Since I have started at my new job we have been looking into several different PHP frameworks to use for the new development. We pondered doing a custom framework for the site but in the end we opted to go with CodeIgniter. I have to say that overall CodeIgniter is a really nice framework. It saves us a lot of time and code when we want to do simplistic things. The best part about CodeIgniter is that it is based on the MVC design pattern.

MVC is a really nice method to use for object oriented development. It keeps things well organized and keeps the code clean, organized and easy to manage. The framework is also very easy to extend. You can extend core classes or you can replace them with your own implementations. It also gives you the ability to create your own libraries and helpers. A library is a class which you can load into CodeIgniter. Below is an example of a controller that will load a custom library and put it to use.

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Recently Google released a beta version of Analytics.  I logged in today to see what the fuss was all about.  I must say that I think they are doing a great job with the improvements that they are doing.  This new beta is not just a round of bug fixes, it is a complete face lift to the interface.

The part I love the most is the map overlay.  The new map overlay will allow you to click on continents and it will zoom in similar to google maps.  When I zoomed in all the way to the United States I could hover over the states and it would show me how many visitors I have had from that state during the date range I had set.

If you have not done so you should log in to your analytics account and check out the new beta, it ROCKS!