Using Gmail to Automatically Send Troubleshooting Emails
Recently, a request came through asking how to handle the troubleshooting aspect of an online seminar. Due to budget constraints, hiring someone to provide tech support was out of the question and with the event being two days away, we needed a solution quick. They were only looking to handle the problems/fixes common to the online seminar service we use, so my first reaction was to set up an auto-responding email address. [Continue reading]
Quickly Switching Views for Facebook Fan Pages
Well it turns out that my previous post titled "Facebook Fan Pages No Longer Require Switching Views to See Notifications" needed to sit in the incubator a little longer. But instead of taking the blame, let's just say that Facebook updated their features shortly after my post… [Continue reading]
Small Changes to Make If Statements Easier to Scan
When developing programs with hundreds of lines of code, it's beneficial to write code that's easy to scan. That way when you're updating the program months or years later, it will be much easier to follow along. In addition to breaking the code into logical chunks, adding comments, etc., it's helpful to indent code which only gets executed given a specific criteria…such as code that's within an if/else statement. [Continue reading]
Why Doesn’t My Submit Button Display the Entire Label: The Importance of Using Quotes with HTML Attributes
Several years back, there was a big push from the Web community to use a glorious advancement called XHTML. Although some will argue that XHTML movement was pointless, it at least changed the habits of developers like me who were a little loosey-goosey with standards. One of which is the use of quotes around all attributes, or lack thereof. Although the page may display fine without quotes, there are cases where the code won't work as expected. [Continue reading]
Changing Database Entries on the Fly by Embedding PHP Variables
When pulling information from a database, have you ever needed to change aspects of the text on the fly? For example, I have a form that contains several questions like "Did you utilize any of the website resources in 2011?" These questions are stored in a database and need to change annually. So next year the 2011 should be changed to 2012. The year could be removed altogether in some cases, but others require the year to remain. In a perfect world, a PHP variable could be stored in the database along with the question, but that can't be done…can it? [Continue reading]
Modify Automated Information When Sharing Links on Facebook
When sharing links to Facebook, did you know that you can modify the title and description chosen for the link? Facebook usually does a decent job pulling this information from the website, but what if it doesn't. Or maybe you want the description to focus on another aspect of the page. Well with a few easy steps, you can show Facebook who's boss…kind of. [Continue reading]
Reduce Website Maintenance by Importing Common Contact Information with PHP
While working on websites, one thing I've learned over the years is that change happens. People will leave the organization. Organizations change names. When change occurs, the thing we need to keep in mind is how that change affects the website. For example, if someone retires and their contact information is listed dozens or hundreds of times throughout the website, it's going to take a while to update everything. But this type issue could be avoided. Instead of hard-coding the information everywhere, it could be imported with PHP. [Continue reading]
Using PHP to Dynamically Hide Content after an Expiration Date
If you need to pull something offline by a specific date, what happens when no one's around to remove the content? People get sick or maybe a deadline was overlooked and you're out of the office. You could just suck it up, go into work, and remove the registration form from the website. Or you could write a little PHP code to disable the form (or any other information) for you. [Continue reading]
Avoiding Deadlines on the Weekend
If you've ever posted an event registration form or some other time-sensitive information to your website, there's a good chance that you've dealt with deadlines. More specifically the deadlines we impose on website visitors. Well what happens if you're not around on the specified date and someone need assistance? Who takes the registration form offline? What if the website breaks? These are all things that need to be considered when planning a project. [Continue reading]
Facebook Fan Pages No Longer Require Switching Views to See Notifications
If you manage a Facebook "fan" page, you're probably aware that a feature was added earlier this year which notifies us when people comment on our page or post something to our wall. Before seeing these notifications though, we needed to click that "Use Facebook as Your Organization's Name" link. But Facebook recently changed the process…for the better. [Continue reading]
