Building Tag Clouds in Perl and PHP

Tag clouds are everywhere on the web these days. First popularized by the web sites Flickr, Technorati, and del.icio.us, these amorphous clumps of words now appear on a slew of web sites as visual evidence of their membership in the elite corps of "Web 2.0." This PDF analyzes what is and isn't a tag cloud, offers design tips for using them effectively, and then goes on to show how to collect tags and display them in the tag cloud format. Scripts are provided in Perl and PHP.

Yes, some have said tag clouds are a fad. But as you will see, tag clouds, when used properly, have real merits. More importantly, the skills you learn in making your own tag clouds enable you to make other interesting kinds of interfaces that will outlast the mercurial fads of this year or the next.

Over the past few decades, digital technologies have dramatically increased ourability to store, organize, and access information. Today, I can instantly answer allkinds of questions that would have stumped me 20 years ago, and I have access toa wealth of words, sounds, and imagesfar more than I have the intellectualcapacity to consume. You could say we're in the midst of an informationexplosion, but I like to think we're being served an information cornucopia.

The abundance of this information is ever increasing, and the user interfaces webuilt ten years ago to access and organize it are starting to show signs of strain andwear, like a rickety folding table supporting the weight of a thousand pies.

Tag clouds are just one of a new crop of interfaces that aim to ease this strain.There are others, which succeed to greater and lesser degrees, and there will bebetter ones to come. I hope to have a part in making some of them, and I hope youdo too.

TABLE OF CONTENT:

• Tag Clouds: Ephemeral or Enduring?
• Weighted Lists
• Some History
• Design Tips for Building Tag Clouds
• Making Tag Clouds in Perl
• Making Tag Clouds in PHP

PHP Solutions: Dynamic Web Design Made Easy [David Powers]

In the book PHP Solutions: Dynamic Web Design Made Easy [David Powers], you'll learn how to:

• Create dynamic websites with design and usability in mind, as well as functionality
• Understand how PHP scripts work, giving you confidence to adapt them to your own needs
• Bring online forms to life, check required fields, and ensure user input is safe to process
• Upload files and automatically create thumbnails from larger images
• Manage website content with a searchable database

You want to make your websites more dynamic by adding a feedback form, creating a private area where members can upload images that are automatically resized, or perhaps storing all your content in a database. The problem is, you're not a programmer and the thought of writing code sends a chill up your spine. Or maybe you've dabbled a bit in PHP and MySQL, but you can't get past baby steps. If this describes you, then you've just found the right book. PHP and the MySQL database are deservedly the most popular combination for creating dynamic websites. They're free, easy to use, and provided by many web hosting companies in their standard packages. Unfortunately, most PHP books either expect you to be an expert already or force you to go through endless exercises of little practical value. In contrast, this book gives you real value right away through a series of practical examples that you can incorporate directly into your sites, optimizing performance and adding functionality such as file uploading, email feedback forms, image galleries, content management systems, and much more. Each solution is created with not only functionality in mind, but also visual design. But this book doesn't just provide a collection of ready-made scripts: each PHP Solution builds on what's gone before, teaching you the basics of PHP and database design quickly and painlessly. By the end of the book, you'll have the confidence to start writing your own scripts or—if you prefer to leave that task to othersto adapt existing scripts to your own requirements. Right from the start, you're shown how easy it is to protect your sites by adopting secure coding practices. The book has been written with an eye on forward and backward compatibilityrecommending the latest PHP 5 techniques, but providing alternative solutions for servers still running PHP 4.3. All database examples demonstrate how to use the original MySQL extension, MySQL Improved, or the PHP Data Objects (PDO) introduced in PHP 5.1, letting you choose the most suitable option for your setup. Summary of Contents:

• Chapter 1: What Is PHPAnd Why Should I Care?
• Chapter 2: Getting Ready to Work with PHP
• Chapter 3: How to Write PHP Scripts
• Chapter 4: Lightening Your Workload with Includes
• Chapter 5: Bringing Forms to Life
• Chapter 6: Uploading Files
• Chapter 7: Using PHP to Manage Files
• Chapter 8: Generating Thumbnail Images
• Chapter 9: Pages That Remember: Simple Login and Multipage Forms
• Chapter 10: Setting Up MySQL and phpMyAdmin
• Chapter 11: Getting Started with a Database
• Chapter 12: Creating a Dynamic Online Gallery
• Chapter 13: Managing Content
• Chapter 14: Solutions to Common PHP/MySQL Problems
• Chapter 15: Keeping Intruders at Bay