by: John L
Most interactive websites nowadays require data to be presented dynamically and interactively based on input from the user. For example, a customer may need to log into a retail website to check his purchasing history. In this instance, the website would have stored two types of data in order for the customer to perform the check – the customer’s personal login details; and the customer’s purchased items. This data can be stored in two types of storage – flat files or databases.
Flat files are only feasible in very low to low volume websites as flat files have 3 inherent weaknesses:
1. The inability to index the data. This makes it necessary to potentially read ALL the data sequentially. This is a major problem if there are a lot of records in the flat file because the time required to read the flat file is proportionate to the number of records in the flat file.
2. The inability to efficiently control access by users to the data
3. The inefficient storage of the data. In most cases, the data would not be encrypted or compressed as this would exacerbate the problem no. 1 above
The alternative which is, in my opinion, the only feasible method, is to store the data in a database. One of the most prevalent databases in use is MySQL. Data that is stored in a database can easily be indexed, managed and stored efficiently. Besides that, most databases also provide a suite of accompanying utilities that allow the database administrator to maintain the database – for example, backup and restore, etc.
Websites scripted using PHP are very well suited for the MySQL database as PHP has a custom and integrated MySQL module that communicates very efficiently with MySQL. PHP can also communicate with MySQL through the standard ODBC as MySQL is ODBC-compliant, However, this will not be as efficient as using the custom MySQL module for PHP.
The rest of this article is a tutorial on how to use PHP to:
1. Connect to a MySQL database
2. Execute standard SQL statements against the MySQL database
Starting a Session with MySQL
Before the PHP script can communicate with the database to query, insert or update the database, the PHP script will first need to connect to the MySQL server and specify which database in the MySQL server to operate on.
The mysql_connect() and mysql_select_db() functions are provided for this purpose. In order to connect to the MySQL server, the server name/address; a username; and a valid password is required. Once a connection is successful, the database needs to be specified.
The following 2 code excerpts illustrate how to perform the server connection and database selection:
@mysql_connect("[servername]", "[username]", "[password]") or die("Cannot connect to DB!");
@mysql_select_db("[databasename]") or die("Cannot select DB!");
The @ operator is used to suppress any error messages that mysql_connect() and mysql_select_db() functions may produce if an error occurred. The die() function is used to end the script execution and display a custom error message.
Executing SQL Statements against a MySQL database
Once the connection and database selection is successfully performed, the PHP script can now proceed to operate on the database using standard SQL statements. The mysql_query() function is used for executing standard SQL statements against the database. In the following example, the PHP script queries a table called tbl_login in the previously selected database to determine if a username/password pair provided by the user is valid.
Assumption:
The tbl_login table has 3 columns named login, password, last_logged_in. The last_logged_in column stores the time that the user last logged into the system.
// The $username and $passwd variable should rightly be set by the login form
// through the POST method. For the purpose of this example, we’re manually coding it.
$username = “john”;
$passwd = “mypassword”;
// We generate a SELECT SQL statement for execution.
$sql="SELECT * FROM tbl_login WHERE login = '".$username."' AND password = '".$passwd."'";
// Execute the SQL statement against the currently selected database.
// The results will be stored in the $r variable.
$r = mysql_query($sql);
// After the mysql_query() command executes, the $r variable is examined to
// determine of the mysql_query() was successfully executed.
if(!$r) {
$err=mysql_error();
print $err;
exit();
}
// If everything went well, check if the query returned a result – i.e. if the username/password
// pair was found in the database. The mysql_affected_rows() function is used for this purpose.
// mysql_affected_rows() will return the number of rows in the database table that was affected
// by the last query
if(mysql_affected_rows()==0){
print "Username/password pair is invalid. Please try again.";
}
else {
// If successful, read out the last logged in time into a $last variable for display to the user
$row=mysql_fetch_array($r);
$last=$row["last_logged_in"];
print “Login successful. You last logged in at ”.$last.”.”;
}
The above example demonstrated how a SELECT SQL statement is executed against the selected database. The same method is used to execute other SQL statements (e.g. UPDATE, INSERT, DELETE, etc.) against the database using the mysql_query() and mysql_affected_rows() functions.
Saturday, April 4, 2009
MySQL Database Handling in PHP
Developing a Login System with PHP and MySQL
by: John L
This article is written by daBoss. daBoss is the Webmaster of Designer Banners. daBoss can be contacted at sales (at) designerbanners (dot) com.
Developing a Login System with PHP and MySQL
Most interactive websites nowadays would require a user to log in into the website’s system in order to provide a customized experience for the user. Once the user has logged in, the website will be able to provide a presentation that is tailored to the user’s preferences.
A basic login system typically contains 3 components:
1. The component that allows a user to register his preferred login id and password
2. The component that allows the system to verify and authenticate the user when he subsequently logs in
3. The component that sends the user’s password to his registered email address if the user forgets his password
Such a system can be easily created using PHP and MySQL.
