Akash Mehta
Company: BitMetaAuthor Bio:
Akash Mehta is a web solutions consultant and
application developer. He regularly advises website owners and small business on
their online challenges, while researching and writing on innovative uses of
web-related technologies for the developer community. In his copious free time,
he enjoys cycling and investigating creative accounting methods.
Tutorials written by Akash Mehta:
Building Desktop Applications in PHP
So, you’re a hotshot PHP developer. You’ve written a lot of code powering some pretty cool websites; maybe you’ve even written some public / open source scripts that other developers are using. You’ve been through it all with the web, from basic database hacks to battling with inconsistent browser rendering, and now you want to have a go at something different.
Saturday, 9th February 2008
Desktop Application Development with PHP-GTK
PHP-GTK 2 is out, and with it, a fantastic means for PHP developers to build useful, reliable cross-platform desktop applications. In this tutorial, I'll show you how to get up and running with PHP-GTK in no time and build your first desktop application.
Thursday, 13th March 2008
Easy PDF Generation in PHP
PDF is a popular, versatile format for storing content. PDF files can be generated once, and distributed in peace knowing that they will look the same across all platforms. They also serve as a perfect way of allowing your users to download or email a page from your website. In this tutorial, I'll show you how to generate PDF files in pure PHP and distribute your content in a single, consistent format.
Saturday, 1st March 2008
Effective Geotargeting with PHP
In this tutorial, we’ll take a look at the technique of geotargeting, or serving content to users based on their physical location. The technology is invaluable; with simple techniques, you can target advertising to specific users, collect more accurate usage statistics, serve content in different languages for different regions and provide local information like weather reports to your visitors.
Sunday, 27th January 2008
Enrich Your Web Applications
The web 2.0 buzz has gradually died down, and as a web developer it's your job to take stock of the online landscape - and what it means for you. Rich web applications are making it big, software as a service is finally taking hold and you can brace for the boom times. In this tutorial, I'll show you how to enrich your web applications with the technologies and approaches that worked.
Sunday, 24th February 2008
Getting Started with AJAX in jQuery
AJAX is probably the biggest thing you can add to your site; with AJAX, you can dramatically increase functionality, and give your end users more usable web applications. But AJAX is tricky to get started with - it usually requires very complex JavaScript knowledge. In this tutorial, I'll show you how to get started with AJAX using the jQuery JavaScript framework.
Sunday, 11th May 2008
JavaScript Debugging Techniques with Firebug
Server side scripters have always had it easy; debugging a web application is simple, and IDEs make problems easy to identify. Client-side scripting with JavaScript, however, is a whole new ball game. In this tutorial, I'll identify the best basic and advanced JavaScript debugging techniques to help you take control of your JavaScript code.
Sunday, 20th April 2008
PHP Site Search Made Easy
When users want to find information on your website, they first look for a search box. Failing that, they head back to Google - potentially finding a competing site and taking their business elsewhere, or simply becoming frustrated with your service. But implementing effective search doesn't have to be hard. In this tutorial, I'll show you how to build a basic site-specific web search in just five lines of code, using the Yahoo! APIs.
Sunday, 30th March 2008
Port Scanning and Service Status Checking in PHP
While building web applications, it's often important to keep an eye on the other services running on your server. Having access to the current status of public servers can empower your applications to make decisions and respond to problems automatically. Acknowledging a service is offline can also save endless support emails. In this tutorial, I'll show you how to keep track of your server status by scanning ports on your server with PHP.
Friday, 6th June 2008
Practical PHP Performance
When it comes to building web applications in PHP, performance isn't typically a major concern. Features, usability and any business concerns are considered a greater priority, as they can be better demonstrated and visualised. Performance graphs don't make the boss's day. So, why should you as a PHP developer, worry about performance? Quite a few reasons, in fact...
Wednesday, 13th February 2008
Rapid Application Development with CodeIgniter
When it comes to PHP, there are a lot of options for frameworks. Some focus on simplifying your application code, while others improve your application portability, and others still simply help you code quicker. Today I'll introduce you to CodeIgniter, a framework that does all three. CodeIgniter is an MVC application framework for PHP that gives you a consistent structure for your application, takes care of common tasks and helps you implement complex functionality with minimal effort.
Sunday, 17th February 2008
Setting Up Subversion for Development on Windows
When developing web applications on your own, a common challenge is keeping track of your changes. Mature version control systems make it easier to manage development as projects increase in size and complexity. In this tutorial, I'll show you how to set up Subversion on a Windows machine and get started with a simple project.
Wednesday, 2nd July 2008
Simple System Maintenance with PHP-CLI
Web development is a world of rapid code modifications, instant deployment and immediate updates. Of course, maintaining the product of this web development can be as hectic as the web development is agile; with manual backups, quick database edits and tedious data migration and re-entry. In this tutorial, I'll show you how to use PHP-CLI, the command line interface for PHP, to get your maintenance under control using the technologies you're already familiar with. By the time you've finished this tutorial, you'll be able to build human-assisted backup systems, automatic report generators.
Monday, 21st January 2008