Databases are used in so many ways on so many websites. They are used for small tasks and large distributed networks scaled to handle millions of transactions per day. Sometimes we need a little help, a little push in the right direction in order to create a properly designed and normalized database. Thankfully, there are sites like DatabaseAnswers.org that provide help from "getting-started tutorials" to "database models."

There are over 500 free database models at this website. They are all viewable in data model form and can be saved as an image or printed. You are also able to request an access database for any of the data models available by simply emailing and asking for one. The data models span many different categories from customers to bookstores to catalogs, and the list just goes on. I have listed the top 20 data models below.

Top 20 Data Models

1. Libraries and Books
2. Inventory Control for Retail Stores
3. Hotel Reservations
4. Video Rentals
5. School Management
6. Clients and Fees
7. CD Collections
8. Customers and Invoices
9. Payroll
10. Apartment Rentals
11. Customers and Services
12. ERP
13. Car Sales
14. Customers and Addresses
15. Driving Schools
16. Health and Fitness Clubs
17. Hospital Admissions
18. Inventory of Files in Boxes
19. Sports Clubs
20. Airline Reservations

The creator of all of these database models runs multiple database companies; one is in the UK; the other is in the US. He has also created data models that are included in Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Express. He offers his reason for providing these saying, "I design these Data Models for free to give something back to the Database community that has provided me with a good (and interesting) living for the past 15 years" (DatabaseAnswers.org). Be sure to check these out and show some love for all the hard work that went into creating these and offering them for FREE!

Firefox offers a lot of advantages over other browsers, namely Internet Explorer. One of the greatest advantages it offers, is the ability to install add-ons. There are plenty of great plugins available for developers to use to help them make better websites and make them easier to navigate. There are extensions that cover SQL, regular expressions, debugging, security issues, FTP, and more. Here is a list of 20 great Firefox extensions for developers.

• Firebug - This extension provides debugging capabilities while viewing a web page. There is live debugging on CSS, HTML, and JavaScript. It is recommended to turn off this extension while not debugging, due to a speed lag in browsing.
• FireFTP - This extension is a full featured FTP client that integrates into Firefox. It is free and includes features like drag & drop, encryption, search, directory comparisons, and directory syncing, just to name a few.
• FireShot - This extension takes screenshots of web pages. It allows you to save the image, copy it to the clipboard, and edit the screenshot. You can also choose to capture only the visible area or the whole page. This is a very useful extension for bloggers who often review web pages.
• Screengrab - This extension is another extension that allows you to take screenshots of web pages. The features include saving the image or copying to the clipboard. It also supports capturing the visible area, the entire page, a selection, or a frame.
• Greasemonkey - This is one of the coolest extensions available. It allows you to customize how web pages behave using JavaScript. There are hundreds, if not thousands, of scripts available to download, and you can create your own. This is an easy way to improve on web pages that you didn't create, as well as the ones that you did.
• Web Developer - This extension adds a toolbar that has a large selection of webmaster tools and resources. It includes the ability to view the source and the CSS easily by loading them into a new tab within the current window. It allows for one-click validation of HTML, CSS, Feeds, and more. Other features include information and manipulation of images, forms, and cookies.
• YSlow - YSlow is an extension developed by Yahoo! to help understand why a web page is slow. There are report cards generated that detail why the web page is performing poorly based on Yahoo's rules for a high performing website.
• HTML Validator - This extension integrates HTML validation directly into Firefox. The validation is based on Tidy and gives detailed output of the errors that are found. Icons are visible in the status bar that give general counts for errors and warnings.
• JavaScript Debugger - This extension provides feedback for JavaScript errors. This is very useful when needing to determine what has gone wrong. It provides a lot of detailed information to help you troubleshoot and fix the problem.
• Dummy Lipsum - This extension provides on-the-fly creation of Lorem Ipsum dummy text to use as a placeholder. Lorem Ipsum text has become the universal default text used as a placeholder in web pages, and this extension provides a fast and easy solution. You need a minimum of 5 words, but you can create many paragraphs worth of text if needed. This is a very useful time saver.
• SQL Inject Me - This extension is a security tool for checking the vulnerability of your forms. It submits your forms with typical SQL injection values and the shows the database errors that occur.
• XSS Me - This extension is very similar to the SQL Inject Me extension. It is a security tool that tests the vulnerability or your site to XSS, or cross-site scripting, attacks.
• ColorZilla - This extension provides an eyedropper and color picker for web pages. You can easily determine what color is being displayed on the page and then create custom color palettes from it.
• Regular Expressions Tester - This extension provides testing capabilities to your regular expressions. You can plug the expressions in here and determine if they are correct and will do what you wanted them to do. It includes a save feature that allows you to keep previously tested regular expressions readily available.
• XML Developer Toolbar - This extension is very similar to the Web Developer extension. It tracks a large range of items pertaining to XML. It allows for validation, generation, and manipulation of XML schemas, DTD's, and XSL's.
• Load Time Analyzer - This extension was developed by Google and is used to track and report on how long it takes a web page to load. The output is very easy to read in graph form. You can customize what events you would like to measure.
• Server Switcher - This extension is very handy for switching between your development server and your live hosting server. It allows you to switch between each in one click, or keyboard shortcut, and is completely customizable to your servers.
• Window Resizer - This extension allows you to switch between different resolutions and screen sizes for testing your layout. This is great for designing themes, because of the obvious need to accommodate as many resolutions as possible.
• SQLite Manager - This extension is used to manage SQLite databases on your computer. You can browse, search, edit, add, and delete using this tool. You can also run SQL queries against the database. This is a very nice tool if you use SQLite.
• MeasureIt - This is a very simple, yet very useful extension. It is basically a ruler that allows you to find out how much space something is taking up on the page. This is good for developing themes and working on the layout of your web page. It can save you a lot of time, since you won't need to guess and try different pixel dimensions.

