The song "Caribbean Groove" was written almost entirely at Jones Park in Fort Atkinson. Some think it is spelled "Carri-bean Groove", but who knows?
For those of you who do not know this, I am merely a part-time rocker. I spend the rest of my days at a desk in front of a computer. My job title is "Systems Analyst" ohhhhh la la! This pretty much is a big word for someone who writes software. During my time in Elkhorn programming for one of our many other divisions, I stumbled upon an MVC framework written in the language PHP known as CodeIgniter. MVC or Model, View, Controller is a nice way to organize your code. Your databases are in Model objects, the layout of everything you see on a website or general aesthetics is in a View object and the Controllers handle your business logic, such as... when I try and submit a comment without typing anything in the comment box a nasty HOUSTON, WE HAVE A PROBLEM message appears. The appeal to this type of framework is prettier code as well as, for instance, if I was using a MySQL database and needed to switch to a MSSQL database, since my Model objects are separated from the rest of my code, I could easily make this migration without needing to touch any of my business logic or website layout code.
CodeIgniter also has a ton of fun helper libraries already coded, ready to use. For instance, if you were to type "thisisnotmyemail" into the email field and try and subscribe to our mailing list, CodeIgniter has not only field validation but regular expressions built into the validation library that allows me to detect whether the email address entered is valid or not. You would have to type "thisisnotmyemail@thisisnotmydomain.blah" to successfully get away with providing a bogus email address. These libraries have saved me a lot of development time. If you're into website development or want to learn, I'd highly recommend using PHP and CodeIgniter. Plus as an added bonus, they're both completely free!
I've started on a database driven image gallery that will be used to showcase photos from our previous shows. I ultimately would like to allow anybody to sign up for an account and upload their own photos from past shows, making it rich with user-driven content.
Please share with me your ideas and comments you have to making this place even better. Also, if you have any technical questions I'll do my best to give you a somewhat accurate answer.
Wow, I didn't even mention any music during this post. I did however last night in the middle of re-stringing my guitar, give it a good polishing. Someone posted a comment that the pictures from our Friday show at Skatz were so high quality and vibrant that you could see dust and fingerprints on my axe. Look forward to seeing everyone again soon. Practice is tonight due to the nasty weather coming up and we will be playing in Helenville at Wingin' It this Saturday. Visit "The Shows" to find the address.
2009-01-01 - great show last night wish katie could have been there! ;) - Linda