Forms are the engine that drive user interactivity on the Web. We see them everywhere — they are the meat of eCommerce Web sites and online surveys, and simple versions of forms are common on “Contact Us” pages. Some forms are easy to make, using basic HTML, online form builders, or plugins for platforms like WordPress. But there are other applications for Web forms — including some applications for which you might not initially think a form is the answer — that require a custom solution with custom programming. This article describes a project in which we created a form-based system for generating contracts for a private school’s Independent Study Program. This system, housed within the existing password-protected Intranet/Administrative area of the school’s Web site, automates and streamlines the process of generating contracts, minimizing the need for manual calculations and eliminating most, if not all, of the opportunities for user error.
MySQL
Update MySQL table using subquery, Excel data
If you’re a developer like me who builds custom database-driven Web sites and Web applications, you don’t necessarily create a user-maintainable content management system (CMS) for absolutely everything you build. In this article, I’m going to show you a simple and practical low-tech solution for adding content from your clients for database-driven content for which you did not build a CMS. The only tools you need for this solution are Microsoft Excel and SQL (in my case, the MySQL flavor).
Case Study: Emergency Notice Banner for Hybrid Web site
In December of 2012, in anticipation of school closings, late openings, or early dismissals due to extreme weather, the head of Eaton Academy asked me to implement an emergency announcement banner that would appear on all pages of Eaton’s Web site. The challenge was that the Web site is a hybrid: the main section of the site was custom built, while the blog section was built on WordPress. This case study describes the approach we took to solve the problem. I think this project is a good example of how easily WordPress can be hooked into.
How to create 323 unique landing pages with Pretty URLs – from just one page
The Challenge nSiteful Client Jay Maurice operates a music instruction business called Lessons In Your Home. At this writing, the business has over 200 active music teachers in eight major U.S. markets. Jay wanted to optimize his email marketing and pay-per-click advertising campaigns by having a customized landing page for each market and each instrument […]
PHP OOP Virtual Study Group?
Any takers? Lemme explain. I’m trying to dive into OOP in PHP. If you are, too – or if you happen to enjoy teaching others what you already know – maybe this is for you.
Get From Foreigner (utility function)
In your PHP/MySQL applications, have you ever had to get values from a table based on the value of a foreign key in another table? Of course you have! Let me put it this way: Let’s suppose… Suppose you have a database of students and their families. Further suppose each student in the “students” table […]