Building great web applications doesn’t have to be a long and slow process. In fact, people have been practicing ‘rapid development‘ for quite a while. But if you’re looking to get your web application off to a flying start, you really should consider using these great tools. They can help you get a basic shell for you application quickly and efficiently.
This isn’t by any means a complete list, but there might be a few things here that you’ve not used before.
Development Framework
The golden rule to building any php application now is to use a great framework. There’s plenty of them to choose from too! I’d always recommend CodeIgniter. It really is a fantastic PHP framework.
If you’re using any other languages, take a look at what’s available, and choose a framework that works for you. You might want a really full-featured does-everything framework, or you might want something that is more lightweight and efficient.
The point is, the right framework takes a huge chunk of work out of your development time.
WaSP HTML Template
This might only save you a small amount of time to begin with, but a good XHTML 1.0 Strict Doctype will make your CSS behave much better by default across multiple browsers.
This won’t eliminate the need for browser-specific stylesheets, but your sites will certainly by a little more consistent.
Here’s the XHTML 1.0 Strict template:
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN"
"http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
<head>
<title>Conforming XHTML 1.0 Strict Template</title>
</head>
<body>
</body>
</html>You can get plenty more conforming templates here: WaSP HTML Templates
Reset CSS
Before you start making your sites look pretty with some nice CSS, you should set a level playing field up by removing any browser-default style behaviour. This can be done with a reset css file.
Use this as your ‘first’ stylesheet, and, as with the WaSP templates, you should find building cross-browser compatible designs much easier.
Here is the code for Yahoo’s Reset CSS 2.7
/* Copyright (c) 2009, Yahoo! Inc. All rights reserved. Code licensed under the BSD License: http://developer.yahoo.net/yui/license.txt version: 2.7.0 */ html{color:#000;background:#FFF;}body,div,dl,dt,dd,ul,ol,li,h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6,pre,code,form,fieldset,legend,input,button,textarea,p,blockquote,th,td{margin:0;padding:0;}table{border-collapse:collapse;border-spacing:0;}fieldset,img{border:0;}address,caption,cite,code,dfn,em,strong,th,var,optgroup{font-style:inherit;font-weight:inherit;}del,ins{text-decoration:none;}li{list-style:none;}caption,th{text-align:left;}h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6{font-size:100%;font-weight:normal;}q:before,q:after{content:'';}abbr,acronym{border:0;font-variant:normal;}sup{vertical-align:baseline;}sub{vertical-align:baseline;}legend{color:#000;}input,button,textarea,select,optgroup,option{font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-weight:inherit;}input,button,textarea,select{*font-size:100%;}body{font:13px/1.231 arial,helvetica,clean,sans-serif;*font-size:small;*font:x-small;}select,input,button,textarea,button{font:99% arial,helvetica,clean,sans-serif;}table{font-size:inherit;font:100%;}pre,code,kbd,samp,tt{font-family:monospace;*font-size:108%;line-height:100%;}body{text-align:center;}#doc,#doc2,#doc3,#doc4,.yui-t1,.yui-t2,.yui-t3,.yui-t4,.yui-t5,.yui-t6,.yui-t7{margin:auto;text-align:left;width:57.69em;*width:56.25em;}#doc2{width:73.076em;*width:71.25em;}#doc3{margin:auto 10px;width:auto;}#doc4{width:74.923em;*width:73.05em;}.yui-b{position:relative;}.yui-b{_position:static;}#yui-main .yui-b{position:static;}#yui-main,.yui-g .yui-u .yui-g{width:100%;}.yui-t1 #yui-main,.yui-t2 #yui-main,.yui-t3 #yui-main{float:right;margin-left:-25em;}.yui-t4 #yui-main,.yui-t5 #yui-main,.yui-t6 #yui-main{float:left;margin-right:-25em;}.yui-t1 .yui-b{float:left;width:12.30769em;*width:12.00em;}.yui-t1 #yui-main .yui-b{margin-left:13.30769em;*margin-left:13.05em;}.yui-t2 .yui-b{float:left;width:13.8461em;*width:13.50em;}.yui-t2 #yui-main .yui-b{margin-left:14.8461em;*margin-left:14.55em;}.yui-t3 .yui-b{float:left;width:23.0769em;*width:22.50em;}.yui-t3 #yui-main .yui-b{margin-left:24.0769em;*margin-left:23.62em;}.yui-t4 .yui-b{float:right;width:13.8456em;*width:13.50em;}.yui-t4 #yui-main .yui-b{margin-right:14.8456em;*margin-right:14.55em;}.yui-t5 .yui-b{float:right;width:18.4615em;*width:18.00em;}.yui-t5 #yui-main .yui-b{margin-right:19.4615em;*margin-right:19.125em;}.yui-t6 .yui-b{float:right;width:23.0769em;*width:22.50em;}.yui-t6 #yui-main .yui-b{margin-right:24.0769em;*margin-right:23.62em;}.yui-t7 #yui-main .yui-b{display:block;margin:0 0 1em 0;}#yui-main .yui-b{float:none;width:auto;}.yui-gb .yui-u,.yui-g .yui-gb .yui-u,.yui-gb .yui-g,.yui-gb .yui-gb,.yui-gb .yui-gc,.yui-gb .yui-gd,.yui-gb .yui-ge,.yui-gb .yui-gf,.yui-gc .yui-u,.yui-gc .yui-g,.yui-gd .yui-u{float:left;}.yui-g .yui-u,.yui-g .yui-g,.yui-g .yui-gb,.yui-g .yui-gc,.yui-g .yui-gd,.yui-g .yui-ge,.yui-g .yui-gf,.yui-gc .yui-u,.yui-gd .yui-g,.yui-g .yui-gc .yui-u,.yui-ge .yui-u,.yui-ge .yui-g,.yui-gf .yui-g,.yui-gf .yui-u{float:right;}.yui-g div.first,.yui-gb div.first,.yui-gc div.first,.yui-gd div.first,.yui-ge div.first,.yui-gf div.first,.yui-g .yui-gc div.first,.yui-g .yui-ge div.first,.yui-gc div.first div.first{float:left;}.yui-g .yui-u,.yui-g .yui-g,.yui-g .yui-gb,.yui-g .yui-gc,.yui-g .yui-gd,.yui-g .yui-ge,.yui-g .yui-gf{width:49.1%;}.yui-gb .yui-u,.yui-g .yui-gb .yui-u,.yui-gb .yui-g,.yui-gb .yui-gb,.yui-gb .yui-gc,.yui-gb .yui-gd,.yui-gb .yui-ge,.yui-gb .yui-gf,.yui-gc .yui-u,.yui-gc .yui-g,.yui-gd .yui-u{width:32%;margin-left:1.99%;}.yui-gb .yui-u{*margin-left:1.9%;*width:31.9%;}.yui-gc div.first,.yui-gd .yui-u{width:66%;}.yui-gd div.first{width:32%;}.yui-ge div.first,.yui-gf .yui-u{width:74.2%;}.yui-ge .yui-u,.yui-gf div.first{width:24%;}.yui-g .yui-gb div.first,.yui-gb div.first,.yui-gc div.first,.yui-gd div.first{margin-left:0;}.yui-g .yui-g .yui-u,.yui-gb .yui-g .yui-u,.yui-gc .yui-g .yui-u,.yui-gd .yui-g .yui-u,.yui-ge .yui-g .yui-u,.yui-gf .yui-g .yui-u{width:49%;*width:48.1%;*margin-left:0;}.yui-g .yui-g .yui-u{width:48.1%;}.yui-g .yui-gb div.first,.yui-gb .yui-gb div.first{*margin-right:0;*width:32%;_width:31.7%;}.yui-g .yui-gc div.first,.yui-gd .yui-g{width:66%;}.yui-gb .yui-g div.first{*margin-right:4%;_margin-right:1.3%;}.yui-gb .yui-gc div.first,.yui-gb .yui-gd div.first{*margin-right:0;}.yui-gb .yui-gb .yui-u,.yui-gb .yui-gc .yui-u{*margin-left:1.8%;_margin-left:4%;}.yui-g .yui-gb .yui-u{_margin-left:1.0%;}.yui-gb .yui-gd .yui-u{*width:66%;_width:61.2%;}.yui-gb .yui-gd div.first{*width:31%;_width:29.5%;}.yui-g .yui-gc .yui-u,.yui-gb .yui-gc .yui-u{width:32%;_float:right;margin-right:0;_margin-left:0;}.yui-gb .yui-gc div.first{width:66%;*float:left;*margin-left:0;}.yui-gb .yui-ge .yui-u,.yui-gb .yui-gf .yui-u{margin:0;}.yui-gb .yui-gb .yui-u{_margin-left:.7%;}.yui-gb .yui-g div.first,.yui-gb .yui-gb div.first{*margin-left:0;}.yui-gc .yui-g .yui-u,.yui-gd .yui-g .yui-u{*width:48.1%;*margin-left:0;}.yui-gb .yui-gd div.first{width:32%;}.yui-g .yui-gd div.first{_width:29.9%;}.yui-ge .yui-g{width:24%;}.yui-gf .yui-g{width:74.2%;}.yui-gb .yui-ge div.yui-u,.yui-gb .yui-gf div.yui-u{float:right;}.yui-gb .yui-ge div.first,.yui-gb .yui-gf div.first{float:left;}.yui-gb .yui-ge .yui-u,.yui-gb .yui-gf div.first{*width:24%;_width:20%;}.yui-gb .yui-ge div.first,.yui-gb .yui-gf .yui-u{*width:73.5%;_width:65.5%;}.yui-ge div.first .yui-gd .yui-u{width:65%;}.yui-ge div.first .yui-gd div.first{width:32%;}#hd:after,#bd:after,#ft:after,.yui-g:after,.yui-gb:after,.yui-gc:after,.yui-gd:after,.yui-ge:after,.yui-gf:after{content:".";display:block;height:0;clear:both;visibility:hidden;}#hd,#bd,#ft,.yui-g,.yui-gb,.yui-gc,.yui-gd,.yui-ge,.yui-gf{zoom:1;}
You can read more on Yahoo’s reset css over at the Yahoo Developer site.
Javascript Framework
Javascript can be a rather clubmersome language to work with. So having a framework can speed up your development when adding interactive functionality to your site.
The bottom line? Use jQuery! It’s an awesome Javascript Framework, and very easy to extend with ‘plugins’.
Find out more about jQuery
