PHP Development Benefits and CMS Solutions

PHP Web Development saves a lot of money and hence offers the best options for creating a website for startups.

PHP or Hypertext Preprocessor is popular as a scripting programming language also boasting of highly dynamic web pages. The PHP is open source which is one of the main reasons for its popularity. It offers multiple benefits as a web development tool.

There are various offshore software development projects which are outsourced to India since the costs incurred are low and the overall quality is good too. There are many software packages based on PHP which consist of Joomla, Drupal, Magento and the like.

More than 20 million domains house PHP and that list includes Wikipedia and Facebook which are some of the most popular sites in the world! Here are some tips for PHP developers for making optimum utility of PHP applications

1. Use PHP Core Functions - Never create functions that are already there so creating them from the base will be useless effort. One can make use of the existing functions and classes and then incorporate snippets in the main code.

2. Create Configuration Files - The database connection settings should be set and organized and should include settings so that they can be used in PHP scripts. If multiple constants and functions are used, this approach would help lowering the complexity throughout the script.

3. Sanitize Data - SQL injections should be used in more places than one so that database inputs are sanitized for code protection from unwarranted compromises. By being aware of SQL injection attacks, the code will be secured and there are functions which can protect your site from any cross-site scripting attacks.

4. Error Reporting Should Always be Turned On - Turn on error reporting so that run time errors can be better sorted out during the development stage itself

5. Don’t Over-Comment - Proper documentation of codes with comments is good but never over-comment or it would appear cluttered and messy. Coding should be self-explanatory and should have sensible naming convention so that comments are not required at all.

Open source CMS and other software packages are the best tools for building websites at low costs. They are free yet extremely effective. Here are some of the effective PHP solutions available:

• WordPress CMS is a highly effective open source blog publishing application which is popular and user-friendly since it is easy and simple to use. The template system is advanced too.
• Joomla is a perfect open source system and honored with various awards. You can build and customize fantastic apps and dynamic websites easily.  Joomla is a user-friendly CMS that has a content management system which is easy to manage and can be handled by a non-techie too.
• Drupal is a popular open source content management system which has good admin console and modules for theme and appearance customization. Routine tasks can be set easily one can easily get access to source code of any website when one wants to check how the final result is done.
• Magento is a superb ecommerce development platform based on PHP Web Application Development which provides online merchants with superb flexibility and control in online dealings and transactions. The look, content and functionality of the e-store is flexible to change and one can have all types of payment gateways as needed.

Magento with PHP development is perfect for e-commerce systems

There are several e-commerce solutions in the industry but it is Magento which is perfect for creating e-commerce systems and because of its various features.

Among various eCommerce solutions, Magento is well-known in the development arena and online businesses. It boasts of great features related to the management of different activities and serves well for the admin as well as the user. Magento is a popular open source eCommerce solution and available for developers under the General Public License.

Magento is said to provide a perfect professional environment to online businessmen and boasts of high performance ability for the corporate world. There are many experienced Magento developers who are experts in the field and willing to innovate and provide revolutionary enhancements to their clients. Partly, credit goes to Magento as it inspires innovation!

With Magento, one gets an easy-to-use admin system and a single page check out feature. There are several other features which are helpful to an e-commerce system including shipping to multiple addresses, SEO, standard and equal price change check and simultaneous administration of multiple sites. There are many web development companies especially in offshore locations which provide Magento services including custom design templates development, shopping cart design and development and payment module development.

There are several business benefits associated with Magento development since the PHP Web Development package can help you to create an online store easily and also set up organized merchandising & business promotion options. Magento boasts of great online store functionalities, beautiful themes and incredible multi-store retailing functionality.

Professional Magento store development is required to make the most of the features offered by the PHP package. One can apply script language or code while implementing a website and it works out well most of the times. Here are some of the benefits of Magento for e-commerce site development

• Magento can help you develop a site or web page that is superbly organized and can help you create an ecommerce page which is easy to navigate
• The structure and layout of Magento site is easy to use
• The e-commerce pages are easy to access and use by end-users and that increases the chances of users buying the products from the site. The custom features can be implemented easily too.
• Discount codes can be used for end users which can bring in traffic easily
• One can save time by adding multiple products to the shopping cart at a time thus helping the users to complete the shopping quick and easy.

There are several features offered by Magento which makes it easy or developers to create effective ecommerce sites. Visitors find it easy to find and search products of their search due to the simple but attractive catalog of products that is laid out. One need not go through all items before landing on a particular product. The search functionality stands out compared to other PHP Software Development features that other packages offer.

 In an ecommerce site, the number of orders always changes and even the price might go up and down based on the demand and supply. One can make the necessary changes in a jiffy. One can handle customers easily with Magento and with inbuilt search engine optimization features; it is easy to bring in web traffic to the site.

