5 Scripts you should know about when starting a website

August 27, 2007 | 6 Responses

When starting a website, a little coding knowledge goes a long way. But it can also save you a lot of time and money to know if what you need in a website isn’t sitting out there waiting for you. Here are some scripts that have saved me loads of headaches whether it be coding one myself or hiring someone to do it.

Wordpress - Wordpress is arguably the best open-source blogging platform in existance. Written in php, it is a robust blog script with no shortage of features (or extensions) that can be skinned to your liking with ease. It can serve as your entire website in one script. A little CSS and XHTML knowledge are required when it comes to building your own theme. The admin area is very straight forward. Installation requires you to write your own config file, but cpanel can autoinstall Wordpress for you.

Development Status: Production/Stable License: GNU General Public License (GPL)

If you are looking for something with more user input and is also more feature driven, there is another website-in-a-box solution below.

Plogger - Plogger is an open-source image gallery script written in php. They are still currently in beta but the last stable version was tops. It was easily integrated with your existing site’s theme and had plenty of bells and whistles (including a slideshow feature!).

Note: Plogger 3.0 has cause me some problems with integration. They have promised it to be easier to mod and create widgets, though

Development Status: Beta License: GNU General Public License (GPL)

e107 - This is probably one of the best open-source CMS solutions out there. e107 has an impressive set of plug ins that will do almost anything you can think of. You will find it has a very easy admin system and installation is a snap. PHP knowledge isn’t an absolute must but it will always help.

Development Status: Production/Stable License: GNU General Public License (GPL)

phpBB - Quite possibly the most popular open source forum script. It rivals its paid counterpart, Invision Powerboard, on many levels. A lot of the same features are present and, in some ways, are easier to use. Due to the popularity of the script, security can sometimes be an issue. As well can your vulnerability to spam. People who are really really serious about foruming should probably look at one of the paid solutions.

Development Status: Production/Stable License: GNU General Public License (GPL)

and finally… the content management system currently at the top of its’ game…

XOOPS XOOPS is a dynamic open source portal system written in PHP. IT is the ideal tool for developing small to large dynamic community websites, portals, weblogs and much more.

Development Status: Production/Stable

License: GNU General Public License (GPL)

5 Common mistakes made by webmasters today

August 10, 2007 | 0 Responses

Sometime I hang around these “Web Development” sites where these “designers” talk about different things that annoy me. From time to time I lash out at people. Other times I just sit back and blog. Read on if you want to see me get prissy on computers.

Continue reading 5 Common mistakes made by webmasters today…

Year end LISTMANIA

December 23, 2006 | 0 Responses

My first partaking in what seems to be an annual blog tradition. Let me try this.
Top 5 “Glad They Didn’t Make an Album” in 2006
5 - Ryan Malcolm
Ryan Malcolm started a rock band called Low Level Flight. These are the exact words I used to describe his future when he won Canadian Idol. How strange. Unfortunately the band’s first single will be released in January.

4 - Serial Joe
After some research when we realized Serial Joe had been dropped from their label, we discovered that the band had broken up after 7 years together. Did you know they broke up? I guess most music editors passed on covering this story. Can you believe nobody thought this would be earth shattering news?

3 - Celine Dion
Celine is currently under contract straight through ’till 2007 at Ceasar’s Palace. Lucky them.

2 - Avril Lavigne
Avril has announced that she doesn’t want to be a singer anymore and that she wants to act. This must be how a clown’s wife feels when he tells her he’s switching from juggling chainsaws to swallowing swords.

1 - William Shatner
Actually I think I could have gone for some Billy Shatner at some point in the year.. Ah well.

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