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Content Management Systems (CMS) can be big or small, simple or complex. Defined, it pertains to a system for managing content. The term Content Management System (CMS) refers to a software package that facilitates automate jobs and information is a certain unit or organization. Look at content as any object that is sent, received,created, stored, or otherwise handled in some way. An effective CMS software should provide a framework upon which to build the elements needed to link humans with such information. According to the website www.cm3cms.com, a good CMS should have following elements:

1. Tools to help build up any kind of content driven web interface

2. Forms management

3. User management

4. Personalisation services, i.e. the ability to point content to individual users and groups

5. Authentication

6. Opening tips for purpose-specific content management applications – e.g. forums, surveys, shops, websites, intranet tools, extranet tools, information input and tracking, etc.

7. Index and search (well, James Robertson outlined this already)

8. Tools to help integration with other data management systems

With CMS, your unit or organization no need to rely on someone else to run or monitor your daily transactions. You can also update, edit and remove your contents whenever and wherever you wish to. There is a standardized content delivery processes to establish consistency of quality. When it comes to comfort, CMS lets you to monitor and reply promptly to users inquiries and demands and grants you global access for content changes. It also allows easy changing of layout, easy delivery of content to various channels and it facilitates you promptly build new web interfaces. The profits don’t just terminate there. With CMS, you can save on the cost of additional manpower or IT outsourcing as you or someone else in your organization can do the updating of data. It also brings down the requirement for desktop-based content software.

Learn more how CMS Systems together with good Online Marketing Strategies can help boost your business whether new or old!

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E-commerce is defined as the online transaction of business, linking a vendor or seller and a buyer. Various products and services are being offered, but it’s key cornerstones is that the interactions, deal sign-ups and the payment processes happen online. According to www.searchcio.techtarget.com, e-commerce can be split into the following:

E-tailing or “virtual storefronts” on Web sites with online catalogues

Use of demographic information through Web contacts

Electronic Data Interchange (EDI)

Business-to-business buying and trading (B2B)

A primary facet of e-commerce is online shopping. Online shopping was actually started by Michael Aldrich in 1979. E-commerce has earned a foothold in the today’s world. Almost in each corner of the globe, people have accepted the advancing importance of e-commerce. It led to the development of electronic funds transfer, supply chain management, internet marketing, online transaction processing, electronic data interchange (EDI), inventory management systems, and automated data collection systems.

1. Electronic funds transfer – is the computer-based systems that are used to execute electronic financial transactions.

2. Supply chain management – is the management of integrated businesses involved in rendering products and services to consumers.

3. Internet marketing – is simply put, the marketing of products through the Internet.

4. Online transaction processing – is employed to facilitate and manage transaction-oriented applications through data entry and processing.

5. Electronic data exchange – this is the transmission of data between companies or organizations over electronic means.

6. Inventory management systems – it is electronically tracking objects or materials through the use of barcodes, or other automatic identification for the inventory of objects.

Electronic commerce carried on between business is generally named B2B or business-to-business. Meanwhile, electronic commerce carried on between businesses and consumers is called B2C. E-commerce actually falls under the umbrella of e-business and also covers data exchange for the facilitation of the financial and payment part of business deals and transactions.

Find out more about E-Commerce principles and how you can boost your Company Sales with different Online Marketing strategies.

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Internet programmers have adopted PHP web development as a de-facto standard. PHP’s power lies in the ability to generate complete web pages or parts of pages as HTML code that can be rendered by browsers. This as-requested HTML can contain up-to-date information that static HTML coded pages cannot deliver. It is almost like the web server has an almost infinite number of HTML pages.

HTML can store tiny snippets of data on the user’s system for retrieval later. With PHP web development techniques programmers can use that bit of stored data as a key to information stored on a server-based database. This information is then used to generate a page customized for each user and each visit. This power of PHP web development is responsible for the interesting and user-friendly internet of today.

Using PHP web development, programmers are constantly finding new ways to interact with users. Users become regular visitors to dynamic sites, knowing that each visit will provide new and interesting content. Web-based businesses rely heavily on PHP web development to keep an active user base. Active users mean more revenue – either through advertising or direct sales.