Component 1 – Registration
Component 1 is typically implemented using a simple HTML form that contains 3 fields and 2 buttons:
1. A preferred login id field
2. A preferred password field
3. A valid email address field
4. A Submit button
5. A Reset button
Assume that such a form is coded into a file named register.html. The following HTML code excerpt is a typical example. When the user has filled in all the fields, the register.php page is called when the user clicks on the Submit button.
[form name="register" method="post" action="register.php"]
[input name="login id" type="text" value="loginid" size="20"/][br]
[input name="password" type="text" value="password" size="20"/][br]
[input name="email" type="text" value="email" size="50"/][br]
[input type="submit" name="submit" value="submit"/]
[input type="reset" name="reset" value="reset"/]
[/form]
The following code excerpt can be used as part of register.php to process the registration. It connects to the MySQL database and inserts a line of data into the table used to store the registration information.
@mysql_connect("localhost", "mysql_login", "mysql_pwd") or die("Cannot connect to DB!");
@mysql_select_db("tbl_login") or die("Cannot select DB!");
$sql="INSERT INTO login_tbl (loginid, password and email) VALUES (".$loginid.”,”.$password.”,”.$email.”)”;
$r = mysql_query($sql);
if(!$r) {
$err=mysql_error();
print $err;
exit();
}
The code excerpt assumes that the MySQL table that is used to store the registration data is named tbl_login and contains 3 fields – the loginid, password and email fields. The values of the $loginid, $password and $email variables are passed in from the form in register.html using the post method.
Component 2 – Verification and Authentication
A registered user will want to log into the system to access the functionality provided by the website. The user will have to provide his login id and password for the system to verify and authenticate.
This is typically done through a simple HTML form. This HTML form typically contains 2 fields and 2 buttons:
1. A login id field
2. A password field
3. A Submit button
4. A Reset button
Assume that such a form is coded into a file named authenticate.html. The following HTML code excerpt is a typical example. When the user has filled in all the fields, the authenticate.php page is called when the user clicks on the Submit button.
[form name="authenticate" method="post" action="authenticate.php"]
[input name="login id" type="text" value="loginid" size="20"/][br]
[input name="password" type="text" value="password" size="20"/][br]
[input type="submit" name="submit" value="submit"/]
[input type="reset" name="reset" value="reset"/]
[/form]
The following code excerpt can be used as part of authenticate.php to process the login request. It connects to the MySQL database and queries the table used to store the registration information.
@mysql_connect("localhost", "mysql_login", "mysql_pwd") or die("Cannot connect to DB!");
@mysql_select_db("tbl_login") or die("Cannot select DB!");
$sql="SELECT loginid FROM login_tbl WHERE loginid=’".$loginid.”’ and password=’”.$password.”’”;
$r = mysql_query($sql);
if(!$r) {
$err=mysql_error();
print $err;
exit();
}
if(mysql_affected_rows()==0){
print "no such login in the system. please try again.";
exit();
}
else{
print "successfully logged into system.";
//proceed to perform website’s functionality – e.g. present information to the user
}
As in component 1, the code excerpt assumes that the MySQL table that is used to store the registration data is named tbl_login and contains 3 fields – the loginid, password and email fields. The values of the $loginid and $password variables are passed in from the form in authenticate.html using the post method.
Component 3 – Forgot Password
A registered user may forget his password to log into the website’s system. In this case, the user will need to supply his loginid for the system to retrieve his password and send the password to the user’s registered email address.
This is typically done through a simple HTML form. This HTML form typically contains 1 field and 2 buttons:
# A login id field
# A Submit button
# A Reset button
Assume that such a form is coded into a file named forgot.html. The following HTML code excerpt is a typical example. When the user has filled in all the fields, the forgot.php page is called when the user clicks on the Submit button.
[form name="forgot" method="post" action="forgot.php"]
[input name="login id" type="text" value="loginid" size="20"/][br]
[input type="submit" name="submit" value="submit"/]
[input type="reset" name="reset" value="reset"/]
[/form]
The following code excerpt can be used as part of forgot.php to process the login request. It connects to the MySQL database and queries the table used to store the registration information.
@mysql_connect("localhost", "mysql_login", "mysql_pwd") or die("Cannot connect to DB!");
@mysql_select_db("tbl_login") or die("Cannot select DB!");
$sql="SELECT password, email FROM login_tbl WHERE loginid=’".$loginid.”’”;
$r = mysql_query($sql);
if(!$r) {
$err=mysql_error();
print $err;
exit();
}
if(mysql_affected_rows()==0){
print "no such login in the system. please try again.";
exit();
}
else {
$row=mysql_fetch_array($r);
$password=$row["password"];
$email=$row["email"];
$subject="your password";
$header="from:you@yourdomain.com";
$content="your password is ".$password;
mail($email, $subject, $row, $header);
print "An email containing the password has been sent to you";
}
As in component 1, the code excerpt assumes that the MySQL table that is used to store the registration data is named tbl_login and contains 3 fields – the loginid, password and email fields. The value of the $loginid variable is passed from the form in forgot.html using the post method.