Use of Open Source Development Tools and Technologies

Open Source Development Tools have swamped up the IT world with adept options which don’t require licensing or any upfront fee. What are the trends here, let’s have a look.

Every business needs different types of software applications for running their business. One might have a word processing solution or accounting software or even an ERP/CRM solution, according to the demands of the business. Now with the advent of the open source tools and technologies, many companies who are facing financial crunch and a reduction in budgets, find it extremely handy to use any of the open source tools. One of the best repositories of open source applications is SourceForge.

The quality of all software differs what is available may vary. It's a good idea to look for software with a lot of users, as there'll be a large community who can provide help and support. Popular software also makes it likely that there will be commercial support and training services. See the page in this guide on training and support options for open source software.

There are many different types of open source tools and software available to different consumers. Different platforms are used for different programs useful for writing text, for designing, video editing and even networking. The tools are designed for clients and are usually tailored according to their needs. Alternatively some organizations create open source tools which can be customized by non-developers.

The licensing of the products is a major influential factor for creating open source programs. Some of the versions are completely free to the public with basic features while some give out full-fledged programs for free, by making money out of advertisements and tailored add-ons or voluntary donations. Some of the tools are trademarked and controlled by the root source while some are used as a form of service which is on a temporary basis. The open source software is not a cheap version of a commercially available program but always a low-cost alternative for those who cannot afford to house paid products.

One equates people behind open source software to be selfless in their work and working for the greater good of the people rather than after financial goals. Even if there are commercial interests behind many of the projects, the results have been fantastic for many. Though some of them do not even advanced functionalities in their domain, they are serviceable.

There are Open Source Web Development operating systems including mobile platforms like Google’s own Android platform which is free and open for all mobile app programmers. The operating systems mostly consist of the Unix file system structure. Users design some platforms for niche domains while there are platforms like the Solaris platform which are available for workstations. These platforms are great replacements for general operating systems which are sold upfront or licensed including Microsoft Windows.

PHP Frameworks and its Various Features

A good PHP framework Development helps a developer to swiftly develop a PHP application and breaks down complex components into simple ones.

Here is a list of great PHP frameworks which delivers what it promises, to the average developer:

1. CodeIgniter
CodeIgniter is a powerful and efficient PHP framework which is built especially for PHP coders for creating full-featured web applications.

2. CakePHP
CakePHP is a PHP development framework which provides a scalable and extensible architecture for development, maintenance and deployment of innovative applications.

3. Symfony
 Symfony works as a full-stack framework and a library of PHP5 classes which provides a comprehensive architecture and tools for PHP developers for building mind-blowing applications. One can host and scale the applications without any hassle and maintain them without any problem.

4. Prado
Prado is an efficient component-based programming framework which is driven by events. It is highly efficient in developing PHP Web apps. Prado is the acronym of PHP Rapid Application Development Object-oriented.

5. Qcodo
Qcodo is an object-oriented PHP framework that ensures for a rapid application development process. Iterations can be completed quickly which give way to cohesive solutions. These solutions propel the prototypes to the next level by ensuring application maturity.

6. Zend Framework
This framework is secure, reliable, and consistent with the modern Web 2.0 age. All its apps and services are widely available and the APIs are used by some of the biggest companies including Google, Amazon, Yahoo! and the like.

7. Akelos
Akelos is a unique web application development platform which is based on MVC (Model View Controller). It helps the developers to write views using Ajax and for creating control requests through a controller.

8. evoCore
evoCore is the heart of the b2evolution blog app and a freely available PHP-based framework which is dual licensed. One can use the framework under the widely popular GNU GPL license or the Mozilla MPL license.

9. Seagull
Seagull is an extremely mature object-oriented programming framework which helps developers to create GUI and web applications. One can integrate and manage code resources and also build complex apps quickly and easily.

10. Zoop
The Zoop Framework is contains diverse components integrated from some existing PHP frameworks like Smarty, JS Framework, and a number of modules from the Pear framework.

11. php.MVC
php.MVC has an MVC design pattern which allows the web page to be mostly separated from the internal code thus making it fairly easy for designers and programmers to focus on design and code in separate measures.

12. AjaxAC
AjaxAC is highly efficient open-source framework which can help developers to create AJAX applications using the XMLHttpRequest object optimally to change the existing web page state with the help of background HTTP sub-requests without the need for web page reload. The framework is available under the Apache License v2.0 terms and conditions.

13. xAjax
xAjax is a fantastic open source PHP class library which helps PHP developers to create Ajax apps making the best possible use of HTML, CSS and JavaScript.

14. Kohana
Kohana is a secure, light and easy to use PHP 5 framework which uses the MVC architectural pattern for creating applications.

PHP-based content management systems

Content management systems are extremely popular today because most of the CMS features make it easy for any company in the internet world to showcase his or her services. PHP-based CMS are the most popular of the whole lot of open source systems.

