Dev Tips | Become a Better Developer, One Tip at a Time.

January 28th, 2010

AJAX and PHP, Building Modern Web Apps – Book Review

As many of you know, I'm a huge fan of reading actual web development books to increase ones skills. Sometimes, you just need to step away from the computer and read an actual physical book. I recently had the pleasure of reading AJAX and PHP: Building Modern Web Applications - Second Edition, and I absolutely loved it. I'm going to take some time today to go over the some of the book, and what I feel it has to offer the average reader.

Posted in Books, Client Side, Featured, Javascript, Resources
By Drew Douglass

January 6th, 2010

Dev-Tips Turns 1! The Huge Giveaway Bash Begins!

Recently, we wrote about Dev-Tips turning one year old, and asked for items to be donated for a giveaway bash. I'm thrilled to say the response has been absolutely overwhelming. I have been stunned by everyones kindness and will to donate an item or product. With that said, I published the first post for Dev-Tips one year ago today. We've got 11 amazing items and products to giveaway to some of our readers, let the giveaway begin!

Posted in Books, Client Side, Featured, Resources, Site News
By Drew Douglass

January 5th, 2010

Introducing Minerva – A Creative Portfolio Theme

Recently, I teamed up with very talented designer and personal friend Baz Deas to form a small and fun ThemeForest team. We came up with a name, DesignThirst, and have released our first premium HTML template on ThemeForest. Minerva, the name of the theme, is a premium and very fresh corporate/portfolio theme. Just check out some the features!

Posted in Client Side, Downloads, Featured, HTML/CSS, Resources, Site News
By Drew Douglass

December 8th, 2009

PHP For Absolute Beginners Reviewed + Giveaway!

Recently, fellow web developer and friend, Jason Lengstorf wrote and published (by Apress Publishing) PHP for Absolute Beginners.

Jason was kind enough to send me a copy for my own reading and enjoyment. Now that I've finished, I'll be quickly reviewing the book and then giving away a free copy to one of our readers, courtesy of Jason Lengstorf and Apress Publishing! Read on to find out more about the book and how to win the giveaway!

Posted in Featured, PHP, Resources, Server Side
By Drew Douglass

November 2nd, 2009

How To Create Your First AJAX and PHP Contact Form

You've been to websites that use them, a nice little AJAX contact form. AJAX is a great way to submit data without a page refresh and is a great tool for certain elements of a website, such as a contact form. So how do we go about doing so? Today, we will take it step by step and build your first AJAX and PHP contact form. We'll be using jQuery and the popular email validation code found on google code (originally by AddedBytes) to help us out.

Posted in Downloads, Featured, PHP, Resources, Server Side
By Drew Douglass

August 5th, 2009

Link Nudge jQuery Plugin

I think it was David Walsh who first showed me the idea of link nudging using jQuery. You can see on the sidebar we also use this technique. I haven't seen a plugin made to do this yet (as it is really simple) so I figured this would be perfect for a quick jQuery plugin tutorial. You can download the plugin and/or view the demo below.

Posted in Client Side, Downloads, Featured, Javascript, Resources, jQuery
By Drew Douglass

February 22nd, 2009

Wordpress Plugin: Are You Sure?

Today we are releasing a new and very simple Wordpress plugin we think you will all enjoy. The plugin is named Are You Sure? and it was created to prevent any accidental postings. If you have used Wordpress for any amount of time, I am sure you have accidentally pressed the 'Publish' button before you were ready to publish. Sure, you can go back and change it, but chances are your RSS readers and anyone browsing the site already have seen it. Are You Sure? uses some simple Javascript when the Publish button is clicked and confirms that you do indeed wish to publish the current content. Read on to download and for instructions.

Posted in Downloads, Featured, Plugins, Resources, Server Side, Wordpress
By Drew Douglass

January 23rd, 2009

iBlog-A Free and Functional HTML and PHP Theme

I'm glad to release the first of many free themes to come on Dev-Tips. Every once in a while, we will release another free HTML or Wordpress theme for you to use however you like. You cannot sell these themes or use them commercially without the permission of Dev-Tips.com. Other than that, enjoy them! Today, we will have a look at a fully functional HTML and PHP based theme called iBlog.

Posted in Downloads, Featured, Resources, Server Side, Themes, Wordpress
By Drew Douglass