There are a few things that are common amongst all good programmers. So here is the list of things that I have noticed is common amongst the programming community.

• Your ability to follow rules, so that you can follow the rules of a technique or code library, there are many coding techniques that you can be slack on and bend the rules which often effectly ruins the point of using the code technique
• Your ability to think logically (thinking inside the sqaure), this helps when it comes to fixing bugs in your code because it is all just logic and as long as it is not a syntax error then logic will prevail.
• Your ability to think illogically (thinking outside the square), this helps when you need to provide a solution to a hard problem, like dealing with complex loops, if you can look outside the square you will often find the answer.
• Your ability to adapt and learn, the world of technology is constantly changing and new languages, “sub-languages” and libraries are always appearing and your ability to adapt to this changing world will help you become a great programmer.
• Your ability to communicate, this comes in handy when you are working on a project that requires more than one person. You need to be able to put forward your concepts or idea’s and make sure your voice is heard.
• Your ability to organise and proiritise, to make sure certain tasks are done on time and that important tasks are done first.
• Your ability to explore, this helps when your trying to find fixes to already solved problems and to find new ways to do something. There is often a library or class that someone has created to do the job and do it well, these are also normally thoroughly tested aswell.
• Your ability to be humbled, to realise when there is something great that you should know and be using rather than ignoring it because its different.

This is not an exhausted list, if you think there is anything I have missed, feel free to let me know via the comments below.

Disclaimer: This list is my observation of the community and does not represent actual requirements to become a good programmer as there may be an execption to the rule.

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This was a question I was asked that other day, heres what I told them.

Let me show you some code and then I will explain it as I go, so here we go:

class foo{  //a class

    function fooFunc(){ //a function for us to call upon from the ‘bar’ class

        print “hello world”;  //outputs “hello world” when called

    } 

}

class bar{

    var $foo;  //declare the variable so we can access it

    function bar(){  //a constructor to create an instance of our “foo” class

        global $foo;  //declare that $foo is referring to the global variable that we just declared a couple lines above

        $foo = new foo;  //set that variable of $foo to be an object, a ‘foo’ object.

    }

    function barFunc(){

        global $foo;  //declare that $foo is referring to the global variable that we just declared a 6 lines above

        $foo->fooFunc(); //calls the function ‘fooFunc’ from the object named ‘foo’ which refers to the global (to the class)

    }

$bar = new bar;  // create an instance of our ‘bar’ class

$bar->barFunc(); //outputs “hello world”

This is slightly different to the reason I was asked, what they wanted to do was call upon the ADOdb Lite in a constructor and access it from other methods inside the class and because ADOdb Lite is a class they needed to declare a global variable and assign it in their methods otherwise they recieve an error. If you have any questions or comments, use the box below.

Enjoy.

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Recently I posted about the ability to address a variable by using another variable.

$var = “variable_name”;

$$var = “hello world”;

print $variable_name; // Outputs “hello world”

print $$var ; // Outputs “hello world”

Well theres a second part to this whole variable naming thing and it is to use a variable to name address it. This works like so,

function myFunction(){

print “Hello World”; 

}

$var = “myFunction”;

$$var(); //Outputs “Hello World”

This also applies to accessing class methods. This has quite a few uses but the main one that comes to mind is if you have an issue with renaming functions or class methods as you can access them using a variable and then define the variable’s value in an file that you include through out all your files. When you change the function name you just change the variable’s value, that way you don’t cripple your code and waste time renaming all the bits of code that call on those functions or methods.

Enjoy.

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I would like to let you know about using configuration files when coding your PHP (and most other lang’s, but I’ll focus on PHP). I was put onto this by a friend of mine and I have been loving it ever since.

Now the concept of this configuration is to include one file that will have variables set and other useful things. Now this may or may not seem like something useful but let me give you some examples before you make up your mind.

