Web Development

A long, LONG time ago at Kintek, we (naively) used a version control system which basically consisted of storing all code locally and making physical backups nightly. This meant that we always had a copy of each client’s website that was at least within 24 hours of changes. I’m sure many people take this approach as it is relatively quick, easy, and feels like you are in control. Unfortunately, you actually end up doing more work than you should!

The first issue with the naive system is that usually people only keep a small number of versions. For example, at Kintek, we would usually only keep backups within 7 days of the current state of a website. However sometimes we needed to revert back to code older than a week, and sometimes it was necessary to keep the entire history of a project. Obviously this meant we wasted a lot of time re-coding and organising revisions manually.

Another issue we had was that it was hard to know the changes made to files, and in particular, the developer who made the changes. More problems arose when two developers were working on the same project - we found that it was almost impossible to work on the same file at the same time.

Luckily, there is a solution to these issues: version control. Version control (otherwise known as revision control or source control) is used to manage the changes to files such as source code. Users simply obtain the files they need from the system, make changes, then upload the files back to the system. From a user’s point of view, it cannot be simpler - all the hard work is done behind the scenes by the system. The system itself traditionally records the changes made to the file and the author of the changes. Any conflicts within 2 versions of the same file are resolved by merging the contents. This means 2 developers can painlessly work on a single file at the same time without over-writing each others changes!

Another extremely important advantage of version control is that it means developers are always using the current version of the project. Also, an entire history of the project is kept, meaning users have easy access to every version of every file. Furthermore, version control systems can be setup on external servers which in turn minimises the many risks associated with storing data locally.

There are many version control systems available and at Kintek we use Git, which is open source and freely available for download. We have found it has greatly increased our productivity and allowed us to collaborate more effectively. If you aren’t using a version control system you are not only wasting time, but you are also putting your projects at risk.

Make sure you give version control a try and see the improvements for yourself!

1. Display testimonials
   Testimonials are a fantastic way of building trust and credibility. If you’re not already actively solicitng testimonials from your customers, start now! Customers love to know that they are buying from a popular, respected source and they love to feel part of a community. Testimonials add a personal touch to your website and help customers feel comfortable buying from you.
2. Be contactable
   It’s important that customers have easy access to your contact details. They want to know that they are dealing with a legitimate business and that there is someone they can talk to if they have questions. Make sure potential buyers can easily find your contact page and include as much information as possible.
3. Offer satisfaction guarantees
   Another way of making customers feel comfortable is by guaranteeing the products or services you are selling to them. Offering a money back guarantee will help relieve a potential buyer’s anxiety over making an online purchase. Online shoppers don’t have the benefit of meeting you in person or holding products in their hands, so you need to do everything you can to convince them. Satisfaction and money back guarantees let people know that there’s no reason NOT to buy from you. Make sure you specify the terms clearly so that there is no confusion down the track.
4. Give something away for free
   Not practical for everyone, but if you’re able to give customers a demo, preview, video demonstration or free trial that will convince them they should buy from you, then do so. Giving something away for free is a great way of building trust with potential buyers. Don’t stop at the pre-sale point either - you can build tremendous loyalty and repeat business amongst existing customers by giving something away for free every time they purchase from you.
5. Proof read and spell check!
   Make sure you proof read your content for typos, spelling mistakes and grammatical errors. You want your customers to know that you are professional and attentive.
6. Make paying easy
   Use a trusted 3rd party partner website for credit card transactions and make the process as seemless as possible. Customer’s shouldn’t have to leave your website to make a purchase, this can be confusing and customers may abandom the process - unless of course you’re using paypal and then customers would expect to be taken to the paypal website.

PHP is not only a powerful scripting language for web applications, but it can also be used to run command line scripts. This can be useful for running cron jobs, quickly testing a function, or running scripts which don’t need to be accessed via a web interface.

First, we need to set the path to the PHP executable, which we will use to run our script. This is found where PHP is installed. On Windows, we can set the path by opening the command console and typing:

PATH = %PATH%;path-to-php-executable;

This operation appends the path to the executable to the existing PATH variable.

Next we will edit our php.ini file to make use of short tags. Open up your version of PHP’s php.ini file (usually found where PHP is installed), and search for ’short_open_tag’, and ensure it says ’short_open_tag = On’. If it is off, change it to on. This simply allows us to use ‘‹?’ instead of the full PHP open tag ‘‹?php’.

