jltfox's posterous

As all front end developers know there are two main pre built content management systems / frameworks that are commonly used to develop clients sites.

 What is a Content Management System (CMS)?

Essential it is a collection of files that link into a database that allow users to update information on their website on the fly without the need of a developer. These system can be built in nearly any programming language though the most common are PHP with a MySQL database or ASP.NET with a MS SQL database. Both have their pros and cons but thats not for this article. Of course the most common of these is Wordpress

What is a Content Management framework (CMF)?

As  I understand it a framework is meant to be a more loosely pre built system that allows the developer to customise it into their own content management system, with Drupal being the most popular.

Which is better?

Since beginning my career in web developement i have spoke to many other developers and there seems to be a split in the development world over this. Many say that Wordpress is too tight not allow enough freedom to develop the site as needed, while many Wordpress developers say that Drupal is just not workable.

Of course it is all down to personal opinion as well as the skills and experiences of the developer. As a new developer myself I like to think of myself as pretty open minded when it comes to looking at different technologies. I was trained as a front end developer mostly working on Wordpress sites. Some of you may think that i will lean to say that Wordpress is the better of the two. Well No actually, I have only just started looking through Drupal and can already see that it has its merits.

So why have i wrote this article well i thought that i would tell you about the pro's and cons of each system so that you can make your own mind up when it comes to developing your next project.

First up its Wordpress....

Wordpress of course started out as a blogging platform at the time when blogging was becoming all the rage and is still used for this purpose. However in the last few years it has since a rise in website development will many custom themes being developed and the freedom to amend the PHP.  So the important part

Pros

• Free - Can download the source files free of charge
• Customisable - Many believe that Wordpress is pretty tightly knitted together. Well No actually you can make really fancy sites that users would never know was pre built
• Community - The Wordpress community is huge these days, loads of information on the Wordpress codex site about using and customising it and loads of forums from fellow users
• Plugins - plenty of individuals and companies are providing free plugins that enhance the Wordpress functionality check out the plugin page 

Cons

• Need some programming knowledge - If you want to customize Wordpress you will need to be comfortable with working with PHP, Jquery, CSS, HTML
• Not always secure - As many sites are being developed on Wordpress, users who want to disrupt the sites will know the holes but a good developer should know what to do or at least find out
• Compatablity - Not everyone has sites running with the latest PHP, MySQL installed, however the Wordpress does offer users the chance to download older versions
• Plugins - As these are developed by third parties many are paid for options that kinda takes it away from being open source but again a good developer should be able to developer their own plugin for their needs.

Ok so now we are up to Drupal....

Drupal like Wordpress does have blogging features however its developers do like to point out that it can have many more uses such as a forum or a portal / intranet site. Again Drupal is developed using PHP / MySQL.

Pros

• Free - As with Wordpress you can download the source files free of charge
• Customisable - The Theme system like in wordpress allows developers to create custom themes
• Organisation - The use of tags (taxonomy), nodes and blocks gives greater granuality to the information that you show on the site
• All in one - Unlike Wordpress the backend and front are almost merged as all menus are available on the front end to developers / administrators

Cons

• Learning curve - Drupal has its own structure which differs from other management platforms that I have seen and this can be off putting to many developers
  
• Programming knowledge required - This is certainly required if you want to create your own theme ( has more tags to understand)
• Documentation - The online documentation for a beginner is confusing
  
• User friendliness - May require more time to show the client how to use the admin features

 

As i said earlier i am not going to say that one is better than the other as i have used Wordpress on many projects and like the way it is set up and its great to customize however i can see that Drupal is great when developing systems such as forums or intranets especially with its  access control features that allow administrators to create groups of users and set permissions for each.

Well i hope that this has given you a taster to go and find out a bit more about these platforms head over to http://wordpress.org/ and http://drupal.org/ to find out more abou the features they both offer. I also hope that developers of the systems given each one a chance as they are there to help you create professional sites.

 

Enjoy !

Jltfox

If you have just graduate from university and because of the credit crunch are thinking of starting out as a freelancer rather than looking for a permanent job, do your research.

I came out of university last year with 1st class honours in Internet Technologies and knew it was gonna be hard to find a job. Towards the end of my course i started looking and apply for web jobs in my area however the credit crunch meant that many businesses were looking to downsize rather than expand. My aim was always to get a Full time position especially coming fresh out of university I believe its the best way to go to get the financial stability and experience to allow you to progress in your career even if you do plan to become your own boss.

