Tips for new affiliates

[vmlinuz]

My quote of the day - A real web developer uses notepad :P
That's my story and I'm sticking to it!

Notepad is not really the tool for it :P
But any better text editor will do it. I used EditPlus a lot, then emacs on Linux. Now I switched to the Eclipse platform, by using Aptana. This is a good IDE for PHP, HTML, JavaScript. It also has a DB designer and explorer.

[wagerprofits]

Guys

This thread is starting to be awesome and sure a load of new affiliates have picked up a load of tips.

Keep it going, thanks for your support.

Shaun

[GamTrak]

Yesterday I learned from another peer (thanks Igor) that I missed testing my site in Safari which displayed my footer to the right of the page and looked crappy.

I only tested in IE and FF which was not enough browsers in order to catch errors.

Finally, don't forget to also test your site for mobile devices. More and more users will be using their phones and other toys to play online via our websites.

[Vrindavan]

>> mobile devices

are there problem for webpages having large banners or flash banners or java script links to load up ?

[vmlinuz]

>> mobile devices

are there problem for webpages having large banners or flash banners or java script links to load up ?

It depends. Simple mobile phones don't understand flash at all. PDA-s and such may be able to play them, but they are limited by their screen size. It also depends on the browser they are using. Opera Mini will transform any page to mobile format, and it does it in a quite good way, especially if the site is not using tables for layout. It also resizes large banners or hides them by showing a link instead.

I believe text links or links with small buttons work best for mobile devices.

Also Opera (the pc version) has a function to render a page in a "Small screen view", so it can be used to test your page for mobile phones that use Opera Mini.

Of course you can create a completely different version of your site optimized for mobile devices. I don't mean oldschool wap/wml pages, but simplified HTML/XHTML with a simplified layout (no side menus and such). It will work well probably on most modern mobile devices. Don't use big banners, create small ones with a max width of around 120 px.

[Renee]

Notepad is not really the tool for it :P
But any better text editor will do it. I used EditPlus a lot, then emacs on Linux. Now I switched to the Eclipse platform, by using Aptana. This is a good IDE for PHP, HTML, JavaScript. It also has a DB designer and explorer.

Ive never used EditPlus... There is a version of notepad called Notepad ++ which colour codes etc.. I use that a lot these days actually. Seems to work fine for me. I'm pretty set in my ways though.. started learning this stuff when i was about 13/14 years old.. i dont like to use dreamweaver et al unless i absolutely have to or unless i need something done really quickly.

What does EditPlus do that other text editors don't?

I used to use a program in uni called TextPad+ and that also did the colour code and I could use it for a few different languages like java and c++
It didn't have a WYSIWYG editor though. It was just for text/hand coding.

I would go as far to say that most affiliates would not be using Linux (and I could be wrong), so can you recommend anything for those still on Windows which has a db designer? I would also be interested in this so I can recommend it to affiliates.. i know a lot of hosting servers have them inbuilt which is fine if you know the commands already to create data sets, but for those that don't know how to use them properly it might be a bit harder.

Lastly, you're a great source of info mate
Thanks!

Re mobile devices - my mobile is designed for business and has email and web browsing and all that, but I have noticed that when viewing large web pages, it tells me that it cant view the page because there are too many applications open when there are actually none open apart from the browser, so I think if you are designing for mobiles too, ensure that the actual size of the loaded page is not too large or the phone's memory wont be able to physically open the page.

Cheers

[universal4]

One of the most interesting features about edit plus is that it will always create a backup of any file it edits....

I use it for search and replace at times...and it will backup any file it changes.

As far as database stuff....you may want to consider the visual studio...not cheap but covers a lot of development, databases, dotnet web development and more.

For the database design itself, it really depends on what db you are using....

If its mysql, most would likely create and edit tables directly using phpadmin possibly...or writre queries directly.

If it is Sql, then possibly the sql enterprise tools....or the visual studio tools...


Rick

[universal4]

I forgot to mention MySQL Workbench... its a visual design envirnment for mysql...

I have not used this but looks interesting...

Rick
Universal4

[vmlinuz]

Ive never used EditPlus... There is a version of notepad called Notepad ++ which colour codes etc.. I use that a lot these days actually. Seems to work fine for me. I'm pretty set in my ways though.. started learning this stuff when i was about 13/14 years old.. i dont like to use dreamweaver et al unless i absolutely have to or unless i need something done really quickly.

What does EditPlus do that other text editors don't?

Nothing, it's just like Notepad++. I've used that, too. Both are great editors, and have syntax highlighting. When I said Notepad is not the tool, I've meant the standard Notepad in Windows Notepad++ is great.

Aptana and PDT are both Eclipse based IDEs for PHP, HTML etc. They run on Windows, Linux, Mac whatever Java runs on.

Here's the link for Aptana: http://www.aptana.com/php
PDT: http://www.eclipse.org/pdt/

[vmlinuz]

One of the most interesting features about edit plus is that it will always create a backup of any file it edits....

I use it for search and replace at times...and it will backup any file it changes.

It also has a feature when editing text where you can select rectangles of text anywhere. Not to mention the regexp support in search/replace. It has some small but useful features.

I agree with PhpMyAdmin, I use it myself most of the time, but sometimes I use the one in Aptana, too.

Visual Studio is not worth paying for if you want only the db designer (which is not even that good for mysql). For it to work with mysql you have to set it through odbc.
If you work with ASP.net, MsSQL and other Microsoft stuff, it might be worth the money (I wouldn't buy it until there is something like php, jsp, java servlets, Ruby on rails for free). I have a licensed copy of VS2008, but I have only used it for university projects, never for web development.

