Tools and workflow for PHP Development.

One of the reasons I started this my blog and this podcast was because I’m always interested in how people do their job.  There are a few podcast I listen to and follow, and people talk about things they are using or excited about but, it is always just a piece of what they are using – they might talk about a framework or an ide or this or that, but everything is piece meal and I sometimes wish they would talk about how it all fits together.  Well that’s the whole point of this podcast today – to share what tools I use and the work flow that I employ.

So I’m a Web Developer – I started developing in PHP  because my partner – who was the primary developer for our company decided to use PHP – this was 2003 – the dynamic web was still very young – PHP was the hotness and that’s what we went with.  I’ve never run into any issues with it – I know everyone has an opinion when it comes to languages – but I’ve not run into a specific instance where PHP wouldn’t work for us. So I’ve stuck with it all of these years.

What types of Projects do I work on? 

I mostly work by myself although I have worked with teams in the past.  I primarily have 4 different types of jobs I work on – Simple Websites (simple meaning – a website for a client), WordPress Websites (used for Microsites or for clients that want or need WordPress), Marketing Campaign websites or systems (usually thousands of pages, and need advance analytics and realtime results tracking), and Custom Web Applications (systems and apps that need a web interface – has users / reports / exports / all kinds of custom created madness).  I’ll walk you through my work flow and process for each of these.

Custom Website Development

– Using Custom PHP CMS system (Utilizes PHP, Mysql, Nginx, HTML, CSS, Javascript)

– Sites for Clients small and medium sized businesses (Lawyers, hotels, lawn care, spas, neighborhood associations – primarily small locally own businesses)

My typical workflow for these type of jobs

DESIGN

-start out with a static flat designed graphic in Photoshop.  I usually do around 3 designs based on graphical elements they provide me as well as content / color / general direction they give me.  I usually talk with the client, get some ideas, see what they like and I base my designs off of those discussions.

FRONT END DEVELOPMENT

*  Slice up my graphics in Photoshop

*  That process usually requires me saving my graphical files in different formats depending on the graphic usage (gif or PNG 8 for text / JPG for photos / PNG 24 for logos or graphics that need antialiasing)

*  Once sliced I usually start a blank html / css file on my local machine

* Preview in Firefox

*  For layout like this I use lightweight editor / probably Sublime Text

*  Start with placing elements first to match my design (HTML and CSS)

*  As it gets more complicated I might move my css from inside my html document and put it in a separate linked file

*  If this is a responsive site I may begin working with my CSS media queries at this point

*  I just want to match my layouts as close as possible

*  I might do some cross browser testing (although I don’t do much)

*  After the layout is finished I will start integrating Javascript and advanced CSS (sprites / rollovers / gradients / web fonts)

*  Flexslider / lightbox /

(still primarily focused on layout and making sure it looks close to my initial design)

*  once it looks good it’s time to move on to backend and functionality

BACK END DEVELOPMENT

The tools I use primarily for setting up my backend isTerminal on a Mac or PUTTY on a Windows machine