[Dynamic Database Fields]

So, say your table (dw_customers) has those three fields (customer_name, customer_phone, customer_email) - If you add a forth (customer_telephone), you want your queries to automatically accommodate that addition?

 

If I have that right, it is probably doable but I HIGHLY recommend that you don't follow that train of thought.

 

You have two options:

• Design the system before you build it, not while you build it
  
• Design the database in a more efficient way
  

 

To design the database to work in a way where you can add fields, I'd probably tackle it like this:

 

customer

id, name

 

attributes

id, name

 

customer_attribute

id, customer, attribute, value

[session info to mysql via form]

If you post up your code so far, we might be able to help you out a little easier. As a side note, it would make a lot more sense to store the users id rather than their name - A users name is generally not considered unique!

[Unique Form Help]

It would help if you posted up your code so that we can suggest what you might want to do differently.

[PHP4 RSS Parser]

RSS is just XML, you could use the built-in functions to parse it - Manual pages.

[emailing users]

Yes.

[[SOLVED] Removing empty values from $_POST array]

You could check the contents while you're looping through the array...

<?php
foreach($_POST as $key=>$value){
    if(!empty($value)) {
        $$key = $value;
        $search[] .= "$$key";
        $replace[] .= "$value";
    }
}
?>

[[SOLVED] Does this small isset make sense?]

No, you need to use isset() on both variables:

<?php
if(isset($_POST['div7']) && isset($_POST['div8'])) {
    echo 'Both $_POST[\'div7\'] and $_POST[\'div8\'] is set.';
}
?>

 

Although, your example may actually work, as I believe the above is actually the same as:

<?php
if($_POST['div7'] && $_POST['div8']) {
    echo 'Both $_POST[\'div7\'] and $_POST[\'div8\'] is set.';
}
?>

[Maximum Connectivity Speeds]

their off to college now, but the faster one had an average top download speed of 900 - 1,000kps and the slower one had an average top download speed of 100 - 200kps

 

They we're probably downloading from a completely different set of peers, I doubt the hardware is at fault.

[2007 Survey for people who work with the web]

A List Apart carried out a survey last year for people who work with the web in one way or the other. I have just been reading the results in the 80-odd page pdf they have compiled - Quite the interesting read, you can check it out here: http://alistapart.com/d/2007surveyresults/2007surveyresults.pdf

 

They're also currently running the 2008 survey, I just completed it - If any one is interested: http://alistapart.com/articles/survey2008

[Good looking calendar layout]

Check that the font size is not larger than the height you are trying to set too, I have noticed that this is a problem with some browsers.

[Huge margin top gap in IE6]

I just downloaded and opened your PHP file and there are spaces between each line, I'm on Linux - Is there at all the possibility that you have written this in Windows, and are executing it on a *NIX server? Something to do with the newline character, or the way you have saved the file? I'm just throwing things out there...

 

EDIT: Attached screenshot of source in FF3.

 

[attachment deleted by admin]

[website pricing...]

Although i'm not new to programming, just web programming.  I don't feel i'm TOO far off from establishing some kind of hourly rate, but I think I will stick with a flat estimate for now.

 

I would still recommend a "flat estimate" on almost all occasions, but this estimate is based on an hourly rate. Charging by the hour can get out of hand quick and you're going to get into dispute with your clients when you bill them for 50 hours when you gave them an estimate of 25...

[custom message upon computer bootup]

Unless you know a low level programming language, you're going to have difficulties. You're either going to have to create (or modify something like GRUB or LILO) a boot loader, or modify your BIOS as far as I'm aware.

[Please help me write htaccess to block certain URL]

Off the top of my head, I think it goes something like this...

 

RewriteCond  %{HTTP_HOST}  ^(www\.)?website\.com$ [NC]
RewriteRule  ^myfolder$    http://www\.website\.net/myfolder [R=301,L]

[File permissions -> GD Library]

thanks for the quick reply.

 

Do you know if this apache module stable enough to use within a commercial environment? Would this be a method large hosting companies use or will they have their own custom setups?

We're running suPHP on our (my company, not PHPFreaks) production servers - No problems.

[imagemagic and GD]

Yes.

[website pricing...]

Calculating an hourly rate that works is quite difficult in my opinion, it took me over a year to settle on a rate that I was happy with, and even then, we review it on yearly basis and generally increase it. There are a lot of factors that go into it, such as:

• Cost of business (Bills, employees, prospecting, etc.)
  
• Cost of living
  
• You generally have to be cheaper than the competition when you first start out as you have no track record or commercial experience
  
• What the current market in your area or country is willing to spend
  
• The size of client you are wanting to attract - Corporates will generally spend more than small start-ups
  

 

...and that is a basic list, there are a number of other factors that you'll discover over time when you're working as a developer, or business owner.

[website pricing...]

Say the first time you create the site you do everything from scratch and it takes 2 weeks, then you have a similar job where you get to re-use most of your code and it only takes 5 days.  Do you charge the client for 5 days of time or the original 2 weeks it took to build the code?

 

I'd charge them for the original 2 weeks. That's how long that functionality took to develop, they shouldn't get a discount because someone else has ordered it before them. The time you save by already having the code in stock contributes to your contingency/profit.

[Standard date format]

I always use the MySQL DATE format (YYYY-MM-DD) when storing dates.

[website pricing...]

Estimate how long it will take you to complete the project from start to finish, multiply this number of hours by how much you believe your time is worth, add a percentage on for contingency/profit and there you have it.

[Alternative to FFMPEG.]

I very much doubt that there will be an alternative installed as default on your server...

[Advice needed - Special type of system required]

Are you sure it'd work with cat? What about the headers?

Ah of course, cat doesn't work... My bad.

[Advice needed - Special type of system required]

Assuming your running *NIX on the server, you can merge the mp3 files with the CLI tool sox, or more crudely with cat.

[web 1.0]

I've disabled that bbcode now. It's the most annoying tag (sharing it's 1st place with blink).

I can't remember the last time I actually saw anyone use the blink or marquee tags...

[Mine is bigger than yours]

I'm (primarily) more about the quantity of screens, rather than the size. I have 3 17" TFTs hooked up to my dev machine - Couldn't do with any less these days, SO useful!