“Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he doesn't become a monster.” —Nietzsche

phoenixwebsites.biz: PHP, XML, Flash, and JavaScript Web development in Phoenix, Arizona by Andy Frey

Andy Frey is a Phoenix, Arizona web developer, Javascript developer, Flash developer, Actionscript developer, PHP developer, MySQL database dveloper, and a Linux administrator / network engineer with over 20 years of experience in hardware and software engineering.

Andy Frey is a Phoenix, Arizona web programmer, Javascript programmer, Flash programmer, Actionscript programmer, PHP programmer, MySQL database programmer and a Linux administrator with over 20 years of experience in hardware and software engineering.

Andy Frey lives in the area of Tempe, Arizona (Phoenix). Andy Frey has been working in the field of Information Technology for over 20 years. Most recently, Andy is a web developer, specializing in Javascript, Flash and Actionscript, PHP, MySQL databases, Linux administration, and XML and JSON used in inter-application communications. Andy Frey also works as a freelance network engineer, working diligently to identify clients who may be crawling along with slow Windows servers and replacing those server operating systems with Linux and Linux/Apache/MySQL/PHP ("LAMP") appication servers. Andy programs PHP and Javascript frameworks and develops customized solutions for other developers and web designers.

JavaScript PHP Remoting Class (or, JavaScript-PHP Remote Function Calls) : Simplify your AJAX!

AJAX the easy way: Write a method (remote function) in a PHP class, put the same PHP file in a script include tag in your web application, make calls to the PHP remote functions through the magically created JavaScript class and get answers back in native JavaScript. Your PHP gets parameters in native PHP types. Little. Yellow. Simple.

So, I have one more cool and useful library built thanks to a need I had for a client's web application requirements. Just like Flash Remoting, now I can make calls to methods defined in a PHP class from JavaScript without worrying about the supporting code to do all the AJAX and for handling exceptions! All the AJAX and Exception handling is done under the hood, where I don't have to worry about them AND it makes for much, much cleaner JavaScript code. Go team!

Click here to read about it and get the code! It work very well, but I have not tested it super-heavily. But, I have deployed it in production environments and have not had any issues, that I am aware of.

And, for the record: The PHP5 Reflection API rocks the free world.

This little wonder of PHP and JavaScript goodness was mentioned on PHPDeveloper.org News. Thanks, Chris Cornutt!

Added February 14, 2008, Updated February 26, 2008, Bumped June 28, 2008

New Homegrown PHP Framework Forthcoming!

I have been studying CakePHP and Zend Framework and a couple other PHP framework libraries. I like many things about many of the various PHP frameworks out there. I also wanted to teach myself more in-depth object oriented techniques and patterns. What better way to do that than to write my own "lightweight" PHP framework?

Yes, exactly... That's a lot of work.

Well, I have been working on it for a few months now, in between the full-time job, the client work, and my regular life. I've already built quite a number of component PHP classes and libraries. I use some of the utility classes on client sites already (Database, Session, Payment, HTML, String, etc.). I will be publishing all this fun stuff in a little while. But, for now, just wanted to update the site and let those who tune in once in a while know that everything is still chugging along.

Added April 28, 2008

Phoenix Website Designer/Developer - Part 2

Well, the little Phoenix website developer experiment paid off. Since January 6th, I've managed to raise this page's place in the Google keyword search for "Phoenix website developer" from page 13 (as of 2008-01-06) to page 6 (as of 2008-02-06)to page 3 (as of 2008-02-14)!!! Yeah, baby! It took just a little over one month with just a little more creative added to the site. That is pretty darn cool. I gotta say!

The next step is to launch my website design blog on another website. I'll see if I can get the external linking to increase, as well. Gots to get friends in the industry to start linking back (and vice verse, of course). This search enging optimization stuff is kinda fun, when you're in it for the experimentation fun of it all.

Added January 6, 2008; Updated February 6, 2008; Updated again February 14, 2008

Phoenix Website Developer

The search engine optimization (SEO) experiment I've been tuning over the past year has been going swimmingly. With the help of a colleague and crazed Cardinals fan at the day job, Bill Volhein (thanks tons Bill!), I have learned the way of the SEO Ninjas. Hooooo-waaaaah! [does a terrible pretend-swing of a pretend Samurai sword] I have managed to get my rankings up there quite a ways for key phrases I wanted. There is one last phrase that I'd like to improve upon (I'm on page 13 for it): "Phoenix website developer."

So, in yet another search engine optimization experiment (SEOE) in an ongoing series, I'm sticking the phrase rather simply near the top of my home page to see if it will help at all.

Funny thing is... The phrase "phoenix website programmer" puts me on page one, about third down on the page. Crazy. not even a phrase I was targeting. But, I'll take that.

Added January 6, 2008

CSS Cheatsheet (Cheat Sheet?) (Two words or one?)