A typical Content Management System helps its users to publish, edit and delete content from the admin system which can be easily done. Knowledge of HTML makes it even easier for anybody to make changes to the whole content layout and its look and feel.

Here are some of the PHP-based content management systems which are extremely popular in the world today

WordPress

WordPress is an extremely powerful CMS which was first designed as a blogging platform. But after a period of time, using some tricks and plugins, WordPress has become a complete CMS solution. It is preferred by many individuals and corporate companies for their use.

Drupal

Drupal is a modular framework in terms of a Content Management System and one of the most popular PHP systems in the world. It is a useful back-end system for a number of websites worldwide, and can control sites including blogs and even dynamic websites. Currently, even the most popular websites are based on Drupal.

Joomla

Joomla has won a lot of awards related to content management system (CMS) for its innovative features which helps developers to create powerful online applications. Joomla is easy to use and extensible making it the most popular website software. It is freely available too!

Mambo

Mambo is a full-featured CMS that can be used for creating simple to complex websites. Mambo has lot on popularity to Joomla but some sites still run on this CMS solution today.

Concrete5

Concrete5 is a fantastic open source content management system with a not-so-complex admin interface. The CMS solution has a unique facility in which you can edit a web page live by using the editing option as an administrator. This feature is quite rare in a CMS solution.

Textpattern

PHP developers utilize Textpattern which requires PHP 4 to run. The CMS solution was well known for its plugins and could be customized and tailored according to specific needs.

Symphony is a popular CMS solution that uses XML/XSLT for its language. The solution is easy to customize anything including the URL structure and add it to the publishing environment. It is difficult for a non-programmer to use the solution though.

MODx

MODx is one of the interesting PHP application frameworks which is used as a content management system and was one of the earlier PHP systems to offer an API that could support AJAX. What’s more, MODx is SEO friendly to the core and allows SEO engineers to edit the meta content of a webpage.

Habari Project

Habari was a popular blogging platform based on PHP framework. It is perfectly written for the web hosting environment and supports modern OOP techniques.

CMS Made Simple

CMS Made Simple is a custom PHP framework and consists of a lot of modules. The CMS is completely easy to implement, even for a newbie.

Jojo CMS

Jojo is a SEO-friendly CMS based on PHP which helps its developers to extend its functionalities. It helps the user to add incredible number of product databases, blogs, galleries or any other widget.

LAMP and the demand of PHP Development Services in the Cloud!

There are many upcoming companies who provide complete web development services based on the LAMP platform which is immensely popular nowadays. These services provide a plethora of benefits to our clients who are willing to shell a reasonable amount of money. Most of the offshore software development companies hire developers and engineers who are experts in open source technology and you can find expert in different parts of LAMP technology including Linux, PHP, MySQL and Apache. Linux is one of the most effective operating systems, Apache is a fantastic web server, MySQL is a popular database server whereas PHP is a popular open source programming language. By integrating these four diverse technologies, LAMP is formed which brings the best out of every website.

There are various advantages of deploying PHP applications on the cloud including Premium vendor support, absolute control on capacity usage, and a simplified instance creation.

A cloud deployment can address and solve many problems that affected PHP Developers all the time. Cloud deployment of PHP applications is useful because:

• The cloud can help you document the deployment steps easily and even set up the required test configuration which actually can bring down the number of errors during deployment.
• The cloud also encourages innovation and gives absolute freedom to develop innovative concepts which enhance the main code branch but have the least impact on existing configurations.
• One can easily address performance problems and even test out some theories without having to do any major changes. The cloud can be used to run tests which can be recorded for evaluation.
• Your project can be enhanced drastically with PHP and with the cloud it is easy to replicate the user's environment and then even test and validate its working, including detection of bugs and removing them.
• The Cloud even helps developers to build on existing skills of PHP for implementing the language in the cloud for technical documentation

It is beneficial to have a cloud deployment for PHP applications in place since the idea has a broad value, and cloud deployment needs to be conveyed to innumerable number of PHP users. Continuous changes are being brought into the overall working methodology that is prevalent in offshore companies. The requirements can be met easily for any application but the concept should be made known clearly. Additionally, it is important to choose the right implementation partner or a senior developer, who possess good knowledge about cloud deployment too.

Elan Emerging Technologies is an Offshore Software Development Company provides PHP Development and ASP.NET Development services. We have skilled ASP.NET Programmer and PHP Developers who provides best solutions for your website needs.

All you can do with Lamp Development

Lamp development is one of the most flexible open source platforms used for web application development. It is widely used for organizing database. With its advance features, it has won the hearts of web developers. Lamp development is of great help when it comes to creating a comprehensive database that can be traced, organized and is secured, too. It has served to be an effective solution because it gives developers the freedom to perform plenty of activities in website design. It gives the ability to design database and web pages that are creative. Thus, being user-friendly it has now become of the preferred choices for web designers.