What other extensions do you use to help you when developing websites? Let us know in the comments.

Facebook just recently celebrated their one year anniversary for the release of their developer platform. The API was released on May 28, 2007 and has exploded with user applications since then. The application directory has tens of thousands of applications, some with over 1.5 million daily users. For those of you, like me, who may not have jumped on the bandwagon right away, here are some great tutorials and information to get you started now.

• Facebook Developer Documentation - This is the main Facebook Developer website. It has all kinds of information from a wiki, to tutorials, to getting started guides.
• Facebook PHP Tutorial - This is a great tutorial for beginners. It goes through the very basics of what is needed to begin developing with the Facebook APIs and PHP. It Includes a basic application example.
• Developing with the Facebook Platform and PHP - This is another great tutorial for PHP developers, this time from Sitepoint. It covers the basics and gets a little more in-depth, covering topics like the News Feed and the User Profile Box.
• How to Develop a Hit Facebook App: 29 Essential Tools and Tutorials - This is not a tutorial, but a site that links to 29 useful websites that provide more information to help you in your journey to create the next best Facebook App.
• An Introduction to FBML - This link provides a nice overview to FBML (Facebook Markup Language). It is fairly basic, but an easy read. Definitely recommended when in need of a quick understanding.
• Facebook Developer Tutorials - A good listing of many tutorials covering many different topics. There is a lot of good information here. It is definitely worth checking out.
• How to use the Facebook API - This is a very basic overview of the API. It offers some good information, but is very short and to the point.
• Getting Started with the Facebook Platform API (Screencast) - There are 3 screencasts here that cover the basics of setting up an application through Facebook and writing the code once the application has been set up through the Facebook developer application.
• How To Set Up A Facebook Feed Reader Application For Your Blog - HowtoForge gives a nicely written tutorial on how to create an RSS feed reader application. This is a great tutorial and a great idea. This is a good way to spread the word about your blog in a fairly easily.
• Facebook Development Kit - Here is a development kit released by Microsoft, that includes control and samples for both Visual Basic and Visual C#. The site includes some nice walkthrough videos as well.

What other resources have you used to learn your way through the Facebook API's? Let us know in the comments.

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Any webmaster knows the importance of a good FTP program. Although we can accomplish FTP requirements through a command line program, whether it be on Windows or a flavor of *nix, that is not always the most efficient way. A good program is typically advertised as a commercial software application with an associated commercial cost. While this is true in some cases, such as FlashFXP and CuteFTP, there are many options out there that provide great functionality at at an even better cost: free. I have listed 5 of the best below.

You can click on the icon to see a screenshot.

• | FileZilla - This is probably the most popular free FTP program available. It has a large following, in part due to it being an open source program. That certainly isn't the only reason though. FileZilla is not as nice to look at as SmartFTP, but is very fast and efficient. The program uses very little resources and provides all the typical functionality required in an FTP program. It boasts features like drag & drop, transfer queues, resume, large file transfers, and many more. If you don't care about the appearance and you just want a fast, easy, and full featured program, this is your program.
• | FireFTP - This is an add-on for FireFox. Don't be fooled by its simplicity though. It has many of the same features covered in the first two programs. FireFTP supports searching, remote editing, drag & drop, FXP (FTP to FTP), CHMOD, synchronization, and more. Although this harnesses the framework of FireFox, FireFTP is a good choice for many.
• | GoFTP - This program presents itself as the fastest multi-threaded FTP program available, working 314% faster than its competitors. Speed and ease of use are the biggest sellers for this program. GoFTP will also perform "on the fly compression," as well as instant connections and directories through its proprietary technology. It also supports the usual features, drag & drop, and transfer queues. This is another good alternative to a paid program.
• | WinSCP - This program doesn't have anything that I think separates it from the pack, but is still a good program. It supports all the common features like drag & drop, synchronization, and the common file operations. One thing I might point out is that is does offer a command-line interface and batch processing. This is an interesting feature to add because if I wanted to use command line, I'd use the basic FTP programs that come bundled in windows or *nix. At any rate, it works well and is a worthy entry in the list.
• | CoffeeCup Free FTP - This program is a basic no frills FTP program. It offers all the features necessary to be a FTP program like ASCII/Binary/Auto uploads and downloads. It connects to any FTP server, is capable of multiple server profiles, and remembers your server information. It is not the best looking program but it does what is needed and is best of all, free.

