Over the past 7 years, I have been building web based solutions for companies. Several years ago, the company I work for released a reporting producted that was sold as an out of the box solution. Which, in a sense it was, but all of the templates were branded with our company logo. To my knowledge, not a single one of this customers is still using the product. But then about 3 years ago, they started selling it along with professional services and we began building custom solutions for each customer. The first thing that draws attention, is that fact that now we brand it with THEIR logo. We try to do all color schemes based on their logos. This makes the solution theirs, not ours. You can not believe the impact branding internal solutions has with your target audience.

As often is the case, companies don’t spend much time on internal development. The biggest reason, there isn’t any profit in doing so. Often companies feel like it will just cut their profit margin even more considering that they have to either have the in-house talent or contract it out. And if you have the in-house talent, then you have to take them away from their normal duties to work on internal projects that are not considered profitable.

Microsoft Virtual PC 2007 -vs- VMware Player

I use MS Virtual PC on a regular basis for testing software, demos, software development, and anything else I would want to do that could compromise the integrity of my computers. But recently I wanted to start doing some development against MS SharePoint 2007. The one thing I like most about the VMware player is that you can download pre-configured virtual appliances at http://www.vmware.com/vmtn/appliances/.

MS Vista -vs- Ubuntu(Edgy-Eft)

I just read this awesome article comparing Vista with Ubuntu Edgy-Eft at Re-Cycledair.com. I am only throwing in my 2 cents on this issue, as I believe the original post is excellent and there isn’t any need for another similar article. If you haven’t read about my experience with installing Vista, you may want to read the article ‘Worth the trouble of upgrading to Windows Vista?’. I personally have always been a user of Microsoft, though not always a fan. Linux was the route I wanted to take, but I just didn’t have the time required to make everything work as I needed it to. Here is my take on Vista, after you are finished, read the above mentioned post at recycledair.com.

10 Great Tools 4 Web Designers/Developers

1. Buttonator: For a small subscription fee, you are able to create great looking buttons online.
2. Open Source Web Design: Provides a selection of free open source web templates.
3. Animation Factory: Large selection of animations to use in your websites.
4. GIMP: GIMP is the GNU Image Manipulation Program. Great for image manipulation and design. This is one of the most powerful image application available. Be prepared for spending time getting used to using it.
5. Banner Maker Pro: Create eye catching banners to help promote your site. Great for people who want a good banner but lack real design skills.
6. Banner Maker Pro for Flash: By the makers of Banner Maker Pro, allowing users to create Flash based banners in a flash.
7. Template Monster: Find WordPress, Flash, osCommerce, SWISH, phpBB, ZenCart, and PHP Nuke templates that designers and developers can use to cut design time down to nearly nothing.
8. Filezilla: One of the best FTP clients on the market. Very easy to use. Oh, and it is FREE.
9. CoffeeCup Firestarter: Allows you to make killer Flash effects for your website without knowing Flash.
10. CoffeeCup Flash Menu Builder: Create Flash based menus in a snap.

The Future of Desktop Software

My wife asked me the other day why it cost billions of dollars for issues related to patching computers for the new Daylight Savings Time. Aside from firmware on components that one could not easily just have the DST adjusted, you had the issues related to deploying any hot fix, service pack, or patch in a corporate environment. Anyone not familiar with deploying software in a corporate environment, it can be a very tedious process. There are a numerous amount of methodologies for implementing any software installs, including patches, services and hot fixes. I just want to talk about the three main ones that are out there and mention that generally all others are just deviations of these.

ASP:Listbox – How To Populate a Listbox from a C# Generic List

The guys over at ASPAlliance did an excellent article on user the ASP:ListBox with VB.NET. The article can be viewed at ASPAlliance. Which is really great if you are using VB.NET. The article makes it very easy to modify for use with C#.