http://www.brandonsavage.net/learning-zend-framework-a-case-study/

How others have scaled the learning mountain in other frameworks, what is learned from the experience.

Mentors help. Too much archival junk hurts. In a fast paced development project, outdated archival info is the norm. eZ is not alone, simply a little ahead of their time ;~}

Frameworks make many an instant "expert". Until these experts try to do some of the simplest things they learned to do outside the framework.

Then it is discovered that was was dead simple outside the framework, is now wrapped into the methodology of the framework. You must learn the tools and rules of the framework, no way around that. Aggravation sets in, reality takes hold.

Until you learn how to use the tools of the framework, the debug, the logs, the code, templating and terminology, you are not going to much enjoy any customizations you attempt, no matter how simple.

A news network, focused on latest breaking information is a solution I have long proposed. The more I think about it, and read the thoughts of others, the more I believe it is truly going to be the only way to keep up with the pace of innovation on the Web. There is simply always going to be too too much old junk in fast moving environments.

Add mentoring, focus on today's solution to today's problems, only work your way back in time as necessary. It just might work. Nothing else is working right now. Too much of not the right info, data not immediately applicable to today's problem, is a large and growing problem.

More..

http://newsnetworknn.com

Hakim Bouras expounds very concisely how to move eZ from one site to another.

http://share.ez.no/forums/developer/multisite-move-from-one-server-to-other#comment57697

To move the Site2 to another server you will have to :

• copy the files to the new server (in the existing ez folder):

1. design/Site2
2. extension/site2ext
3. siteaccess/new_plain_site
4. siteaccess/new_plain_site_admin
5. var/Site2

• restore your database

1. update your settings in settings/siteaccess/Site2/site.ini.append.php
2. database connection if it changes
3. var folder if it changes

• verify the other extensions that was used, in the previous server and make sure they are available on the new server (if they are used by your site) globally in the ez installation in settings/override/site.ini.append.phplocally, only for Site 2 in settings/siteaccess/Site2/site.ini.append.php
• declare Site 2 in your new server by updating settings/override/site.ini.append.php

[SiteSettings]--> SiteList[][SiteAccessSettings]--> AvailableSiteAccessList[]--> HostMatchMapItems[]
- clear the cache folder var/Site2/cache

Fastest Start, lowest Maintenance, Most Room to Grow.

On the Web, it is not where you start, it is how rapidly you progress. Then how easily you can maintain and adapt to changing realities.

There are about as many ways to get started on the Web as there are brother-in-laws. Some devs know html, some wordpress, some CSS, some proprietary Web host interfaces, Adobe, Cold Fusion, frameworks, etc. I have been through most possibles to one degree or another, including alternate open source CMS designs and building my own Web apps from scratch. This story is told with a little hard won expertise in other words.

Starting with a good foundation makes all the difference down the road. Subsequent investments of time and money then serve mostly to advance the results of each past effort.

Low ongoing maintenance requirements for a high functioning site is an established hallmark of eZ Publish. But eZ can also be very quick to first product once you have scaled the "learning mountain".

Fast Start

Results. How long to first results, first presence on the Web? In one or two days, what may be expected? Fast results are critical for demonstrating to bosses and clients that the project is on the right track. Fast starts are a critical tool for divining inputs regarding future direction.

With the right client, some pretty impressive sites can be built in just a few days. I kid you not, 95 percent of the content and layout for Simpson Creek Farms was completed in a single day. It has held to it's original form since, and in six months climbed it's owner to the top of his targeted Google search term. Search Engine Optimization built in by eZ developers, thank you!

http://simpsoncreekfarms.com/index.php/eng/Gun-Dog-Training

Then Update Content, Ongoing Maintenance.

The owner of Simpson Creek site is a confessed computer neophyte, not even a very good typist. He does not want to learn any computer stuff, just wants to be able to update his own site once in a while. eZ is perfect for him. He has filled out forms on the Web, he does that in eZ. His access is restricted, so he can play without "blowing up" anything. I can pop in and help him once in a while if needed. Pop in right on the site, no travel required.

Larger organizations may have in-house expertise they can tap. The purpose is not to replace existing expertise, but to enhance the net effects of existing expertise. That seems to be a difficult concept for many to grasp. Working together, each performing exactly the task they enjoy most, get the farthest the fastest.

For ongoing maintenance, the hosting service has a one click backup for snapshots. Aside from that, eZ has been around long enough, and the foundation coded strongly enough, that so far, so good in terms of security issues. That is one reason I stay away from brand new CMS's and even extensions to the greatest degree possible. Do not like surprises or long days and nights should issues arise.

Most Room to Grow

If you haven't figured out eZ is the choice of top international content producers at the enterprise level, start looking around a little or email me for a list. Listed in the eContent100, a Page rank of 9. Yes eZ is important to the Web.