What FTP program do you use to meet your needs? Please comment below and let us know what else is out there.

Here is a list of the best Web 2.0 Photoshop tutorials, for those of us who aren't natural geniuses with Photoshop. We've all looked at the beautiful buttons, badges, logo design, and other images that the Web 2.0 style has given us, and it's all about the glass/gloss-look in Web 2.0. A lot of the following tutorials cover the techniques that create the glass/gloss-look. I hope you enjoy!

• Web 2.0 Buttons
  • IRIS Design
  • TechTut
  • Free Your Design
  • Photoshop Support
  • As Button Generator (Free Service, Not A Tutorial)

• Web 2.0 Badges
  • Ajax Lessons
  • Free Photoshop Guides
  • Photoshop Candy
  • Photoshop Lovr
  • Web 2.0 Badge Generator (Free Service, Not A Tutorial)

• Web 2.0 Logos
  • Design Phase
  • FX Designing
  • Linkrain
  • Alleba Blog (Video)
  • Web 2.0 Logo Creator (Free Service, Not A Tutorial)

• Web 2.0 General
  • Web 2.0 Design Kit | Part 1
  • Web 2.0 Design Kit | Part 2
  • Software Box
  • Web 2.0 Color Palletes
  • Soft Floating Font

What are the best tutorials you've used to get the image/graphic you wanted? Comment below and let us know.

Who doesn't like a helpful cheat sheet to have around? They save so much time and really help you learn what you are working with in an easy to understand format. I have gathered a list of the cheat sheets I have found to be the most helpful. There are cheat sheets from PHP to CSS to RegEx, and I have listed over 40 different cheat sheets to help!

• Design
  • HTML (1) (2) (3)
  • CSS (1) (2) (3)
  • XML (1) (2) (3)
  • RGB Hex Color (1)
  • DOCTYPE (1)

• Programming
  • PHP (1) (2) (3)
  • ASP (1) (2)
  • JavaScript (1) (2)
  • Ruby On Rails (1) (2) (3) (4)
  • Perl/CGI (1) (2)
  • Ajax (1) (2) (3)

• Database
  • MySQL (1) (2)
  • PostgreSQL (1) (2)
  • SQL Server (1)
  • Oracle (1) (2)

• Other
  • Regular Expressions (1) (2) (3)
  • mod_rewrite (1)
  • htaccess (1)
  • RSS (1)
  • WordPress (1)
  • CHMOD (1)
  • Vi (1)
  • Social Bookmark Links (1)
  • SEO (1)

For even more resources check out this blog post on the Virtual Hosting Blog.

Update

Hey everyone. DZone also has some great cheat sheets. They have one of the best layouts available. They have topics ranging from ajax to Eclipse. You can check them out here.

What cheat sheets did I miss? Leave any missing cheat sheets you found helpful in the comments.

As a follow up to my earlier post on how to create your own wordpress widget, I have compiled a list of wordpress plugins that everyone should have. You don't necessarily have to use them all the time; however, they should be installed and ready to go. The list is in no particular order.

1. WP Google Analytics - Easily integrate your Google Analytics code into your wordpress blog and start gaining insights into your traffic.
2. FeedBurner FeedSmith - Easily redirect all your feed traffic to your feedburner account.
3. WP-Polls - Add polls to your sidebar or any post with this easy to use poll plugin.
4. WP-PostRatings - Allow readers to vote on and rate your posts. Easy to use and integrate ajax implementation.
5. WP-PostViews - Track and display how many times your post has been viewed.
6. Sociable - Allow readers to add your post to the major social networks in the click of a button.
7. Google Sitemaps Generator - Recommended for serious bloggers. This plugin generates sitemaps to Google's specifications for better SEO.
8. CForms - Great contact form; easily allows visitors to contact you through a form instead of an email address.
9. Search-Highlighter - Seeing my search keyword highlighted in a post makes my life a lot easier.
10. All in One SEO Pack - This is the most advanced plugin on the list. It helps get your SEO rankings higher, but may take a little tweaking.

