LoLoCoJr BLog:  Rewriting a (large) PHP application to Rails, part 1
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Doing everything in just PHP can be a great thing when you're working with web applications, but what happens when a project comes along that was already using something like Ruby on Rails? You'd have to get in there and learn the language to get up to speed. One thing that can help, though, is a "transition" piece to show you what functionality matches up with the language you're familiar with - PHP. This new article (series) from LoLoCoJr aims for just that.   In recent weeks I was busy converting a fairly large PHP application to Rails. The existing PHP application is about 65.500 lines of intermingled PHP and HTML/CSS code. Yep, a classic PHP application without any database abstraction layer, no templating, no MVC.   This is just part one of the series, but it jumps right in to things - the list of deliverables to break out the application into easy to chew chunks and a look at a Ruby config and database connections (MySQL to PostgreSQL)
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Ligaya Turmelle has relayed some great news in her latest blog entry, something that the web's been needing for a long time - a new group from the W3C created specifically for enhancing the HTML standard.   Now I have to admit to being curious about what is going on - after all anything new dealing with the web affects me as PHP coder. Since the W3C is supposedly interested in input from the Web community and content developers, I decided to see who from PHP would be there. Granted it is very early for the formation of the group so it didn't really surprise me to see no one from PHP that I know or heard about in there, but I wonder if anyone from the PHP Group will become a "invited expert" somewhere down the road.   The group is looking for members to help define this next generation of markup on the web. Check out their page for some of the qualifications needed to participate and for some of the upcoming events.W3C Launches New HTML Working Group
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Krystian Hoffman has posted to his blog today a few reasons (10 to be exact) that he likes and uses PHP. Fortunately, most of them are some of the best reasons for anyone to use the language.   ended up with ten points on why I use PHP and I guess this would be a good post here on my blog, as it seems people like lists in general and maybe I could get some people out there that aren't really sure about whether PHP is good or bad, to get some insight at least.  Here's some of his list:   The PHP Community The (language's) Performance Its Portability It has strong Object-oriented support   Other things got a mention as well - the low learning curve, low cost, included libraries - but the above few seemed the strongest.
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Popular posts from PHPDeveloper.org for the past week:Reinhold Weber's Blog: 40 signs you really are a lousy PHP programmerScott Klarr's Blog: PHP Cheat SheetsDeveloperTutorials.com: Building Desktop Applications in PHPPadraic Brady's Blog: The Zend Framework and Microformats: Zend_Microformat ProposedCommunity News: GoPHP5 Project Wraps UpJob Posting: Technology Resources, Inc Seeks Senior PHP Developer (New York, NY)Job Posting: Red Ventures Seeks Sr. Systems Analyst/Web Developer (Charlotte, NC)Community News: Forage - A Search Abstraction LayerCommunity News: php|architect Launches C7Y Site (News/Podcast/Forums)Richard Heyes' Blog: SMTP for PHP 5
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On the SpinDrop blog, Dave Dash talks about a hole that he felt in his bug fixing for a project, something that he felt like the application had simply left out - a framework.   My client noted that these scripts were made from another contract programmer, and then a light-bulb went onâ¦ frameworks (whether it be symfony, ROR, Django, CakePHP, etc) help iron out and standardize these tasks.   He lists some of the basics of what a framework can help with, including storing data (both in the database and in things like $_SESSION) and a big one - form validation. Sure, you can do these things outside of any of the named frameworks out there, but they can make them simpler for any application written within them.
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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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In this new post to his blog today, Tim shares some of the tools that he uses to develop his PHP applications (including supporting the CodeIgniter project).   IÃ¢ÂÂve been asked on several occasions to spill the beans on my development environment. Sadly, itÃ¢ÂÂs probably not the easiest setup - but it works for my stubborn mind.   Applications included in his list are things like PHP Eclipse, CuteFTP, XAMPP and Subversion. He also mentions a Firefox extension, Devboi, that offers quick access to several different reference manuals on the web.
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If you didn't get a change to make it to this year's php/db|works conference, you might want to check out one developer's perspective (Chris Hartjes) - from the preparations up to the days of the conference. Chris was presenting on What Can PHP Learn From Rails?.   You can see his progress (and experiences) in these series of posts:  Run-up To php|works and some AJAX fun Slides For My php|works Presentation "What Can PHP Learn From Ruby On Rails?" Live From php|works (Keynote edition) Live From php|works - Interview with Cal Evans Live From php|works (laying in bed edition) Live From php|works Day 2 (Keynote edition) Live From php|works Day 2 (decompressing edition) Live From php|works Day 2 (sitting in the lobby edition) Live From php|works Day 3 (Almost there edition)    Be sure to check back for more updates as the conference comes to a close.
