SitePoint.com

Nicky · Mar 31, 2001, 07:16

THE SITEPOINT COMMUNITY CRIER (tm)
March 30th, 2001 Volume 2 Issue 2

All the happenings from the SitePoint Community Forums…
where members help your business grow online!

*****************************************************************

OWNER - Sitepoint
E-MAIL - crier@sitepoint.com
URL - http://www.sitepointforums.com

*****************************************************************
IN THIS ISSUE

~ Introduction
~ Admin's Desk
~ Out and About
~ Community Member Article
~ Sizzling Hot
~ Member Spotlight
~ Ask the Guru
~ Submission Information
~ ReferWare

There is only one way that this e-mail could have ended up in
your e-mail box, and that is if you told us that we could e-mail
you. You did this when you joined the SitePoint.com Community
Forums at http://SitePointForums.com/
If you no longer wish to receive The Community Crier, follow the
unsubscription instructions at the bottom of this e-mail.

Note: Every month we have a sponsor who helps provide the
services needed to operate the forums. We stand 100% behind every
ad that we run. If you ever have a problem with a company that
advertises here please contact us and we will try to get it
resolved. This month's sponsor is...

------------- [ Community Sponsor's Message ] -------------------
>>>VEOWEB.NET<<<
Looking for an advanced yet affordable web host? VeoWeb Premium
Hosting is the leader in customer support, providing scalable
hosting packages suited to your individual needs.

Take a look at some of the features VeoWeb has to offer:
30-day money back guarantee
Fast, comprehensive technical support
Redundant connections
Superior, user friendly graphical control panel
Many more options are included
Plans ranging from $8.95 to $39.95 per month

The Ultimate Web Host
http://www.VeoWeb.Net

*****************************************************************

----- INTRODUCTION -----

Greetings SitePointers. We are back with a brand new article, the
latest forum gossip and much, much more. Read on to find out
exactly what is happening at your favourite Webmaster forums.

What is the Community Crier about? Well it is a bi-monthly
newsletter to our members. In it we will give you the latest
community news and updates as well as content from your peers.

*****************************************************************

----- ADMIN'S DESK -----

With another issue of the Community Crier comes more changes in
our community. Instead of a stagnant pond, the SitePoint
Community is more like a churning river and constantly changing
to handle its member's requests and suggestions. Recently we have
implemented some new options in the Member profile to help those
with low bandwidth or simply want a cleaner look. With these
options you can turn on or off various features to create a
customize SitePoint experience. You can edit these in your Member
Control Panel at:
http://sitepointforums.com/usercp.ph...on=editoptions

Don't see something you feel should be added or just want to give
suggestions in general then stop by the Community Suggestions and
Feedback forum and drop me a line.
http://sitepointforums.com/forumdisplay.php?forumid=37

Wayne Luke
wayne@sitepoint.com

*****************************************************************

----- OUT AND ABOUT -----

As you can see we have implemented a new look for the SitePoint
Forums. Many people have asked for better integration for the
community with the rest of the network so that SitePoint related
links were easier to find and get to. I feel that this new layout
offers that integration without losing our separate and unique
outlook from the rest of the Network. Of course we are always
open to suggestions.

Put your hands together and welcome Lorina, the newest addition
to the Community Advisory team. Lorina runs her own community
based on vBulletin and has been successful in promoting it and
inspiring community.

If you need to contact someone from the SitePoint Community Staff
or Mentors program check out the new staff page at:
http://sitepointforums.com/staff.php

*****************************************************************

----- COMMUNITY MEMBER ARTICLE -----

HOW A DATABASE DRIVEN SITE WORKS

Many people these days are turning to database driven sites.
Database driven sites while take extra effort to create, are very
easy to maintain. Adding new page sometimes requires just filling
out a simple form and hitting submit. In this article I'll show
you how a typical database driven site functions.

I'm sure you all have seen sites with big long ugly URL's like
this:

http://domain.com/content.php?s=1376...e=article&id=1

These URL's actually contain all the information to select the
appropriate information from the database and insert it into a
template. The question mark tells the server that the following
text contains variables and to prepare to receive them. If there
is more then one variable needing to be passed they are separated
by an ampersand. Most database driven sites use one variable to
select the appropriate record and one to select the template to
use for the page. You can have as many variable passed as you
want, or as little as one.

