When I first started with PHP, my starting point was the PHP.NET home page. That got me the manual, the installation guide and release code. But now that the site has evolved beyond a single page and some easy functionality, it’s time for more heavy duty tools and frameworks to help better maintain the website.
Check out the php tool lists maintained by SmashingMagazine . Other than PHP they’ve even got some cool lists on AJAX, Javascript and CSS! I’ll probably ruin my workstation config installing trying out all of this stuff, but I’ll keep you posted on which make it to the Top10Reads toolbox!
One of the biggest pieces on the Top10Reads site is the search bar. Being a Google fan, I really wanted my search to work the same way as theirs. After researching a bit, I found that there are lots of other sites that have implemented the search text box the same way as Google. As a user types the search box drops down a list of suggested keywords. This helps the user find the search term they are looking for quite easily. The technology used is AJAX. So with my rudimentary AJAX knowledge I went ahead an implemented it. Or tried to.
Well, the results did drop down. But that’s about it. And now I appreciate the Google Search bar much more for the work that has gone in to it.
There’s tons of links and web resources on this. Most of it was terrible or used proprietary libraries (which meant that you need to download some big javascript libraries that other folk wrote). In the end I found a Wrox book , Professional Ajax, 2nd Edition (Programmer to Programmer)
, that provided a fantastic description of this. BTW – parts of this particular chapter happen to be available on Google Book search - check out Chapter 8.