PHP PAGE
I have been writing PHP enabled websites for the last 8 years. I originally utilized Perl as my scripting language of choice, but the advantages of PHP became apparent and I switched. PHP is suited for a small business website and internet giants like Yahoo and Facebook, who use PHP in the front ends of their website. Its’ popularity and flexibility generates many useful extensions and frameworks, that I often use.
The LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP) environment is the predominant platform that I use to create PHP websites. I do have experience with running PHP/MySQL on Windows platforms. I have found that if the code was written well, then porting from Linux to Windows is a relatively smooth process.
My PHP development experience began when I worked for an online hotel distribution company, TurboTrip.com. During my time there I wrote a lot of code generators that created different look HTML/JavaScript hotel booking engines that queried TurboTrip’s inventory.
After some months of cutting my teeth on code generators, I got the opportunity to build full scale web applications, which had front end user interfaces and backend management. The first project I did was a site for Prep Football in Louisiana. The front end of the site allowed you to search for you team by name or see the weeks schedule for all schools for a particular time frame. The backing management allowed a site administrator to create schools, and schedules. They could also enter the scores and game stats for each contest. There was also a section to add an article and player stats for every game. Over the next couple of years I created many more applications that were similar to this, most notably a scheduling and ticket selling section for the New Orleans Zephyrs website.
The next big step in my PHP evolution came in 2004 when I was contracted by The Netcom Group to do the programming for a new website that they were creating for Woman’s Hospital (www.womans.org). The first phase of development involved creating the front and back-ends for a content management system. There was also a front-end user portal called “My Womans”, which allowed user to register for an account, and then gain access to a variety of articles and tools. The different My Woman’s tools and content were all administrated via the backend.
The Hospital also requested that we migrate and emulate a class reservation system that they were renting from a company called MEDSEEK. By obtaining screen shoots and talking with the staff that used the software, I was able to successfully create a similar system with a user interface that the staff was comfortable with. I was also required to move legacy data to the new system. This was accomplished with SQL data dumps that I generated from the MEDSEEK database. I imported the data with custom scripts that integrated the data in to the new system. The final product would have an online registration, as well as a backend that allowed you to manage the online classes, and take class reservations over the phone. There was also a substantial reporting section that ranged from class attendance to financials.
I have built many other systems since the Woman’s. For a more detailed view of my PHP experience please visit my PHP Projects section.