PHP for web development

We are going to begin a plan to upgrading our website (www.artshorizons.org). It is currently written using Aestiva. The web master says she uses PHP now. Although I've seen info on PHP I don't know anyone using it. Does anyone out there has any experience with it?

Conservatively speaking, I imagine there are millions of people using PHP since it's freely available and most hosting companies offer it. I'd say it's probably the first server-side language budding web developers try to learn.

Eric

Hello,

We are designing two sites in PHP right now. We can help you out with that. You can visit our website at www.elevacion.org to learn more about us. Our contact info is on the site or you can contact me at aeverard@elevacion.org. We are a non-profit web design company. Let us know how we can help. Take care,

Adam

Your current site developer works in PHP. It's a simple language and as mentioned previously, because of it's simplicity and ease of use, there are thousands of PHP shops out there.

Whether or not your site MUST be written in PHP or utilize HTML/OS is another question. Most often, when it comes to web stuff, the simplest solution is the best solution. HTML/OS is great for large robust sites that need to DO something and makes for easy server side behaviors. Many times however, utilizing HTML/OS tags is like taking a bazooka to a knife fight and can corner the org into an expensive relationship with a developer.

Your site has a lot of pages and content to deliver. Can you achieve the same objectives with simple XHTML using Contribute to update pages?

Do you have multiple authors and therefore require a net based UI for updates?

Do you really NEED a database driven site?

Will a simpler XHTML framework do just fine and do you have the staff resources to update the site with copy of Contribute from Techsoup?

IF you have more technical requirements and need for example, staff members to update pages from home over the internet, then using a simple JOOMLA or DRUPAL install may work best. These too are written in PHP and there's no need for expensive custom PHP work. Customizing a few modules and/or nodes typically does the trick.

hth,