JSLabs Blog:  How to create Microsoft Office Documents with PHP
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From the JSLabs blog today, there's a quick illustration of how to dynamically create three different types of Microsoft Office files - a Word document, Powerpoint and an Excel file.   There are two main ways to build Excel, Word, and PowerPoint documents using PHP. The first is by using the COM library (only if you are using a Windows server) and the other is by using a more standardized approach such as HTML or CSV.   All three examples use the COM method and make basic structures to save out. They also include a screenshot (and description) showing where you can find the list of functions you can call to the COM object for each application.
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In a new post to his blog today, Mike Potter talks about the WebORB for PHP software and a new feature based on Adobe technology - a Flex-based console.   [It] includes a service browser, as well as a number of useful examples, showing both the client side code (in Flex) and server side code in PHP. The getting started guide (again, built into the console or available on the web) provides a good tutorial for creating your first WebORB powered application.   He likes the project overall, but notes a small issue he has with starting a new project - a prompt to use the Flex Data Services. Overall, though, he has high hopes for the future of the project.
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On the JSLabs Blog today, there's a quick new tutorial showing how to create an image gallery script to show off your latest photos and other images to the world.   This is a simple yet useful tutorial on how to write an image gallery script in PHP.  It could be used for anything from banner rotation to just a couple of images that you would like to display in rotation on your website.   The code is broken up into two functions - GetAllFiles (grabs the files from the current directory) and DisplayImages (outputs the HTML to display and organize the images). The script doesn't require any external libraries and the functionality in it works with PHP 4.3.0 and above.    It's nothing fancy, but if you need a script to show the images in a directory (it can tell the difference between image and non-image), check this out.
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Manfred Weber points out a new blog post from Jan Kneschke concerning the creation of and the idea of typesafe objects in PHP via doc-comments and the Reflection API.   From Jan:   I always disliked the way PHP handles Objects. There is no way to assign a type to properties. Validators have to be glued against the fields externally and you can't just generate a Object-Description (like WSDL) from a object either.   Because of this he's looked into an alternate solution - the typesafe objects. Since, by defauly, PHP's addition of object properties is pretty freeform, making things typesafe is a little difficult. His suggestion, though, uses a combination of comments in the code (declaring what the type of the property should be) and the Reflection API built in to PHP to "look back" at the comments and ensure the type of the property is correct. He even includes examples - a simple one about throwing an error, generating XML this way, and making safe encoded SQL statements.
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Popular posts from PHPDeveloper.org for the past week:Ian Selby's Blog: Uploading Large Files With PHPONLamp.com: Quick and Clean PHP FormsDotVoid.com: Reordering nested sets using PHP and JavascriptRob Allen's Blog: Zend Framework Book Coming SoonCommunity News: php|works Daily Summaries (Day 2)Community News: Sara Golemon & Christopher Jones - First Day Summaries of php|worksJob Posting: University of Wisconsin, Department of Medicine Seeks Web Developer (Madison, WI)Zend Developer Zone: PHP Abstract Podcast Episode 19: Glue Frameworks vs. Full Stack FrameworksStefan Mischook's Blog: Installing PHP and MySQL on the Mac with MAMPSecurityReason: Three Advisories for PHP 5.2.4 (dl, iconv_substr & setlocale)
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Evert Pot has posted about a library he's creating to integrate WebDAV support with PHP and make things simpler for those needing to access the shares.   I intend to make this library as easy as possible to use, without making it a black-box-like system. Focus will not be on everything WebDAV could possibly provide, but instead on the features that are actually supported by the operating systems.   His goal is to make it as simple as making a 'File' and 'Directory' class to interface with the remote system and has two things he's deliberating on as far as features to include in the library - support for the custom properties WebDAV allows and the ability to lock files and directories.   If you'd like to check out the current progress of the library, check out its page on the Google Code site (as well as this discussion group he's set up).
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Scott Mattocks, like so many others, has just reciently recieved notification that he's been accepted as a speaker for the Zend/PHP Conference & Expo this fall. He talks more about his speech in his latest post.   My session, "Consusming Web Services with PHP-GTK 2&#8243; will be a look at how to turn a web services API into a desktop application. I only have fifty minutes so it won't be very heavy on implementation details. Instead it will look more at representing different data structures, collecting different types of data and how creating a desktop application can make life easier for the company and the end user.   Scott joins other speakers for this great event, including speakers like Ilia Alshanetsky, Wez Furlong, and Zeev Suraski. Be sure to check back on the Zend site soon to see when Scott and others' talks will be held.
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Popular posts from PHPDeveloper.org for the past week:PHPBuilder.com: Fundamentals of PHP SuperglobalsGareth Heyes' Blog: Regular expression challengeAnyExample.com: Downloading files from Amazon S3Travis Swicegood's Blog: PHPT: A teaser...Nessa's Blog: Using PHP to Display Version Info (I and II)Laura Thomson's Blog: On Open Source: PHP Video PodcastSitePoint PHP Blog: Dynamic global functions in PHPJosh Sharp's Blog: Why you should be using a frameworkDerick Rethans' Blog: XDebug 2.0.1Tobias Schlitt's Blog: At IPC2k7: WebDAV will come over you...
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On PHPied.com, there's a handy little tool for users of TextPad out there - a plugin to make writing phpDoc comments in your code a bit easier.   Here's a little something I did to make it a bit easier to write API docs in TextPad, it's a clip library to save some typing when writing comments in the phpDoc format. I submitted it to the TextPad team, so at some point it will probably appear in the downloads section, but meanwhile you can get from here.   There's a direct download of the plugin as well as some screenshots of it in action.
