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Sausage Sizzler - Webmaster Weekly |
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| Editorial - February 13th 2002 |
G'day Sizzlers!
G'day Sizzlers!
Did anyone notice that I have started to archive the old issues
of the Sizzler on the web site? I have done this so new
subscribers can go back through some of the early tips, topics and
tutorials. Rich's PHP Tutorial in particular builds upon previous
issues. So feel free to check out the archive at:
http://www.sausagetools.com/sizzler/archive.html
The polls I have been running are getting more and more popular.
Last issues question was, "What sort of Web site Hosting do you
use?" and we had a broad spread of responses:
13% A free host
11% A owned dedicated server
11% A leased dedicated server
5% We have our own rack at a data center
11% We host our Web site in house
44% A shared server
5% Other
Obviously most people are using the cheaper shared hosting
solutions, however I thought it was interesting that 11% of
respondents housed their site in-house. If the site is mission
critical this would probably mean they have a fair amount of
bandwidth and possible redundancy on servers, bandwidth and
power. In my experience when this level of hosting is needed it
is far cheaper to go and use a server farm (or data center) which
allows you to share the costs of having redundant systems.
Which leads me to this weeks poll. I am trying to find out what
your Web site is for.
So take the poll!
Make sure you check out the SuperToolz feature this week. It is
an oldie but a goodie,
Reptile! We might have some developments on
this front very soon. (And in case you didn't know it is a FREE product).
Finally last week I ran a book review from
eDEVCAFE.com, however
it appears not many of you liked this addition to the newsletter.
I was thinking people might prefer a Web site Review or another
tutorial instead. Perhaps you something else altogether in mind.
Please let me know your reviews! Send me an email telling me your
opinion on this matter.
Keep on sizzling!
Nathan Allan
Sausage Sizzler Editor
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| Dynamic Tip - PHP Tips 4 - More Basic Interaction |
So, now you should know how to pass data around in the URL and through
hidden form fields but, on multiple page forms or sites that need to
maintain a user state those methods a very tedious and open up more
possibilities for errors in your code. Fortunately we can get around this
problem using PHP’s session support.
Sessions make use of an array to access the data just like the GET/POST
arrays. In the current version the array is $_SESSION , the earlier versions
of PHP used $HTTP_SESSION_VARS .
The simplest example of session use is:
<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN">
<HTML>
<HEAD>
<TITLE>PHP: Sessions</TITLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY>
<?php
session_start();
if ( !isset($_SESSION['count']) ) {
$_SESSION['count'] = 1;
} else {
$_SESSION['count']++;
}
echo '<B> You\'ve loaded this page ' . $_SESSION['count'] . '
time(s).</B>';
?>
<BR>
<BR>
<A href="<?php echo $_SERVER['PHP_SELF']; ?>">Reload this page.</A>
</BODY>
</HTML>
This script is really very simple. First, is starts the session using
session_start(), this must appear in every script you plan on accessing a
session from. Next, it checks if the session variable "count" already
exists. If it doesn’t, then it sets that value to 1 otherwise it increment
the variable by 1. The last part of the session handling is simply
displaying the session variable.
Also of note, at the bottom of the page, we build a link using
$_SERVER[‘PHP_SELF’] ($HTTP_SERVER_VARS for earlier versions). The $_SERVER
array provides access to the standard CGI variables passed to PHP by your
web server. The "PHP_SELF" value is one generated by PHP so you can
reference the current script’s filename.
One very important note, only values such as strings, integers, arrays,
objects, etc may be stored in a PHP session, file descriptors and database
connection variables cannot be passed from one page to another using a
session. Using the ideas presented here, sessions are easily applied across
multiple PHP scripts. Just be sure to call the function session_start()
before accessing any session variables.
Tip by Rich Cavanaugh
From - EnFlyer: The Email Marketing Experts
We have the structure of the page set-up, and now we need to
start filling the page with content. So this week I will cover
some of the basics for text on a Web page. As always remember
this is a basic explanation, I am sure as your skill level
progresses you will want to get into more complex ways of
handling text on a web page!
Headings - <H1>heading goes here</H1>
Headings is very simple, you have a choice between H1 and H6, the
higher the number you use the smaller the heading will be. This
tag is ideal for defining different sections of your site.
Bold - <B>bold text goes here</B>
The bold tag will make your text darker. Giving you the ability
to emphasize a particular part of a sentence.
Italics - <I>italic text goes here</I>
The italics tag does just that! Adding a lean to the text. I find
it good to use when quoting someone.
