₦airaland Forum

Seems like it would make more sense (and perhaps more secure as well) to dump the contents of the form into a database. By so doing, you also get to compartmentalize (is this the right word?) the form data (name, phone, etc). Not to mention, assuming you intend to get submitted forms from more than a few submissions, sure you can parse out the respective content but again, I think this is a messy approach.

Why, might I ask, do you want to put the stuff in a file? Perhaps that is the very reason why a database is not needed and I would definitely stand to be corrected.

he he, dhtml you funny o!

I remember when you were busy posting how high your alexa ratings went.  I also remember when you had "done something" to your site (I think classroom) to your site as well.  Did you think this would make the number of visits reduce? 

Be that as it may, you should have planned for anticipated increase in traffic.  In other words, you should have been proactive and not reactive.  Your best bet is to change hosting plans to one that offers "unlimited" bandwidth/getting a VPS.  Anything else amounts to postponing doomsday 

Some other things to take into consideration:

1) Check how many js and css files you are calling and look to reduce the sizes of those you have now.

2) Look to externalize certain files (like calling jquery from the share site, as opposed to from your own server

3) Look to optimize your images

4) Use semantic code (reduce use of tables)

5) Remove unnecessary white space in your back end code - I used to work for a company that did that in 2004 and it saved $20K in monthly bandwidth charges

Just a few things off the top of my head. Happy new year!

Don't you actually mean, "no down time"?

Does anyone see the typo in the heading on the following page, or abi na d garri wey I jus smoke? http://developers.afripals.com/view/blog/

he he, 2012 is off to a big slam and so far, dhtml looks to capture the 2012 poster of the year award 

Thanks everyone. I am humbled. I look forward to contributing even more in 2012. I have also enjoyed learning from other esteemed contributors to this great thread. I am also proudest of those who helped contribute to the nigeria.gov project.

Now, as my boss would say, back to work!!

e.dide and michaelg,

Happy new year and thanks for the compliments. As I told everyone at the beginning, it wasn't about skill sets per se. I was just happy that people were willing to give their time, as you 2 have alluded to. There were only 4 designers and we all voted on what was the best, based on 4 designs. Yep, we rolled with what we had out our disposal, with the total understanding that it could be better. One thing many of the critics don't understand is that it isn't easy for people to give of their time to do something for free. Yes, when something should be done, it needs to be done well. That notwithstanding, as they say, "use what you've got to get what you need." What I learned from this project is more than the designs. Most importantly, I learned that there are dedicated individuals in Nigeria who not only see what is wrong with the system but are willing to fix it, even at the expense of their time and money.

Since launch, another has submitted another design and based on feedback, we are taking our time to vet it. A website is an ongoing thing so we expect to make things better over time. Thanks for the 2 urls shared, granted the oyo state one isn't opening, at least on my end.

We would be honored to have the both of you as a part of our closed facebook group. I will forward your posts to the board for discussion.

Thanks once again, and happy new year, to you and yours!

Have times changed that much? In my time, na knock out and "carbide" we dey throw o, he he.

Come on guys! With 6 hours to go (in Nigeria) till New year's, at least you have to do one last good thing - the dude at least customized it

Happy new year in advance, everyone!

http://www.dailyindependentnigeria.com/ - Server overload.

Na wa o! Na so we go take start new year?

As Fela once sang, server overload don overload overload

He he, where did you get the idea? One of google's easter eggs?

If the suspicious voting is true:
Naija! Here we are blaming GEJ for his poor handling of the recent bombings, yet we can't even conduct simple online election.

Where's the hope?!

http://www.mma2lagos.com/

Don't check a flight schedule though

Maybe you can update the topic by adding "resolved on (insert date here)" to it

I have always claimed that I don't know much so this post may not make sense. All the same, here it goes:

Granted the site in question may be a small one, we still need to think scalability. On that note, I think operations like reading files consumes resources and could lead to leaks, if not handled on right. On that note, and yes, given that there is more than 1 way to skin a cat, I will go for deco's solution, again, given that it is a small site (what would happen if there are 1000 pages, with each having their own bg image?).