The reason eZ sites are easy to grow fast, easier than any other CMS, is that anyone and everyone can jump in, and do exactly what they know how to do. eZ is so DRY and compartmentalized, that it is hard to believe it started in the days before the jargon came along to explain the power in it's processes. Was there a LAMP stack back then? Was the popular IT press talking frameworks in 1999?

eZ started, and remains, open source. So anyone can add their piece to the puzzle, without waiting on anything or anybody. eZ is a high level framework that so completely abstracts the underlying mysql, PHP, CSS and HTML, that it essentially becomes a Fourth or Fifth generation programming language for the Web.

I say that, because to "just use" eZ for Web purposes, like site content, cross site publishing, time line publishing, requires no understanding of any of the underlying technologies. The focus then becomes how you want the Web to work. How to connect pages, layouts, and even whole Web sites to achieve the desired effect. The Web itself becomes essentially one big mashable canvas. Rather than fragmenting efforts chasing yet another Web craze, focus on pulling everything already there into one place. DRY the Web. Just that simple.

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MORE:

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An old html site of mine circa 1999: http://www.barefootexpress.com

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A CSS site with tiny bit of PHP: http://www.lakedata.net

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Way cool eCommerce effort of another one person consulting enterprise state side:

http://www.twistedthrottle.com/

by

http://brookinsconsulting.com

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Frameworks under consideration when made the eZ plunge:

Zend, phplens, ROR, Django, iWeb

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I was staring down the Zend framework path real hard, when eZ finally started clicking for me. It was like eZ had started at the Zend Framework stage, but 5 years earlier. eZ also had a well defined support structure to handle each higher level of need for big clients.

Far too many of my friends have lost far too much efforts, by building their presence on the Web, only to have it shuttered or lost due to circumstances beyond their control. An argument for staying away from "lobster trap" Web presence built on sites of others.

Having finally made "the list" myself, I was curious of where in the world are found eZ Community Developer companies.

Almost 200 organizations in thirty two different countries at present.

Argentina

Australia

Austria

Brazil

Belgium

Canada

China

Colombia

Croatia

Czech Republic

Finland

France

Germany

Greece

Hong Kong

Italy

Lithuania

Luxembourg

Mauritius

Mozambique

Netherlands

New Zealand

Norway

Poland

Spain

Saudi Arabia

Sweden

Switzerland

Taiwan

Thailand

United Kingdom

United States

Venezuela

Zaire

Curiously missing from the list, in my mind, are Israel, Japan, and Mexico. It won't be long.

With over 6,000 people listings and growing daily, the World is awakening to the potential of the eZ Publish information ecosystem. Each new listing makes us all stronger.

The list: http://share.ez.no/directory/companies

Me on the list: http://share.ez.no/directory/companies/lakedata.net

PR<-->Pr Web presence.

To determine the current state of a Public Relations effort on the Web, examine Page ranks for that particular effort. Just that simple.

Actively involved in this "Web thing" for 10 plus years, I consider myself well exposed, and reasonably well versed in most discussions of the Web. Then eZ bragging up a Page rank of 9, piqued an interest in better understanding the implications of Page rank.

A log scale from 0 to 10 ranking the importance of a page to the Web is the single line explanation of Page rank. Big P, little r, named after Google founder Larry "Page". Pr is my shorthand notation. Wikipedia for a whole lot more info. Wikipedia has a Page rank of 9, Google a 10. A log scale, so a big range at 9, but all 9's are at least in the same discussion. Congratulations to eZ developers who have worked so diligently over the past decade to reach 9.

Anyone heavily invested in the Web, understands Page ranks at the gut feeling / intuition level. The revelation is that Page rank is not just another obscure set of formulas for theorizing. It is a deadly accurate way to figure out who is moving their cause forward the fastest on the Web. The first time I tried it, interesting correlations. The second study, OMG. Third study, this is it. The formula that substantiates the intuition.

Public Relations equals Page rank, the Revelation.

The importance of a making a good first impression is universally understood. Explaining to clients how to position themselves to make a memorable first impression on the Web, nearly impossible.

"I could tell you everything I know, but not one in a 100 of you would know what I am talking about."

--Guido Hibdon, long time professional angler during a fishing symposium at Bass Pro Shops Outdoor World, Springfield, MO.

The context was fishing, but the phrase applies to most expertise. Long time developers, if you are not already ahead of me on the importance of Page rank, install the Firefox Page rank extension. Study past and future efforts in light of Page rank results. At that point, you will "get it". The value for cutting to the chase when clients are having difficulty following along, is immediately apparent. The implications for advertising, both on the Web, and in traditional media outlets, huge.

Everything I Need to Know, I Learned in Studies of Page ranks.

