Maintenance release 4.0.3

Agile toolkit 4.0.3 fixed bug https://github.com/atk4/atk4/issues/9 which was showing on new installation mechanism (without .htaccess) if you use sub-pages

Agile Toolkit version 4.0.2 Released

I am pleased to announce that next stable release of Agile Toolkit is ready to be downloaded. If you already have a project using Agile Toolkit, then you will need to replace “atk4″ folder with the new one. You can download atk4 / atk4-addons separately from Agile Toolkit Download Page.

To see list of changes in this version, see: http://agiletoolkit.org/whatsnew.

For new users, I recommend watching our latest screencast.

PHP5 Forms with AJAX submit – best practices

Forms are the foundation of interactive web and what we call Web 2.0. In this article I will walk through the possible problems web developers encounter when creating web forms and solutions to those problems.

This article will be useful to people who are starting web development or who are experienced at it.

This article refers to Form implementation in Agile Toolkit. For documentation and demonstrations of forms in Agile Toolkit see http://agiletoolkit.org/doc/form

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Google-friendly AJAX popups

For web developers it is always a big choice, whether to use a regular links or load data through AJAX. Regular links are boring and old, but AJAX is not supported by Google and other crawlers.

The solution is to have a regular link pointing to the page, but also add JavaScript on that link which will cancel default action and will load page dynamically.

This is exactly how we decided to implement 3 pages on www.agiletoolkit.org:

• download page (integrates with twitter and starts download automatically)
• newsletter page (integrates with Campaign Monitor)
• contact page (integrates with Database and Email Sender)

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Simple Feedback Form with Agile Toolkit

My company produces around 10-20 web projects per year for small companies and web entrepreneurs. Our clients, often business-oriented, are busy chasing investors and winning awards, while we are looking after their Web Software. However interacting with them is very important and we are looking for a better ways to do so.

Since we are developing web-software, why not use that web-software to interact with the client? In this article I am explaining how to go through a steps to develop a simple yet robust feedback system.

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Why Agile Toolkit is best choice for Business Web Software?

It’s been 4 years since I showed up for M50 Enterprise Program (Government program helping start-ups in Ireland) dressed in jeans and t-shirt. I had an idea for on-line project and I wanted to pursue my goal. My belief was that if I write a great software and make it look good, people would certainly start using it. Sometimes it turns out to be like that, but it rather an exception that a rule.

Back then my idea failed, however I have learned two important things about software development:

• Research is very important. Talk with potential clients of what they want before putting your effort into making it.
• Find a shortest path to your goal. Make things work first, then make them work good.

By sticking to those two rules you can avoid spending time on something unnecessary, failing a project or even go bankrupt. Let’s see in more details how to achieve those goals in practice with help of Agile Toolkit.

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New blog theme and finished domain move.

We have now completed moving everything on to new domain. Expect for http://demo.atk4.com/, but we would rather re-vise all the demos and put them more in-context. We have already started and our introduction is filled with with examples.

http://agiletoolkit.org/intro

Added Introduction to Agile Toolkit

There very significant introduction pages are added. They introduce you to the fundamental concepts of Agile Toolkit, demonstrates some of the UI, JavaScript and MVC goodies.

http://agiletoolkit.org/intro

New domain name and PHP / Agile Toolkit courses in Dublin

Unfortunately too many can’t remember or spell atk4, so we will be moving to a new domain:

www.agiletoolkit.org

We have been thinking about some new domain for the toolkit as well, but nothing comes to mind, so for time being we will leave it as “Agile Toolkit”. If you have a interesting idea – please share with me, I’d love to hear.

Also — we are looking to start a first courses in Dublin (on Saturdays) on the toolkit, so everyone who can attend — should attend. Courses will be free but I would expect some feedback in return. It would also give me more practice on teaching, so if you are willing to come — leave a note in the comments. I will announce the place on this blog once we secure the place.

Sneak Peak into Agile Toolkit new website..

Agile Toolkit is a new — more efficient way way to build Web Software.

Agile Toolkit is a high-performance PHP framework for UI development with jQuery. High levels of efficiency are achieved because your database and your UI are seamlessly and securely integrated. You achieve more with less code

We are getting ready to unveil our new website for Agile Toolkit. A lot of things are still being written and added, but we decided to share it with readers of this blog.

http://new.atk4.com/

I would love to hear any feedback on the website or in general.

Get in Touch

We are trying to reserve a spot to talk on Bizcamp Newry. http://www.bizcampnewry.com/. This would be our first public talk / announcement. Please follow us on twitter for more updates: http://twitter.com/atk4

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