Category: Applications

Create Database-Driven Sites the Easy Way with GoLive 6

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PHP/MySQL for the rest of us!
(originally published Spring, 2002)

Intro:
Designers now have a new tool to help them create php/mySQL-based
dynamic sites using without a steep learning curve. It is now
almost as easy to create a simple database-driven site as an html-based
one. Adobe’s GoLive 6 has improved their dynamic link module and
completely integrated it into the application. It now includes
php/mySQL support and plenty of help and templates for creating
your first database-driven website.

  • Why make a dynamic
    site?
  • Getting
    started.
  • How to talk
    to MySQL without a Ph.D.
  • Setting
    up the site in GoLive.
  • Adding Dynamic
    Content to your page.
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    Exporting graphics from MS Office

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    I couldn’t believe how difficult it is to get graphics back out of Microsoft Office documents. Someone came to me today for help with recovering graphics from a Powerpoint file. They had inserted the graphics and since lost the original scans, so all that remained were the ppts.

    First thing anyone thinks of in Windows is right-click to save the image, which she did. Nothing. (She’s probably still on Windows NT/ Word 97). So she copied all the graphics out of the powerpoint, then couldn’t figure out what do do with the clipped images, so pasted them into Word! And sent me the resulting Word documents. I figured, no problem, just copy each graphic and paste into Photoshop, then save. Nooooooo! You lose a lot of quality that way. You can see nice subtle grayscale antialiasing in the word version, but the photoshop version looks like a bad xerox.

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    Photoshop Brush Fever!

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    Photoshop brushes are incredible! I just discovered them and have been playing with them for two days straight.

    They’re like rubber stamps on steroids. You can control the brush dynamics – the separation of each individual “stamp”, the color and brightness “jitter”, randomness, edges, etc.

    I’ve found many sites that offer free brush sets, but
    ts_button4.jpg
    Truly-Sarah.com

    and

    ebrush_link1.gif
    AnnikaVonHoldt.com

    are my current favorites. AnnikaVonHoldt’s brushes are like instant creativity! You will be creating beautiful and mysterious fantasy images almost automatically.

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    Installing PHP/mySQL scripts – Tips for Designers

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    or …
    “Just Enough about Unix to get into trouble…”

    Determine type of server:
    I’ve found that PHP scripts work more reliably on Unix servers than NT. Also, be sure that the server is not running PHP as a cgi script. It really doesn’t work as well. How do you tell?

    phpinfo
    Upload a little file containing this code:

    <? phpinfo(); ?>

    Name the file “phpinfo.php” and then view that page online in your web browser. This is a php script that returns all the information about your server environment. In the first table of information, you will find “Server API.” This should be “Apache.” If it says “CGI” you are in trouble. However some things will work fine in this setup, so it’s always worth a try.

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