• PHP

  Nearly every page on this site uses PHP or will in the near future.

  Forms and email

  We started by implementing our email page in PHP because Web-based email makes it possible for users to send email without ever leaving their browsers. And, because it was fun to learn.

  Consistent page formatting

  Next, we implemented our Robots Lessons in PHP; it makes sense to implement a series of pages that require a similar look using this tool.
  We now use PHP to create most of the headers and footers for many of the currently-updated pages on our site.

  Browser-independent XML output

  Then, we used PHP to display our XML-based CMC events pages. Don't let the file extension confuse you. We needed PHP4 for this. Many thanks to our friendly ISP, fastwebserver, for so promptly upgrading us to a PHP 4 server!

  Liquid menus

  One of the coolest tricks we do with PHP is to implement what we call liquid menus. We have just one PHP program that displays all the general-purpose context-menus in a number of our directory hierarchies. Basically, all this PHP program needs is a text file that lists what the prompts for the menu items should be.

  When we use this program, when one of our clients requests an addition or a change to a menu, all we do is:

  • Upload the new/changed page (the page to be displayed when the new/changed menu item is clicked)
  • Add the new menu item to the text file that contains the menu entries (or, change the existing word) and upload the changed file
  
  Our liquid-menu generating PHP is used in the menus on these sites:
  • American Association of University Women (both the left-hand menu and the bottom menu are liquid; can you find the Easter eggs?)
  • Wilkinson School (both the left-hand menu and the bottom menu are liquid; can you find the Easter eggs?)
  • Half Moon Bay Film Society (both the left-hand menu and the bottom menu are liquid; can you find the Easter eggs?)
  • A Year as President of the Coastside Mothers Club (well, actually, there are two, count 'em, two liquid menus here, an upper and a lower one.)
  • Many of the links displayed when you click a link in CHRONOLOGICAL LISTING OF OUR WRITINGS, TOPICAL LISTING OF ARTICLES, and BY PUBLICATION & CATEGORY.
  
  We ought to figure out how to distribute this to the masses.
  Too bad PHP is a bit slow. We have begun to implement our list of science museums as a MySQL database hooked to a PHP front end, but don't hold your breath.

Computer-based technologies are evolving at an exponential rate. Just when we've figured out what a buzzword means, what one particular technology is good for, either that technology changes or else a new, improved technology emerges. Every choice has benefits and costs. Specifications are promises; not every emerging toolset lives up to its promises. It takes experience with a tool to learn what it does well and what it does not do well.

We have the experience.