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Review: Advanced Web Metrics with Google Analytics
When we first deployed Google Analytics to our websites, it was just a matter of putting in the javascript tagging according to GA’s setup guide. With that, we thought our job was done as “techies”. When the business folks and marketers approached us to get more detail out of GA, we happily put in on our list of to-dos, but at the bottom (of course).
That whole perception changed when I picked up this book “Advanced Web Metrics with Google Analytics”, written by Brian Clifton. It is a recommended read if you truly care about your organisation and its online presence.
In: Book Review · Tagged with: google analytics, review, web metrics
PHP’s alternative syntax and why it’s useful
PHP offers an alternative way to write their control structures for as long as I’ve remembered. It basically does away with the curly brackets and replaces the opening curly with a colon (:) and the closing with ‘end’-whatever. I have to be honest and say I’ve never really found a need to use the alternative syntax, simply because I’m so used to using the curly braces after so many years of using PHP. Plus, it’s less typing!
But having spend time working on CodeIgniter projects, I have found myself adopting this alternative syntax when it comes to buidling the CI’s views templates. I appreciate that there is place in the PHP universe for this alternative coding style.
In: PHP Tutorials · Tagged with: codeigniter, PHP, syntax
Codeigniter: Mixing segment-based URL with querystrings
Codeigniter, by default crafts it’s URL in a search engine friendly format. It uses a segment-based approach and does away with the all familiar querystring format that developers have been using for many years to pass parameters via the URL into their applications.
Codeigniter does allow you to turn on the querystring capability, but that would mean you have to use a pure querystring approach, foregoing the segment-based approached.
So, is it possible to mix segments and querystring?
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In: PHP Tutorials · Tagged with: codeigniter, querystring, segments, url
OSSPAC: Notes from the Keynotes II
Following on from yesterday’s Keynotes at the Open Source Singapore Pacific-Asia Conference (OSSPAC), both Sun and Oracle stepped up to the podium to talk about their efforts in the Open Source world with the message that the global economic crisis will be good for Open Source.
In: News · Tagged with: conference, open source, osspac
OSSPAC: Notes from the Keynotes I
I had the pleasure of attending the Open Source Singapore Pacific-Asia COnference (or OSSPAC) held at the Grand Hyatt Singapore from Feb 16-18 2009. This inaugural event brings together the community businesses, developers government officials to experience first hand, the wide range of open systems and to promote the adoption of Open Source technologies across the entire Pacific-Asia region.
In: News · Tagged with: conference, open source, osspac
Review: Professional Codeigniter
There are currently only two books published about Codeigniter available in the market, one is called CodeIgniter for Rapid PHP Application Development and the other is this one I’m reviewing.
Having being using Codeigniter for a few simple projects, and really consider myself a CI newbie, I scooped up this book when I saw in at my local library, hoping for more insights into this wonderful framework. Instead I was left disappointed.
In: Book Review · Tagged with: codeigniter, reviews
Google Anti-Malware Malfunction?
It would seems that Google is as fallible as the next company. Right at this moment (which is 31 Jan 2009, 3.15pm GMT) Google is labelling every site in their search result listing with a “This site may harm your computer”. And what irony, Google’s own Anti-Malware page is potentially harmful!
So, has Google been hacked, or is this the result of a careless mistake? Which ever way this goes, this is a serious serious problem for Google, since no one can go to any listed site, it’s going to impact the search referrals, and the traffic to these sites.
In: News, Website Building/SEO · Tagged with: google, malware, problem
Running your blog with SEO in mind
Awhile back, I wrote about what it takes to start your own blog. Unless your blog is only meant for your private circle of readers, in most cases, you’ll want people to read what you have penned down, and even make some money from it.
The most effective way to do that is to get it listed in Search Engines.
In: Website Building/SEO · Tagged with: google, guide, SEO
Codeigniter: Helpers, Plugins and Libraries
Having used Codeigniter for a few months now, this framework is really turning out to be a joy. My last post, I talked about how to modify native CI Libraries.
With so many published PHP classes and functions, it would be a shame if we couldn’t use them in CI. Fortunately CI (like all good frameworks) provides not one but three ways to integrate 3rd code, by using Helpers, Plugins and Libraries.
In: PHP Tutorials · Tagged with: codeigniter, helpers, libraries, plugins
CodeIgniter: Extending the native ‘Model’ and make it your own.
Today I took advantage of CodeIgniter’s ability to extend the native libraries, and I was well satisfied that it just works.
Let me elaborate, I’m in the process of creating models for my CI project, and realized that certain functions within the models were getting repetitive. Using CI’s ability to create my own custom libraries, I was able to create my own custom ‘Model’ which extends from the core ‘Model’ object. How this simple architecture has cleaned up my code is simply remarkable.
So read on…
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In: PHP Tutorials · Tagged with: codeigniter, models, PHP