Conclusion
The above example is to illustrate how a very basic login system can be implemented. The example can be enhanced to include password encryption and additional functionality – e.g. to allow users to edit their login information.
For Automated Sites PHP and MySQL are A Perfect Match
by: Halstatt Pires
You’ve decided to automate your web site. Now what? Here are some ideas to help you choose how to automate your site.
A bit of programming is going to be necessary if you want to automate a site. There are many types of programs that can be used to automate a web site including JavaScript, PHP, Perl, ASP, Java and more. So, which do you use? For many, it is a personal choice.
I prefer PHP for programming. PHP is a particularly useful programming language because it allows for advanced programming and is easy to integrate with web pages. Another plus of PHP is that the language interfaces very well with MySQL, a popular type of online database.
Yet another plus of PHP is that it is Open Source Code. The actual code that is PHP is available to the public for free, while the source code for products such as ASP are not. Because PHP is open source, there is a large community of PHP programmers that help each other with code. This means PHP programmers can rely on each other by using reusable pieces of code called functions and classes rather than constantly reinventing the wheel. This can dramatically cut down on production time.
Overall, PHP is flexible, cheaper than many alternatives, and built around a community. PHP and MySQL are excellent choice for webmasters looking to automate their web sites.
What Can PHP and MySQL do for me? Just about anything you can think of. That is the beauty of custom programming. A few ideas of what you can do with a PHP and MySQL driven site include:
1. E-commerce
2. User Polls
3. Keyword Tracking
4. Set User Preferences
5. Manage Password Protected Member's Areas
6. Lead Follow Up
7. Customer Relations
8. Content Management
9. Email Newsletters
10. Accounting
11. Invoicing
12. Scheduled Updates
The list is limited only by your imagination. Once you have decided to go with a PHP and MySQL site, you can either get a custom program created, use a prepackaged version or a combination of both. Many PHP and MySQL programs that come prepackaged are easy to customize and can save you a lot of time and money over starting from the ground up.
Secure PHP Programming
Secure PHP Programming 101
By Michael McCann
Writing insecure code is easy. Everybody does it. Sometimes we do it accidentally because we don’t realize that the security issue exists, and sometimes we do it on purpose because we suspect the bad guys won’t notice one little vulnerability. Secure programming is often overlooked because of ignorance, time constraints, or any number of other factors. Since security isn’t flashy until something goes wrong, it is often easy put it off.
Once your application is compromised, you will realize there’s nothing more important. The best case scenario is that you lose days of productivity and suffer downtime while you fix what was damaged. The worst case scenario &em; your data is compromised and you have no idea if it is correct, much less what the hackers managed to copy and read. Did you expose usernames and passwords to the world? Did you happen to release the credit card information for thousands into the den of identity thieves? You’ll never really be able to know. It’s best to practice secure programming so you never need to ask yourself these questions.
With this in mind, let’s examine three different classes of secure programming "no-noes," storage risks, system risks, and exposure risks and discuss how we can prevent each of them. Server configuration and data transmission security are beyond the scope of this article, but the reader should be aware that they also play a major role in securing a web application.
Storage risks are those risks involved in the storing data and interacting with a database server or file system. The most widely known of these in the infamous SQL injection attack. SQL injection is when you allow the user to input data into a query, and instead of a value he adds his own SQL into the query. The easiest way to prevent this type of attack is to escape every user variable that could touch your queries. Luckily, PHP has several build in functions for handling this, such as mysql_escape_string(). Essentially, this works by escaping characters in a string that could conceivably be used to terminate your query and run a user specified query.
When should you escape user data? It all depends on who you talk to. Some programmers prefer to escape as soon as it enters the application, while others prefer to wait until just before it is placed into the query. Personally, I prefer to escape right before it is inserted into the query. I do this because I can always look at the code, see the database interaction, and see that the data was escaped before it was being used. I don’t need to search the entire source to make sure something was escaped.
The second storage risk we’ll talk about is storing passwords as plain text (hereafter referred to as clear text). I know you guys do it; I’ve seen too many open source applications and too many in-house applications to believe that it doesn’t go on. Simply put, there is never any reason to store a password in clear text. It doesn’t matter if you’re storing the password in a database or a flat file, always store passwords as a hash. You can accomplish this simply enough by using PHP’s md5() function to transform the password before you insert it into your storage medium. Since md5 is repeatable, you can validate a password by simply using
When should you transform the password to a hash? You should do it as soon as possible. Don’t let the password variable float around your application at all. As soon as you grab the password input, convert it into a hash. I prefer to do this by setting the password variable to its own hash, this avoids the chance of using the wrong variable in later code.
