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Deployment of web applications to a client or internally within a corporate department can be tiresome if your job involves creating and updating applications on a regular basis. Bespoke applications that perform certain database tasks or serve a purpose such as a financial analysis tool are amongst the hundreds of applications deployed every day.
It can be a repetitive process having to repeat certain deployment parameters every time you deploy an application. In fact, it can be downright tedious particularly if it’s a big application for the web needing XHTML compliancy and the same folders set up each time.
Enter Deploy – a free open source application for developers. The online tool speeds up the entire deployment process by grouping your project folders into the usual structure without any manual setup.
Take a look at the screenshot.
Deploy makes application deployment so easy!
All you need to do is click the radio buttons of choice for the project folder, hit DEPLOY, and the application creates the project folder in seconds. The important aspects to understand here is how the tedious repetitive tasks are minimized. The application produces valid HTML and XHTML compliancy, valid CSS and folders for images, flash and PHP.
Choosing the XHTML compliancy will generate the necessary code depending on:
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XHTML 1.0 Strict
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XHTML 1.0 Transitional
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HTML 4.01 Strict
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HTML 4.01 Transitional
This then appends the standard HTML tag to the code:
<html xmlns=”http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml” xml:lang=”en” lang=”en”>
Then the doctype is set depending on your selection, e.g. if you selected XHTML 1.0 Strict, the appended code is:
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC “-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN” “http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd”>
If you choose to set up a CSS folder, you can select from 3 choices:
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None
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Blank – for a blank style.css file
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Reset – for cross-browser compatibility (something so easily forgotten)
What’s really great is its bookmarking feature. The application creates a zip file that can be bookmarked so when the developer returns to deploy another application, the zip folder is ready to be created again for the next project folder. So, the framework is structured for you at the click of a button.
From the application, choose the name of your project, and what needs to be included in the project folder. jQuery is widely used with web applications and this can be selected from the radio buttons. Once you hit the DEPLOY button, your project folder contains the files – index file with tags, title tag, and code linking to the CSS and JavaScript files.
The software is cross-platform working for PCs (windows, Linux) and MACs. As a developer, you can streamline your monthly deployment tasks and create project folders in no time at the click of a button – and it’s free!
Topics: CSS, Design, Web Development