So there are the basics for you this week. If any beginners have
a site up and are flowing these tips I would love to know about
it, so email me.
Tip by Nathan Allan
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| Sizzler Forum Spotlight - Browser Issues |
As a web designer, there are tons of issues that you face. Of
the many issues you need to focus on, some include ease of
navigation, presentation of content, page/document sizes, and
download speeds. Issues that we shouldn't have to deal with are
browser inconsistencies. I don't necessarily mean Netscape vs.
Microsoft. Sometimes is "this works in IE5 but in IE6, no luck".
In the case of Netscape, items that were supported in 4.x are
completely changed around in 6.x while certain aspects that
weren't supported are now working much better.
I've chosen to "Spotlight" a few issues users are having with
various browsers. Some of you may have had similar experiences
and will be able to point out work arounds. Others may be
sharing similar frustrations and you'll now have a place to vent
and learn.
Either way, please have a look at this week's Sizzler Forum
Spotlights.
- Netscape 6 & CSS Borders
- Something Weird here in Netscape 4.75
- IE 6.0 is behaving strangely with slices
Review by Bram Leland Scolnick
| Gear Grinders - Which Browser Do You Design For? |
I've got a great question for you. Which browser do you design
FOR? Which browser do you design WITH? Do you design with one
and then check for compatibility with the others? Maybe you
design with one and don't care if your design works or even loads
in the others. That alone could be something dictated by your
site’s traffic.
Chances are if you design for Navigator 4.x or 6.x AND preview
only with these, your design will work perfectly in IE4+ or maybe
IE5+. There’s a very good chance as well that your design will
work in Opera as Opera and IE have rendering engines that operate
quite similarly (last time I checked anyway).
If you design and preview using IE; however, you run a very
strong chance of having any number of issues with Navigator 4
and/or 6. Simple problems can occur with cascading style sheets
and text not presenting as intended. Major issues can include
severely delayed page load times when using nested tables or
pages not loading at all when you've forgotten to close a cell,
row or table.
In most cases, you're working against the clock. I've found that
when building two adjacent, identical tables using the same font
style, Navigator can and often will present the content of each
table differently. Rather than waste time, my quick and simple
fix is to do things the old fashioned way: use the traditional
FONT tag. Other times you may need to include a "no space break"
or " " to make empty cells show their colors.
Where IE is quite forgiving and in my opinion, a designers dream
to build for and with, Navigator can be quite the opposite. Some
will defend Navigator stating "It follows the standards set forth
by W3C and thus forces you to be a better designer." Others will
say that Navigator follows the standards TOO closely or is TOO
strict thus creating extra work. One example, referring back to
that forgotten table tag: Even with a missing cell, row, or
table tag, IE may very well display your page exactly as you
intend. Navigator may not load your page at all.
Assuming your page is coded correctly, my experience says that
Navigator’s biggest obstacle is the nested table. Sometimes
Navigator will just load a page VERY slowly. Other times
Navigator will just not load a page because it can only read
nested HTML down so many levels. My rule of thumb, assuming
you'd like to design for both IE and Navigator: no more than
three (3) levels of nested tables, four (4) max.
There are a plethora of issues, feelings, and needs that surround
your choice of browser. Please tell me, because I'd really like
to know:
Which Browser Do You Design For?
PDA Follow up - I've received an overwhelming response to my
request for PDA feedback and will be including more thoughts and
responses next week! What does that mean for you? Well - that
means you have another week to send me more feedback, comments,
questions - WHATEVER - so that I can incorporate them into next
weeks - Gear Grinders - PDA Follow up.
Send your experiences to Bram Leland Scolnick
Reptile is a cool application that lets you create funky
backgrounds.
Limited only by your creativity, Reptile allows you to easily
produce any combination of wavy, bubbly, organic, big, small,
wide, narrow, rough or smooth textures. And besides generating a
vast range of shapes and surfaces the program also features a
great way to color the textures to suit the look and feel you
require. Use your wild creations for your Web page backgrounds,
on your Windows desktop, or invent a completely new use for them,
it's entirely up to you. Reptile is so much fun to use it is
difficult to stay focused on what you want to do. So BE WARNED,
this program is addictive!
Name: Reptile
Version: 2.0
Cost: FREE
Website: http://www.sausagetools.com/supertoolz/reptile2.html
Download: ftp://ftp.sausage.com/pub/supertoolz/reptinst.exe
Review by Nathan Allan
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