Coding

Unless you use a hosted blogging service such as WordPress.com or Blogger, chances are you’ve had to touch the code within your theme or blogging software of choice. For a longtime, I was a big fan of Dreamweaver. But that program is expensive. Once I got sick of the cost, I went out and searched the web for a free alternative. That’s when I stumbled across a piece of software called Aptana Studio. Aptana is opensource software available free of charge and in my mind, comes the closest to mimicking much of what I enjoyed with Dreamweaver such as the ability to perform code suggestions which I find to be very handy when messing around with CSS.

However, there are a couple of things with Aptana that have bothered me so much, I’ve moved on to a new piece of software called Notepad++.

Brownie points awarded to anyone who can guess what this code is part of

It seems like each time I open Aptana, there are 50 new updates I have to install. But the biggest annoyance for me is when I open up a PHP file for editing and try to SAVE THE FILE AS, a dialog box pops up asking me to save it as a project or something to that affect. Saving PHP files is a real pain in the rear.

With Notepad++, the software loads much faster than Aptana and once it does load, I’m not bombarded with news or updates that need to be installed. I don’t do much if any development work so using Notepad++ as a quick and easy editor of PHP and CSS files has worked well for me. The one thing I miss about Aptana is its ability to auto complete code or code suggestions. For example, if I type in the CSS property of background: into Aptana, a drop down list of variables is presented to me that I can click on to finish the statement. So far, I’ve not seen this feature in Notepad++ but if you know how to turn that on (if it exist) let me know.

I received a number of suggestions on Twitter on which code editor I should use but in the end, I’ve decided to go with Notepad++. It’s free, easy to install, and it’s quick to load. If you’re looking for a program to quickly edit code, this one should fit the bill.

Which editor do you use to edit or develop code?

EllisLab Inc., the same group that has created ExpressionEngine, is at it again by providing people with a free and open source PHP framework called CodeIgniter. This open source PHP framework allows users to create PHP-based applications without many of the complaints I already have with PHP. The best part is that you don’t really have to sacrifice anything to utilize this framework, and it has an amazing community behind it.

Overview

For the longest time, one of my main complaints with PHP has been that it isn’t as user friendly as, say, HTML is, for example. Well, that still remains true, but, for now, we have CodeIgniter. What is CodeIgniter? Well, let’s just say that it allows you to avoid quite a few of the complexities with PHP coding, and, instead, allows users to rapidly program applications. Even more importantly, it doesn’t sacrifice speed or functionality to accomplish this.

Simplicity is at the forefront of CodeIgniter’s design. It is really easy and, dare I say, fun to use. I actually feel like I’m using a language that makes a lot more sense than I would have if I was to take on a project with PHP alone. The documentation is fantastic, and while I wish there were more video tutorials available on the CodeIgniter site, they’re enough to show users what is possible with the CodeIgniter framework. I must say, though, the documentation for CodeIgniter has been very helpful.

One of the most difficult parts of PHP programming was the that connecting PHP with MySQL was a pain in the behind. Many times I began projects that utilized a MySQL database, and I usually gave up once I got to the point of tying those two together. This is no longer a problem. There are easy to use functions that allow data to be stored, retrieved, and removed from a database. It still isn’t as easy as I would like it to be, but it is a huge improvement.

One of the other reasons that I like CodeIgniter so much is that it is fast. I certainly haven’t personally put it through its paces, yet, but I am impressed with what I have seen so far.

Finally, I have nothing but good things to say for CodeIgniter’s community. The forums are a great place to ask questions, and there are plenty of people who have posted great tutorials on their sites.

There has been plenty of praise going around for CodeIgniter, and I will yet another to add to that praise.

Issues

CodeIgniter, as much as I like using it, is not perfect. I’ve read plenty of reviews, and most have great things to say about CodeIgniter, but there are some people who notice that some advanced functionality is left out:

What is wrong with Code Igniter you may ask? Well it seems like it is fast because it strips out so much stuff for you. By default there is no support for a layout template in which your views are embedded (although a quick Google brings us to this), and models must be manually loaded. They don’t connect to the DB automatically, so you must also do this. Therefore, you must also close the DB connection.

In CodeIgniter’s defense, I haven’t found any inaccessible functionality, but, then again, I am not doing any crazy advanced stuff quite yet. Also, if you are a PHP coding ninja, you probably would opt to use PHP in its entirety.

[Update: Several people have pointed out that CodeIgniter does not have the aforementioned problem (anymore). I haven’t experienced any of those issues. Other people can talk about that in more detail. This is just a heads-up.]

Potential

I believe that CodeIgniter still has some growing to do, but I also think there is a lot of potential with a framework like this. There are alternatives like CakePHP and Symfony. (Several bloggers have posted great comparisons of each framework.) I will admit that I have not tried those yet (I based my decision to use CodeIgniter from the start by reviews of others), but I am pleased with what I have seen so far, and I am using it to explore PHP further and, potentially, create a custom CMS solution for a site I am working on in my spare time.

Oh, and did I mention that ExpressionEngine 2 is being rebuilt with CodeIgniter? When a company utilizes their own technologies to create products for consumers—all while allowing users to explore and utilize it—this really speaks volumes. It is all pretty cool.

If I happen to try out the other frameworks, I will post my thoughts, but, for now, CodeIgniter works well for all that I want to accomplish.

If you’ve tried CodeIgniter, Symfony, CakePHP, or any other PHP framework, let us know how your experience went.

Until we come up with a better solution, you can convert your code using the following form:
http://www.w3clubs.com/htmlentities.php

Copy and paste the funky conversion characters, and it will appear perfectly in the post.

If you go to your Partners blog list and hit “Get Code” you might notice the template script has changed slightly. Since launching to bloggers we have had quite a bit of feedback so today have implemented suggestions.

The most outwardly noticable difference is now you can choose the alignment of the ads in your sidebar, left, right or center, if you want to. By default it is centered and if you like it that way you do not need to touch a thing. If you do want to change the alignment just look for the part of the code where it says

var align = 'center';

.. and change ‘center’ to read ‘left’ or ‘right’ as appropriate.

Blogger Beta users will also find implementing the code far easier now. Grab the code then in your Blogger control panel go to “template”, “page elements” and add a “html/javascript” element. You do not need a title if you don’t want, just paste the code.

Thanks for all the comments so far and do keep the feedback coming.