Part 2: Software Tools and Utilities
For Part 2 we’ll look at a quick list of some of the software programs I use regularly. Since I do mostly Joomla! Related projects, I don’t really need a lot of production software but I find these little utilities extremely vital in making our world go around. If you missed Part 1 on online tools in our tool box you can
look at it here.
Some of the big areas of heavy lifting for a website developer / project manager is moving files back and forth across the net and sometimes needing to sync two sets of files. We also need to edit code occasionally, and manage remote servers. Ideally you try to find one tool for most of your similar tasks, but in the case of upload/download I rely on three different programs. CoreFTP: Best Server-to-server transfer tool I use
CoreFTP - Direct Transfer Between Remote Servers. This process can even be scheduled. It does handle SFTP and FTPS connections but we’ve had problems with them. It can sync between source and target destinations as well, though we’ve had problems with its handling of time stamps.
http://www.coreftp.com/FileZilla - Best All Around FTP/File Transfer Utility. FileZilla hasn’t got a lot of advanced features but what it does have works great. It’s my overall choice for file transfer. It easily handles both SFTP and FTPS connections as well and has a great editor to edit files remotely. If you’re looking for a free general FTP tool, this is it.
http://filezilla-project.org/SuperFlexible File Synchronizer - Best File Sync Utility. This is the best utility I’ve found for both one way and two way file syncing between locations. It has a lot of advanced features controlling if and when to overwrite, how to control time stamps and flawless automated job scheduling. The program also handles SFTP and FTPS encrypted connections.
http://www.superflexible.com/ Note++ - Best Code/Text Editor. I use this tool for simple quick code editing. The simple beauty of this program is it numbers the lines and shows various elements of code in contrasting colors making it easy to find the bits you’re looking for. This has freed me from the reliance on heavier programs like Dreamweaver for simple editing.
http://notepad-plus-plus.org/
Putty - SSH Connections To Remote Servers. Putty is one of the most popular free tools out there for making secure SSH connections the command line interface on remote web servers. It can also be used for quick connections to any Linux/Unix based server or workstation in a local environment as well. While targeted at the Linux OS, it has a free Windows client version.
http://www.putty.org/Adobe Photoshop and Dreamweaver - Special notes. I still depend on Adobe Photoshop for most of my graphics and photo work. My requirements are pretty low so I’m still fine with the older CS2 version. I cannot see any reason to upgrade this and am in the process of looking for a smaller footprint program to replace it. One of the best options I’ve seen so far is the open source and free program
Gimp. Dreamweaver has been the workhorse of website developers needing a powerful production tool. As a Joomla! developer, coding is minimal and Dreamweaver is extreme overkill. I only use its code editing features for simple html, php, css, and such. Note++ mentioned above as just about completely liberated me and I don’t think I’ve opened Dreamweaver in six months.
Favorite utilities are much like your favorite pair of tennis shoes; they need to fit right and be comfortable. The key to finding them is to know what you’re usage and requirements will be. While you want to find the fewest number of programs as you can to accomplish your tasks but this just isn’t possible in all areas. If you have some favorite software tools you use constantly,
let us hear from you.
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