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Blogs » Archive for May, 2004
Improve your .NET
An essential guide to how to improve your .NET applications, and best practises for coding, is the “Improving .NET Application Performance and Scalability” eBook, which measures in at a rather hefty 1120 pages. Its crammed full of information for both pros and beginners.
And its free, of course! I like free things ;)
http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/dnpag/html/scalenet.asp
Note on XML_Serializer Article
If you’re reading Instant XML with PHP and PEAR::XML_Serializer, there’s a small point I need to correct, related to unserializing XML into PHP objects. On page 3, about half way down, I wrote;
Like PHP’s unserialize() function, XML_Unserializer doesn’t provide a mechanism for calling class methods when unserializing objects; rather, it sets the properties of an object directly (so, be careful):
Since writing that, while trawling the source discovered that XML_Unserializer does provide a mechanism to use a method for setting object properties, by using an explicitly named method like “set”, where is the name of the object property.
In other words, when unserializing objects, if your PHP class contains “setter methods”, following this naming convention, XML_Unserializer will use those methods instead of setting the property directly.
The Best Time To Market Your Web Business
Things have taken a significant turn for the better in my pipeline. And as they have, I’ve noticed something interesting. Perhaps you have noticed this in your business as well:
When you have lots of projects, when your pipeline is full, or when you’ve just closed a large engagement, it is easier to get even more work. Business development becomes simpler. Here’s why (I think):
- You’re more relaxed, and not worried about cash flow down the road. As a result, prospects are more attracted to you, because they perceive you to be successful (and you have the current engagements to prove it).
- Prospects tend to assume that since you are in demand, you must be good. The psychological principle of “social proof” (if others think/say it is true, then it must be true) works in your favor. (N.B. I haven’t been in the dating scene for over a decade — thank goodness — but seem to recall that this same principle held up there as well).
- You don’t mind turning down marginal deals, and so you ask the tough questions to assess whether a prospect/project is a good fit. This behavior also makes you more attractive to prospects, because they see …
Clearing Floats
A frequent point of confusion with the CSS float model is the need for a “clearing” element beneath something that is floated if you want the containing element of the float to fully contain it. Eric Meyer’s Containing Floats provides an excellent explanation of this issue.
Unfortunately, the standard method for dealing with this involves adding ugly additional markup to the document to act as a “clearer”. It is often possible to take advantage of another element in the document, but frequently no such element is available and an extra clearing element must be added.
Tony Aslett has published an article (also discussed here) explaining a way around this problem. It starts with the observation that the CSS :after pseudo-element can be used in browsers with good CSS 2 support to add an effective clearing element using the CSS itself:
.floatcontainer:after{
content: “.”;
display: block;
height: 0;
overflow: hidden;
clear: both;
visibility:hidden;
}
That’s enough to solve the problem in most modern standards compliant browsers, with the very notable (and not entirely unexpected) omission of Internet Explorer for both Mac and Windows. Tony proposes fixes for these browsers which take advantage of a number of CSS …
Flash MX 2004 Snippets Panel Preview
Just a quick one to watch out for; Flash Snippets, a commercial Flash MX 2004 extension with several AS panels is due for release over the next few months based on the ever popular Dreamweaver Snippets Panel.
More information here
Here’s an overview of the individual panels lifted directly from Daniele’s Blog.
Snippets
With this panel the developer can store and retrieve pieces of code. The main UI is a tree-view and this means that the code can be organized in folders easily.
Package Browser
This panel shows all classes available in the Flash IDE. The methods for each class are also shown. With a click, the developer can add the function call in the code, or add the “import” command for the class.
Class Browser
The developer gets an overview of the class being edited - all functions, getters and setters are highlighted.
Why .NET won’t support XSLT 2.0 and XPath 2.0
Dare: “Having our customers and support people have to deal with the complexity of 3 sophisticated XML query languages two of which are look similar but behave quite differently in the case of XPath 2.0 and XQuery seemed to us not to be that beneficial.”
It’s good to see that new standards aren’t just implemented because they’re new :) Its a good insight into how Microsoft are thinking.
How to talk about your web business so that you set yourself apart
Sitepoint visitor Michael writes:
I really need to differentiate myself from the
competition. Most people I meet hear I’m a web designer and the
response I get is, “Oh another one”. Can you give some
tips/hints/ideas on how to help define this in an upcoming blog?
Great question, Michael! First, please continue to send questions my way so we can keep this blog interactive and interesting to you.
Now to an answer:
First, stop describing your business in terms of what you do. As soon as you say, “I’m a web designer,” you become a generic vendor.
You need to introduce yourself with what marketing folks call a “hook.” A hook is a compelling way to get somebody interested in what you do. A solid hook answers three questions:
1. Who is your target market?
2. What problem do you solve (preferably in emotional terms)?
3. What benefits do you get?
Here are some examples:
“I help furniture retailers who are struggling to attract more customers grow their business with a powerful web presence.”
“I help resource-starved non-profit organizations use the web to get all the donations, volunteers, and support that they need.”
“I help lawyers get more clients by helping them look more professional, credible, and knowledgeable than their competitors.”
Once you get their attention, …
New Releases from Ensim
Ensim has just released version 4 of their well known server control panel system and have also added a new service, Ensim Ignite, which pledges to bring large hosting services to the small hosting business.
The upgrade to Ensim Basic and Pro includes integration with the Ensim Ignite service, which was released in April 2004. Ensim has assembled an array of critical application service provider resources into one interface with Ignite. This provides opportunities for hosting firms and webmasters to offer comprehensive services for client recruitment and retention and earn residual referral fees and leverage the services for their own business.
Ignite includes access to search engine optimization services, commerce and merchant tools, ssl certificates, email marketing management and more.
Users on Ensim 3.5 can download the upgrade free of charge. Ensim is including numerous free trials within Ignite to encurage adoption.
Author’s Note: I will be in Chicago through May 17th (Linux and OS X activities) and will not be posting to Open Sourcery during that time. I am sure I will bring back some fresh insights and research to add to Open Sourcery next week.
Pre built ASP.NET
Wow, SitePoint’s coverage of ASP.NET is really paying off, in email for me the columnist! Requests, advice, information…it’ll take a while to get back to everyone, but here’s the most common question I’m asked at the present time (paraphrased of course ;):
“Are there any free web solutions like the PHP community enjoys?”
And, of course, the answer is yes.
Check out Microsoft’s Starter Kits for ASP.NET. You’ll find fully featured portals, project tracking apps, commerce applications and more besides.
While you’re there, why not check out the Controls section of the site. Server controls let you drag and drop pre-built functionality onto your pages. Just drop a forum, or drop a stock ticker. It’s simplicity itself.
Practical Reflection in Java
Via Java.net - Practical Reflection in Java (PDF). This is a chapter from O’Reilly’s Hardcore Java. Know it’s not PHP but a worthwhile read anyway. Even if you don’t use Java it’s worth understanding what it’s about, particularily as interop between PHP and Java is starting to look like something PHP developers should be able to cope with, given JSR 223.
Personally think exploring the reflection capabilities of a language is a very good way for existing programmers, with experience of other languages, to pick up new ones. Mark Pilgrim does a great job in Dive into Python for example. Found it a very useful short cut to grasping what Python is about.
Not actually aware of anything discussing PHP’s reflection APIs online right now, other than the manual. PHP4 provides the basics like is_a() and get_class() while PHP5 has a new reflection API (docs currently here). With PHP I guess it begins with print_r() and var_dump() - two very handy ways for programmers to work out what PHP data structures are about.
Terminology Note: in my mental dictionary the terms “reflection” and “introspection” mean the same thing, when it comes to …
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