AMT Blog

The trend for NoSQL stores such as memcache for fast key-value storage should give us pause for thought: what have regular database vendors been doing all this time? An important new project, HandlerSocket, seeks to leverage MySQL's raw speed for key-value storage.

NoSQL databases offer fast key-value storage for use in backing web applications, but years of work on regular relational databases has hardly ignored performance. The main performance hit with regular databases is in interpreting queries.

HandlerSocket is a MySQL server plugin that interfaces directly with the InnoDB storage engine. Yoshinori Matsunobu, one of HandlerSocket's creators at Japanese internet and gaming company Dena, reports over 750,000 queries per second performance on commodity server hardware: compared with 420,000 using memcache, and 105,000 using regular SQL access to MySQL. Furthermore, since the underlying InnoDB storage is used, HandlerSocket offers a NoSQL-type interface that doesn't have to trade away ACID compliance...read more

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This is an interesting open discussion (originally appeared on Programmers StackExchange) on best practices while working with HTML, JavaScript and PHP in general.

I realized I have to write down a convention specification about HTML, JavaScript and PHP coding for me and my team.

In web development, just like in C++, I'm definitely a fan of indentation and comments.

Nonetheless, often in my work I encounter HTML+JavaScript+PHP code which suddenly brings up the headache.

I'm trying to make my code readable, but what seems to be better to me (to indent & comment) seems not to fascinate my teammates, so I was wondering if there is a best or at least shared good practice when writing "hybrid" documents just like today's web pages, which day by day become more and more complex.

I'm aware of the fact that probably it is in the nature of today's web pages' code to be a little bit intricated, but I wonder if a good convention concerning these aspects already exists.

Some general rules I follow:

General

• Indents are 4 spaces.
• Indent new levels
• Comments are < ~80 chars from the indent level. If I'm in two levels (8 spaces) that means the cursor stop will be around 88 characters.
• Use multi-line comments. I prefer the look, however this is a subjective point.
• Comment now rather then later when you have no idea what's going on.
• Allman style braces. It's cleaner and is more readable. Subjective.

JavaScript

• Use a library. jQuery in particular is very good. It eliminates all cross browser headaches.
• Understand that ID's are for particular elements, classes are for styles. ID's shouldn't be used more then once per page and they will have particular hooks attached to them. Use classes for things like navigation.
• Out source into methods. It's tempting to put all the code into the bind call, however putting it in it's own function will increase the flexibility of your code.
• Use functions instead of evals. That means setTimeout(function(){ /* Do something */ }, 1000); instead of setTimeout('doSomething', 1000);
• Use local variables with var.

HTML

• Semantic markup. Use appropriate tags. Don't put <br />'s in there to add space, adjust margins and CSS rules.
• All tags are lowercase.
• All tags should end with a closing tag or be self closing.
• Make use of classes for layout that is similar. Have a couple of predefined classes like hide, clear, error, etc.
• Everything (scripts included) should go in <head>. Worry about optimizing (moving stuff around) when it presents a problem.
• External stylesheets and JavaScript source is a must unless it is page specific.

PHP

• Frameworks are good, I recommend CodeIgniter.
• If you don't want to use a framework, try to use the latest version of PHP possible. (That means 5.3).
• Use includes to your advantage.
• Clear injections or use prepared statements.

• Perform if checks on preconceived fail-secure values.

  $logged_in = false;if(check_user($user)){     $logged_in = true;     $user = load_user($_SESSION);}

• Know the difference between single and double quotes. Use single quotes when possible.
• Don't echo HTML.

Do let us know about the best practices you follow in the comments section below.

Intel Atom Developer Program now supports Adobe AIR apps and provides resources and a strong community of developers familiar with Atom and AppUp. The Adobe AIR run time supports a wide range of platforms and is widely adopted for delivering rich applications outside the browser.

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PHP

Implementing the Singleton Pattern in PHP 5

As you probably know, in software engineering there is a set of design patterns that are universally tested, approved and accepted as advanced recipes for programming. One of these patterns is the Singleton design pattern, which is based on the mathematical concept of a singleton (a set with a single element)...read more

A Nice PHP image resizer class

For the longest time I had been using a function I wrote some time ago to handle resizing of images through PHP. I decided it was time to convert it into a class and give it it's own special place in my application workspace. It works so well I figured the least I could do is share with the world....read more

Everyone Loves PHP

This isn't an article about HipHop and how awesome it is, though. What I'm trying to convey is our love affair with PHP. Take a look at the top hundred sites by traffic, size, or whatever other metric you fancy, and there is a high chance that they're using PHP....read more