At Bass Pro, after the uncomfortable silence of many, combined with a few laughing out loud, Guido continued the discussion. He related key points he hoped would help everyone, regardless of skill level, catch more fish. Here is my version of what everyone needs to know about Public Relations and Web presence as evidenced by Page rank studies.

• Waiting does not work.

--There will never be a better time to start

--Clients and customers waiting, potentially someone elses clients and customers.

--Real-time updates, real-time results, characterizes the best of the best on the Web

• Simple works best.

--Simple adapts easily to the constant change that is Web reality

--Netizens love simple, Google simple, Twitter simple.

--Confuse site visitors, lose site visitors.

• Advertising budgets are mostly wasted on the Web

--Spam was the original web advertising

--Do you search the internet for Ads?

--Web Advertisements are for the sole viewing pleasure of Web Advertisers

--Conventional advertising into a space, without content that captures interest in that space, totally wasted.

• Control your own content and space

--Great investments of time and money have vanished in an instant on the Web

--Sole possession of the space is the only way to assure continued positive direct interactions that are the lifeblood of a vibrant Web community.

--The Web was built by a community for community communications. It is a level playing field for all. What you do with it, is up to you.

• Plan and prepare

--Know where you are, easily defined by Page rank

--Know your competition, easily defined by Page rank

--Know where you want to be in relation to competing forces, in terms of Page rank numbers

--Have a plan in place, with metrics to gauge progress, Page rank is a core gauge.

http://mugtug.com/sketchpad/

HTML5 <canvas> tag and a whole bunch of javascript. Full source code included - view source in your browser.

A startlingly simple and cool implementation. Just use it. 30 seconds after loading the site, this pic is saved to local machine.

Not a work of art. But not the point.

The point is that HTML5 expands the possibilities for webapps that are immediately capable, immediately useful, browser and web dev platform independent. Webapps that are light on system resources.

Tested cpu and memory consumption independently in each Opera, Firefox, and Safari on a 2.53 Core 2 CPU There was not even a perceptible blip in activity monitor while using the webapp. On a 1.5mb dsl connection, the interface worked in essentially real time, no world wide wait to see the results.

Very impressive. Stunning even. If this is HTML5, I want more, and soon.

Attempting similar activities on older macs using flash and a web browser is given as a pressing reason to upgrade hardware by Dan Knight over at Low End Mac. "For text and static images, my old Power Macs are fine. For streaming video, there's not a whole lot of difference, as bandwidth is the big factor there. But for websites that use Flash or JavaScript - the vast majority of the Web these days - the difference is huge."

The reasoning behind Jobs comments regarding Flash at the iPad intro are somewhat confirmed, at least in my mind.

Thanks to Kevin Purdy at Lifehacker for a nice webapp find..

http://lifehacker.com/5467493/sketchpad-is-a-no+flash+required-html5-painting-app

The iPad has spawned a lot of rhetoric on HTML5, generally representing HTML5 as an alternative to Flash.

What is Flash? What is HTML5? Why care?

FLASH

The Adobe Flash plug-in is the reigning king of online video content. The Adobe claim to fame was that 99 percent of web visitors can view Flash based video. With 75 million iPhones and Touches in circulation, none supporting Flash, that percentage has gone down.

Jobs says Flash is too power hungry and crash prone for mobile devices. Adobe CTO Lynch counters that switching away from Flash as a de-facto standard risks plunging web video “back to the dark ages".

HTML5

"Some of the new features in HTML 5 are functions for embedding audio, video, graphics, client-side data storage, and interactive documents." -- w3schools.com

Opera software, among their other "firsts" in browser technology, can count HTML5 as one of their original concepts. In 2003, they proposed non-browser specific forms handling. Laying a foundation for future "web apps" was the proposed benefit. Soon afterward the idea was jointly presented to the W3C by Opera and Mozilla. The proposal was rejected as conflicting with the vision of how the web should evolve! That vision may have been clouded by total domination of the market by the browser of the day.

Then another under dog, Apple, joined the Opera-Mozilla effort and the rest as they say is history. Those three began collaborating under the name WHATWG-Web Hypertext Application Technology Working Group. Whatwg.org has been "evolving HTML since 2004" Original focus on web apps and codifying a richer browsing experience.

In 2007 the W3C saw the vision too, and began the HTML5 working group, which includes Opera, Mozilla, Apple, Google, IBM, Microsoft and Nokia among hundreds of other members.

WHATWG.org and W3 HTML5 - http://www.w3.org/TR/html5/ working groups are essentially the same cast of characters operating under different charters. HTML5 is a work in progress, not a standard or final specification. So defining any technology as HTML5 is premature at this time.

Why Care?

Casual web users need not care. The web keeps running to suit them, not the other way around.

Developers must at least pay attention, because the discussion is about no less than the future of the web. Adobe and Flash are important, because Adobe creates the tools that many web developers use to get content to the web, and Flash is todays standard for web video.

