One of my client sent zip file today, which contains website source code, he is developing.
When i opened "template" folder and "template-comments.html" file.
I saw some "variable" being used there with % arround it.
One of line is :-
<title>%title%</title>
Whole template folder is filled with such files. I am just not sure, how it has been done. Yes, I know you might be thinking, what a lame programmer i am. I am working for client, and i am just not sure, what his file mean.
I am good(not best) in PHP. I have developed custom e-commerce webapplication using phpfastcache and all. But, I have never experienced such coding style in my life.
I beg my pardon for my lame question, but i am seriously not aware of such coding style and i am eager to know.
Most Important: Whole website doesnot use any PHP framework.
Can anyone help me understand such coding style.
If i am unclear on any part. Kindly ask, But i am desperate to learn this.
Note: These are not placeholder, but these style is being used in running website. Here is image link, I have removed few info just to keep privacy.
Thanks
Update: I got the answer.
Person is first using file_get_contents from something.php for getting info from file "something.html" and than using str_replace function to replace the actual link with placeholder.
Thanks
There are some Template Engines that replace those placeholder for values that you specified, the syntax of the placeholder can vary depending on the Template Engine. As example take a look at Smarty and its syntax.
<title>{title}</title>
Conclusion, he maybe using a Template Engine.
Related
So we got a great project and we absolutely have to learn Typo3 or Drupal for it quickly. I already know some basic things.
I did the installation correctly for both, I know how to set up a basic Site using Fluid Template in Typo3 and I know how to set up a basic template in drupal without any styles.
My Problem now is how do I style a website since typo3 or drupal doesn't have a field for classes (The fields just get some random ids) and also how can I build a website with multiple sections where I have to style each section individually.
If you have any links to good tutorials or anything else that explains what I need to know I would appreciate it.
First of all, i think you understand HTML/CSS and know that TYPO3,... are content management systems. They're wrapping your content (saved to the database) with a template like HTML Files to send the result to the browser as a full rendered website.
ThomasLöffler already gave you the hint to read the documentation on both websites to make your choice which one you want to use. I prefer TYPO3, but the start many years ago wasn't easy. So i could you explain a little bit, and on a very short way what you need to do... After all please read the docs on typo3.org (Gettin started guide or something)
In TYPO3 you need to include and build your HTML Template. Prefered with the FLUID Template Engine / Framework. After that you need to set it with the TYPO3 TypoScript as your main template.
The content templates like will be rendered by the TYPO3 Extension "fluid_styled_content". This extension has also fluid templates to render the content object into a html output. Before you have enough knowledge about typo3 it's not recomended to change them.
The main thing is, that you need to include a stylesheet (css) file in your site. In TYPO3's TypoScript it's for example like this:
page.includeCSS.file100 = path/to/your/css/mystyle.css
Thats the very short overview and very little explanation what to do. But as Thomas said, you need to understand both and decide for one of them. And of course you need to read the docs first a little bit, before you ask. That would help you and each of us, to give you better answers. Good luck!
TYPO3 Gett started:
https://docs.typo3.org/typo3cms/GettingStartedTutorial/Introduction/Index.html
You can learn a lot of things if you take a look into the code of the official introduction package (https://extensions.typo3.org/extension/introduction/) The package can simply installed over the extension manager -> get preconfigured distributions
Or you just use it as a basis to build your own layout. You do not have to reinvent the wheel ;)
I previously had someone build a website for me. It was 90% finished but then ill health got in the way.
I have all the files and I am now asking people to "put the website back together for me". The general consensus is that it's very messy and not clear what was done and some of the protocols are now out of date etc. And it would just be better to start from scratch. I have heard this from multiple people.
So now when I am asking a new guy to build it from scratch, he is asking me for the HTML files. I couldn't see any, so I contacted the previous developer and he said:
There are no HTML files, it all runs through the index.php file and
extracts pages, data etc. from the database.
I told this to the new developer, but he is saying:
But website is not possible without HTML. Ask him provide index HTML.
Pure HTML without php code.
I'm confused, because I saw the website up and running, so it seems it is possible without HTML?
I'm trying to figure out where the misunderstanding is happening.
Thanks.
What your previous developer is saying is that your site was dynamic and all requests were flowing through your index.php file, which in turn does some backend logic to produce HTML data for the browser to interpret. If you ask your previous developer to zip up the root of your old site, your new developer should be able to take it from there.
Can a website exist without HTML?
Without a .html file? Yes. Using only .php, .css and .js is possible.
Without using Hyper Text Mark-up Language? No. There ar no other mark-up language for browsers, afaik. So we're stuck with this.
Old dev used PHP for efficiency. Contents are in your database and fetched using php to show up in browser.
New dev probably only knows HTML and has no clue about php. Or, probably doesn't want to bother reading through the php codes to reverse engineer how your site works.
Suggestion: Get a different dev. A smarter one. You probably have to pay more, but it's more expensive to hire a less smarter dev.
I have a website that I've developed, which includes hand-written php, html, css, and js. I also created the MySQL database.
I've recently brought someone on who is going to make the website look better, but his experience is limitted to working with Wordpress. I'm wondering if it makes sense for him to the the front-end "skin" work with Wordpress and for me to edit the files as needed so they submit data to my php files and connect to my database. If the php generated by Wordpress is reasonable, this seems doable in theory.
The other way would be to take the html genrated by his php and use that as my starting point for hooking into my php processing files and database.
He sent me a dump of the files created after he created a simple webpage and there seemed to be a lot of extra stuff in there.
