4D for the 4D Developer - 4DToday.com

For many businesses, success is often determined by the amount of resources and support that exist to help the business grow. These resources can range anywhere from marketing and advertising outlets to community events to business directories. Dave Batton, an expert 4D developer, saw the need for a Web site that would serve not only as a community-oriented site where 4D developers could come together, but one that would also offer developers the space they needed to advertise and market their products and services.

4DToday.com

The initial inspiration for 4DToday.com came from Batton's desire to market DataCraft's Foundation shell, a 4D-based product that he authors. A 4D shell is a structure file that contains many of the forms and methods needed to develop a database, and DataCraft's Foundation shell quickly gets 4D applications into the 4D Custom Menu environment where it is possible to modify menus and menu items. Batton wanted to use banner ads to help market the Foundation shell, but the only ad space available was located on the larger Mac and Windows news sites. He teamed up with Melinda Gallo, an established 4D developer who specializes in Web design and development, Together they created 4DToday.com. According to Batton, "It occurred to both of us that other developers might also have an interest in advertising products and services to other 4D developers. So we set out to design a site that would attract 4D developers by providing information that would be of interest to them and would keep them coming back." With Batton managing the site's 4D code and Gallo in control of the integration with 4D on the HTML files, the 4DToday.com site gives 4D developers a place to effectively advertise on the Web.

4D Working to Help 4D Developers

The 4DToday.com Web site is built entirely with 4D technologies. Among a number of other features, the site provides directories for developers, products, and user groups. The site also maintains numerous classified ads, and archives developer news, tech tips, and other useful information. "We didn't want to create a new Web page every day, so a database back-end that could store and serve the information we collected was essential," notes Batton. "Since we were both experienced 4D developers, we knew 4D was ideally suited to serve the entire site."

4DToday.com is served with 4D Server v6.8 running on an Apple Macintosh G4 with Mac OS X. "The database was created using DataCraft's Foundation shell to allow fast development of the 4D Client interface," explains Batton. "The site is served entirely with 4D's built-in Web serving tools --- no tools were needed. In addition, all data entry is done using 4D Client from Mac OS 9 and Mac OS X." Overall, it took only 30 days to create the database and launch the site.

With 4DToday.com, managing data is a breeze, and accessing information is just as easy for the developers who use the site. "4D's data access is fast," said Batton. "Each time a client connects to 4DToday.com, the database searches seven different tables to load the latest news, tips, and other information. Since the data is usually in the cache, the entire search process takes less than 10 milliseconds. Although we thought of caching techniques to avoid doing the searches each time a page is displayed, 4D turned out to be so fast that no optimization was necessary." The dynamic aspects of the site play an important role in any visitor's experience, and features such as 4D's built-in graphics capabilities make maintaining these dynamic qualities a simple process. Moreover, the site encourages developers to contribute information by way of tech tips, news, surveys, and more, and this information is managed easily. "4D's built-in graphics capabilities allow us to store and serve dynamic images directly from the database," said Gallo. "4D is also a natural at receiving and storing the news, tips, and classifieds submitted by our readers. No CGI's were needed."

The 4DToday.com Web site provides 4D developers with a number of useful resources, all powered by the diverse capabilities of the 4D development environment. Developers can effectively market their products and services to a targeted audience, and can also gain insights into the latest technical information on 4D through news, tech tips, complete directory of 4D developers and products and other information provided on the site.

Download a PDF version of this story

E-mail this story to a friend:
Your full name:
Your e-mail address:
Your friend's e-mail address:
*The e-mail addresses provided here will not be collected or used for marketing purposes by 4D or any other organization.