I own a very excellent booklet of cheatsheets (we'll go with single word, for now) from Visibone and I HIGHLY recommend you get one. But, being the cheapskate that I am, I only own one. I tend to leave it at the office. I was at home tonight and my brain failed me and was not able to finish some CSS lines for me. Grrr. I search the web for some really quick and dirty CSS cheatsheets and didn't really find anything that suited my taste. There are some very excellent ones out there, mind you, just none that had everything I wanted.

So, go figure, I built my own. If you are looking for one yourself and you stumble onto mine, enjoy. Let me know if it works for you. If you find errors, please let me know about those, too.

Click here to get my CSS Cheatsheet!.

Added November 14, 2007

robots.txt Info

If you're like me, and I know I am, you do web stuff. I've had a link to robots.txt info in my giant pile of geeky links and bits o' information. Click here to go to The Web Robots Pages.

Not too big a deal, but it gives you everything you need to know about setting up that little file on your website that well-behaved robots read. Be more edumacated about it. Read it. Fun.

Added November 2, 2007

Intel-based MacBook Pro as a Web Development Platform

I have fully made the switch. I am now able to do my web and application development AND my video editing, 3D, and grahpic design all on the same über-powerful laptop, the Intel-based Apple MacBook Pro. Mine happens to be the 2.4 GHz, 15" glossy screen, with a 200 GB internal hard drive (I replaced the stock 160 GB) and 4 GB of RAM (I replaced the stock 2 GB). I am LOVING this MacBook Pro with its tasty Intel filling. Yum!

Cross-platform development and testing comes courtesy of Apple, Intel, VMware or Parallels, the Open Source community, and Micro$soft. Now that I've upgraded my Adobe products to the new CS3 suite, I can have zero use for Windows, other than to view web pages in Windows-based browsers to ensure cross-browser play-nicednedess (I just made that up).

I have started the virtual machine thing with Parallels and have recently switched to VMware Fusion. Both work excellently. I have settled with Fusion because it takes advantage of both cores in my CPU and it uses all those time-proven, pre-built VMs that people have built over the history of VMware itself. But, if you ask me which one I think is better, it's hard to say. In my experience, and I use both of these products heavily each day, I think that Parallels runs more smoothly. That is due, in part, methinks, to the video drivers being more robust or better-built. Ultimately, Fusion wins out because it can just flat-out process mo' faster. When I run the Cinema 4D benchmark thingy, I clearly see a difference. Both got the Blue Screen of Death when I attempted to launch my Micro$oft Flight Simulator X, so what can ya do?

At the day job, we use Novell NetWare on our networks and Novell GroupWise for messaging. So, to see what everyone else sees, I use Fusion to run the GroupWise client and the Windows versions of the browsers (IE 7 & 6, Firefox, Opera). On the OS X side, I have Firefox and Safari. This one computer allows me to see my work in all major browsers. Sweet.

I have successfully converted an easy half-dozen friends or family in as many months. So, Apple, where's my free [something]?

But, back to my point... MacBook as a development platform. Rocks!!! I now use my MacBook as my workstation at my real job (largest alternative weekly newspaper company in the US). I use the Zend Studio Integrated Development Environment.

Alliterations are funny. Seriously, though, installing the new Adobe CS3

Added October 7, 2007

Favorite Firefox Extensions

I HIGHLY recommend you use Firefox for web browsing. It's robust, it's secure, it's reliable, it's very cool and extensible. There's a link down below here and to the right. Click it and get it.

So, along the lines of extensible, there are some extensions I always add on to a new installation of Firefox, especially for developers and budding webmaster friends of mine. Here is that list, which you can pick up at Firefox Extensions:

• Adblock Plus : Does an über-excellent job of blocking pop-ups and ads in pages
• ColorZilla : Sweet color-picking utility for stealing colors right off the browser window
• Firebug : The most excellent Javascript debigging/inspection tool I've ever used
• Screen grab! : Screenshot some or all of the browser content area (to clipboard or file)
• Web Developer : Essential for any web developer at any level; too many features to list here

Added September 5, 2007

Adobe Creative Suite 3: Production Premium Photoshop Problems

Alliterations are funny. Seriously, though, installing the new Adobe CS3 Production Premium suite of really nice products is not funny. On my new MacBook Pro (2.4 GHz, 4 GB RAM, non-sucky), it takes nearly two hours to complete. It ships with EIGHT (yeah, 8!) DVDs (not CDs, but DVDs)! Prepare your drink(s) BEFORE you start the install. Try to do it right the first time, too.

The reason I'm adding this note is to help save you time if you're installing this on a Mac and you happen to have an Epson scanner, so I understand from Googling around to solve my problem.

Before you do anything, if you have the trial versions of any of the products in the suite, you need to run the uninstallation program for each. Read the directions and READMEs thoroughly. Next, feed the DVDs to your Mac. When you're finished, if Photoshop Extended CS3 does not startup and causes an error reporting dialog to pop up, change the name of the "TWAIN.plugin" file to "~TWAIN.plugin" so that it does not get loaded on startup. That's what caused my Photoshop to fail. Once that's renamed, you should be able to start it up without a problem. Of course, this means that you won't be able to scan from within Photoshop, but what do you want? Photoshop running wihtout scanning or Photoshop not running? Tough choice, I know.