Next, let’s talk about the usernames and passwords your program needs in order to interact with other applications (like database servers). You should always separate these out into a different PHP file than the rest of your code, and reference them as constants or variables. This not only makes your code easier to maintain (if you need to change a password, you know exactly where to look), it the event that your source gets released, you know that the password isn’t in that file. While it’s certainly true that they could grab your password file, it does reduce the risk considerably.
Before we leave usernames behind, I want to touch on the concept of division of power. We’re not talking about the government in this case, but about database users. The database user accounts your program uses should have the minimum level of access they need in order to function correctly.
If your application only reads from a database, then the database account it uses should only have SELECT permission on that particular database, and no access to any other database.
To take this concept a step further, I prefer to create multiple database accounts for my web applications. Typically I create one account that only has INSERT permissions for the particular tables the software needs to write to, and a completely separate account that only has SELECT access. This makes sure that no INSERT queries are accidentally performed and mitigates the possible damage done by SQL injections.
Of course, multiple accounts work best when there’s a clear separation between those who can write to a database and those who can read it (such as a CMS). In theory, you could use multiple accounts in any application but you run into problems with the number of open connections to the database. This is simply something that should be considered as a possibility during the design phase of your software.
I’m a big advocate, as are most programmers, of breaking source code down into multiple files at every logical opportunity. However, I’ve noticed that a lot of PHP programmers have a nasty habit of naming PHP files they intend to use as libraries or other include types with the extension .inc, or .config, or some other non .php extension. This is a horrible idea because the server its running on might not be setup to parse these extensions as PHP files, so anyone loading the file would be exposing their source code (and potentially passwords, usernames, and other protected information) to the world. I prefer to prefix filenames myself, using inc_ or class_ when needed.
While we’re discussing included files, I would like to talk about to other security precautions. If you have a PHP file that you intend to use only as part of a larger PHP application, add this line to the beginning of the file (__FILE__, $_SERVER['PHP_SELF']).
This will cause the file to immediately terminate is someone tries to run it directly. A well written include or class file shouldn’t do anything when loaded on its own, but you can never be too careful &em; especially when a one line cut and paste can potentially save you so much heartache.
The other include-related item I’d like to talk about is the difference between include() and readfile(). Include will tell the server to parse the file as PHP, while readfile tells the server to output the file as straight text. You should never use include on a file that is publicly writable (for example, if you have an application that appends user submitted data to end in order to simulate a graffiti wall or guest book) or on a file that you don’t control (files on other servers, or that others can edit). A malicious user could easily inject his own PHP into your system, causing untold amounts of havoc. At the same time, you should never execute readfile on a file that ends in .php. On a misconfigured system, this runs the risk of exposing your source code to the world. To summarize, use readfile() on html, txt, and remote files. Use include on local files with php code you want to execute.
Now let’s talk about system risks. I think of system risks as those things related to the way code executes. The primary system risk in any application is invalid data. You can never valid data enough. As soon as user data enters the system, you should immediately verify it exists and that it is what you want it to be, if not your program should halt and prompt the user for better input.
When validating data, you should use the tightest filter possible. For example, if your program is expecting a percentage, you should not simply verify that they entered something. Your program should verify that it is numeric and between 0 and 100.
You should also validate at every level. Every time a function accepts input, verify that the data is what you expected it to be and react accordingly if the data is bad. This will make it more likely that you will catch bad data due a programming oversight, it also has the added advantage of catching logic errors in your software.
Next, I’d like to talk about eval(), exec(), and their ilk (shell_exec(),system(), passthru(), and pcntl-exec()). Visit their respective php pages to find out more about them, but in actuality there is very rarely any reason to use them. Eval will run any php code passed to it as a variable. This is inherently dangerous because you no longer have absolute control over what code is executed. If you must use eval(), don’t ever run it with a variable that has been derived from a user determined value, otherwise you run the risk of a hacker injecting his code. Exec() and the like pose similar threats, allowing your script to interact with the command line is a level of power you should rarely, if ever, need.
Finally, let’s talk about a couple of exposure risks. Usually, you don’t want to show your error messages to the world. For one, they freak people out. Secondly, they give hackers a wealth of information about potential bugs in your code. On production systems, always turn your error reporting off and use PHP’s errorlog() function instead.
The last risk we’ll talk about is using session IDs. Simply put, try not to ever send the session id to the user. Sessions aren’t secure, but if you transmit the session ID you run an even greater risk of someone other than the expected user to act as a "man in the middle" (to steal an analogy) and piggy-back off of the legitimate user’s session. An example of this would be using a session id to hijack someone’s shopping cart and change a delivery address, get credit card information, or do something even more malicious depending on the system.
We’ve discussed many security risks involved with programming in PHP, but they boil down to a few simple concepts.
* Never trust the user &em; don’t let them run code on your sever and always validate any data they send you.
