Cervisia -- the devil and god similutaneously

Well, well, well. CVS is a very powerful tool. I can ensure that good copies of software are kept track of so that if you mess something up you can revert. I also allows the creation of branches for projects that are either separating from the main project or for experimental modules to the large picture. It is extremely flexible in most every regard.

However, on occasion it can do everything but what you want it to. For the better portion of the day (prior to lunch) Steve and I worked with it to get it setup properly. It took this long to not only reteach ourselves how to use it, but to get our front-end (Cervisia) to work with us instead of against us. Consequently we did not spend as much time on our actual work.

This however is not a big issue, looking at the large picture, because this is something that we need in place, and could save us even more time down the line. That being said, though it seemed as though we wasted a lot of time today, it WAS IN FACT a big step in the right direction. I am looking forward to more software implementations that will increase productivity and security of information in the months to come. In that respect the should be a plethora of new software integrations.


Loushou.

Love Sharing Knowledge

So out of the blue my C++ experience had it's shining moment today. I was able to share some of my infinite knowledge of C++ with my manager and fellow team-mate (yes singular).

Type casting, a very old (pre-dating C++ all the way to C), syntax was in fact inherited by PHP. You can force a type on any value, even though in PHP types are very loose, so that if a function from some random library requires a certain type, it will not warn you or error out. This is very useful when ensuring that your releases do not contain errors, warnings or notices.

This technique only works for basic types: bool, string, integer, and foat, The following is the syntax:

()$myVariable

ie.: (string)$var

Hope this helps in the future of everyone's programming endeavors.


Loushou.

not HAL.... DAL!

Today I worked primarily on the DAL for the entire timberlake template system. This to say the least is a task and a half. However, if anyone can do it, it is me.

The first thing to remember about the DB abstraction layer is why it is there. First and foremost, it is there because let's say that you have all your information stored in a MySQL db, and then you decide to switch to Oracle because you are storing much more data than expected and what a more reliable interface. If you did not have a standardized db abstraction layer, then you would likely be doing every single call independently of one another. What this means is that when you switch, you will need to manually go in and change every single call to open a DB connection, every single call you make to query the db will need to be changed, probably some of the SQL itself will need to be changed. With a DB abstraction layer, you feed the layer information, the layer interpret's it, and then executes the command that you want. With this power, you now only have to change how one portion of your code interacts with the DB instead of every single line.

This hold a reasonable promise that if you ever do change DBs that your code will still work with relatively little modification. Powerful! That being said, they can be complex, depending on the need and on how OCD you are. LOL like me. I want to be able to do everything that you need to do, with options so that you can do it several different ways.

In any event, I think that this may be cut down to be more efficient and less friendly, with the main functions and specific views for standard information that is called regularly. Other than that it should be a little more abstract and a little less specific, but still with the view necessities.


Loushou.

Some new... some old

Well my first day in Dev went well. I learned how the API for Timberlake works, for the most part, and because I seem to know what I am talking about, I was assigned to redo the data abstraction layer. This sounds harder than it should be. I any event, today I ported the eBay API to a Timberlake class.

This was far easier than I anticipated, as from first glance at the code that eBay provides to developers, it looks complex and long. However, I was able to condense the main portion of it to into 2 functions, 4 lines each... make your own conclusions from this.

Then I started on my new task for the same project, which was to make a Timberlake module for this eBay API. Consequently, that meant that I needed to learn how to use the Timberlake API. After about 1 hour of studying I got a basic understanding of it and which functions I needed and began to write it. This should be done tomorrow. Anyways....


Loushou

Dev... here I come.

Totally, totally, totally. I am totally looking forward to moving over tomorrow. Back-end is my specialty. Programming is my forte, and I love doing it, so it will not be much like work to me. XML and it's family is on the top of my list to learn and I am fully ready to learn.

While Dev is what I want, I do have to admit that learning SEO is very much a good thing. This skill is paramount in building successful websites and a key part of directing traffic to that site. A whole "wrapper" so to speak that now looms over the entire industry of eCommerce. Since this in in fact our main product, I am glad I got the chance to learn so that in the future I will be able to help others if given the opportunity. On top of all of that, I am positive that the learning about SEO will not stop there, as part of dev is knowing how it works and how to implement that into all that we do.

I am thoroughly enjoying this job, and I am glad I was given the opportunity to join such an awesome team.


Loushou.

!Stream-lined!

So finally I have this whole process down to a science. It takes about 38 minutes to do all the updating, submitting, uploading, and all that. The big part is the design... I am finding it kind of difficult to constantly come up with a different design for companies that do practically the same thing. For instance MLMs. They all are pitching the same spleel but we need to make a different site for each of them.

I am running out of Ideas... and quick! The tricks I usually use for creating unique designs for sites are not working because of the similarities. In any event, now that I am done pseudo-ranting, I have the process streamlined now and all that takes time is the aesthetics. This part is still taking me hours.

here is my recently competed site: http://www.successwithaninternetbusiness.com/

First MLM... WOOT?

I just finished my first MLM. Unless I did something wrong, it really does not seem that different from a regular business's optimization. The only discernible difference is that they require a substantial amount more content then others, and they need the email to be displayed instead of the phone number. Saishu showed me some of the category selections for the engines, PROPS! Here is the link:

http://www.createanewlifestyle.net/

I think on my next page, I am going to change up the design a bit... maybe do something spiffy. LOL. Anyways, back to work.


Loushou.