Jack D. Polifka

I am the IT specialist for the Graduate College at Iowa State University where my primary responsibilities are website and software development. In addition, I am a doctoral (Ph.D.) candidate in Human-Computer Interaction where I study how to use web technologies to measure what students learn in the classroom.

Articles

The Role of PHP in Ubiquitous Computing

By Jack D. Polifka

The future of the Internet and computing will likely shift away from
devices we sit down with and use on a daily basis. Technologies like
augmented reality, virtual reality, and the Internet of Things will
increasingly require users to physically interact with them instead. As
a programming language primarily designed for web development, PHP will
soon need to evolve into a more universal language that extends beyond
the limits of the web. What is the role of PHP in these future
technologies, and how can we, as developers, prepare ourselves for
working with them? by Jack Polifka

Published in Getting TEKnical, April 2023

Decoupling Drupal From Its Frontend System to Use in an Existing Website

By Jack D. Polifka

The ability to create and publish content in real-time without knowing HTML or the ability to program is a common feature of many websites. This capability allows individuals to produce web content regardless of their technical ability. Producing web content is a common feature of many content management systems (CMS). Some websites don’t allow direct creation and publication of content, so a possible solution to address this shortcoming is integrating a CMS into these websites. This article describes how Drupal, a CMS, was added to an existing Symfony website to allow users to publish content in real-time. Implementation details about integrating Drupal into the existing website using Headless Drupal are shared.

Published in Unsupervised Learning, May 2020