My code often begins with the following line:

require_once($_SERVER[’DOCUMENT_ROOT’] . “/config.php”);

The above code just gets the configuration file from the root directory, now let me show you some of the stuff you could include in here:

$config[’FTP_Connect’] = $_SERVER[’DOCUMENT_ROOT’] . “/functions/ftp-connect.php”;

$config[’Authen_Check’] = $_SERVER[’DOCUMENT_ROOT’] . “/functions/user_authentication.php”;

$config[’ADOdb’] = $_SERVER[’DOCUMENT_ROOT’] . “/lib/adodb_lite/ado.inc.php”; 

$config[’ADOdb_DSN’] = ”mysql://username:password@hostname/database”;

$config[’Debug’] = true; 

NOTE: I am using an array called ‘$config’ to store all of the settings 

All sorts of things that you need to store somewhere you can put into your configuration file and have just one location to change them, as opposed to making a table in your database just for this which would most often be overkill as with the configuration file you can easily modify and access it(if you have FTP access).

Now let me show you how I would start out a standard PHP file that connects to a database:

require_once($_SERVER[’DOCUMENT_ROOT’] . “/config.php”);

require($config[’ADOdb’]);

$db = ADONewConnection(’mysql’);

$db->Connect($config[’ADOdb_DSN’]);

So, four lines of code and I am ready to start querying a database. I will go into detail later about ADOdb Lite and how to use it and I will also go into detail about some lines of code you might want to have in your config file.

Enjoy.

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Recently I have needed to do excessive amounts of PHP/Database work and rather than doing everything by hand I decided to look into a Database Abstraction Layer, not so much so that I could port everything over onto a different database type but instead to just simplify the interaction with the database (specifically with queries).

This lead me to ADOdb, and after first impressions I wanted something a smaller and a simpler. Thats when I found ADOdb Lite. Now this is great, a simple and efficient way to deal with my databases.

Now you may be thinking that its just more work, more stuff to learn, more things to go wrong but its not. I for one am often hesitant to back one product because there is so many out there and often a better product but this is by far one of the best I have seen for dealing with DB’s in PHP without going into an intense MVC Framework.

You have to check it out for yourself, have a little browse of their website and see how simple it really is.

Enjoy.

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Here are some more images that I have created just messing around in Photoshop CS2. If you want the a PSD (everything is in layers) let me know.

More to come…

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Recently I have needed to use an AJAX approach in some code in that I needed the user to do something and the server to respond with data but all on the one page. To be more specific I was creating a multi level category system and needed for the user to be able to select the first category then the query the database for all the next level categories relating to the first level. For example if someone selected ’Power Tools’ then a next level category that the user could select would be something like ‘Hand Drills’ but I don’t want them to be able to see ‘Hand Drills’ if they selected ‘Sporting Goods’ as the first level category, also I didnt want a massive page and to just use hidden select boxes because that would result in a massive file.

Anyways I was looking for a simple approach to AJAX and found a very ’simplistic’ way of doing things in a series of articles around the theory of using AJAX without Xml. Please note that the techniques on the websites listed are not what most people consider AJAX for various reasons but the functionality is effectively the same.

Here are the URL’s of the sites that I found to be most useful in learning this ’simplistic’ approach:

 http://www.phpit.net/article/ajax-php-without-xmlhttprequest/

http://www.douglaskarr.com/2006/11/24/ajax-without-the-x-asynchronous-dynamic-content-with-javascript/

Enjoy.

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I came across this years ago but never found a useful way of using them, until today. First, let me explain what a variable variable name is.

A variable variable name is a name of a variable that is set by using a variable. For example, to set a variable with the name ‘hello’ and value of ‘world’ we would go

$temp = ‘hello’; //Set the value in a variable that we can use

$$temp = ‘world’; //Create the variable that is named with the value of another variable ($temp) and assign it the value of ‘world’

Now this is not a very popular thing but is useful in certain situations but the thing is found with this feature was that if I was assigning it a dynamic value then how would I know what variable to call, this is where {} (curly brackets) come into play.

print ${$temp}; //print the variable that has the name set to the value of $temp, effectively the same as print $hello;

Now you could just write the code ‘print $hello;’ but if you don’t know what the variable name is that is going to be set (although its not ‘common-practice’ to create a variables for that you don’t know the name of) then its a really useful way to get it.

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Every once in a while I like to just doodle in photoshop and make a design or two, I always save them of course for future reference. They have help me with numerious actual designs so its always a plus but anyways I thought I would post some of my doodle’ings for all to see and if you want to use it or want the .PSD then just ask, I’m more than happy to share. Some of these are logo’s that are made using a random name, they were not designed for anyone.

