PHP & Webdev (was Re: [Techtalk] Website Building Program For Dummies)

[Scott]

Hi Megan-

First off, you have a nice site as well.

>Me, too. Right now, I'm maintaining a corporate site with PHP scripts
>that handle includes and form processing. I hope to expand out and do
>a little database/PHP work.

It truly is a great language.  At my last job I talked them into using it and
getting away from ASP.  I developed an intranet security system for them
using PHP.  It would allow you to require a username/password to access
certain parts of the intranet and it worked as a single login where once the
user logged in for the day it would allow them to access the protected pages
for the rest of the day without having to log in again.  The trick was I had to
protect ASP and PHP pages, one was on an IIS server, the other on an
Apache server.  Lot's of tricks, but it works.

>That sounds awesome! My emphasis in web dev has been separating
>presentation from content in an interesting way. I create HTML
>"shell" pages that contain the look-and-feel and content pages that
>get included in the shells.

That is one of the most important parts and something I am still
guilty of, especially when a client says I NEED IT NOW, the temptation
to open Dream Weaver and bang it out is often what happens.

-Scott