* Don’t give the user, or your software, any level of access greater than the absolute minimum needed to successfully accomplish their tasks.
* Don’t tell the user more than they need to know &em; don’t let them see your code, the session id, or any error messages that you didn’t create specifically for them,.
If you have any questions, please feel free to email me at michael@mmccann.com or visit my website (http://www.MMcCann.com).
To Create Dynamic Pages Choose An Advance Programming Language Like PHP
by: Joanna Gadel
PHP is an open sourced server side scripting language and almost used in foremost operating systems like Linux, UNIX and also in Windows. PHP follows object oriented programming (OOPs), practical programming rules and nearly a combination of them. It uses command line interface, desktop applications thus it is know as the best traditional server side scripting language.
PHP programming (http://www.getaprogrammer.com.au/) supports most of the reputed database connections like Oracle, SQL, My SQL, and ODBC thus it is an easy choice for freelance programmers to build their dynamic pages with the help of PHP development. The latest version is also popular because it can be embedded HTML coding directly and can be carried by nearly all of the web servers.
PHP is a popular language because of its numerous features infused specifically to design websites or you can say to develop dynamic pages. PHP engine and the PHP coding can be used in every platform that increases flexibility of PHP language. Basically PHP is profitable for both programmers and designers, programmers who realizing its flexibility and tempo and web designers who worth its handiness and user-friendliness.
PHP language can develop giant business services like CRM solutions, community sites, chatting forums and E-Commerce shopping cart as well. Several pools of qualified web programmers (http://www.webprogrammers.com.au/) are using PHP development for organizing their goal, resource planning and fulfilling their client requirements.
Here are some few things which you can perform with PHP:
• Design HTML web forms.
• Superb Database usability to store records.
• Calculate visitors by sessions and cookies.
• You can use arrays as well.
• Play with files through file management system.
• Creating XML for large number of product list on E-Commerce
Serialization
Serialization is not needed for all kind of databases. In some particular databases like ODBC, MS SQL etc when you wish to pass a value without mentioning its type, it gets dumb. This problem is solved properly in the latest version of PHP. This is also an added advantage of PHP over all king of scripting languages.
Using PHP to Improve Design your website
PHP has many capabilities features designed specifically for use in Web sites, including the following:
1. Securing Your Website: PHP is designed to allow user level access to the file system, it's entirely possible to write a PHP script that will allow you to read system files such as password, modify your Ethernet connections, etc. thus this can provide a customer with an exclusive membership in the business.
2. Working with Web Forms: HTML form can be displayed by PHP and it is the best way to know more about the requirements of your customers and to gather note about their detailed benefits.
3. Communicate with Your Databases: When a persistent connection is requested, PHP checks if there's already an identical persistent connection and if it exists, it uses it. If it does not exist, it creates the link.
4. Customer Loyalty Functions: PHP allows content and applications to be generated and run server-side. This is highly advantageous to web users as they do not have to rely on their own system resources to generate or run content on their own systems. This allows for faster delivery of applications to the user and reduces errors and problems due to browser incompatibilities.
Friday, April 3, 2009
Graphic Design And What You Should Know Before You Start
Graphic, the magnetic word draws every human being and feel wonder about it. In early days people shown their thoughts through arts via paintings. Some of them delivered their inner thoughts through sculptures, and carvings. As time functions on artists start exposing portraits on special clothes, cardboards and in oil papers. But now people want something different. Scientific designs and other foundations create persons to think in different angle. Modern art and graphic designing are average methods among people.
by: John Davis
The creativeness has to be read through some media; the best way is graphic designing. One who designs his creativenesses is popularly loved as graphic designer. To bring a average man into the field of graphic design there are institutions and colleges. The ultimate aim in graphic design is to bring the called image into realism. Graphic designer are set to design graphic designs professionally as the importance of it increases day by day to meet out the anxiety of business advance. From ordinary video photography to film industry the importance of graphic design is felt very much. In film industry graphic designers are used in large numbers as to meet the film viewers.
We can see the various advertisements in television, internet, and magazine. The posture will be different from one another as to satisfy a viewer to bring them to their door steps. The dependence of better designs lies solely on the graphic designer. Hence a qualified and well designer is much appreciable in this industry. An art director or film director may think to bring extraordinary actions or settings in their film. It cannot be brought out through an actor but in graphic designing. A graphic designer can give life to the ideas of the director or others by using his creativity. A graphic designer should deliver his designs in an telling way to get good hold in the field. To bring life to anyone’s thoughts and ambitions graphic design is very essential.