With web-based businesses popping up constantly most of the user interaction relies on PHP web development. Customers can check databases to see if a particular product is available, place an order make a payment and arrange shipment – all with out any human involvement. Orders are recorded, databases are updated and verification emails sent to customers thanks to PHP web development.

Since PHP web development is so deeply intertwined in the recent growth of the internet the technology will exist for years to come. PHP is a very active and evolving language. New functionalities are being incorporated constantly and new technologies are embraced by the PHP community. PHP web development will be a vital component in future web activities worldwide.

Emerging concepts such cloud-based applications are already part of the PHP toolset. Integrated development tools for PHP web development have appeared on the scene making PHP web development even easier.

Visit the Macresource Computer Training website for courses on PHP and MySQL in London and UK wide or call 0800 1950 502.

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The main challenge in CSS web page layout is positioning blocks of content in different parts of the browser window. The key HTML element used to achieve this is the DIV element (short for DIVISION). The DIV element is pure vanilla: it has no inherent properties or sub-elements (unlike the TABLE element which was originally used for web page layout). It is a block element which can contain any web page content, including other DIVs.

Typically, when using CSS for page layout, related elements within the HTML page are placed within the same DIV. For example, there might be a DIV containing a logo or banner, another containing navigation links, another containing the main content of the page, and so on. Another common practice is to place all DIVs inside an outer or wrapper DIV which acts as the overall container for the page content. Key attributes such as width and alignment can then be applied to this wrapper.

The main DIVs that are being used for page layout will normally be given a unique ID; for example, div ‘id=”leftCol”‘. IDs can only occur once within an HTML page and can therefore be referred to in the CSS code; for example ‘#leftCol…’. Some subordinate DIVs (i.e. those contained within the main DIVs) will share attributes with several other DIVs on the page. These will be defined as a class in both the HTML page; e.g. ‘div class=imageLeft’ and in the CSS style sheet; e.g. ‘.imageLeft…’.

If you are using a wrapper DIV, as is usually the case, you will generally set its width to the overall width you want your page content to occupy. The width that you choose will depend on the typical monitor resolution used by your anticipated audience. The lowest common denominator is probably 800 x 600 pixels but many designers are now assuming 1024 x 768. Bear in mind that these pixel dimensions represent the entire screen. The actual web content will occupy only some of this. For this reason, designers usually use a width of 760 pixels when targeting the smaller resolution and 950 pixels when targeting the larger.

In CSS, there are two basic ways of specifying the width you want your content to occupy: using a fixed measurement or using percentages. Using pixels to specify the width you want your content to occupy offers you more control over your design but it can be inconvenient for visitors to your website. If their monitors are larger than your specified width, there will be a lot of wasted space. Those whose monitors are not as wide as your content will have to constantly scroll left and right to read your pages and who can blame them if they lose patience and go elsewhere. Percentage-based design is often referred to as liquid in that the content will simply readjust to fill as much of the available space as you specify.

The writer of this article is a developer and trainer with Macresource Computer Training, an independent computer training company offering ASP.NET Classes in London and throughout the UK.

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When you have a website in mind that you want to set up, there are numerous ways of doing it. Most people who are beginners use HTML because it is easier, but if you want to do more with your website and have more interactive features, then you will need to use PHP web development.

When you are starting out with web site development, you will find that the easiest type of site to build is an HTML site. This is why this is the best place to start with your skills. You do not want to jump straight into learning PHP or Flash, these are the more complicated ones.

When you think about the kind of design you want for your website, you will find that most of the more complicated ones will only work with PHP and perhaps some other difficult programs. The best thing to do when you are creating your own website is to get a PHP tutorial.

It all depends on the type of website you want to build as to how detailed you need the PHP tutorial to be. You can use the PHP scripts for many different things and build the best kinds of interactive websites. You can choose if you want to use flash with this or if you want to add any other elements in the coding.

When you have gone through as many PHP tutorials and guides as possible, you will need to practice a lot as well, so that you can get the hang of everything.

You might need to test out a few different websites so that you can see how you do and where you can improve your PHP web skills.

