Monthly Archives: February 2010

Here Is a Nice Coding Editor For PHP, XML, HTML, CSS and Javascript

Its name is CodeLobster and it’s the editor used for most of the recent upgrades to the software on CalendarScripts (except those that was made under Linux). It’s a Windows editor for editing text files, CSS, Javascript, PHP, HTML and XML.

The basic version of the editor is free. There are some plugins form Drupal, Joomla, Smarty, WordPress, JQuery and CodeIgniter at reasonable price. I never needed those so I haven’t tried them, but for someone who us coding a lot on these platforms it might be a good option.

Before CodeLobster I used CrimsonEditor for years but it really had a lot of problem and even it’s inheritor Emerald Editor still has most of them. CodeLobster is far more advanced, has Class and Functions view, good cross-file search, auto-complete, excellent syntax highlight and good auto-indentations.

At this point the main problem with it is that it crashes often without any reason. Hopefully the guys will fix that in some of the next version.

Overall rating: 8 out of 10.

Watu Exam Now With Images and Open End Questions

There were some requests to make our exam testing software work with images, so here it is: in the latest version there is a “Image Gallery” popup which allows you to upload unlimited number of images. Under each uploaded image the HTML code that can be used for exam questions, answers and grades is displayed. You can copy this code anywhere to create content with pictures.

The other interesting new feature is the ability to add open end questions. I had to think some time how to solve these, because the initial idea of this software is to calculate grade based on the user’s answers. Apparently this functionality is not required by everyone but I still wanted to allow calculating grade for open end questions. So here is what i came up with.

These questions will only optionally have answers. You can add unlimited number of answers to those questions and the system will not show them to the exam taker. Instead of that it will compare the freely entered text, case insensitively, to every answer. If answer is matched (assuming you have answers), the system will assign the points you have given to that answer. Simple and very efficient.

So Why Do We Start a Blog

If you have been visitor of CalendarScripts, you have probably bought software, or downloaded some of the free scripts, or maybe just played with the demos. Most people come to our site for software. Some of them don’t find what they are looking for or need some further help. Other people arrive to the site searching for information. Until starting this blog there wasn’t much of it.

Now I’m going to fix this 🙂

I won’t promise writing too often. I have other work and other blogs too (for example my personal blog). I don’t like posting just for the sake of posting and don’t think it’s a wise idea to lose your time with useless posts. So I’ll avoid those.

Instead of that here are few main things that will be published on this blog:

Reviews of software and scripts for webmasters – not just our software, but any other that I have tried myself. I’ll try to be helpful for those who are looking for software and wonder whether they should download/buy it
General webmaster tips from my own and my colleagues experience
Anything concerning CalendarScripts
Posts and discussions about web and small business (and software)

I’ll be happy if this blog helps me interact more with you, help me learn what kind of software products and services you need and what kind of people are visiting CalendarScripts. Feel free to drop me a line or a comment at any time.