Computer literacy plays an important role to get and deliver a graphic designer’s creativity. To deliver their profile every organization need a media. The newspaper, magazine, television and other media are used for that purpose. The main draw back is that these media can retain the delivered profiles for limited periods only but the web can retain the profile for a long time. Hence the thirsty of web sites goes on improving. To deliver a profile of a concern in its own way a good graphic designer is needed. The web developer and the graphic designer collectively work together or even the person knows both can very well design the required aspect in a challenged way. The field of graphic design is not limited but has no sure. In architecture, engineering, navigation, machine designing, research, tool designing, and vehicle manufacture and in all other fields the roll of graphic designer is very essential.
A manufacturer has to feel confident over a new product before marketing. In olden days a manufacturer has to create so many try products for display in marketplace and was expensive. Every time a change is needed, he has to do the job fresh. By virtue of graphics so many designs can be made in computer and can be exposed in the required model and angle. Graphic designer can bring wonders in the field of graphic.
Design contest and Logo design contest is great feature
Introduction
There are many international communities for designers. Some of them are just beginners while others are highly skilled graphic artists. The community is formed mainly around design contests with prizes ranging from $150 to $500+. These contests, called “guaranteed contests”, are only available to designers who’ve shown that they possess a certain level of design skill as well as a reasonable amount of commitment to forums
Author: astada.com
What’s in it for designers? Apart from earning some cash, participation in contests allows designers to advance their design abilities and build their portfolio all while interacting with real clients and getting feedback on their work.
Why start a contest? Most of clients will get a better deal from just one of designers than they would from anyone that they could privately contract for the project. In addition, consider the fact that you’ll have not just one, but multiple designers working on your contest and that this benefit comes without loss of design quality.
Concept is quite simple: Through website, the client (a.k.a. contest holder) submits his/her project and deposits the prize amount being offered for the work. The requirement to deposit the full prize amount is crucial. After the project has been submitted, Post it as a contest in a particular section of forums. The contest is, in fact, a regular forum thread, which refer to as a "contest thread". Within the contest thread site include a description of the company, the project details, the deadline, and the prize amount being offered as well as any additional information that the contest holder may provide. After the contest thread has been created, the competition officially begins with designers submitting their entries via replies to the thread.
Design Contest is a community shaped by the joint efforts of talented designers and contest holders. By hosting a design contest, contest holders are able to choose from a variety of great designs created by talented, professional designers. Designers compete for the prize offered, forcing them to push the limits and create innovative new designs.
It's fair to say that design contests have completely transformed our business. Instead of laboring over a design and doing a mediocre job, we get awesome design work that we can bring alive for our clients. Higher quality, a shorter turnaround on jobs, and greater profits -- hmm ... not much to argue with there!
Have you ever wondered, though, why some contests get filled with great submissions in a short amount of time, while others attract only a handful of entries that are generally of lower quality? You know the ones I'm talking about -- the project brief is only a couple of lines long, it includes no artwork, and there's no real feedback from the contest holder.
Some Tips for Great Results
1. Be Creative
Web design contest is a busy place, so getting creative with your contest will help you get more eyeballs to your project. More eyeballs mean more entries, and that means better results. A catchy title or some other fun twist is all it takes to attract designers to your contest.
A word of caution: you'll find that you need to be very committed to holding such a short contest, especially when it comes to provide feedback. Respond to each design as soon as possible so that designers have the time to make any necessary changes for you.
2. Money Talks
There's no denying the lure of a fat prize! A large prize (more than the basic prize outlined in the contest guidelines) will attract the best designers, and they'll work harder to give you what you need.
3. Communicate Often.
Are your clients taking their time deciding which design they like the best? Post a comment to your contest. Not getting what you want in the contest? Post a comment to refocus the contest. It's up to you, the contest holder, to steer the designers towards the end goal: a winning design!
4. Pay up.
As soon as you've made your decision, declare a winner and make arrangements to pay your designer. Nobody should have to wait for their money.
Remember that you're paying for the concept as well as the artwork when making a decision -- consequently, the design that you choose might still need some tweaking. This shouldn't prevent you from choosing a winner.
5. Guard Your Reputation!
Your reputation is gold -- the more contests you post, the more designers will get to know you and trust you. I've seen what happens when a contest holder loses trust, and it's ugly. Worse yet, you have the potential for getting yourself banned if you don't follow the contest guidelines. Read the guidelines carefully before you launch a contest.
6. Get Personal
Take a look at other contests, find designers who do great work and whose style you like, and invite them to join your contest. A personal invitation is not just a way to get better results; it's very flattering to the designer that you took the time to personally invite them to join your contest.
http://www.astada.com/
How To Create An Attractive, User Friendly Web Site
There are few things more important on the web than "usability," because the Internet is an interactive space and not a one-way street. You want to improve the visitor's experience, make choices simple, be pleasing to the eye and not overuse the flashy add-on du jour. In addition, your site will tell visitors a lot about your company just from the way it looks, loads and functions, before they even read a single word. The importance of creating an attractive, user-friendly website simply cannot be overstated.