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Our sister site, AjaxDeveloper.org has a new post today with a request from Joshua Eichorn, the developer of the HTML_AJAX PEAR package for success stories.    If you've used HTML_AJAX to make something cool I'd like to hear from you.  If what you've created is publically accessible that would be even better.  Just leave a comment on this post saying what you've created and given a link to it if you can. Any suggestions on improvements that would make further development easier are also appreciated.     With the HTML_AJAX package being as well-developed as it is, I'm sure that there are more than a few out there using it - so get on over and submit your story today!
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Jim Plush has posted an offifical release announcement about his latest contribution to the PHP community - a debugging tool combining PHP (through the myBIC framework) and the Firefox FireBug extension.   I put together a couple pieces of technology to give the PHP community a debugger/profiler that should make life easier in the "web2.0" world. Are you tired of echo'ing print statements in your ajax calls? Writing to log files? Firing up big ol debuggers just to see what the value of some array is? Well look no further than the new MyBic PHP Debugger.   The tool is a smaller part of his larger MyBIC framework and can do things like writing log files, echo information back out to the screen, and communicate information back out to the Firefox user. There is a standalone version of FireBug that will be posted for those that don't want to have to install an entire framework to use it.   Keep an eye out (here and on his blog) for the links to the release when it's posted. In the meantime, you can check out a screencast [mov] of the package in action or just the screenshots in the blog entry.
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Cal Evans has posted a tutorial on the Zend Developer Zone (posted today) about using the PEAR Structures_DataGrid package to create quick and easy data tables.   In this article, I'll be introducing you to the Structures_DataGrid package, showing you how it can be used to display structured data in tabular form. I'll be showing you how to hook it up to various data sources (including a CSV file, an RSS feed and an Excel spreadsheet), and how to format the resulting output so it's as pretty (or as ugly) as you want it to be.   They talk about what you'll need to get started (the different packages for different kinds of data) and some sample code to help you down the path to more attractive tables. There's even a bit touching on some of the more advanced features like exporting to Excel, pagination and data sorting.
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Hasin Hayder has started up a new project that he's documented in a new blog entry - the creation of a new jobs website in PHP.   I was involved in making a job site few days ago. During the development, I have studied how easily anyone can develop a job site using PHP (language independent in true sense) . So I decide to write a blog post about my experience and here it goes. But note that this article is not about scaling or balancing the load on your site during heavy traffic, heh heh.   He comments on the startup process surrounding this type of site and makes suggestions about something to consider for your careers site - pulling job content from other sites in two ways - screen scraping and using the job search APIs out there.
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On the PHP-Tools Blog, there's a new posting about a new library for PHP based off of the original XJConf and ported over to make XJConf For PHP.   XJConf allows you to map complex XML documents to data structures by defining the mapping rules in a simple XML-based language. You may define the type for each tag (objects, arrays, primitives) as well as how its attributes, child elements and enclosed character data should be treated. When creating objects, you may also define the setter methods to nest the objects.   There are examples and documentation if you'd like to give it a try and, when you're ready, you can grab it from their PEAR channel or http://svn.xjconf.net/XJConfForPHP/
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Tony Bibbs takes a look at an increasingly popular bit of functionality in PHP5, the SOAP extension, and notes that it still has a "ways to go".   In my latest round of web services work in PHP5 I was creating a PHP5 client that interacts with our Java-based ERP. The client needs to be a combination of a couple of WSDL's into one, nice, compact and powerful client. It should be noted this client will be distributed via the State of Iowa PEAR channel so it will undoubted by used by other project in our organization and throughout state government so the result needs to have a lot more fit-and-finish than would be typical.   He mentions his expectations for PHP's usage of the protocol, including the automatic generation of variables/methods/etc to help the developer use the remote application easier.
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Popular posts from PHPDeveloper.org for the past week:Padraic Brady's Blog: Complex Views w/Zend Framework - The Final Chapter: ZFE & Zend_Layout in Core!php|architect: Stuff your stockings: single issues 30% offDeveloperTutorials.com: How to Install PHP 5 on LinuxStoyan Stefanov's Blog: Fancy FormattingSymbianOne.com: Your S60 Web server gets a boostAndreas Gohr's Blog: MySimple.php - A lightweight PHPMyAdmin substituteNessa's Blog: Working with Permissions in PHPSymfony Blog: Symfony 1.0.10 is OutMatthew Turland's Blog: Web Scraping Article PublishedJan Lehnardt's Blog: REST Controller for PHP Applications
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Popular posts from PHPDeveloper.org for the past week:IBM developerWorks: PHP frameworks, Part 1: Getting started with three popular frameworksWeb Development Blog: Tutorial: FTP Upload via cURLJoey's Blog: 8 Practical PHP Regular ExpressionsJeff Moore's Blog: Keywords and Language SimplicityAlessandro Crugnola's Blog: AMFPHP and mbstringTravis Swicegood's Blog: Why Inheritance SucksStefan Mischook's Blog: Creating Custom PHP Functions Video Tutorial - Part 3Johannes SchlÃ¼ter's Blog: PHP 5.3 UpdateInternet Super Hero Blog: mysqlnd to support PDO, mysqlnd in PHP 5.3Jacob Santos' Blog: Object Oriented Programming Isn't Easy