Here we go:

More to come…

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There are many ways to make money online but most seem to point back to a similar pattern of steps. In this posting I will go over those steps and provide you with some details about each. If you want more info on this topic, let me know and I will post articles with more detail on the requested part. Enjoy.

Step 1: Pick an item/service to market

This is the first and one of the most important steps in the process. To pick the best possible item or service you should do at least some sort of research. Often the best things to market are items or services that are in the industry that you know, that way you already have some idea of whether it is a good or bad idea to market. This works great when you see something that you know will make plenty of sales becauase you know for a fact its something that the industry know. Although most of the time you will be researching something you know little or nothing about, this is where your ability to research comes into play. (I will be posting more information about researching items/services to sell and what to look for in a good item/service, stay tuned). Some easy affiliate networks to choose items/services from are www.commissionmonster.com.au and www.commissionjunction.com

Step 2: Pick a Domain Name

Now comes the hard part, although it doesnt have to be!, there are many ways to help make chosing a good domain name easy. Here is a list of ways to help choose a good domain name:

• Choose a name with the item/service name in the title, things like discountitem.com or customitem.com. These can be a great help to building a good external profile for your site. With some decent SEO, when someone searches for “discount item” chances are you will come up top in the results as an exact match (for the domain name).
• Choose a name that discribes your audience, although this is not recommended when selling just one item/service as these domain names can be gold and you wouldn’t to waste it by selling just one thing. A name like firsttimemothers.com 

Step 3: Select your keywords

This is the key to driving traffic to your site organically (clicks from search results, not paid results). Theres some simple steps to figure out the keywords you should be targeting, they are:

• Put your self in the shoes of your target audience and use google to search, the words you use are the ones you want to target. These keywords may not be the same as the ones that would return the best results, for example users may search for “baby clothes” when the best results for them would be from searching for “buy baby clothes” or “baby clothes auctions”.
• There is often already a handfull of large sites selling what you plan to sell, don’t see this as a bad thing, its great becauase if they have been around for a while chances are that they have modified their content to best target their audience. Look at their headings for the same items/services and the first couple of paragraphs to look for keywords they use.

Do this to obtain your main keywords. Once you have your main keywords start creating combinations as this will be your main target as main keywords are often already heavily targeted and it is very hard to start off with a new site and get top results for main keywords, insted work your way up starting with the easy ones. For example insted of targeting “baby clothes” try go for things like “cheap baby clothes”, “quality baby clothes”. Make sure the keywords that you target actually reflects your site’s content otherwise you will find your conversion rate will drop as the people find they clicked on your link expecting to find something and found somthing else that they weren’t interested in.

Step 4: Create your optimised content

You will find your self constantly repeating this step as you find words or combination of words perform better than others. If you really want to maximise your content by testing multiple variations at the same time then I really recommend using or atleast looking at Google’s Adwords Website Optimizer, although you will need an Adwords account.

Using your keyword combinations write up a 2-4 paragraphs on each page. The content of these paragraphs will depend on the item/service your trying to promote. Normally you will give people a brief introduction about the product, describing the target user, its features, what beneifits it brings to the user and some kind of call to action like a “buy now” button or a link to the website where they can make a purchase.

Step 5: Build your external profile

Your external profile is what helps you gain a good ranking in the search engines results. There are many ways to help boost your external profile, like:

• Back links with anchor text (Links into your site using anchor text)
• Directory submissions
• PPC advertisements like Adwords
• Services like Digg and Technorati (if using a blog)
• Link exchange with other webmasters

Make sure that if you are getting Back links into your site that they are coming from a site that is in some way related to your site otherwise search engines like Google might see it as illegal and ban you from their search results.

Step 6: Monitor and modify your content

This step involves looking at your site statisitics, sales, ad performance etc. For this I thoroughly recommend using Google’s Analytics, thousands of people are using it and you would seriously be missing out on this great free product if your not. And making changes to your content depending on the results you see. If your Adwords are driving heaps of traffic and you are getting top positions then you will want to lower how much you pay for each click as you can do this and still get a good placing in the sponsored results section. There are many things you can do to modify your content but the main thing is to make sure that you are interpreting your statistics correctly, its not good to interpret the statistics wrong and implement changes. Google Analytics provides you with plenty of information about all the graphs and statistics that they show you and that helps to interpret whats going on.

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