Phine Solutions web work notes

This little tool takes an ip address and maps it on a Google map. Using the simple API provided by hostip.info, I am trying to pinpoint the geographical location of an ip address. Not sure about the accuracy though. Also, this is a little experiment using the Ajax utility by Javascript Prototype framework.

If you don’t enter an ip address or hostname, the tool will try to map your current ip (hopefully).

One way I enjoy using this tool is to check where the “scanners” or spammers of my server are located. Not that I can do anything about it but just to get some idea.

I found this quote quite interesting:

In preparing for battle I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is indispensable.
– Dwight D. Eisenhower

As a webmaster, we also need a good planning skill. A good start with sufficient planning and avoid the extra works and continuous planning while running the site can help keeping the site running smoothly.

Here are some things I would do when starting a project:

1. Find the right hosting plan and host service.

The right hosting from beginning can pay off in the long term. I used some crappy hosting service off the start and I had to spent a lot of energy to worry about the downtime. I eventually dumped the service but I can’t get my lost time and productivity back.

If you want to run a quality site with a large code base the right hosting makes a lot of difference.

2. Design the site, page and more importantly URL

Most people focus on the graphic design at the beginning to make a site look sexy. Sexy site sells. But at least equally important, are the page navigation, content design and URLs.

A good page navigation organize the content hierarchically; the good use of on page html markups (h1, h2, etc…) make the page more readable to the search engines. A good markup structure is a good way of information organization.

A new site, for example a directory site with a bunch of empty categories, can possibly have a lot of empty pages that look similar in the Search Engine’s eyes. In Google’s case, they will be excluded from the main index and dumped into the supplemental list, which is a place a page should try to avoid getting into. A webmaster should plan on the growth and gradually add the pages naturally.

The URL is also an important piece. Ideally the URL for each page should be well considered from the beginning. Although a 301 redirect can always be done if the URL changes, it will be much better to start with good URLs and stick to them.

3. Plan on marketing the site

No matter how good your site is, you will need to get the work out somehow. There are a lot of ways to do this. And a good planning should use different marketing strategy progressively. This will make the advertising more effective, and your marketing $ goes longer way.

For a newly start site without much content, it is probably not a good idea to dive right into a big advertising plan off the start.

The early marketing steps may include post your site on different webmaster forums for reviews, submitting to free or low fee directories to get some low power back links.

As the site gradually improves it is the time to target links from some more authoritative sites.

Web site marketing is tedious and continuing process, the continuous effort is what it takes to make a name in a already crowded community.

Running a site:

1. Always watch your site.

A website is a 24/7 business and it should be monitored to make sure it stays up that way. There are some good free service for website monitoring and you can use a combination of them to monitor a site from different geographical location.

A frequent downtime is an early warning for an unreliable hosting service or a sign to investigate the code and optimize.

2. Planning for space and traffic.

Using Google Analytics, you can have a good idea about the traffic of your site. A webmaster should plan ahead for next hosting upgrade instead of waiting till the site can’t handle the level of the traffic. The increment of the traffic is always a good thing for a webmaster, but can a site handle it? The “Digg” or “Reddit” effect can bring a burst of fame to a site, but they can also take a site down.

Changing host is big deal but if planned early the execution can be smoother. For example, setup a staging environment early to regression test the site will eliminate most of the “surprises” from the actual migration.

3. Watch the system logs and attacks.

If you are using VPS or dedicated server, you have a great responsibility to keep your box secure for the sake of your site(s) and the whole web community. A webmaster should continue checking out the logs for the potential break-in attempt and misuse of the email system.

I am amazed by this video. It is simply fascinating. Just a thought, some day in the future the touch screen control will replace the touch pad and mouse and we’ll be coding for the “touching” events for websites.

Recently I had the chance to dip into some popular Javascript framework and tried out Dojo and Prototype. Even I only scratched the surface here is a little comparison from the experiment.

What are common between them:

Both Dojo and Prototype are Javascript framework or libraries. They simplifies the work of the developers by hiding the nasty stuff such as browser compatibility checking and providing simpler API calls to deal with the DHTML components.

Both of them support Ajax and make it easier to use.

Even Ajax is their selling point, both of them provide much greater capacity for writing other Javascript functionalities and not re-inventing the wheel.

Both of them encourage the clean programming sytax in a way.

Their differences:

Since Dojo is a toolkit, it contains a lot more libraries such as animation or flash. On the other hand, Prototype is closer to the ground and often used as the actual codebase to develop a library or toolkit. For example, Scrip.aculo.us is developed on the base of Prototype.

Based on the last point, Dojo has a much bigger package versus Prototype is essentially just one Javascript file.

Dojo appears to have better documentation but the Prototype community is working on creating better documentation.

My take on them:

Using a framework can make some work simpler but they may also cause other issues if you are not committed using them. That being said, both of the frameworks are nicely developed and useful. I guess the choosing of one over the other is based on where and how they will be used.

If I have a website that use some Javascript in a limited matter, I’ll definitely consider using Prototype. The main advantage of it is its small size and flexibility.

If I were to develop something that heavily relies on Javascript and most Ajax driven, Dojo may be a good candidate. With its widely range of widgets out of the box, it is possible to throw some fancy stuff together in a relatively short time.