What I've been working on lately

Tuesday, July 1, 2008, 1:30 PM
Other Stuff by John

I have recently produced two new websites for clients and am working on two new sites of my own.

The two for clients are DuBoisBride.com and Royers219AutoSales.com. Neither site is very glitzy, but both are function-driven. DuBoisBride.com is a redesign to improve the functionality of the registration system for an annual bridal expo. Royers219AutoSale.com, as the name suggest, is a car dealer website.

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The two sites I am currently working on for my own reasons are MakeABase.com and GeneratedNames.com.

MakeABase.com

MakeABase.com is intended to allow users to embed database tables in their own web pages with no coding, similar to how you just copy and paste some JavaScript in order to embed Google Maps on your own web pages. I set up a demo of an embedded DB table running on a GeoCities website. And, yes, it gets around cross-site scripting issue without using any hacks or zero-day stuff. It is 100% valid, safe JavaScript that does the job. It isn't a true AJAX app, because the only good way to handle the system was to ditch being asynchronous and working over ActiveX.

The process of building a new DB is simple. Take a spreadsheet (right now it supports Excel XLS and Comma Separated Values CSV file formats), upload it and then copy and paste the JavaScript into your web page.

GeneratedNames.com

GeneratedNames.com is a website that uses a dictionary to help you generate domain names for your website. You enter you preferred keywords and then it gives you a series of definitions. You select the definitions that most closely match your intent, and then it fires off a list of related words. You select the words you like and then it remixes them to generate a list of potential domain names. You can then check to see if the domain name is registered. If it isn't registered, then it offers the option to register them through GoDaddy.

GeneratedNames.com still has a way to come before it is really production ready. MakeABase.com is closing in on being ready to test with other users.

Of course, the bitch with MakeABase is that if it generates any interest, it isn't going to take long for it to outstrip the server it now running on.

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Welcome!

Wonder where to start with your web design business?

This blog follows along with my efforts to build and grow a website design business, Pro Content and Design.

The goal of this blog is to fill in blanks that may be empty as you get your business rolling.

This blog, particularly the source code section, is not intended for beginners. If you are not comfortable with databases, Ajax, DOM objects and other advanced methods, I strongly suggest you go take a look over at W3 Schools before even reading -- let alone tinkering with -- any of the code here.

I hope this blog has some value to web designers as they attempt to get their businesses going.

Good luck, and happy reading.

Thank you,
John Crawford
Pro Content and Design