Other sites also have URL's like this such as search engines
witch use variables to store search words. This allows user's to
bookmark search results and reference them for later use.

Most sites store there information in rows and columns just like
common spreadsheets.
These are usually called tables and have a design with several
columns and each row contains a different page. For example if
the URL looked like this:

http://domain.com/content.php?id=1

This would tell the page (programmed in PHP, ASP, Coldfusion or a
similar language) to select the content from the table where the
id is 1 (lets say the table has a column called id and each row
has it's own id).

With this in information in mind you probably decided if a
database driven site is right for you. A database driven site
will require a software program for handling the requests for the
database information and one for the database itself. My
favourite combination for this is PHP (for handling the requests
for the database information) and mySQL (the database itself).
Theses are available for free at http://www.mysql.com and
http://www.php.net. Once you have these installed and configured
correctly you should read this great tutorial right here on
SitePoint, "Building a Database Driven site using PHP and mySQL"
by Kevin Yank available at
http://www.webmasterbase.com/article.php/228

Justin Sampson runs http://www.SampsonWebDesign.com, a small
freelance web design company and operates
http://www.WebDevClick.com. You can sign up for the mailing list
by sending an email to: webmaster@webdevclick.com
http://sitepointforums.com/member.ph...etinfo&userid=
6557

*****************************************************************

----- SIZZLING HOT -----

The General Chat Forum has been the center of many a blazing post
lately. If you think you are
good at riddles then try your hand at some of these:
For example, if you consider yourself well read then make sure
that you contribute to this post:
http://sitepointforums.com/showthrea...threadid=19551

A new member to our forums, Allie, is concerned with Netscape 6
and would like to find out what the known design issues are that
should/could be avoided in planning design layout:
http://sitepointforums.com/showthrea...threadid=19788

*****************************************************************

----- MEMBER SPOTLIGHT -----

In this issue our member spotlight lands on BRAVEHEART who has
been a member since 14th March 2001 and has 10 posts
http://sitepointforums.com/member.php?s=&action=
getinfo&userid=9802

Braveheart is a proud Scotsman who describes himself as mad! He
has recently been active in the PHP vs Perl discussion in the
Server-Side Internet Development Forum:
http://sitepointforums.com/showthrea...threadid=18817

*****************************************************************
Will you in the next issue? Who knows. We pick a random profile
to show here. How do we do it? Well we use a very scientific
process. We think of a few words or a phrase and then
do a search on it in the forums! When the results are returned we
pick the first on in the list and the person who started that
topic becomes our member of the week.

*****************************************************************

----- ASK THE GURU -----

Commas in Keyword Meta Tags?

Jason Malkovich of Oregan asks:
I've read different opinions on whether you should use commas in
the Keywords Meta Tag. Should I?

THE GURU ANSWERS:
Hi Jason, commas act as separators between the individual words
in the keywords tag. This makes the search engines treat each
word individually rather than combining words into phrases.

If you do a search on Altavista for 'london hotels' and look at
the bottom of the page, you will see just above the Sponsored
Links section, a line which gives details of word count:

london hotels: 58253
hotels: 22708648
london: 25107424

This tells us that AV combines the two words into a phrase when
looking for matching web sites. It also shows the number of pages
which contain the words. If your keywords have the two words
separated by commas then they don't match the phrase and will be
ranked lower than those that do. Having them separated by just a
space will produce a match which will give you a chance of a
higher ranking for that phrase.

Other engines work in the same way so it's best not to use
commas. Separate keywords with spaces and to allow the engines to
construct phrases from your list of keywords.

Simon Conroy is Technical Director of Web Site Promotion Services
Ltd, the leading UK search engine positioning company, Search
Engines guide www.TopWebSite.co.uk

Send your questions to CrierGuru@topwebsite.co.uk

*****************************************************************
**

----- SUBMISSION INFORMATION -----

If you've got something to say to the community let us know!
Ideas, articles, or just a sound off about something! We want to
hear from you today, right now, come on don't wait send it to us
crier@sitepoint.com.

*****************************************************************

----- ADVERTISING INFORMATION -----

I Caught You Reading An Ezine Ad!

