When talking about any kind of server-side language, like PHP or ASP, you will often find the term "database" not too far behind. It is the preferred choice for storing data on the web after all. Another option is to use a text file. The problem with text files is that they are not typically secure, can be easily read, and don't offer any of the features like referential integrity ...
You may or may not have heard about "Lightbox". This script is well known for creating the effect of dimming out a page and showing an element (like a picture or page) in the foreground at full illumination. Against the dark background this makes the element pop as well as disables the background temporarily for the user. The effect is nice for things like photo galleries or showing text snippets. ...
There may be a time in the not so distant future where your employer may ask you do develop a web application which will hook up with a JSON data source. Perhaps you will be like "Uhhhhhh" and have a dumb look on your face. Have no worries, the underground is here to help! Lets use some PHP to generate some JSON code which we will fetch via AJAX and ...
I surf around a lot and like to visit other forums where people ask questions and provide answers. I explore the programming and design forums and often see tons of questions regarding "How do I make a div overlay on Myspace?" Or more importantly, how do they make an div overlay period. What are these overlays? How do you do them? And how might you use them to alter pages ...
One of the most common tasks for a web developer is implementing an AJAX solution to create a more dynamic interface. A common method is to query a database, get some results, parse the results and update the interface without needing to refresh the page. But how do we customize our data, prepare it for some parsing, use the data returned to create something useful? The other day I had ...
"Yes sir, I will take that 10,000 dollar loan. If I pay 100 dollars a month that will be $1200 dollars right there after my first year." Not so fast the bank teller tells you. You still owe us $9383 and some change, not $8800. You have to remember interest and at your monthly compoundings, it adds up! Damn that interest really hits home. Here I thought I had 1200 ...