What Development Platforms are Used By Celestial Graphics?
Celestial Graphics uses a combination of commercial development tools and Open
Source Software. We have chosen a combination of tools that will help us develop
the best and most cost effective web site designs for our clients.
Web Site Development Tools
We use Macromedia Dreamweaver, Fireworks and Flash. Dreamweaver is used by
over 70% of web design professionals (source: PC Data).
Web Programming Language
Celestial Graphics uses PHP for Server Side application development. PHP is
an open source solution built from the ground up specifically for web applications.
PHP enjoys a large developers community. PHP runs under Linux and can be compiled
as an Apache module. This makes PHP very fast. There are over PHP is one of the
fastest growing languages on the web. Over 5 million domains (about 800,000 IP
addresses) are running PHP (source: http://www.php.net/usage.php).
We choose PHP because it has the flexibility of Perl but was built from the ground
up for web application development. PHP is fast, robust and scalable.
Database
We use MySQL. MySQL is an open source high performance relational database
management system (RDMS). Other rational database management systems include Oracle,
Informix, Sybase, and SQL Server. MySQL is widely used on the web and has Interfaces
(APIs) to most programming languages including C++, Java, PHP, Perl as well as
OBDC.
How does MySQL stack-up against commercial offerings?
In terms of raw speed, MySQL benchmarks faster than many other databases such
as Microsoft’s SQL Server and performs favorably against industry heavyweights
such as Oracle. MySQL is fast because it was designed primarily as a web based
relational database management system.
Who Uses MySQL?
MySQL is used Yahoo, Slash dot, and Linux Today. In addition, MySQL is used
as a backend database at NASA and NASA Kids web sites.
E-Commerce Solutions and Content Management Systems
Interchange: Red Hat’s Interchange is a widely used e-commerce shopping
cart and web based order management system. Originally called Minivend, this software
has features rivaling systems costing well over $100,000 yet is available for
free under the GNU GPL license. Interchange contains full-featured web based administration
of order entry, inventory, product, content and customer management. Interchange
connects to a wide variety of databases including MySQL and Oracle.
EZ Publish: This is a Norwegian based highly flexible and complete content
management system. EZ Publish allows you to separate your content from your web
site design. The web site design is completely template based for flexibility.
Content can be uploaded through a web interface. Here are some of the features:
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Community Building: User Polling, Moderated Discussion Groups,
User Registration and Management, and Calendar of Events. |
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Commerce Module: Internationalized on-line shopping system. |
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Banner Advertising |
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News Feeds |
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On Line Statistics |
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Database Driven with Search Engine Friendly URLs |
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