Author: Gary Klingsheim
For reasons that are almost too numerous to list - marketing, sales, psychology, trust building, perceived professionalism, etc. - the way your website is experienced by users should be foremost in your mind. The following eight important reminders will get you going in the right direction, but you're the one who knows your customers (or should) so the finer points of personalization and "character" are up to you.
1. The importance of focus: You need to think like your visitors do. This is key to your site's success. Your customers simply want to find what they need, make the payment and get back to real life (jobs, family, tennis, whatever). If you can make their lives a bit simpler and easier, they'll reward you for it. If, on the other hand, you make their lives more complicated, they'll "surf away" and stay away.
2. The importance of understanding the medium: You are not creating a slideshow, a YouTube video, a TV commercial or a PowerPoint presentation. You are building a website for commercial purposes. You need to provide easy, simple, clear navigation on every page, since you never know how people will link to your site and what they will see first. Visitors to your site, no matter how hard you try, will not always go where you would like them to go, or do what you want them to do. Remember that, and give them a few tools to move around the site, like a sitemap and/or internal search engine.
3. The importance of non-aggression: Most Internet users, especially experience ones, like to stay in control of their movements. Research suggest that your first-time visitors are "hunting," not "deciding," so do not make unnecessary demands for clicking, scrolling, resizing windows or anything else. Neither should you put up any roadblocks that will slow down their hunting, like time-consuming "Flash and splash screens."
4. The importance of reduced load times: Tied into #3 is the notion of your site's real and perceived "speed." Carefully consider each page element and make each one earn its place, based on functionality, not "wow" value. Keep graphic file sizes small and do whatever else you need to do to have a fast-loading, easy to use site.
5. The importance of customer needs: Define all the kinds of people you expect to visit your site and consider what they'll be looking for. Ensure that the navigation design helps the greatest number of people to find the most popular items in the least amount of time. Don't "bury" essential information so that visitors have to dig down two or three levels to find it.
6. The importance of simplicity: Flash is powerful tool, especially helpful in demonstrating things that are difficult to describe in words, but it is so pathetically overused that it has turned people off. It can be a huge distraction, too, since animation and bright (moving) colors are exceptionally hard for our eyes to ignore even when our brains want to.
7. The importance of proportionality: Although Javascript is used on some sites to display all the links to the other pages, there is really no reason to do this when simple, straightforward, low-overhead HTML works fine. When you employ a "new, improved" or more complex means of doing something - anything - you have to take into account browser compatibilities, possible bugs and user resistance. Don't use more technology than it takes to accomplish something cleanly, clearly and consistently.
8. The importance of avoiding surprises. You should use the expected, usual and standard placements for expected, usual and standard site elements. Site navigation is not something you want to be too creative with, as it needs to be immediately understandable and usable. Such consistency across the World Wide Web is actually a good thing, as it tends to make people's lives a bit easier when they feel they are in "familiar territory." Generally speaking, your various website components should look and work as people think they're supposed to.
To borrow from Oscar Wilde, consider also the importance of being earnest. More specifically, you want to be seen as being earnest, meaning that you want every visitor to understand, implicitly if possible but explicitly if necessary, that you are doing everything possible to make their site visit a simple, straightforward experience. "No muss, no fuss" is a great slogan to remember.
Therefore, rather than get caught up in profound design metaphors or using your bandwidth to display every possible website trick and/or treat, you should focus on making your site into a solution for your customers. Make it easy for them to do what they need to do and then get on with their lives. Perhaps the most important thing you can give a site visitor, then, is respect and appreciation.
How Colours Could Help Create A Prodigious And Mind-blowing Web-site
by: Katherinna Chubicks
Designing for the web involves myriads skilled disciplines from layout to classification and colour. Colour is especially important because it gives the leading impression to the user. The right colours could create a nice experience for the user, whilst inappropriate colours can demonstrate an adverse affect.To create a sound web-site, the web designer wants to know how colours can affect people.
Members of public subconsciously react to colours and associate them with diverse instincts and emotions.Colours do not only bring up emotions and notions that might influence how a site is received but they can also be utilised cleverly to point users in the direction of certain sections of your site.Every colour imaginable can be used on the Internet now, so choosing the right colours can be a daunting task. Here is a express summary of how some colours can evoke certain reactions.
Yellow could be associated with hazard, hope, friendship and wealth. Used in moderation, it can be utilised to highlight sections on a webpage.Green is a fantastical colour to use to create a calm and relaxed web site, it is linked to mother earth, envy, money and the organic.Blue is associated with corporate, strength, water and harmony and the lighter end of the blue spectrum can be used in website design to create a cool feel.
The colour blue is about confidence, loyalty and coolness. It is the better favored colour in the world and it is used by legions businesses to create a feeling of strength and confidence.Black is associated with notions of mystery and sophistication. A very favourite colour in design and photography websites, it could be used effectively to contrast and liven up other colours.Green is associated with organic, the environment and relaxation. The lighter end of the green spectrum could be used to give a relaxed feel to a web site.