The writer of this article is a training consultant with Macresource Computer Training, a UK IT training company offering ASP.NET Classes at their central London training centre.

Posted under Software

If you are new to PHP web development then a few little known tips can help your process greatly as well as avoid a few mistakes. PHP development uses a scripting language to create web pages and web applications. PHP actually stands for hypertext preprocessor and PHP pages can be used on most serves as the vast majority is configured to accept and use PHP based web pages.

Because PHP is a Linux based code it can be easier to develop the PHP web page on a Linux operating system. While this is not essential it can be easier. The main problems that arise when using a Windows based code on a Linux because Linux is case sensitive and Windows is not. Many times your application may not work properly when you put it on the web server.

The big problem when not developing your page on a Linux system is the fact that Linux is case sensitive while Windows is not. This means if you have upper and lowercase letters in your links they might not work when you have transferred everything over to a Linux system or server. It will then take more time as you need to go through everything to fix the problem.

It is also advisable that you use CVS or SVN. This will save different versions so you can go back and restore older versions of your website. This is important if you should change something and it is not as good or doesn’t work.

Instead of having to undo the code you can go back to an earlier saved version. Many times SVN is used when more than one person is working on a web site.

If you are just starting to use PHP to develop your web page then creating the application in the same environment as the web server can make the whole process a lot easier as can being able to access older versions of your web page.

The writer of this article is a training consultant with OnSiteTrainingCourses.Com, a UK IT training company offering PHP and MySQL Classes at their central London training centre.

Posted under Software

One of the simplest ways of displaying databound data on an ASP.NET web page is to add a GridView control. The GridView can be created simply by opening the Database Explorer and dragging the table or view that from which you want to display information. However, the default GridView which is automatically generated in this way almost always needs some tweaking. One typical change you may want to make is to change some of the BoundFields elements to TemplateFields elements.

By default, the GridView displays data using the BoundField object which displays data from a given column in the data source with no real modification. By contrast, any content you desire can be placed inside a TemplateField element. This makes it ideal for setting up validation through the use of validation controls.

TemplateFields may contain static HTML/CSS, ASP.NET web server controls as well as databinding statements. They also offer great flexibility by allowing you to include a variety of templates to cater for the different states of the conditions arising within the GridView. There are several types of template which may be added inside a TemplateField object; the main ones are described below.

The HeaderTemplate provides a way of customizing the information which will be displayed in the header of the column in which the TemplateField is located.

Use the ItemTemplate to hold the information which you want displayed for each row of data when the GridView object is not selected for editing.

The EditItemTemplate is used to display the information which you want displayed for each row of data when the GridView object is in edit mode. It is here that you would place the controls necessary for validation.

Most of the time, information currently held in the database is displayed by adding a TextBox control inside the EditItemTemplate and databind it to the appropriate column from the data source using a statement like Bind(“FirstName”). Inside the same EditItemTemplate, you would then place the necessary validation control. For example, if you want to ensure that the field is not left blank when the form is submitted, you would insert a RequiredFieldValidator control.

Author is a developer and trainer with Macresource Computer Training, a UK IT training company offering ASP.NET training courses in London and throughout the UK.

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Although there are a number of tools available to create dynamically generated web pages, PHP Web Development is very widely used. It is a reverse acronym that stands for Hypertext Preprocessor and was originally developed in the mid-1990’s by a programmer named Rasmus Lerdorf.

Ever since its official launch in’98 after being re-developed and tweaked for a number of years, it has undergone many different changes. PHP is a scripting language that uses embedded HTML. One of the reasons that it is so widely used could be due to the fact that is very compatible with a number of servers, unlike other computer programming languages.

When Rasmus Lerdorf created the PHP in the’90’s, it was not as good as it is today. PHP has had many improvements and is now one of the top used applications for its purpose.

Its crude beginnings opened the door to an advanced program that can do multiple tasks. Since its creation, it has undergone many graphics and commands improvements and currently has five versions. Type of application used for web development can be used in almost all operating systems, and can be used on most servers. This software is usually free and can be found on the internet.