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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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This week, Cal Evans is reporting live from this year's php/db|works conference in Toronto. Since today is "Tutorial Day", the schedule is a little lighter, and he makes to time to catch Rob Richards' talk on PHP and Advanced XML and Web Services.    Rob Richards is the author of Pro PHP XML and Web Services. He literally wrote the book on using PHP and XML together. At php|works, he is leading a tutorial on using XML in web services using the DOM extension.    If you ever get a chance to hear Rob do a presentation, let me warn you, it is not for the faint of heart. As I learned last night when I sat down with Rob to record an interview, Rob likes to speak on leading edge and advanced topics. This tutorial is an excellent example of that philosophy.    Cal talks more about the content of the talk - its simplicity despite the complex topic, how much info is jammed in, and the fact that it's not just one giant pitch for Rob's book.
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Lukas Smith is sending a wakeup call to the internet providers and web hosters out there - get involved in the PHP community!   We do not seem to have any ISP's active inside the PHP community. This is kind of odd, considering that PHP seems to be driving the business of hosters quite a bit. Why have none of them decided that PHP is important enough for their business that its worthwhile to ensure that their interests are taken into account?   He makes the suggestion of passing along the suggestion to bosses/co-workers/anyone who'll listen about getting involved. Suggested places to start would be as a part of the testers group or even contributing to the migration guide.
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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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Mike Naberezny has start up a new resource to try to bridge some of the gap between PHP and Ruby and to help developers of either to get a bit more insight into the others' side - Rails for PHP Developers (based on the book published by the Pragmatic Programmers).   Rails for PHP Developers is a new site for PHP developers who are also interested in Rails and Ruby.  PHP and Ruby are great complementary tools that are sometimes seen as adversarial, which is really unfortunate.  We use both and we'll be writing regular articles to help cross-pollinate ideas and promote collaboration between the communities.    There's already some good content there - useful perlisms in ruby, a look at PHP object attributes and some information about the release of the site itself.
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Pierre-Alain Joye has a little reminder posted to his blog today about two posts from planet-debian and Apache that refer to clones/references in PHP4 and PHP5 and some of the misconceptions presented there.   Reading planet-debian and Apache (from Sven and David), I catched two posts about clones and references in php4 and php5. I do not think it is worth to explain again everything here as Sara wrote a very good post already, check it out here.   He mentions his annoyance with articles/posts like these and the impact that it has on PHP as well as the person posting.   I wonder when the OS community in general will be mature enough to stop bitching at each other. And that's valid for PHP developers, gnome-kde and other well established wars.
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Although frankly I really didn't feel the need to read the entire thread, I can tell you that the posting to the PHP 3 mailing list is related to the Smarty Templating Engine back in the day. In fact, I believe this was the original spec Andrei proposed before Smarty even existed. Although I don't remember the exact e-mail, this posting reminded me that there was a point in time I thought exactly this way... quoting myself:
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From the Inside Open Source APress blog, there's a new post by Michael Stahnke documenting his search for a useful way to work with configuration files in a PHP application.   Recently I was working on developing an application that required a configuration file to setup. [...] XML is too hard to read for management-types. Plain text wasn't all that easy to handle from a code perspective. Then I remembered that when I played with Ruby on Rails it used something called YAML, and thought I'd give that go.   Searching around, he discovered the spyc library that aids in the YAML development and, as suggested by a commentor, the standards-compliant extension syck.
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Paul Jones has posted a teaser concerning his talks(s) at the upcoming php|works conference this year. One is about organizing your applications to make them easier to maintain and work better and the other is a follow up to some previous benchmarks he created comparing several of the popular PHP frameworks.   About The Benchmarking Talk - Easy one-liner: "Statistical Histories for Fun and Profit." And I do mean profit: the better your apps runs on a given stack, the more eyeballs you get on your ads (or, the more users you can handle).   He will be talking about why benchmarking your app is important, how to benchmark a framework and, the thing everyone's waiting for - his benchmark stats comparing several popular frameworks.   Paul also requests that, if possible, one developer from the teams of each of the other frameworks (besides Solar of course) could be in attendance to critique the talk and help point out issues either with the talk or in his methods.