As opportunities were limited on the job front i decided to look into training opportunities that would give me chance to expand my skill set from uni and gain some essential experience that I could show to prospective employers when jobs did become available. Luckily I came across an organization called Northwest Vision and Media  they had opportunities available for a graduate like myself to join. The scheme i-studio places a graduate with a host company where they are able to gain the experience and knowledge of working in their chosen industry, of course i signed up straight away and was lucky enough to be chosen by the host company.  From the 6 month placement i made some new friends, contacts in the industry and furthered my skill set.

After finishing I started looking at jobs again but found opportunities still thin on the ground, so rather than sit around I decided that the best way further my career was to work as a freelancer. The rest of this posts give you some tips from my experiences so far from working as a freelancer

• Plan your business - Search out help from local organizations that can advise on setting up / running a business - Business goals, terms & conditions to give a client before commencing work to safe guard from things like payment disputes.
  

• Purchase web space/Domain - Plan out how you will 'Brand' yourself get a domain name that reflects this and also consider whether you want to host sites yourself or will the client have to do that - many are unsure on this sort of thing so reseller accounts are always a good option
  

• Get a website -  Develop a website for yourself, this is going to sell you as a 'Brand' it needs to be professional and to the point (potential clients want to see  what you can do for them - make sure that statements on your website are true as you will be found out when you cant deliver on a project
• Marketing - Get yourself a Twitter account( and use it!), Facebook page, and business cards and get involved in the community - Try find agencies that use freelancers as that can be great source of work
  

• Get Organized - Get yourself a Gmail account or similar where everything is in one package. I use the handy labeling feature to separate client jobs (nothing is worse than losing communication) Also plan your week out with the jobs you have to do and prioritize - I tend to use Google Calendar for this. Also create client folders on your system to keep track of the different projects that you will be working on. Also get folders to organize finances into income and expenditure
  
• Check out your uni - Most universities these days have a careers / business departments that can help guide you into work so go in and see how they can help
  

As Wordpress has now reached version 3, I thought would give my knowledge to those looking to use the platform for the first time. Wordpress has long been an established platform for setting up a custom blog and with the famous 5 minute install and hosting available on Wordpress servers what could be easier. However in more recent times we are beginning to see the platform adapt into a website platform.

For those of you that are new to web development or even those that are looking for a new CMS to base their next project on I would definately suggest giving Wordpress a look. Here are some of the benefits that are particularly useful for those looking to get into web development

• Firstly its Free - All you need is hosting space and domain but the actual Wordpress files are free to download
• Customizable - Developers have free reign on the look and feel of site, can create your own templates and intergrate them with the admin backend easily
• Plugins - This is one of my favourite features, there are plenty of plugins available through the Wordpress site that you can easily install through the admin area or by uploading to the plugin folder on your web server
• Existing technologies - Works using a MySQL database and PHP - great if you know either of these or even if your just starting out, Wordpress is a great place to start.

As mentioned in the list Wordpress makes use of plugins well i though that i would share the plugins that i use most of all when developing a site. Of course I try to limit the numbers of plugins just so that i dont bloat the size of the site or the download times

PODS CMS - This is becoming more widely recognized in the development circle, however there are still plenty out there that havent heard of it, well you soon will have. This plugin basically adds more customizable CMS features to the wordpress backend. Here you can create listing and detail pages using XHTML , PHP and jquery. There is great support and documentation on this plugin so check it out at http://podscms.org/

Redirection - If you use PODS to create your pages rather than Wordpress itself you may find that you cant make a homepage, well this handy little plugin allow you to set the redirection of the homepage to one of your pods pages. http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/redirection/

With version 3 comes what i would call the long awaited introduction of the navigation widget, this is a drag and drop interface in the admin allowing users to quickly create a navigation menu for their site without having to code it and although this isnt a plugin i thought it was worth a mention as I can see me using this one more and more in the future as its so easy

Anyway if this has got your intesrest in developing your next site on Worrdpress then go ahead and checkout all the features over at http://wordpress.org/ where there is a whole load of great documentation on how to do almost anything development wise with Wordpress as well as some cool sites available in the showcase

 

As well as being a keen on all things in Web development one of my other main interests is Football, so naturally I will be catching as many games as I can of this years World Cup Finals in South Africa.

Being English of course I will be supporting my nation throughout the whole competition, and just hoping that we can get further than four years ago. Of course no one can say that we are gonna win it especially on the result of the USA game, though I do feel it was a good performance, and reckon we should easily take the next game. I have said even before the tournement started that the main contenders would be Spain and Brazil and after watching the latter yesterday I feel that they are still a force and have to say hats off the North Koreans for keeping them out for so long. Looking forward to the Spain match later.

