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Google Waves Goodbye…

Aug 5

Posted by Tom Doyle in Internet & Computers, Web Development

Google Wave
Image via Wikipedia

It’s only been just over a year since Google announced what they believed would be the next generation of communication online. Google Wave was hyped to be one the most amazing developments the Internet had seen since the adoption of email. It was launched at the Google I/O last year to a chorus of “oohhsss” and “aaahhhsss” from the audience of developers and Google enthusiasts.

Although most of us in the industry were excited by the technology demonstrated by Google Wave, there were some of us who didn’t see Google’s vision of Google Wave replacing email. Google Wave for me was always too complicated when compared to email and I could never see a mass uptake of it.

Yes Google Wave certainly had its uses and it was only last week that it was announced Google were pitching Wave as a tool for use with health record management. Maybe I should have spotted the writing on the wall at that stage? Google were clearly losing faith in the system, so much so that they were in the market looking for alternative uses.

It’s sad to see today that Google have officially announced that the development of Google Wave has been ceased. Let’s face it, Google Wave is only out of beta for possibly 2 months or more. You can read more on their blog here :  http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/08/update-on-google-wave.html

It’s great to see a company with massive ambition, but the idea that they could replace email with a more cumbersome and feature rich application just never cut it in my eyes. Email works because it’s simple!

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Content Management Systems – The Choice Is Yours

Aug 4

Posted by Tom Doyle in Web Development

One of the most common questions I am asked is, “What Content Management System (CMS) should I use for my website?”. The short answer is, that there is no short answer and there’s certainly no simple one!

Choosing a CMS really comes down to what it is you need to achieve with your website and what it is that you need to be in control of. There are hundreds of CMSs to choose from, all with their own individual capabilities and functionality. For some, a simple basic CMS will be enough to manage their brochure ware type website, but others require more flexibility and functionality.

A lot of web developers will be able to guide you toward the CMS that they feel suits your requirements best. But in a lot of cases, the web developer will usually suggest a CMS he/she is most comfortable using.

What is a Content Management System (CMS)?

A Content Management System is basically a piece of software that allows non-technical users to manage their website and its content. Through a CMS, website owners have the ability to add text, upload images, videos and documents to their website at their leisure without the intervention of a web designer. A CMS takes away the technical knowledge required to update and manage a website by creating an easy to use interface. With some CMS’s, it can be as easy to create a new webpage on your website as it is to create a new Word document.

Content Management Systems were born in the mid 1990s when web designers, bored with the laborious task of updating massive content heavy websites, decided it was time for change. They went about creating simple systems to help maintain the websites they created for their clients. Originally these systems were built for in-house use only and it was only a matter of time before they realised that there was a market for such a product.

Nowadays, it’s common practice for web design companies to install Content Management Systems (CMS) on all websites they develop. Even if you haven’t request a CMS from your web designer, it’s quite possible they have installed one already… mainly for their own sanity!

Paid vs Free

The first major decision you will be faced with when deciding what CMS you should use is whether you should buy one or use one of the many freely available open source CMS’s.

In the Open Source arena, there are hundreds of free CMS’s . Being free obviously has massive benefits, but it also brings its problems too. Because the software and its core code are freely available, it’s more susceptible to security and hacking holes. For this reason, choosing a CMS that is regularly updated and patched regularly is of key importance.

Generally speaking, CMS’s developed in-house by web development companies will occur an annual license fee. Developers of “off-the-shelf” CMS’s are likely to charge you a one off fee for its use and offer you free updates for one year.

Cost

You shouldn’t assume that because you have chosen to use a free CMS, there will be no costs involved in getting up and running. The simple fact is that there will still be costs associated with getting it integrated with your website. Your web developer is likely charge you for the time it takes to install and integrate the CMS with your website design.

If you have chosen a commercial CMS, some companies may waive the integration fee, but you will still have to pay to get a design capable of working with the CMS itself.

It’s really worth researching the cabilities and functionality of all available CMSs before deciding on which one to you use for your website. Here is small list of some of the most popular CMSs.

Recommended Content Management Systems

Typo3
An enterprise level CMS that offers full flexibility and expendability.  Typo3 is freely available to download and use under the GPL License agreement. Typo3 has a good choice of enterprise extensions and plugins available.

www.typo3.com

Technology: PHP, MySQL, Oracle, Postgres

€FREE (GPL License)

Joomla
Joomla is an award winning content management system. Favoured by a lot of developers for it’s easy installation and management capabilities. Joomla’s biggest downfall is probably its popularity. The fact that so many people use it, makes it more prone to abuse from malicious coders.

www.joomla.com

Technology: PHP, MySQL

Cost: FREE (GPL License)

WordPress
Favoured by bloggers as the tool of choice, it is now fast becoming a popular tool for managing smaller websites.

A huge collection of third party plugins are freely available.

www.wordpress.org

Technology: PHP, MySQL

Cost: FREE (GPL License)

Expression Engine
An affordable Content Management System that is feature rich and flexible.

www.expressionengine.com

Technology: PHP, MySQL

From €250.00

Kentico CMS
Kentico is another flexible solution and favoured by developers who are used to developing Microsoft ASP.NET applications.

www.kentico.com

Technology: ASP.NET, SQL

From €1,990.00

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Creating a new website for your business – should I create my own?