Building Mobile Apps with PHP

we now have a convergence of new technology that makes building web apps-mobile and otherwise-much easier. jQTouch, Sencha Touch, and more recently, jQuery Mobile take a lot of the pain out of writing cross-browser JavaScript for mobile browsers....read more

Mobile Web

5 Pitfalls to Avoid When Developing a Successful Mobile App

The way that people choose, buy, access and use mobile apps is, in many ways, fundamentally different from the way they behave on the traditional web, and so the rules have to change. The issue is that there isn't yet the same level of widespread understanding about apps that there is about web design...read more

Programming Apple Push Notification Services

One of the key limitations of the iPhone is its constraint on running applications in the background. Because of this, applications cannot keep running in the background when the user switches to another application. So, applications that require a constant state of connectivity (such as social networking applications) will not be able to receive timely updates...read more

SEO

Landing Page Optimization Tips (Study)

After having analysed 50+ sites to find out what increases sales and conversions, A SEO Expert shares with us his thoughts on the four most common issues that affect conversion rate and sales...read more

Solving 6 Common Ecommerce Problems in Google Analytics

If you use Google Analytics for your ecommerce business, Google Analytics: Understanding Visitor Behavior by Justin Cutroni (blog) is a great resource (provided you already have a general understanding of basic web analytics). It covers a broad range of applications including creating an implementation plan, how to use profiles and filters, marketing campaign tracking, CRM integration and enterprise implementation...read more

(download)

Click here to download:

which-is-your-favorite-open-source-graphics-software-BFBujeasrAcEvjukxzHv.zip (166 KB)

Blender

Blender is the open source, cross platform suite of tools for 3D creation.

It is a free 3D graphics application that can be used for modeling, UV unwrapping, texturing, rigging, water and smoke simulations, skinning, animating, rendering, particle and other simulations, non-linear editing, compositing, and creating interactive 3D applications, including video games, animated film, or visual effects.

 
GIMP

GIMP (short for the GNU Image Manipulation Program) is a free software raster graphics editor.

It is primarily employed as an image retouching and editing tool.[3] and is freely available in versions tailored for most popular operating systems, including but not limited to Microsoft Corporation's Windows platform, Apple's Mac OS X, and Linux.

Inkscape

Inkscape is a vector graphics editor application.

It is distributed under a free software license, the GNU GPL. Its stated goal is to become a powerful graphics tool while being fully compliant with the XML, SVG, and CSS standards.

Open Source Graphics Software - Every Graphic Application Software that is based on one of the Open Source licenses is can be included in this category.

Have we missed any of your favorite Open Source Graphics Software? Feel Free to put them in the comments section below.

This is an Interesting Resource for Web Application Developers which originally appeared on Stack Overflow. It’s an excellent response for an open ended query:

Many web apps out there these days are using APIs or code that they've not worked with themselves, and quite often are using it inefficiently. Some Google maps mashups come to mind. With php/asp backends, HTML, javascript (especially with all the AJAX these days) - there are so many potential bottlenecks, problems, inefficiencies and double-ups. What strategies can you suggest to investigating, identifying and resolving slow-downs, redundant code, leaks and other issues in web-apps - both server-side and in the browsers on client-side?

photo © 2007 Jeremy Tarling | more info (via: Wylio)

A very open ended and expansive question- it may be more productive to compartmentalise each area as opposed to looking at the bigger picture, which can be overwhelming. One very important aspect which has an impact on everything you mention is correctly auditing, analysing and debugging your code, some of the tools below can help with this:

[...]investigating, identifying and resolving slow-downs, redundant code, leaks and other issues in web-apps - both server-side[...]

For PHP specific development,Look at:

PHP Code Sniffer

PHP AST

PHP Sat

PHP Depend

PHP Lint

PHP Call Graph

xDebug

[...]and in the browsesr on client-side?

For client side debugging, look at:

JSLint

Firebug

YSLow

Opera - Dragonfly

WebKit (Safari / Chrome Browsers) - Web Inspector

IE - Microsoft script Debugger

For help with 'slow downs' look into caching, either using

ob_start (eg. ob_start('ob_gzhandler'); ) and ob_end_flush

ETags

.htaccess Gzipping, also here

PHP Memcaching

You can also use:

CSS Sprites

Reduced HTTP requests

Minified CSS and JS

Leaving these tools aside, It is VERY important to note that your ability to produce great code is dependent on what third party APIs you rely on, and what you yourself require (your code). More often than not you will always be constricted by your choice of APIs (you have a limited ability to change their source) and notably the combination of APIs you choose. Your core focus should be on the analysis of your own coding layer, adhering to as much of the guidelines for each API as you can...easier said than done.