I have helped with a few projects in the past couple years which have used the Smarty template engine as a backbone for their template/presentation framework. It is really useful in projects and scripts because it keeps the PHP code separate from the design of the website. You can read a detailed overview of Smarty at the official website.
Like I stated before, I have helped troubleshoot/design for projects using the technology, but I never really sat down to learn more about Smarty, but today I found some time to continue development on my phpZIPdir project (which I have not touched since the initial code write), so I decided it is time to get Smarty integrated so the product can finally get to its public beta testing stage. I fiddled around with the setup for a couple hours and read the documentation to get myself started. Through quite a bit of trial and error, I have successfully integrated Smarty into about 65% of the phpZIPdir project thus far. Once you get the hang of the syntax it is really easy to move forward.
Once I finish phpZIPdir I will open it up for a public beta, and hopefully I will find a few good testers. I will post more about it when the time comes. I urge anyone interested to in phpZIPdir to take a look at The Gutter Directory to see the latest version in action (with Smarty 65% integrated -although you will not really be able to tell from the front end!). I would like some feedback on it if possible!
For my business DotResolve Consulting we decided to go with a open source contact manager; SugarCRM: Commercial Open Source. I had started developing my own version which offered about 1% of what SugarCRM can currently do. We felt that the maturity of the SugarCRM software development and the large community input (for module, features, etc.) was a strong reason to pursue installing the software.
SugarCRM: Commercial Open Source is a great starting point for any small and new business with small budgets. Since the product itself is free, it can be installed by a professional and extra fields can configured by a manager, thus saving your company money. Once your company grows into a medium to large business, SugarCRM Inc. offers a Professional and Enterprise Edition of the free open source alternative.
Check out the live demo that SugarCRM, Inc. has on their website. If you decide that you want to get your SugarCRM solution installed and hosted contact me and we can discuss hosting it and installation.
This past week I have been busy going to customers places of business to help them with their computer and network issues. This has been one of the most busy weeks I have encountered in a while, but it seems to be a continuing trend. This is good, but stressful at the same time.
On my free time, mainly at late hours of the night, I have been working on my web development. One of my project sites , Geek!Coders, consists of web software that I have developed in PHP. The project that I am proud of, although it is not near its first release, is my piece of software entitled “phpZipDir“. Live demos can be found at my niche directories IT Consultant Directory and Gutter Directory. I want to focus more of my time developing my phpZipDir project so that I can get in into first release stages and hopefully detract some users from the competition.
Another item I have been working on is Search Engine Optimization (SEO). I have applied some basic SEO techniques to most of my websites and my client websites.
Here is a list:
I understand there is a multitude of factors that go into SEO which can help you get a better placement within Google, but there is no way to guarantee results. There are many companies who make a living by saying they guarantee number one results in Google for only USD$1500/mo! I have saved at least one of my customers the trouble of spending that sort of money for no guarantees.
Personally I have a decent track record with getting higher rankings in Google (and the other search engines) for most of the websites I work on. I am planning on offering SEO consultancy as one of my services in the near future. I can guarantee it will not cost you USD$1500/mo. but I cannot and will not guarantee you will get a number one search ranking on Google. I can get you close to it though!
Anyway, that is my update / rant for the day.