Find out what thousands of savvy Internet marketers already know:
email newsletter Advertising Works! (You're reading one now,
aren't you?)

Find out how to get YOUR sponsorship ad in this newsletter and in
the SitePoint Community reach 4300 opt-in subscribers! Check out
http://sitepoint.com/mediakit/
for details or email us at mailto:adinfo@sitepoint.com .

*****************************************************************

----- REFERWARE -----

This newsletter is ReferWare. If you enjoy reading it and find
useful information in this newsletter, you are asked to help
spread the word about it. You can do this by forwarding a copy to
your friends, telling them about it, and/or putting a link to it
from your site.

You cannot:
1.) Post this newsletter in part or in whole on your site.
2.) Forward this newsletter issue after issue to people - just
send them a single issue and tell them to subscribe.

Sorry about those restrictions, our lawyer made me do it.

Send suggestions and comments to:
mailto:crier@sitepoint.com

=================================================================
and remember…Dawn is nature's way of telling you to go to bed.

Till the next time.

Editor: Nicky
http://sitepointforums.com/member.php?s=&action=
getinfo&userid=5375

*****************************************************************

To subscribe:
Go to the SitePoint forums at http://SitePointForums.com/
If you haven't joined be sure to do that. If you have joined
click on the link to "Profile" at the top of the page. Then
make sure that "Allow Bulletin Board Administrators and
Moderators To Send You Email Notices?" has "YES" selected. Keep
in mind that this doesn't allow other to send you an e-mail.
Just the Community Advisors.

To unsubscribe:
Go to the SitePoint forums at http://SitePointForums.com/
If you haven't joined be sure to do that. If you have joined
click on the link to "Profile" at the top of the page. Then
make sure that "Allow Bulletin Board Administrators and
Moderators To Send You Email Notices?" has "NO" selected. Keep
in mind that this doesn't allow other to send you an e-mail.
Just the Community Advisors.

The Community Crier is hosted by Sitepoint.com using vBulletin:
http://www.sitepoint.com
http://www.vbulletin.com

The Community Crier is (c) 1998-2001 SitePoint Pty. Ltd.
All Rights Reserved. No part of this Newsletter may be reproduced
in whole or in part without written permission. All guest
articles are copyright their respective owners and are reproduced
with permission.