We at http://www.elantechnologies.com provide complete solution to offshore LAMP development. With our years of industry experience and expertise we work together to help you achieve goals.

Open Source Customization with PHP Development

What do look for, in a website? Nowadays, open source CMS and software packages are the best ways to build up a website at low costs. These are available for free and extremely effective. PHP is the widely used scripting language and there are many packages which come up with new and effective templates which can be used as needed.

PHP is part of the LAMP bundle which is an effective alternative to other commercial software for high performance systems. Some of the applications which are in vogue under PHP Development are WordPress CMS is a highly effective and efficient open source blog publishing application which is finding its niche as a Content Management System. It is popular because it is extremely user-friendly and its architecture is very simple. It has a huge and advanced template system in place. The best feature is the ease of use in managing the content.

Joomla is one of the better open source systems in place which has won multiple awards. You can build and customize different types of applications along with dynamic websites easily.  Joomla is again, a highly user-friendly CMS that easily allows users to manage their overall content. Your websites can be managed easily by a non-techie who is unaware of the technical details of web development. The main advantage of Joomla CMS is that it is extremely easy for anybody and everybody to manage content.

Drupal ‘s open source content management system (CMS) is based on different modules for administrators who can manage content and customize the theme and appearance. The admin can manage and set routine tasks. Drupal is one of the rare open source frameworks which can easily allow for any user with easy access to source code of the website for free.

Magento is also a popular open source ecommerce development platform based on PHP MySql Development which provides online merchants with amazing features along with superb flexibility and control. One can easily change the look, content and functionality of their store and integrate it with a variety of payment gateways as needed.

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PHP application development: get it executed

PHP is a scripting language which is widely used for web development and for creating dynamic and interactive web pages. It is a scripting language that is deployed on the web server without any extra cost. It’s a free and open source technology that runs on Windows, Linux and various other UNIX platforms. Moreover, PHP Development has a vast community. So if in case you get stuck in between you will get the required support. Plenty of open source applications such as Joomla, Drupal, and Wordpress are available. This overall reduces the development cost by almost 50% to 60%.

Elantechnologies.com specializes in PHP application development company with a team of PHP developers who understands the importance of your needs. With our expertise we offer excellently carved solutions that helps in increasing the value of your business.

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Reap the benefits from PHP Development

Considered as one of the most popular widely used technologies, PHP is a secured and an open source, framework that has taken the web based application development to new heights. It helps in creating a web based application that has charming features and an integrated database. Moreover, PHP doesn't work within any specified framework. This programming language is beneficial for both web developers and owners.

Below listed are a few more benefits that can be availed with PHP development:

• PHP needs less coding
• Gives safe apps
• Better performance
• Easy to load
• SEO friendly and a much more.

Dedicated programmers at www.elantechnologies.com provide best web development solutions and have a team of developers who understand you requirements and provide you with correct solution.

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Getting Started With PHP Development: Tips for the PHP Developer

If you're just taking your first steps into PHP Development, here are some things that I would like to share:

1. Use PHP Core Functions and Classes

For common tasks, there are chances that there is already an existing PHP function or class that can be used for your present task. Check the PHP manual before starting coding manually. You can just use the trim() function if you want to remove the white space instead of creating a function from scratch!

2. Create a Configuration File

Instead of scattering your database connection settings scattered everywhere, create one master file that contains the overall settings and utilized them in PHP scripts. Using a config file is also a pattern that many use and which makes your code more modular and easy to maintain.

3. Always Clean up Data That Will Go into Database

Sanitizing your database inputs is very important. One needs to have a good understanding of what SQL injections actually are, and learn about SQL injection attacks and SQL injection cheat sheet.

There is a PHP function that can clean up the database for you: mysql_real_escape_string. mysql_real_escape_string

The function will take a regular string and sanitize it for you. If you use the function along with htmlspecialchars, it converts some reserved HTML characters and thus safeguard your database and your app against cross-site scripting attacks.

4. Leave Error Reporting Turned On in Development Stage

When building your application, it is essential for the PHP Developer to leave error_reporting and display_errors turned on which can facilitate him or her to see run-time errors and identify them.

The reason behind this is simple, you will know the errors cropping up sooner than expected and chances are, that you can fix them quickly. After building the application turn the feature off and then set their values as in it is ready for production.

5. Don't Over-Comment Your Code

Proper documentation of the code with the help of comments is good but do not over-comment them as good code is self-explanatory most of the times. Bad commenting makes your code look unstructured and will make your error fixing task tedious.

6. Keep your Essential Code Snippets Handy

You need some code snippets sometimes which might come in handy more than once in your career. Keeping them always available saves a lot of time. Most IDEs such as Eclipse and Dreamweaver have the ability to store code snippets. Using an app like DropBox will do the needful too!