It can be used on many different types of servers and almost all types of operating systems. The free software has undergone multiple changes since its inception, and has a number of functions and extensions written into it. One of the known problems with PHP is security, although recent versions have tools enclosed to decrease the risks.

One of the favored languages that help with applications or for web page design is the popular PHP web development. This software not only creates dynamic applications, with each version there is something added to enhance the performance.

The author is a training consultant with TrainingCompany.Com, a UK IT training company offering PHP Classes at their central London training centre.

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One of the easiest ways to understand Ajax is to get an idea of what you can achieve with it, what it can do for your web development. Principally, Ajax can help you develop web pages and websites that function and respond like desktop applications. The Ajax technology achieves this by working away in the background, grabbing data from a server and then displaying it as it’s needed. As internet access speeds continue to increase, there will come a time when the user will not be able to perceive any difference between the performance of a web application and that of regular desktop software.

So, if you are already engaged in web development but have not started to delve into the world of Ajax, now is a good time to seriously consider finding some form of Ajax training.

Ajax-powered webpages differ from classic server-side pages in one important regard: with the classic page, to retrieve data from the server, the user normally has to submit information via the form and then wait for the page to reload and display a set of search results. With Ajax, interaction with the server can take place in a much more subtle manner, often without a form having to be submitted or the page having to reload.

The term Ajax is short for Asynchronous JavaScript and XML and Ajax involves the use of several web technologies. First of all, we have HTML and CSS, the raw material of which web pages are constructed. HTML defines the structure of the page content while CSS controls the layout and formatting of those elements. Next, we have XML data sources residing on a server. XML is a neutral standard for describing and storing information. Then there is JavaScript, the main scripting language used to add interactivity to web pages, which is used to fetch data from XML sources and use it to update the web page.

The XMLHttpRequest object plays a key role in the way that JavaScript implements Ajax. It is used to send requests to the server without the need of refreshing the page. The key feature of this process is that it is asynchronous. This means that when a request is made for data from the server, the browser doesn’t need to wait for the data to come back. Therefore the page continues to function and when the data has been retrieved, the necessary parts of the page are updated.

If you are a web developer looking to expand you skill-set, look no further than Ajax. Ajax training will definitely enable you to take your web development expertise to a new level.

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Dreamweaver CS4 is a very widely used web development tool which allows users to work both visually and in code. It has the reputation of allowing newbie developers to become productive very quickly. However, like all software, there is a learning curve to negotiate. So, what is the best way of learning this must-have piece of software?

A textbook can supply you with all of the HTML codes that you might need for web design. It can list every possible command that you could execute in a program like Adobe Dreamweaver. It can even help you to get an understanding of the different parts of the program by definition. However, it will never teach you to use the program properly. What you need is a training program that offers a hands-on solution, allowing you to learn by example and through experience, rather than by merely reading and memorizing information, commands, and codes. Books are only useful if they are combined with adequate training and actual hands-on experience. In and of themselves, they are practically useless for learning how to use computer programs.

Adobe Dreamweaver training will allow you to see things firsthand. This will let your brain make a much better connection between the program’s commands and what they do than a list of definitions ever will. Interactive training adds that element of seeing and doing at the same time, which can make you a better web designer. Dreamweaver training video tutorials, for example, can show you a real person using the actual program you’re trying to learn, making the association between knowing and doing much easier than a textbook ever could. Also, you can look for courses that offer tutorials and one-on-one interaction, which can give you another level of understanding and assistance in learning the product.

Whether you plan to become a professional or are just learning for fun, the training software for Adobe Dreamweaver will prove to teach you much, much more than a book ever could. Even if you just want to know just the basics, you can learn them quickly, and get on to designing and building websites, and spend less time memorizing facts and lists of commands that might not be very useful to you until you make the connection. The human brain tends to like pictures and examples better than useless, memorized information, so give it what it wants, and you’ll learn that much faster.

Computers have given us a whole new world with which to work. Using training software to learn the proper operation of computer programs is not a new concept. People have been doing hands-on learning with computer software for a good few years now, and it makes the process much easier for everyone involved. If you want the best, most effective way of learning and enjoying the web design process, you need to get involved with the training software and forget about the books.

Posted under Software