Toolkit

A list of some of the tools we use to create and maintain websites for our clients and ourselves. While this is not the full list of tools we are familiar with, it is the ones we have chosen to work with based on their large user communities, extensive capabilities and solid reputation.

	PHP is one of the most versatile and commonly used programming languages used on the web today. PHP specializes in generating dynamic HTML pages based on a specific set of instructions, allowing for much more complex websites than could be done with straight HTML.
	MySQL is a flexible and fast set of commands used to create and access databases. It is has more installs on the World Wide Web than any other type of database query language. It also integrates beautifully with PHP and other languages.
	WordPress® is by far the most commonly used open source Content Management System (CMS) on the web today. Originally built as a tool for blogs, its use has expanded well beyond that now. Its ease of use, multitude of design options and flexible approach make it the go to choice for basic content driven websites. This website is based on WordPress.
	Drupal® is an open source Content Management System (CMS) that runs on top of  PHP and MySQL. It is one of three of the most popular open source CMS systems in use today, the other two being WordPress and Joomla. Drupal is the most complex and hard to learn, but has almost infinite possibilities. Best suited for large, complex sites.
	Magento® is another type of Content Management System that specializes in online shopping and e-commerce. It is generally viewed as one of the best out there. Originally a full open source package, Magento is now owned by e-Bay but still maintains its “Community” version as open source.
	Adobe Photoshop® is our “go to” tool for designing prototype and conceptual layouts as well as formatting of photos and other images used in our web pages. By creating multi-layer documents we can easily show prototype designs and adapt them as desired by the end client before starting to code.
	Image Magick (abbreviated as Imagick) is a set of commands for manipulating images on a server. It works with PHP and other language sets. It is very useful where you need to do real time image manipulation in batch mode on an image intensive website.