Servage Magazine

Expression Engine is an interesting content management system using PHP and MySQL. It's cleaner and simpler than many other similar systems, yet very powerful. I guess the greatest proof of quality is the list of companies using it. There are many significant names on there, showing off some pretty great websites. It seems ExpressionEngine suits their needs. So what is ExpressionEngine? Expression Engine works a lot like most content management systems. It can handle content, users, permissions, files, media and much more. As a developer you can build websites suiting your customers needs. The thing, however, that makes ExpressionEngine quite unique, is that it has a slightly different approach to content. While ...

The concept of having a desktop and laptop computer has been necessary for most developers over time, because desktops over great advantages that laptops simply don't have - among others performance and screen size. Ergonomics are simply better, work is more efficient. Laptops have been trying to compete with desktops for a decade or so, but only in recent years are they starting to become a real alternative. Having only a laptop removes the hassles of synchronization of data, the cost up purchasing and maintaining two systems in parallel etc. Apple recently introduced updated models in their Macbook Air line. Eventhough these models are ultra portable laptops with small screens, their performance ...

I stumbled over Platform Pro recently, and couldn't resist testing it. The idea and concept simply is too cool to ignore, and it really smells like tomorrows way of building not only websites, but maybe even entire web applications. Basically it helps you building cool websites for Wordpress quickly with drag and drop functionality. At this point I haven't tested it so much - merely played around with it, so I'm not sure if the system can actually be recommended. The feature list, however, seem very impressive, and include the following: Drag & Drop Theme Framework "Build websites faster and better using drag and drop, layout, typography, design-control and more." Drag ...

Yesterday Apple released their newest operating system MacOS X Lion, sticking with yet another cat name in their operating system's X-era. Is it just me, or are there others out there, wondering when it changes the prefix? Anyway, it's an update from the old system Snow Leopard, with a whole lot of new stuff to explore. Some of it is really cool, innovative and useful. Some is not. Either way, it's a a good upgrade, and definitely worth the price of USD 29. Autosave and Versions. In my opinion this is the best new feature, with the largest potential. Basically apps can now save content automatically, and afterwards you can browse through ...

It's important for web developers to test websites in various browser to avoid bad surprises, when users start reporting problems. The only real way of doing this is by having multiple browsers installed, and even having test systems with legacy browsers or other operating systems. If you want to test the major browsers in the most used versions on the most common operating systems, you quickly need a whole lot of setups. Browser-testing therefore quickly becomes very annoying and time consuming. Maybe that's the reason why many don't do it, and end up with comparability problems.

We're still seeing many users trying to build their own stuff from the ground up. While this is generally a good idea for large custom projects, with a lot of non-standard functionality, it is most likely overkill for most smaller projects. You actually don't need to reinvent the wheel with every project you start. Have a look at this earlier article that presents some PHP frameworks, which can really speed up your development. There are numerous advantages of working with a framework when creating and maintaining projects. Development work can be faster and more efficient when using a framework. It is easier to get things done, and it motivates developers to continue working. Often ...

After presenting ThemeForest here, I've been busy trying to find more online resources for Wordpress themes that are equally good. While there still is a plethora of free (and often crappy) templates, there are also quite a few good places for premium templates. Some are cheap, some are expensive. But there definitely is something great for every purpose and price level. So, again, if you're struggling with your Wordpress installation, trying to get your website looking the way you want, you should take a look at the following places:

Earlier I've been presenting Dropbox as a clever tool for backup and syncing files. However, Dropbox isn't the only app out there, and 10 good alternatives where described on techapp.com by Raju PP. You may want to consider any of the following as well. Dmailer Backup Dmailer is also a free online file hosting solution. We can use the application on Windows and Mac operating systems and use it to backup as much as 2GB of data. The interface copies by default files from the Desktop, Documents, My Music, My Pictures, and My Videos folders. This makes restoration easier in case of data loss or corruption of operating system. So, in addition to being a cloud based file storage service, Dmailer is also a good live online backup solution too.