The best choice for you!

At Kameleon Digital, we are committed to using the technologies that offer YOU the best return on your investment.

Choice of technologies

In most situations, we find that the LAMP (Linux, Apache, PHP and MySQL) stack, along with XHTML/CSS and JavaScript, is the best option. However, we are also conversant with .NET, Java, Flash and Adobe AIR.

The reasons that we like the LAMP stack, XHTML/CSS and JavaScript are as follows:

  • Adaptability – The LAMP stack provides unrivalled stability and extensibility. It’s used to run some of the most popular websites in the world (including Yahoo and Facebook). As it’s free, we can pass on the cost saving to you. Find out more about the LAMP stack from Wikipedia.
  • Versatility – HTML is the original language of web pages. However, in 2000, its creators, W3C, recommended an XML language called XHTML that mirrored its functionality but can be read more easily by programs. This gives us more flexibility. CSS allows a developer to stylise the look of XHTML or HTML web pages - for example, by setting the text size, colour of headings or width of text columns. Find out more about HTML, XHTML and CSS from Wikipedia.
  • Functionality – JavaScript allows us to develop a richer user experience on websites. We use it sparingly and always provide an alternative for the search engines and non-JavaScript enabled browsers.

Other options include Flash and ActionScript, which are great technologies when used properly. We use them to offer progress bars for users when uploading files, and for ‘drag and drop components’, such as the web form builder wizard.

Choice of platform

Our platform choice is based on the individual requirements of the project and will sometimes involve a mix of technologies. When choosing a language, we take the following factors into account:

  • Security
  • Budget
  • Timescale
  • Target user base

.NET…

Sometimes, the Microsoft .NET platform is the best option. This tends to be the case in corporate environments where the Microsoft infrastructure support is already in place and integration with various Microsoft technologies is required.

…or not

.NET is a great collection of libraries and offers rapid development opportunities. However, these time savings can be negated in more complex projects. The Windows Server and IIS web server has historically had numerous security problems. Although many of these have now been resolved, it still suffers from instability problems.

What about Java?

For us, Java’s main application is in highly secure environments where data encryption is paramount. It offers fantastic data encryption libraries and a great development environment, but is quite resource-hungry – which leads to higher ongoing costs.