Eventually, he may want to look at something more efficient, like maybe:
1) Giving all images the same prefix (bg_)
2) Echoing the suffix, such that its name coincides with the file name shown in the browser (bg_<echo page-name>.jpg).

Again, what do I know?

deco said it all. Anything more, and it would be a distraction.

@sly

Yep, visited this morning and noticed it went away. And yep again, you never know who is reading posts on this board or conveying messages to others. . . which is why I take advantage of its perceived popularity every time I get the chance

Lesson of the day: Words are powerful

deco + 10

1) Contact form: I click submit and get 404
2) You might want to consider having a big banner at the top of the page
3) Constitution is too long, in html form. Consider making it a downloadable pdf
4) I wouldn't put that slide show of pictures on all pages. Home page only is fine. On others, IMHO, it is a distraction.

Why are they serving up a (non-functioning) mobile site by default (on a desktop)?  Are they experimenting?  If so, don't they know they should do so on a test server, confirm everything is okay, then port it over to the main site?  What's worse, the link to the desktop version isn't intuitive and even when you click it,nothing happens!

This has been going on since yesterday.  I actually thought they would have fixed it by now.  Na wa o! Just when they begin to regain my trust again, they manage to remind me that "na naija we still dey"

http://www.punchng.com/

That is true but you forget (or seem to) that some have said that they are designers, some of them I know are designers, and some of them actually volunteered to help out but didn't (for reasons best known to them). These are the people I am referring to.

Okay, hopefully this post ends it all. . .

Truth be told, dhtml has done a lot, with respect to disseminating valuable information on here, and is worthy of the crown.  I do post a lot too, on the educational side, but if I were to be objective, I would say overall, his are of more value.  Yes, I do a lot of (mostly) reviews and every now and then, I will come up with a tricky quiz but truth be told, whereas my posts are usually in one direction, dhtml's are multi-dimensional.

Having said the above, the rules are the rules.  I don't like them personally (one reason why i am no longer the moderator) but hey, it isn't my website.  It is a privilege to be on here and having subscribed to other fora, nothing compares to this one, at least in the webmaster section.

So, if at all possible, cancel that rule on banning.  Even Mario Balotelli, as recently as either yesterday or this morning, had a bust up with a teammate during training.  I am sure he will be fined for it big time.  Does this and should this take away from his talent? No.  Should he be benched for a few? Sure.  But again, that doesn't and won't take away from his talent.  Worse case, he will seek to go elsewhere in the upcoming transfer window, like Drogba (this is an indirect hint, btw )

E jo, give d ting to dhtml make we begin dey focus on our plans for 2012.  The web design field is ripe but the (quality) workers are few.

No: It is a different shade of green

dhtml, don't you mean "je n'ai pas panadol?"

Maybe you should stick to spanish

dhtml, you get panadol? My neck is paining me o

I just saw this at Linda Ikeji's website: http://www.afritickets.com/

Looks good but is it secure? Let's talk about it here.

Note:
I have already done my own "primary school" research and have my own results. Just wanna c if we all c the same thing, bad or good.

What I find interesting is that the site went down +2 days or so after the voluntarily designed site was announced to the world. Are they a part of NL or any of the other boards where the announcement was made?

Very interesting. . .

Update:

Someone with guts (hint: not from anyone who has suggested a new design on this thread) volunteered with a new design. It is in the process of being presented to the group, after which it will be sliced, diced and uploaded to the test server.

Yawa, has the "cabinet" been formed?

Ok then, some graphics pro should come up with a design

You might want to pull up a chair, sit down and hold your breath. I have been doing so for 3 or 4 posts now and am almost getting blue in the face (can this happen to a black person? )