Purple has connotations of royalty, indulgence and luxury. It is not a widely used colour in website design, perhaps because it is termed a feminine colour.Creating a feeling of earthiness, nature and poverty, brown is very similar to green in that it could be used to give a relaxed feeling to a site.
Orange is associated with fire, enthusiasm, heat and danger. But it is also a very friendly and youthful colour that is used frequently in websites aimed at youth grounding.Tradition, stability, depth and nature are every one of associated with the colour brown. But it is very similar to green in the fact that it is also related to trees, mother earth and calm.
Having knowledge of the psychology of colour could give web designers the upper hand when planning for a client. Simply knowing which colours create which effects could drive a website to success. There is nothing worse than creating a site which looks out of this world but does not connect with the end user. Using colour in a clever manner to create feeling, contrast and proportion may turn an average web site into a successful one.
It Is Better To Have An Agreement For Web Design
Almost every person who has an important business in Australia will have the need for web design in Australia at some point of time. It is necessary to have a good web design not only to attract new customers but also build up good credibility to your business. The Australia company you pick up for web design should be right to gain domination in e-commerce. The credibility as well as prospective new customers will be lost by picking wrong web design Australia company.
Author: John Abraham
Here’s a list of qualities you should be looking for in a web design company:
1. Portfolio - The moment I click on a web design company’s web design, it is their portfolio I look at immediately. All it takes is only 5 minutes for me to tell, after looking at the portfolio, whether this is the company I was looking for to design my website. The great tool to estimate how best your website design would be would be to go through previous customer’s work. I may even liaise with previous customers to find out about customer service, revision allowance, and how satisfied they are with the project.
2. Fee’s - The fees are factually there all over the place is one thing I have learned about the online service industry. Previously I have paid thousands of dollars for simple web designs to be totally and terribly dissatisfied, But at the same time I’ve paid a couple of hundred dollars and received work that should have cost thousands. My advice to you is to look at the fees but always think about negotiation. The desire of every web design company is to get new customers and they work towards that goal.
3. Turnaround time - Turnaround time is a factor that you should look at right away. The average time I’ve seen for web design projects is around 7-25 days. I’m sorry to say, but some companies have been seen by me quoting five to six months as turnaround times, But after five or six months it’s hard to keep motivated to still complete the project when the web design is done. I highly recommend only doing business with companies that can complete your web design in less than thirty days. An agreement depicting the completion of your design in 30 days or less is a good proposition to have.
4. Customer Support - Whether your experience will be pleasant or unsatisfactory, you should be able to tell immediately. Ask them what their policy is on checking status of work as well as revisions after the work has been completed. If the web design company refuses to allow limited revisions after the work has been completed then I recommend going elsewhere.
Very often, to create imagination drawn in the mind of the web design company, both customer and web design company should work in tandem. It should be kept in mind that most web design companies are great and their support at all times will be there for your, When you are choosing for the first time, you should see for the right company, as there are bad companies around.
Web Design Companies What You Should Know About Them
by: John Davis
Also portrayals or flashes or other realistic desktops with acceptable angle should impress the watchers to go through the website. Then only the intention of the website implies. To boost all the essentials in the web we need suitable and master web design companies to make web design. After choosing a company we can place order to design a web with choice.
If we are satisfied with them we can go for having it, another for newer version by imposing all out thoughts in detail. Now many web designing companies are employing web for a limited period with contract. What ever may the web designing company, service with good quality is very essential. We may have web already and find not suitable to the present condition, mandatorily we have to redesign the web. The web designing companions are also offering web redesigning works which matches to the current needs of the company.. Early we cannot change the design of the web and now we can modify web through redesigning with the help of programmers developed in computer world.
Many companies are ordering graphic designs, flashes, and template giving life lively atmosphere on the web. Other objects and detailed histories are decorated in the suffixing pages so that every viewer can browse the required sites easily. Now web designing companies are offering free websites in trial version in the required data so as to retain the same or redesign the web or even to deny the services. In the modern days each and everyone is busy with some business and can spare little time over the visit to a factory or concern to study the merits and demerits of the products or other which they want to analyze and go for purchase.
Get Money on Internet
Get AlertPay Account, click link below :
Earn Money with your Files, click link below :
Make Money from your Website or Blog, click link below :
Promote your Site set:
Get Free Domain, click link below:
Earn Cash Within Minutes! It's Free to Join!
Get Free Webhosting :
Free cPanel Web Hosting with PHP5/Mysql - no advertising!
Register now: Join
Twitter Advertising
The Real PTC Payout
The adf referral program is a great way to spread the word of this great service and to earn even more money with your short links, or here :Linkbee
Earn even more money with your short links, Click here :
Adsense from Indonesia :
Web Hosting & Domain : Reg. Here
The best internet investment, Earn a XXX% daily profit! Easy. Safe. No risk.