Now onto the really annoying part of this World Cup ( everyone has one at least). I am of course talking about the Vuvuzela. This horn thingy was annoying in the African cup of Nations and my opinion in these finals have not changed. Every person I have talked to says the same thing - THEY ARE JUST ANNOYING. I am all for having something that shows off South African culture, I think that is important in any event of this size, however the Vuvuzela is not the solution, plus after the world cup finishes what are people gonna do with them exactly. Only recently they were looking to ban them as many of the players were complaining about the fact that they could not hear things going on in the game like team instructions and the Ref. If this is the case then surely that impacts on the game of Football itself which surely cant be a good thing.

My last point on the World Cup has to be the songs that always come out everytime England qualify for a major tournement. I can see their place in getting the nation behind the team, but why cant someone just write a decent song. I cant name you one song that I say that I like, in my view I really dont think that Football and music mix based on what I have heard to date, I think that we should just stick to the chants in the stands.

Well thats my World cup view over, hope you all enjoy the rest of the tournement and Come on England !!!!

Every designer has a different approach to working, however the most sucessful plan their design before actually putting it together. One of the most common methods that has been used for online material and certainly offline printed material is wireframing.

What is wireframing?

Wireframing is the process of laying out elements on a page, it is not to be confused with the design though as it is only meant to give an overview of where items are to be placed. This can be done through the use of specialist applications (just search google for wireframing software - plenty to choose from) alternatively it can also be done on good old fashioned pencil and paper - which some designers prefer.

What I do?

I tend to use Adobe illustrator or a pad and paper to roughly sketch out each oft the pages that make up the site. You may ask why not just design as you go, some people can do that but I find it helps me organise the project better if i have a layout to work from first. The good thing about doing it electronically is that is so easy to go back and amend something should a client not be happy with how the site will look.

Software examples

As mentioned before there are plenty of different tools that can used mock up a layout. If you are building a site for the first time or are experienced design but looking into a wireframing specific tool check out the following

Adobe Illustrator - One of my favourite applications, just does everything, create vector graphics of very high quality and allows you to make simple wireframes, the downside being that it is not the cheapest package out there

Drawing applications - Windows comes with paint and there are plenty of free alternatives for the likes of Mac and Linux, these all have the necessary tools to create a simple layout and work just as well as the more expensive packages even if they dont look as professional.

Gliffy - Not used this application but does look a comprehensive package for wireframing, and there is a free online version

MS Visio - Microsoft Visio wasnt designed solely as a wireframing application as it incorporates many other tools, however it is a very powerful and can handle wireframing

 

I hope that this brief overview has shown you how useful wireframing can be. If you want to learn about wireframing in more detail, check out the wireframing article on Smashing Magazine's website and also Garmahis website

As of this month Jltfox.co.uk has gone live.  www.jltfox.co.uk is my very own personal portfolio. I am a graduate of the University of Chester completing a degree in Internet Technologies. As mentioned in my last posterous I have worked with the award winning Cahoona web agency and am now on the look out for work in the North West as a front end web developer.

My main skills involve taking a design from a lead creative and coding a site using XHTML, CSS and Jquery for interactivity and am also teaching myself the Django framework. I also have very good experience of installing and customising a Wordpress installation to suit a clients needs. 

I am always sharing new findings regarding web development as well as my personal interests so if you want to keep up to date with what I am up to you can find me at @jltfox on twitter or right here on posterous.

 

Manchester based Web agency Cahoona took the big chip awards 2010 by storm last night, by walking away with 2 gongs. The first coming for the best Non for profit website http://www.bandonthewall.org and the second for the tastiest website for their very own creation @ http://www.cahoona.co.uk (Go check it out now - you wont have seen anything like it, especially the wheel spinner thats sommat else) and they were also nominated for 2 other awards. It is an achievement for any company to receive a nomination but to be up for 4 awards after only being in business for just under 2 years and  also up against strong contenders and then taking 2 of those awards home, shows just how far Cahoona have come, it seems to me that there is only one direction for this company and that is UP UP UP!!!.

I was lucky enough to be placed with the Cahoona team as part of the I-studio programme set up by North West Vision and Media. I can say that these guys are some the best people to work with, the variety of projects and the office atmosphere is how I imagined a digital agency to be, and because of that I was able to develop a good understanding of the digital industry as well as further develop skills in Web development, which I can now use to further my own career.

So would just like to take this opportunity to thank the guys at Cahoona as well as all those connected in helping me gain a solid start to working in the digital industry. Well done once again and keep up the good work, and more awards will arrive on the doorstep very soon.