There are two primary development workflows web developers use. One option is to install all necessary servers, libraries, databases etc on their working machine, do their editing their and then push the changes (hopefully through some sort of code revision system, but often through ftp) to the production server.

Pros

• Ability to work without network connection

Cons

• You must install entire server environment on your personal machine, this may be a bad thing for a laptop with limited resources
• You have to keep your working machine’s environment up to date with the versions the server is using
• You usually won’t want to keep a test dataset in a database on your working machine so you’ll need to make a remote connection to your db server ANYWAY eliminated the ability to work without a network connection
• To show clients the current version you have to push changes to a server.

Remote Workflow

Some developers choose to set up a development server (which can either be a separate machine or simple a separate subdomain on the production server). Their code lives there, when they make changes on their working copy there (again, hopefully using some sort of code revision system like subversion or git). This model allows you to run code in an environment more similar to what it will actually be run on in production. It also allows you to allow collaborators, backers or clients to view the current working copy of the code. You obviously don’t want to be working on the code for a production site (you aren’t that good, you will break things, and for a site with any reasonable amount of users this is unacceptable), but this model works well for working on development code.

Editing code that lives on a remote server. The simplest solution for editing code on a remote server is to ssh in the machine and use a command line editor such as vi, emacs or nano to edit the code. This is somewhat distasteful to some developers especially those who are used to GUI text editors. SSHFS allows a developer to mount a directory on a remote machine as a directory on their local machine in a way that is transparent to the operating system. This is an ideal solution because it allows you to edit code with the tools you’re used to using. We plan on making a blog post about how sshfs and autofs make web development easier, but until then check out google for info about them.

Pros

• Code is run on an environment more like what it will be in production
• Database connections are easier
• It is easy to show clients the code you’re currently working on
• It is often times easier to push changes to the production version of the site

Cons

• Network connection is required to do work
• Requires setup to edit code on your local machine while it is on the remote machine
  • This problem is relatively easily solved, we’ll discuss this issue in a later post

Conclusion

Here at Casa Nova Designs we have found the remote workflow meets our needs and allows for more rapid development. This article is the first in a series about what our development environment is like, and how we’ve solved common web design head aches to streamline our workflow. In the next article we’ll show you how to use sshfs and autofs to mount remote file systems.

Regards,

Adam

For those of you who don’t know. I’m a Computer Science student at the University of Tennessee Knoxville. I got into web design before I was in college and I’ve found throughout my academic journey that being a good C/C+/Python programmer has led me to be a good PHP/javascript programmer. I love web design because it’ s not entirely scientific, it’s much more people based, but often times when we as web design professionals must design highly scalable websites, or websites that need to be easily maintained it is neccassary that we be familiar with Computer Science principles and be accustomed to the general thought process of a Computer Scientist. I whole heartedly believe that as you grow to be a better academic programmer you will grow to be a better web professional. For those of you who have already left your college days behind you I’ve compiled a few wonderful resources for begining your journey into the realm of academic computing.

Located at: http://code.google.com/edu

Google code is a wonderful resource for web designers because Google’s business is web, but it’s methodology is very academic. Google’s code university is a great way to keep up to date with the new and innovative things happening at google.

Located at: http://ocw.mit.edu

MIT, one of the world’s premere universities for Computer Science has graciously opened up their lecture halls to the masses. They’ve included everything from introduction to computer science to some of their much more advanced courses.

http://academicearth.com

Academic Earth is a wonderful resource for all subjects. It’s computer science courses include lectures from top schools such as Berkley, Stanford, and MIT.

What to Take Away

Some of the lectures included material that is at a graduate level, unless you’re particularly interested or talented don’t expect to understand everything that’s talked about in these courses. Remember YOU aren’t being graded over this information and even if you only understand 40% of the material that’s it’s still going to help you as you approach your day to day problems and stretch your thinking into new directions. I hope you find these resources helpful, happy coding.

Here’s our list of (web design related) news feeds:

Did we miss anything? Do you read a blog that’s not included in this list, do you think we should start reading your blog? Leave your thoughts and suggestions in the comments.

Thanks everybody,

Adam

We here at Casa Nova Designs have been very busy designing a web based health care system (soon to be launched UsHospitalCareers.com) In our time developing this website we have learned much about ourselves and had the opportunity to improve our communication with clients greatly.

As developers we do the best that we can to communicate our technical ideas to our clients in easy to understand language. It is important that the client is also able to communicate to a developer what they need for their project so that the project can be completed in the fastest most cost effective manner possible. Here are 5 points that we feel with make your project go smoothly.

1.Know what you’re trying to accomplish.

What do you want your customers/users to accomplish by visiting your website? Do you want to provide information about the company? sell products? provide a place for employees to collaborate? We can provide all of this functionality and suggest features when necessary, but thinking about things like this in advance will make sure that your website provides a platform that can truly transform your business.

2. Know what you like.

If you are interested in being involved in the graphical design of your website (some clients prefer that all creative control be given to us, we find that very flattering) it is important that you know what you like. It saves several hours of development and collaboration if you are able to provide examples of websites that you like, and when possible, explanations of why you like them. “I like this web site’s colors”, or “I like the navigation of this website” are simple ways that you can let us know what you like, so we can produce a website that you love.

3. Get your camera ready.

If you have any logo files, pictures of your products, employess, workspace etc. That you’d like to include on your website having those items ready will greatly reduce the time it takes for us to create your website. If you need us to take any pictures for you or to scan any images that you have a hard copy of we can also provide that service.
4. Know what you want to say.

If you already know what information you would like to have on your website including that information will help us greatly. We as developers can write content for your pages (This content is known as web copy), but often times a client is able to describe their company’s history, mission, etc. best in their own words. This may seem like a daunting task but, adding web copy is often one of the last steps in the design process and a client can write their content in tandem as the developer creates the website.

5. Stick with it.

Once we’ve begun a project it is difficult to change the direction. We can when necessary make changes but, these changes will result in additional time and expense. So make sure you think about your project carefully before giving us the green light. Once you’ve laid the groundwork for your web site try to step back, design time various based upon the size of the project from a couple of days to several weeks. If you do have an idea for a developer try to contact them as quickly as possible so that they can implement your new idea with as little duplication of effort as possible.

For more information about communicating with developer check your Smashing Magazine’s article on the subject (this article is intended for audience with moderate technical knowledge)

Hopefully this information will help you as you work towards completion of your next web project.

Regards,
Adam Haney
Chief Developer
Casa Nova Designs