While talking to a client some time ago, they asked if I knew any “programers”. Digging into the requirements that she shared with me about her needs, I realized that she did not understand what I was capable of. She needed a method of job scheduling that would work for her particular needs. She had looked at a variety of product offerings and had felt that none of them provided exactly what she was after. I then offered to create a bid for my solution to her stated needs. She had not thought of me a programmer, and I thought maybe others might be thinking the same thing. Thus this post.
Programmers tend to talk about the languages that they know. For web development I use 2 main languages, PHP and java script. PHP is a server side scripting language. What that means is that the computer where you make the request for a web page — the server — can run this language to create a page that has dynamic content. An example would be a list of links on a site that is stored in a data base. PHP is able to ask the data base what links it has and then create the display that would go back to your browser, maybe sorting the links in alphabetical order. This language allows me to do a number of different tasks that help display many different groups of information in many different ways. In the previous example, the web request client would see a list of the links displayed. However, they would not be able to modify those links. An administrator on that same site would be able to add, modify and delete links as needed as the links changed. I am able to provide a web interface to data that is stored on the server and let my clients be able to modify it without me being involved. More costly at design time but much cheaper than having me modify content that changes frequently.
The other language that I often use in web development is called java script. It is a language that is run on the web clients computer. This language allows me to change the look of a page and to update information on a page without having to reload the entire page. An example of this type of code is when you are inside of a page that is displaying a map from google. As you move around in the map, say zooming in or out, that is the only component on the page that is updated. The main body of the page is not forced to reload to update the map portion. I have explained the difference between PHP and java script in this way. If you display the time using PHP it will show the time that is currently set on the server. If the web server is located in California and the web browser is located in New York the time would display a 3 hour difference. However if the time is displayed using java script the display will show the time that the local computer is set to. Thus, no matter where the server is located, if the time is displayed using java script it will show the local computer time even thought the page came from a California based server.
Using these programming tools I am able to create sites that will display and use dynamic content that the user, my clients, can control and update to a certain extent. My clients are all unique, and by using these tools I am able to give them a web based interface, that can be accessed from anywhere Internet access is available, to control content. My clients love this ability and once they understand what I am able to do for them the requests start coming in sounding something like this — “I know we can change this [insert feature], but can you add the ability to change this [insert new feature]“. I enjoy when my clients start to “get it” that I can add all sorts of features, I just have to understand what their requirements are, or their how they have implemented their current procedures.
I have so far talked about programming but I also have other skills. That will have to wait for a different post however.
Hopefully this will give a better idea of the web development programming languages that I use daily to help keep my clients happy. I do love “Happy Clients”.