HTML5 hopefully creates a platform where competing video formats will be used based upon their particular merits, real or perceived instead of simple ubiquity. Besides allowing for the possible future innovations in video codecs, it is difficult to see a reason to exclude any of the three popular video formats of the present day.

• Flash - Adobe
• H.264 - essentially Apple
• Ogg - essentially Google

HTML5 is not yet a specification! Nothing firmly defined. It is a concept, not a standard.

More..

http://www.w3schools.com/html5/html5_reference.asp

Web Monkey, Scott Gilbertson

http://www.webmonkey.com/blog/Why_Flash_Isn_t_Going_Anywhere__iPad_Be_Damned

Jan Ozer, Streaming Media - background and usage of H.264 in context of other codecs

http://www.streamingmedia.com/article.asp?id=10788

http://www.whatwg.org/specs/web-apps/current-work/multipage/introduction.html#is-this-html5?

Spam - The Original Web Advertising

It started out simple enough. A way to reach a lot of people with little effort. Then the next guy had to take it a little further. Then the next further still, then money started changing hands. Soon so many were doing it that email communications were becoming almost too difficult to be practical.

Laws had to be passed, abusers prosecuted.

How Far We Have Come

The advertising continues down the page, not sure why it ever stops, runs out of advertisers?

The site owners maintain the key positions to re-inforce their brand. Everyone else is pretty much fending for themselves. Visitors come for the content, ignore the rest, and continue on their merry web browsing way.

Which is Worse, Spam or Current Web Designs?

To get noticed on the web, you are going to have to provide some of your own content in a context useful to site visitors. Just that simple.

Then surround your own content with 80-90 percent chaff if you can line up the advertisers to pay for your online presence.

TV Weather

I stopped watching weather news when it got to 50 percent pure advertising, a lot of techno hocus pocus, then about 2 seconds of forecast flashed on the screen and gone. The communication value is simply not there. The chaff ratio too high. It is easier to hit a bookmark to the latest National Weather Service forecast whenever needed. And with a data plan on a cell phone, from wherever I happen to be.

Going Mobile

How much of this advertising displays when visiting this site from a Blackberry? With the Opera mini browser, essentially none. Pan to the actual content, push to zoom, view just the content of interest. iPhone, same, with a little more screen real estate.

iPad

How much did the big media wheels pay Steve Jobs and Apple to "innovate" users into a bigger playing surface? Now they can assure advertising will display in all its glory. Visitors will still ignore it. The more flashy and intrusive, the less likely the casual viewer will ever return for another dose. Everyday people are the ultimate economists when it comes to where they spend their time and money. Bury them in chaff, run them off. iPad may delay that, will not change it.

Google, Wired, Email from your Buddy

Anybody remember how Google became pre-eminent in search when Alta Vista had the market conquered? Simplifying the search experience, and providing exactly what web visitors came seeking with no chaff had much to do with the rapid success. Then Google tried too much advertising, confusing searchers a little, while monetizing the concept of "free" search beyond what any had ever imagined. Now Google has struck a sensible advertising ratio that seems to be working well for them, and searchers. Most importantly, the ads are geared to the search terms, allowing advertising in context, without clutter.

Wired, loved the print magazine, no need for it when the information is more conveniently accessed online via a newsfeed. Maybe 40 percent advertising on their site pages, all of it easily ignored. Recently, a single small ad displays, embedded with the feed link. Importantly, that tiny ad fits within the context of the link. It makes an impression. Ads on their site pages may or may not have become more relevant to content. I don't know. I have learned to ignore ads on site pages completely, no matter whose site. Web savvy means learning to ignore chaff, just that simple.

Email footers. The evil empire is the master of these. Embedded at the bottom of every email, an ad for Bing, or Live, or 7, or whatever is the latest promotion. Probably has something to do with ubiquitous control of the desktop. Regardless, these are effective at generating some level of interest rather than being totally ignored. A good email chuckle, read all the way to the bottom, boom, there it is. Hardly noticed but imprinted all the same.

Moral of the Story

Web advertising at 80 percent or higher ratios versus content offers much opportunity to sell advertisers advertising. If advertisers will pay to increase your online presence, why not? But the high chaff ratios are still an abysmal waste of bits, bytes, and bandwidth. Even when they help pay off your site. When the chaff ratio gets too high, all chaff is ignored. Just that simple.

If it is your advertising dollar, create your own content, or find the right context. Every big flashy animation not in context, is just one more distraction that gets the baby thrown out with the bath water. It is not lightning strikes or gold mining, hocus pocus, smoke and mirrors. It is as simple as asking yourself how you use the web. The information super highway can be an autobahn or a giant pothole. Eighty percent chaff is an 18 inch pothole. A detriment to the cause. Just that simple.