Aug 1

Posted by Tom Doyle in Online Marketing, Web Design, Web Development

Web Design Resolution - Best Screen Size
Image by Hobo! via Flickr

As we all know, a website can be one of the most cost effective tools in your arsenal in terms of promoting your business online. It requires minimal maintenance, operates 24/7 and is your shop window to the world. A good website can win new business for you, while retaining existing customers.

You don’t need to be selling products online for your website to be hugely beneficial to your company. In the past businesses without a fax number weren’t taken seriously, nowadays that applies to businesses who don’t have a website. The added credibility and prestige created by having a good website is worth quite a lot to your business.

Recently, there has been a massive uptake in the number of people trying to create websites for themselves. There are a number of reasons for this, the most obvious one is that people want to try and cut costs. The other reason relates to how technology has improved and someone with good computer skills can create their own website with ease.

But is it a good idea to go this route? The answer to that question isn’t so simple. You see, the beauty of the web is that you can look as big or small as you would like your company to be perceived. You need to decide where you want to position your business.

If your target market is made up of large corporate companies, using a free template web design that you created from hosting companies control panel just isn’t going to cut it. You need to have a website that looks professional, concise and unique. On the other hand, if you want to target your business at the lower end of the scale, one of these cheap/free solutions will suffice.

I always use the high street shop front as an analogy. Which shop would you prefer to go into, the one with the old fashioned, ugly shop front display or the new, fashionable looking alternative? The chances are you will choose the latter first. But some may perceive that shop as being more expensive – which it probably is. So you can see, it’s all about where you want to position your company.

If you still want to position yourself at the lower end of the market, believe it or not, it’s probably still worth paying a professional to do this for you as they have the knowledge and expertise to get these sites up and running quickly and efficiently.

Better still, if you have the budget just pay for a proper web designer to do the job for you – with the right web designer, you will get a better return in the long run.

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WampServer 2.0i – Windows Vista, Apache, PHP & MySQL

Jun 11

Posted by Tom Doyle in Web Development

WAMPSERVER 2.0iI recently had to set up a web development environment on my Windows Vista machine to test a web site we are currently working on. Although I have wrote in the past about how easy it is to install PHP 5 with IIS on Windows Vista, it just didn’t run that smoothly for me this time around. Regardless of what I did, I just couldn’t get it up and running (without spending hours) on my machine. I even tried to get Apache running instead of IIS, but again it was just taking way to long. No matter what I did I just couldn’t get PHP running in conjunction with Apache or IIS. No doubt it was some sort of permissions error, but I didn’t waste my time looking for the exact issue.

No, instead I ran a Google search to find a “WAMP” installation tool. The first one I found was WampServer 2.0i and I was instantly impressed. Not only was it a painless install that took less than a minute, it installed everything I needed. With one installation, I had Apache, PHP and MySQL all running smoothly on my Windows Vista machine.

Even better still, it also gave me the ability to install multiple versions of critical services such as PHP, MySQL and even Apache. This is a web developers dream, it means that you no longer have to downgrade you working version in order to work on an old site built on say an old version of PHP. There are many other excellent features, as well as many extensions to the product freely available for download.

If you’re having trouble getting a web development environment working on your Windows Vista (or others) – I suggest you download this before wasting your time going the manual route!

DOWNLOAD HERE : http://www.wampserver.com/en/

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HTML5 – What’s it all about and why should I care?

Jun 10

Posted by Tom Doyle in Internet & Computers, Web Design, Web Development

In the wonderful world of the Internet and web development, techies love creating the latest buzzwords. But it’s the other marketing types who love to latch onto these buzzwords in some vein attempt to sound technical and of course create a new little industry for themselves that irk me a lot.

The “Web 2.0″ buzz term seems to be becoming a little stale in the minds of marketeers, so now they have started to latch onto the latest and greatest development in the world of the web in the shape of HTML 5. We’ve even heard Steve Balmer of the Apple use it as an excuse not to put Adobe Flash on this “i” products. But unlike “Web 2.0″, HTML 5 is actually “something” and not just a concept for marketers to use in their sales speeches.

HTML5 is put simply the next generation of HTML. It is a massive overhaul to once very static and limited mark up language. No longer will we have to rely on third party applications such as Adobe Flash to play videos or even third party javascript to create a WYSIWYG editable form field. From a web designers point of view, this takes away massive headaches. From a web user point of view, it should reduce the number of third party plug-ins required to view a website. There’s so much more to HTML5 that I could easily write a book on it. Suffice to say, it’s definitely an exciting time to be involved in the web industry and be part of this revolutionary change.

Someone posted this image on Twitter today (I’m sorry I can’t remember who you are!) which exlpains it better than I ever could. Even for the non-techie, looking at what features are supported or will be supported by the leading browsers is an interesting read. A lot of people will clearly have to change their browser of choice to be part of this change!

HTML 5 - What is it?

HTML 5 - Click to enlarge!

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