The Technology and Languages Behind A+ ECS :: A+ Emergency Computer Solutions

The Jason White Slim Frame

The Jason White Slim Frame (JWSF) is the heart and soul of our web based applications. JWSF is a feature packed W3C compliant Content Management System (CMS) for browser-based applications and web sites. Able to drive simple dynamic sites, XML driven eCommerce sites and even mobile device applications, the JWSF system generates 100% W3C compliant XHTML 1.1 and CSS 2.1 code using PHP 5, Smarty templates, MySQL 5, and Javascript. All code has been written from scratch by Jason.

Standards, Graceful Degradation and Best Practices

The very foundation of A+ ECS is built upon these principles which we believe every coder should hold dear to their hearts.

Standards for browser related code are defined by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) and we live each day validating each and every generated page to ensure compliancy. Standards ensure continuity between browsers regardless of platform or display capabilities and therefore ensure that your content can reach the broadest possible audience effectively.

Graceful degradation is absolutely essential and unfortunately is often neglected by many web designers. What happens to your site design and content if someone visits your site and is not using a fancy new browser? Can they still navigate? Does your content show up? Many of the more intelligent web browsing citizens out there use browser add-ons to block potentially malicious javascript, cookies, flash files and other web extensions which can drastically affect how your site renders when they visit it. Also, there are many users on the Internet using text-based, mobile, braile, and aural browsers that rely on your site being intelligently designed and maintained so that they may access your content as well. Is it fair to deny someone who browses different than you? JWSF based applications are sure to display your content regardless of the output medium!

How the JWSF CMS Evolved

Jason started hand-coding web sites using Notepad and Pico in 1994. During the winter of 1998-99 he started using PHP, MySQL and Javascript to create dynamic sites. During the spring of 2000 he developed a methodology for a skinnable template system moving away from Dreamweaver templates in favor of PHP/MySQL/CSS driven templates and launched the first web site on the Internet with user-selectable skins in the fall of 2001.

The principles behind that original template system drive the JWSF CMS to this day. Over the years it has had several names, the primary one being the MC WireFrame (MCWF). In the year of 2004, Jason upgraded the system to from XHTML 1.0 Transitional compliancy to XHTML 1.1 Strict compliancy. During the winter of 2007-2008, the system was completely re-written using OOP, upgraded to PHP and MySQL versions 5 and renamed to Jason White's Slim Frame CMS.

The source code for the Jason White Slim Frame CMS has never been released publicly, and probably never will be. To quote an email from Jason:

I have often considered releasing the code on an open-source basis for public usage and contribution, however I have a peculiar sentimental attachment to it. This system is my baby and I do not wish to share the rearing of my child with the world at large. While I feel it would potentially create a nice flow of traffic to my sites and spawn an active community following, I believe that opening the source to the public would, in the long run, diminish the extremely rigid structure that I have worked so hard to achieve. There are plenty of open source content management systems out there with active communities, good documentation and lots of plug-ins. I just enjoy having things done my way, knowing what every single byte of code does, where and why. It allows me to whip it around quickly without having to figure out what the latest code repository changes might have affected. It's kind of like not sharing my toothbrush.

Languages, Templates and Stylesheets

The JW Slim Frame uses PHP 5, XHTML 1.1, CSS 2.1, EMCA/JavasScript 1.2, MySQL 5.0, Smarty 2.6 and some Perl 5 under the hood to perform all sorts of magic. The entire project is hand-coded by Jason using PSPad in Windows XP or Vista, Kate or gEdit in Ubuntu 64 and FreeBSD, and occasionally nano or pico in Ubuntu Server or Redhat Linux.

All XHTML is output by the PHP Smarty template engine using hand-coded templates and several hand-written Smarty plug-ins to generate the hierarchical navigation menus.

Presentation of the content is handled by hand-written Cascading StyleSheets for maximum speed and compatibility. Without CSS, all content is displayed perfectly in a text-browser compatible format.