[poll id="4"]

What plugins do you use and find helpful? Let us know in the comments.

A church website needs to offer its members and visitors a feature set that will keep them engaged and interested in knowing more about the church and its ministries. This will keep them visiting the site on a continual basis and keep members informed and connected. The following is a list of some of the most common features on church websites:

• Calendar - A calendar keeps members and visitors alike aware of what is happening at the church and how they can get involved.
• Sermon Audio & Video - There are multiple reasons that churches post sermon audio and video on their website. Members travel and aren't always able to be at their normal church and like to see what they missed. Visitors that aren't members of the church often listen to other pastors that they have visited or heard before. This feature also allows individuals who are considering joining or trying your church the opportunity to hear what is important to your church.
• Podcasts - Apple iTunes has become the most popular music site. Podcasts are typically sermons, but sometimes worship music that are posted to iTunes. This is an amazing way to keep visitors because so many people are already connected to iTunes.
• Newsletter - Newsletters have been around for quite a while; the reason for this is due to their success at keeping people connected and aware of updates.
• Photos - Photos let a visitor see the congregation and help potential visitors feel more comfortable before they ever step foot in the door. Photos of baptisms, dedications, and children's services can also give potential visitors an idea of what to expect at your church services. This is a great way for members, visitors, potential visitors and guests to feel like they're connected to your church.
• Prayer Requests - Although most churches have prayer requests on Sunday mornings around services, there is a constant need for prayer at all times. "Pray without ceasing" (1Thess. 5:17). An online prayer request area keeps everyone praying for needs that happen throughout the week.
• Online Donations - Donations are always helpful to a church, beyond the typical tithes and offerings taken during the services. The extra can help with side projects or extra missions programs or an endless amount of other possible ministries.
• Staff Pages - About pages are a necessity. They offer a slight glimpse into the lives and worlds of a church's leaders and staff.
• Blogs - Blogs are used to offer the visitors some insight as to how the church bloggers (usually leaders) see the world and its issues. This is a great way to let your visitors get to know the pastors and leaders on a personal level.
• Daily Verse/Daily Bible Reading - A daily verse or Bible reading schedule is a good way to keep a steady stream of traffic on your church's website. It also assists and encourages people to read the Bible on a regular basis and can even help them memorize some scripture.

What are your favorite church website features? What features are needed? Tell us in the comments what you think.

Here is a list of, in my opinion, 10 of the best computer/programming related quotes... I thought this might bring a little fun to your day; it did mine!

• And the users exclaimed with a laugh and a taunt: "It's just what we asked for but not what we want." - Anonymous
• There are 10 kinds of people in this world....Those who understand binary and those who don't. - Anonymous
• For a sucessful technology, honesty must take precedence over public relations for nature cannot be fooled. - Richard Feynman
• Before software can be reusable it first has to be usable. - Ralph Johnson
• Software and cathedrals are much the same - first we build them, then we pray. - Anonymous
• Computers are good at following instructions, but not at reading your mind. - Donald Knuth
• If debugging is the process of removing bugs, then programming must be the process of putting them in. - Edsger W. Dijkstra
• Real Programmers don't need comments—the code is obvious. - Anonymous
• program, n.: A magic spell cast over a computer allowing it to turn one's input into error messages. tr.v. To engage in a pastime similar to banging one's head against a wall, but with fewer opportunities for reward. - luc.aleaume.free.fr
• Measuring programming progress by lines of code is like measuring aircraft building progress by weight. - Bill Gates
  

I use mostly PHP to create my websites. I often have a need for a simple piece of code that would make my life so much easier, but I don't know how to write it easily or efficiently. This is when I turn to the code snippet directories. These directories list all sorts of code snippets for many different topics/categories in many different programming languages.

• byteMyCode - byteMyCode is a great website for code snippets because of the way they have designed and laid out their site. They make it very easy to find what you are looking for. They also offer easy category browsing, as well as a powerful search function.
• Snipplr -Snipplr calls itself Snipplr Code 2.0. They provide a lot of snippets for many different programming languages in an easy to search and browse web 2.0 style website.
• PHP Builder - This website contains not only a vast amount of code snippets, but also articles, full applications, and news pertaining to PHP.
• </Dream.In.Code> - Another list of quality code snippets which contains a large range of topics and programming languages is </Dream.In.Code>.
• DZone Snippets - This website has good quality snippets, but is by far the hardest website to navigate. The navigation style doesn't seem very intuitive to me, so I often check this site last. There are good snippets here if you have the patience to navigate the site.

Code snippets are a great time saver and a great way to learn some new tricks. Once you use some of the snippets, be sure to give some snippets back and save another webmaster/programmer some very precious time. Where do you get/post your snippets? Post them in the comments!