Added August 9, 2007

Programming Notebook Added!

NEW!!! (as of April 10, 2007, anyway)... I've FINALLY started copying my personal programming notes up to the website. There is only one page, as of April 10, 2007, but it is a start. It's one of those, "FWIW" kinda things: "For What It's Worth." Read it at your own risk. Also, PLEASE, if you have comments or suggestion, please talk to me! I'd like to hear what I could do to either improve the code or explain it better or correct errors.

I do quite a lot of random web development and web programming fixes to applications that someone else has messed up around Phoenix, Arizona and the world. When I come across a slick way to do something or I experiment to get a solid answer on something, I now try to add it to my programming notebook.

Added April 10, 2007

JavaScript Password Validater

Added February 6, 2007

I threw together an addition to the JS String prototype to validate (with options) password strings. Click here to play with it...

Web Broswer Stats as of January, 2007

Updated February 6, 2007

Well, the W3C posted the latest stats (http://www.w3schools.com/browsers/browsers_stats.asp) and the browser share is getting interesting. Firefox is making ground and if you aren't using it, you should be. Here are the stats (as of June 2007) (+ indicates increase from November 2006, - indicates decrease, nc indicates no change) (Netscape disappeared off the list and Safari replaced it):

IE 7	IE 6	IE 5	Firefox	Mozilla	Safari	Opera 7/8/9
19.7% (+)	37.3% (-)	1.5% (nc)	34% (+)	1.4% (+)	1.3% (-)	1.8% (+)

One noteworthy item in all those numbers (and they state it on the website) is that they're really numbers from computer geeks and programmers. Those are the probably the biggest demographic for that website, so take that with the medicine.

Opera? Really? Stop it, people. Seriously. If you must continue to use it, please email them and tell them to quite twisting standards and follow them for once.

Another interesting note from the W3Schools website is that the Windows family of crappy operating systems accounts for approximately 90% of platforms tooling around on the web. Oh, well. I'm digging my new Intel MacBook Pro very much, thank you. Unix meets a royally kick-ass GUI. Nicely done, Apple.

NEW! Video Poker!!!

With some help from Ben Crenshaw (click to see his work), the masterful creator of a very well-done and beautiful card deck design, and some fairly simple and straightforward Flash programming from me, we have VIDEO POKER!!! Please enjoy responsibly. But, remember that it is a work in progress, like everything else here. I'm building some new features and working the scoring formulas and such.

Searching for a professionally designed website, application development, graphic design, or creative?

Take a look at my portfolio to see if my work speaks to you. I've been building websites since the inception of the web, well before Flash and all the cool new styling features available today. Interactivity was far more difficult then than it is today. But, no worries, because I do Flash! Anything from simple animations to complex Flash remoting and database connectivity.

I've physically worked in markets from Detroit, Michigan to Tampa and West Palm Beach, Florida to Phoenix, Arizona. I work with clients form all over the United States.

Does your business need an identity or a make-over?

I've built and helped to improve corporate identities for many clients. I think I'm pretty good at it. Just ask me. ;) Creating your company identity is a great challenge and one that I enjoy very much. If you're tired of your old logo, let me build you a new one to give your company a fresh look.

If you'd like to manage more of your own small business website content using easier on-line management applications, I'm your guy. I've built many different web-based management applications that utilize late-model technologies, such as PHP scripting, MySQL for database storage, XML for RSS feeds, back-end data integration, web services, etc.), JavaScript for smoother user interfaces and interactivity, and Flash and Actionscript for more fluid and interactive user experiences and back-end website management.

Are you a PHP, XML, Flash, and JavaScript web application programmer or web/graphic designer?

First of all, contact me! I like to keep good programmers on a list of who to call when I get into projects that require more than just my brain.

I've been working a ton on JavaScript and Flash and PHP and MySQL and Apache and... Well, you get the idea. If you're looking for a little help on your project, check out the lab and all the routines and ideas I'm collecting. 20 years of programming experience is finally spilling out of my cranium onto the pages of a website. I hope it helps you out some.

One thing that you may be looking for is my simple and lightweight PHP XML parsing class. You can find it and the documentation for it on this page.

Using XML to communicate with JavaScript, PHP, and Flash is pretty straightforward. If you implement my phpXML Lite PHP class, you'll save a ton of time and make life easier for yourself by not having to install extra libraries using Pear or PECL. I wrote it from scratch to make communicating between Flash and PHP scripts nice and easy. The methods and sturcture closely mimick Flash's XML objects. You simply include this one PHP script and zoom! You're off to the XML races.

Programming Store, Freelance Payments, Donations

Coming shortly, if you receive an invoice from me, you can pay here on the website using PayPal, the absolute best way to pay me over the Internet. If you purchase programming classes and libraries, you can also purchase directly from the page for that class/library using PayPal.