Mar 31, 2001, 07:16	#1
Nicky Don't get too close, I bite! Join Date: Jul 1999 Location: Lancashire, UK Posts: 8,734	THE SITEPOINT COMMUNITY CRIER (tm) March 30th, 2001 Volume 2 Issue 2 All the happenings from the SitePoint Community Forums… where members help your business grow online! *************************************************************** OWNER - Sitepoint E-MAIL - crier.removethis@.removethissitepoint.com URL - http://www.sitepointforums.com ************************************************************* IN THIS ISSUE ~ Introduction ~ Admin's Desk ~ Out and About ~ Community Member Article ~ Sizzling Hot ~ Member Spotlight ~ Ask the Guru ~ Submission Information ~ ReferWare There is only one way that this e-mail could have ended up in your e-mail box, and that is if you told us that we could e-mail you. You did this when you joined the SitePoint.com Community Forums at http://SitePointForums.com/ If you no longer wish to receive The Community Crier, follow the unsubscription instructions at the bottom of this e-mail. Note: Every month we have a sponsor who helps provide the services needed to operate the forums. We stand 100% behind every ad that we run. If you ever have a problem with a company that advertises here please contact us and we will try to get it resolved. This month's sponsor is... ------------- [ Community Sponsor's Message ] ------------------- >>>VEOWEB.NET<<< Looking for an advanced yet affordable web host? VeoWeb Premium Hosting is the leader in customer support, providing scalable hosting packages suited to your individual needs. Take a look at some of the features VeoWeb has to offer: 30-day money back guarantee Fast, comprehensive technical support Redundant connections Superior, user friendly graphical control panel Many more options are included Plans ranging from $8.95 to $39.95 per month The Ultimate Web Host http://www.VeoWeb.Net ************************************************************* ----- INTRODUCTION ----- Greetings SitePointers. We are back with a brand new article, the latest forum gossip and much, much more. Read on to find out exactly what is happening at your favourite Webmaster forums. What is the Community Crier about? Well it is a bi-monthly newsletter to our members. In it we will give you the latest community news and updates as well as content from your peers. ************************************************************* ----- ADMIN'S DESK ----- With another issue of the Community Crier comes more changes in our community. Instead of a stagnant pond, the SitePoint Community is more like a churning river and constantly changing to handle its member's requests and suggestions. Recently we have implemented some new options in the Member profile to help those with low bandwidth or simply want a cleaner look. With these options you can turn on or off various features to create a customize SitePoint experience. You can edit these in your Member Control Panel at: http://sitepointforums.com/usercp.ph...on=editoptions Don't see something you feel should be added or just want to give suggestions in general then stop by the Community Suggestions and Feedback forum and drop me a line. http://sitepointforums.com/forumdisplay.php?forumid=37 Wayne Luke wayne.removethis@.removethissitepoint.com ************************************************************* ----- OUT AND ABOUT ----- As you can see we have implemented a new look for the SitePoint Forums. Many people have asked for better integration for the community with the rest of the network so that SitePoint related links were easier to find and get to. I feel that this new layout offers that integration without losing our separate and unique outlook from the rest of the Network. Of course we are always open to suggestions. Put your hands together and welcome Lorina, the newest addition to the Community Advisory team. Lorina runs her own community based on vBulletin and has been successful in promoting it and inspiring community. If you need to contact someone from the SitePoint Community Staff or Mentors program check out the new staff page at: http://sitepointforums.com/staff.php ************************************************************* ----- COMMUNITY MEMBER ARTICLE ----- HOW A DATABASE DRIVEN SITE WORKS Many people these days are turning to database driven sites. Database driven sites while take extra effort to create, are very easy to maintain. Adding new page sometimes requires just filling out a simple form and hitting submit. In this article I'll show you how a typical database driven site functions. I'm sure you all have seen sites with big long ugly URL's like this: http://domain.com/content.php?s=1376...e=article&id=1 These URL's actually contain all the information to select the appropriate information from the database and insert it into a template. The question mark tells the server that the following text contains variables and to prepare to receive them. If there is more then one variable needing to be passed they are separated by an ampersand. Most database driven sites use one variable to select the appropriate record and one to select the template to use for the page. You can have as many variable passed as you want, or as little as one. Other sites also have URL's like this such as search engines witch use variables to store search words. This allows user's to bookmark search results and reference them for later use. Most sites store there information in rows and columns just like common spreadsheets. These are usually called tables and have a design with several columns and each row contains a different page. For example if the URL looked like this: http://domain.com/content.php?id=1 This would tell the page (programmed in PHP, ASP, Coldfusion or a similar language) to select the content from the table where the id is 1 (lets say the table has a column called id and each row has it's own id). With this in information in mind you probably decided if a database driven site is right for you. A database driven site will require a software program for handling the requests for the database information and one for the database itself. My favourite combination for this is PHP (for handling the requests for the database information) and mySQL (the database itself). Theses are available for free at http://www.mysql.com and http://www.php.net. Once you have these installed and configured correctly you should read this great tutorial right here on