Now we will create a new php file, called ‘myScript.php’. Insert the following code:

‹?
echo ‘Hello World! This is my first command line script’;
?›

Open up your command console in the directory where ‘myScript.php’ resides (tip: on Windows, you can do this by holding ‘Shift’ and right clicking on the directory folder and selecting ‘Open command window here’). We can run the script by typing into the console:

php myScript.php

There are some really handy options with the PHP executable. For example, you can check solely for syntax errors by running ‘php -l myScript.php’. Type ‘php -h’ for a full usage list.

If data is the next ‘Intel Inside’ then Google Analytics is the operating manual for websites operators trying to understand how to improve the usefulness and success of their site.  Google Analytics tracks and stores data, collected via JavaScript on the host site, of every visitor. This data includes information on how the user got to the site, and how long they stayed, what browser they used, and where geographically they are located.

From the huge range of features in Google Analytics I will discuss the following two examples to demonstrate how Google Analytics leverages the data it collects to return useful information to the user:

1. Industry BenchmarkingArguably one of the biggest advantages of using Google Analytics over other web analytics tools is the opportunity to gain access to the aggregate data of other websites for comparison.  To gain access to this feature users must opt-in to “share the account data in an anonymous, aggregated format”^[1]. Once enabled, Google Analytics assesses the profiles in your account, categorises them by vertical market and number of visits and aggregates the data for inclusion in the benchmarking project^[2].  Once the inclusion process is complete the user can compare their profiles against data for their own category or choose from a list of others; each category consists of at least 100 websites^[3].  Although the ability to review the data collected about how users are interacting with the site is very useful for reviewing things like the effectiveness of improvements or advertising campaigns, benchmarking also enables you to investigate how your site is doing in comparison to its peers. This will help guide decisions on where energy should be spent to make improvements and where certain negative figures are to be expected.

   Website’s new visits benchmarked against similar industry

   

   Website’s new bounce rate benchmarked against similar industry

   

   Both these diagrams show that the website they are taken from is performing at around the same level as other sites in that industry of a similar size. Without the benefit of being able to compare the results against an aggregate this would be impossible to tell, and instead the web master would be left to guess at how well their site is actually doing.

2. Keywords Overview
   There are two types of traffic that come to a site through search engines; organic(unpaid) and paid. By reviewing the keywords users are entering into search engines, web masters are able to get an overview of the organic traffic that is coming through their site.  Not only are the number of visits received displayed, but also a wealth of other relevant information to help determine not only how much traffic is being generated by the search term but also the likeliness that the visit was of some benefit.  For example, if a keyword has a high ‘average time on site’ associated with it, the visit was probably of more value to the user than a visit resulting from a keyword with a low average time on site.  Keywords with a high average time on site are ultimately more beneficial to a website in comparison to keywords that get a large amount of very short visits, as the long visit hits indicate that the user found what they were looking for from the search and were intrigued enough to further investigate the site.

The data collected for Google Analytics is stored on Google’s own servers. This has the advantage that it is then easily accessible to be used in benchmarking and benefits from the speed and sophistication of their servers that smaller localised implementations may not be able to replicate.  Google also offers this service at no cost with regular updates and ongoing feature improvements.

Another analytics application that offers many of the features of Google Analytics and is free to use is Piwik. Its main difference with Google Analytics is that the data collected about your site is stored on, and accessed through, your own website.

Although Google Analytics clearly states that they do not use any of the data collected for their own purposes unless you expressly allow the information to be shared,^[4][5] there are some issues with not having direct control and access to your own data.  For example if you wished to change to another analytics software, you would have to start from scratch which would result in losing all your history.

Although Google Analytics lets you do a multitude of comparisons on a website’s data it does not allow you to directly compare against other sites.  If a Google Analytics user managed more than one site from the same account there could be advantages to being able to analyze the data from one site against another.  This would be most beneficial where a user has similar sites and one site is not performing as well; being able to display and compare the data together could reveal an insight into where improvement must be made.

Like any CSS Sushi Chef worth his Shio, you should be using a Reset CSS style sheet to bring all your browsers into line before you carve out your tasty styles.

However sometimes when debugging someone elses work which might not have a Reset CSS stylesheet, you might find yourself taking a few stabs in Firebug to see what could be the cause of their CSS woes.

This can be slow guess work looking through the DOM Tree finding the culprits, or you might be trying to find the problem in another browser such as IE-vil.

This little bookmarklet will inject the Yahoo Reset CSS into the page your on. Making any further guesses or adjustments you make less likely to be related to some default margin issues.

Drag this link into your bookmarks -> Yahoo Reset CSS Bookmarklet

javascript:(function (){
    document.body.innerHTML += '<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="http://yui.yahooapis.com/2.7.0/build/reset/reset-min.css">';
})();