[raphnix]

It depends. Simple mobile phones don't understand flash at all. PDA-s and such may be able to play them, but they are limited by their screen size. It also depends on the browser they are using. Opera Mini will transform any page to mobile format, and it does it in a quite good way, especially if the site is not using tables for layout. It also resizes large banners or hides them by showing a link instead.

I believe text links or links with small buttons work best for mobile devices.

Also Opera (the pc version) has a function to render a page in a "Small screen view", so it can be used to test your page for mobile phones that use Opera Mini.

Of course you can create a completely different version of your site optimized for mobile devices. I don't mean oldschool wap/wml pages, but simplified HTML/XHTML with a simplified layout (no side menus and such). It will work well probably on most modern mobile devices. Don't use big banners, create small ones with a max width of around 120 px.

I haven't thought of using Opera Mini in my phone. But I do like the features of Opera in my PC. Same as Firefox but not that good as I was used to Mozilla/IE.

[Renee]

One of the most interesting features about edit plus is that it will always create a backup of any file it edits....

I use it for search and replace at times...and it will backup any file it changes.

As far as database stuff....you may want to consider the visual studio...not cheap but covers a lot of development, databases, dotnet web development and more.

For the database design itself, it really depends on what db you are using....

If its mysql, most would likely create and edit tables directly using phpadmin possibly...or writre queries directly.

If it is Sql, then possibly the sql enterprise tools....or the visual studio tools...


Rick

I'm currently using the Microsoft Visual Studio in the office for web projects.. It's ok I guess.. I don't think the "design" section is any good though, not that I use it, but occasionally I will look at it to see if it renders properly and most of the time it doesn't. I've never used the design part to put objects etc in, so not sure about that part, but I would probably recommend the Dreamweaver WYSIWYG over the MS VS one. It's less expensive too.

I haven't used the MS VS for the database stuff yet.. didn't even realise it did that, but I'll be checking that out today fo' sho'.

[Renee]

Yesterday I learned from another peer (thanks Igor) that I missed testing my site in Safari which displayed my footer to the right of the page and looked crappy.

I only tested in IE and FF which was not enough browsers in order to catch errors.

Finally, don't forget to also test your site for mobile devices. More and more users will be using their phones and other toys to play online via our websites.

Sorry to move off topic, but one thing I've noticed with the Safari browser is that it ignores any complaints from your virus software of a malicious site.

[GamTrak]

Sorry to move off topic, but one thing I've noticed with the Safari browser is that it ignores any complaints from your virus software of a malicious site.

That's true and I was not impressed with it and will only use it to test my site. It took me forever to start using FF (which is really cool) so I know that I will not utilize Safari for normal surfing.

[Renee]

It also has a feature when editing text where you can select rectangles of text anywhere. Not to mention the regexp support in search/replace. It has some small but useful features.

I agree with PhpMyAdmin, I use it myself most of the time, but sometimes I use the one in Aptana, too.

Visual Studio is not worth paying for if you want only the db designer (which is not even that good for mysql). For it to work with mysql you have to set it through odbc.
If you work with ASP.net, MsSQL and other Microsoft stuff, it might be worth the money (I wouldn't buy it until there is something like php, jsp, java servlets, Ruby on rails for free). I have a licensed copy of VS2008, but I have only used it for university projects, never for web development.

v - when you say you can select rectangles of text anywhere, do you mean you can select rectangles of text inside the code inside tags? If not, can you explain this further?

One other thing I noticed about notepad++ is that it shows you the start and end of a tag with + and - symbols.

My next question is, are there any programs out there that will give you the basic code and pages to start a site in classic ASP

ie - that will give some example global.asa pages and the basic code needed to start a page and all that stuff? I know there are sites out there like w3schools.com (which is a fantastic site BTW) that can help get you started, but I wondered if there was any program that gave basic framework for the start of a site in classic asp that you know of?

[slotplayer]

Yesterday I learned from another peer (thanks Igor) that I missed testing my site in Safari which displayed my footer to the right of the page and looked crappy.

I only tested in IE and FF which was not enough browsers in order to catch errors.

Finally, don't forget to also test your site for mobile devices. More and more users will be using their phones and other toys to play online via our websites.

I had the same problem on anew site with a horz line in Safari which, in my case displayed to the left. It was a simple change to the css.

I noticed when testing with the opera small screen view mode, if the width and height attributes on banners/images are left out it doesn't scale them.

[Renee]

I had the same problem on anew site with a horz line in Safari which, in my case displayed to the left. It was a simple change to the css.

I noticed when testing with the opera small screen view mode, if the width and height attributes on banners/images are left out it doesn't scale them.

Tip for newbies - always include the width and height attributes on any banners/images. It's bad coding not to.

You should also make it a habit of including quotation marks around any values

eg, height="500" as opposed to height=500

And you should also make a habit of closing off ALL tags

eg, a lot of people will start a paragraph tag and not end it.. It's not necessary to end it, and you can simply start a new paragraph straight after that one, but it makes it easier if other people need to read your code and it's just good coding practice. Also, if you decide to close only one paragraph tag and you have several paragraphs in there, it can make your site render differently.

I would also suggest to format your code so that each tag starts and ends in the same column. This makes it easier to read too (especially when you are trying to debug).

[vmlinuz]

v - when you say you can select rectangles of text anywhere, do you mean you can select rectangles of text inside the code inside tags? If not, can you explain this further?

Here are to small screenshots, it's easier to explain this way:
http://www.sportfogadas.org/kepek/temp/edp1.jpg
http://www.sportfogadas.org/kepek/temp/edp2.jpg

You can see the selected rectangles, the second one is 2 cols and a couple of lines. I have used this feature many times when I had to remove unnecessary stuff from the beginning of lines in text. It only works in simple text mode, by holding the alt key and selecting with your mouse.

[casinojack]

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[GamTrak]

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