SitePoint, "Building a Database Driven site using PHP and mySQL" by Kevin Yank available at http://www.webmasterbase.com/article.php/228 Justin Sampson runs http://www.SampsonWebDesign.com, a small freelance web design company and operates http://www.WebDevClick.com. You can sign up for the mailing list by sending an email to: webmaster@webdevclick.com http://sitepointforums.com/member.ph...etinfo&userid= 6557 ************************************************************* ----- SIZZLING HOT ----- The General Chat Forum has been the center of many a blazing post lately. If you think you are good at riddles then try your hand at some of these: For example, if you consider yourself well read then make sure that you contribute to this post: http://sitepointforums.com/showthrea...threadid=19551 A new member to our forums, Allie, is concerned with Netscape 6 and would like to find out what the known design issues are that should/could be avoided in planning design layout: http://sitepointforums.com/showthrea...threadid=19788 ************************************************************* ----- MEMBER SPOTLIGHT ----- In this issue our member spotlight lands on BRAVEHEART who has been a member since 14th March 2001 and has 10 posts http://sitepointforums.com/member.php?s=&action= getinfo&userid=9802 Braveheart is a proud Scotsman who describes himself as mad! He has recently been active in the PHP vs Perl discussion in the Server-Side Internet Development Forum: http://sitepointforums.com/showthrea...threadid=18817 ************************************************************* Will you in the next issue? Who knows. We pick a random profile to show here. How do we do it? Well we use a very scientific process. We think of a few words or a phrase and then do a search on it in the forums! When the results are returned we pick the first on in the list and the person who started that topic becomes our member of the week. ************************************************************* ----- ASK THE GURU ----- Commas in Keyword Meta Tags? Jason Malkovich of Oregan asks: I've read different opinions on whether you should use commas in the Keywords Meta Tag. Should I? THE GURU ANSWERS: Hi Jason, commas act as separators between the individual words in the keywords tag. This makes the search engines treat each word individually rather than combining words into phrases. If you do a search on Altavista for 'london hotels' and look at the bottom of the page, you will see just above the Sponsored Links section, a line which gives details of word count: london hotels: 58253 hotels: 22708648 london: 25107424 This tells us that AV combines the two words into a phrase when looking for matching web sites. It also shows the number of pages which contain the words. If your keywords have the two words separated by commas then they don't match the phrase and will be ranked lower than those that do. Having them separated by just a space will produce a match which will give you a chance of a higher ranking for that phrase. Other engines work in the same way so it's best not to use commas. Separate keywords with spaces and to allow the engines to construct phrases from your list of keywords. Simon Conroy is Technical Director of Web Site Promotion Services Ltd, the leading UK search engine positioning company, Search Engines guide www.TopWebSite.co.uk Send your questions to CrierGuru@topwebsite.co.uk ************************************************************* ----- SUBMISSION INFORMATION ----- If you've got something to say to the community let us know! Ideas, articles, or just a sound off about something! We want to hear from you today, right now, come on don't wait send it to us crier.removethis@.removethissitepoint.com. *************************************************************** ----- ADVERTISING INFORMATION ----- I Caught You Reading An Ezine Ad! Find out what thousands of savvy Internet marketers already know: email newsletter Advertising Works! (You're reading one now, aren't you?) Find out how to get YOUR sponsorship ad in this newsletter and in the SitePoint Community reach 4300 opt-in subscribers! Check out http://sitepoint.com/mediakit/ for details or email us at mailto:adinfo.removethis@.removethissitepoint.com . ************************************************************* ----- REFERWARE ----- This newsletter is ReferWare. If you enjoy reading it and find useful information in this newsletter, you are asked to help spread the word about it. You can do this by forwarding a copy to your friends, telling them about it, and/or putting a link to it from your site. You cannot: 1.) Post this newsletter in part or in whole on your site. 2.) Forward this newsletter issue after issue to people - just send them a single issue and tell them to subscribe. Sorry about those restrictions, our lawyer made me do it. Send suggestions and comments to: mailto:crier.removethis@.removethissitepoint.com ================================================================= and remember…Dawn is nature's way of telling you to go to bed. Till the next time. Editor: Nicky http://sitepointforums.com/member.php?s=&action= getinfo&userid=5375 *************************************************************** To subscribe: Go to the SitePoint forums at http://SitePointForums.com/ If you haven't joined be sure to do that. If you have joined click on the link to "Profile" at the top of the page. Then make sure that "Allow Bulletin Board Administrators and Moderators To Send You Email Notices?" has "YES" selected. Keep in mind that this doesn't allow other to send you an e-mail. Just the Community Advisors. To unsubscribe: Go to the SitePoint forums at http://SitePointForums.com/ If you haven't joined be sure to do that. If you have joined click on the link to "Profile" at the top of the page. Then make sure that "Allow Bulletin Board Administrators and Moderators To Send You Email Notices?" has "NO" selected. Keep in mind that this doesn't allow other to send you an e-mail. Just the Community Advisors. The Community Crier is hosted by Sitepoint.com using vBulletin: http://www.sitepoint.com http://www.vbulletin.com The Community Crier is (c) 1998-2001 SitePoint Pty. Ltd. All Rights Reserved. No part of this Newsletter may be reproduced in whole or in part without written permission. All guest articles are copyright their respective owners and are reproduced with permission.

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