New:Leaf NWA

Today's FamilyFirst site has a very personal connection to myself.

You see, I created it.

I'm going to talk about the site, then go into the mechanics behind it. The site is called New:Leaf NWA. It's the property of a real estate firm my daughter works for (that's her, farthest to the left on the logo picture).

The site presents a (hopefully) easy-to-use interface to browse properties in northwest Arkansas. You can browse featured properties or use the simple search without registration. There is an advanced multilist search that you can access by registering (for free, of course).

You can also save your advanced search results to browse with ease later. There is also an advanced mortgage calculator spelling out exactly what a long-term loan will cost you.

And, there are NWA headlines and weather, as well as a blog.

Now, for what goes on behind the scenes:

The site is driven by Mamboserver, an incredible open-source content manager. It handles the user registrations, password reminders, and stuff like that.

There is also a cron job behind the scenes that runs nightly that updates the database with the latest multilist info. It also downloads, unzips, and resizes several thousand images into standard and thumbnail sizes, all via Linux's unzip command and php's graphical manipulating abilities..

I have to tell, you, folks, when I finally finished this project and looked in the mirror, I was amazed at the nerdiness of the fellow staring back at me. Enjoy the fruit of many hours of my labor.

http://www.newleafnwa.com

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