Can anyone with experience in this comment? I'm hoping there's an easy way to do this.
Thanks.
The default procedure for me that always worked well:
You provide outlines/simple sketchups/your old layout, so the "designer" knows vaguely how you want it to be
You define what the site should do ("there should be a button to...", "there should be a list of..., when you click on it..."). So he knows what happens and what site follows another. That's important! He must understand the site.
The better you do the above, the better the results you get from the designer will be
The designer generates layouts in pure HTML with CSS: Example sites with example data, where everything you said before is integrated.
You cut up the HTML-code and integrate it yourself in your php-code
This procedure has also the benefit, that an external designer does not get in contact with your application's internal php-code (and cannot "steal" it). And you can dry up your internal code when you integrate the HTML you get.
I'm developing my first web application using PHP, MySql, and HTML, but I'm at a roadblock: now I have to start piecing all the pages, modules, and included files into an actual 'application'. I'm really trying to make this an answerable question, and not a discussion topic, but now I'm thinking about 'web design' - and I don't want to have to learn css and all that, because I want to speand my time programming and not designing. So what I'd like is a utility where I can visually design, say a menu bar, and just paste the code into my application where I can work with it. Or I want to format text visually, and paste the css file into my application. I guess what I want to easily design a layout with forms, images and graphics, and have them show up with my dynamic tables. So my question is - is it a good option to go with a big design program like Dreamweaver for this, or is there an easier way? I'm not really even a programmer (can you tell?), and I'm figuring this out as I go. As an aside, I'm pretty pleased with what I've got so far - I think the functions and modules are pretty useful, and the end product (however I get there) will be great. Apologies for the rambling question, and any advice is really appreciated.
In a perfect world, development would happen entirely independently of design and you could focus on only what most interests you.
But that isn't reality.
Learning HTML and CSS will be invaluable if you expect to have any success with this project or your next. And they are not that hard to learn.
My advice? Download Notepad++ (or TextWrangler if you're on a Mac), FireFox, FireBug, and start playing around. Do some tutorials. Force yourself to go through the process.
No reason to avoid learning something.
You should really learn HTML and CSS or alternatively hire a web designer. Code produced by Dreamweaver and similar programs is terrible. Especially if you try to mix it with PHP you'll get problem. Really, at least write the markup yourself, the styling may be done by another person ;)
I think even if you don't want to become a "web designer", it's still worth learning the basics of CSS. Just read through the W3Schools CSS tutorial - that will give you enough to get started, and won't take long.
I wouldn't recommend going the Dreamweaver route - you'll learn a lot more if you code by hand.
I am going to start working on a website that has already been built by someone else.
The main script was bought and then adjusted by the lead programmer. The lead has left and I am the only programmer.
Never met the lead and there are no papers, documentation or comments in the code to help me out, also there are many functions with single letter names. There are also parts of the code that are all compressed in one line (like where there should be 200 lines there is one).
There are a few hundred files.
My questions are:
Does anyone have any advice on how to understand this system?
Has anyone had any similar experiences?
Does anyone have a quick way of decompressing the lines?
Please help me out here. This is my first big break and I really want this to work out well.
Thanks
EDIT:
On regards to the question:
- Does anyone have a quick way of decompressing the lines?
I just used notepad++ (extended replace) and netbeans (the format option) to change a file from 1696 lines to 5584!!
This is going to be a loooonnngggg project
For reformatting the source, try this online pretty-printer: http://www.prettyprinter.de/
For understanding the HTML and CSS, use Firebug.
For understanding the PHP code, step through it in a debugger. (I can't personally recommend a PHP debugger, but I've heard good things about Komodo.)
Start by checking the whole thing into source control, if you haven't already, and then as you work out what the various functions and variables do, rename them to something sensible and check in your changes.
If you can cobble together some rough regression tests (eg. with Selenium) before you start then you can be reasonably sure you aren't breaking anything as you go.
Ouch! I feel your pain!
A few things to get started:
If you're not using source control, don't do anything else until you get that set up. As you hack away at the files, you need to be able to revert to previous, presumably-working versions. Which source-control system you use isn't as important as using one. Subversion is easy and widely used.
Get an editor with a good PHP syntax highlighter and code folder. Which one is largely down to platform and personal taste; I like JEdit and Notepad++. These will help you navigate the code within a page. JEdit's folder is the best around. Notepad++ has a cool feature that when you highlight a word it highlights the other occurrences in the same file, so you can easily see e.g. where a tag begins, or where a variable is used.
Unwind those long lines by search-and-replace ';' with ';\n' -- at least you'll get every statement on a line of its own. The pretty-printer mentioned above will do the same plus indent. But I find that going in and indenting the code manually is a nice way to start to get familiar with it.
Analyze the website's major use cases and trace each one. If you're a front-end guy, this might be easier if you start from the front-end and work your way back to the DB; if you're a back-end guy, start with the DB and see what talks to it, and then how that's used to render pages -- either way works. Use FireBug in Firefox to inspect e.g. forms to see what names the fields take and what page they post to. Look at the PHP page to see what happens next. Use some echo() statements to print out the values of variables at various places. Finally, crack open the DB and get familiar with its schema.
Lather, rinse, repeat.
Good luck!
Could you get a copy of the original script version which was bought? It might be that that is documented. You could then use a comparison tool like Beyond Compare in order to extract any modifications that have been made.
If the functions names are only one letter it could be that the code is encoded with some kind of tool (I think Zend had a tool like that - Zend Encoder?) so that people cannot copy it. You should try to find an unencoded version, if there is one because that would save a lot of time.