Artisan System Framework Blog

New Posts Comin'

Vic Cherubini — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 20:04:37 -0700

I suppose there comes a time in every blogger where they promise more content. This is one of those posts. I've been very busy recently, and promise to write more this weekend. My Moleskine notebook is full of ideas.

Artisan System PHP5 Framework - 0.3beta

Vic Cherubini — Sun, 22 Mar 2009 05:07:54 -0700

I am very pleased to announce the release of Artisan System PHP5 Framework 0.3beta. The 0.3beta brings many new features and bug fixes. While 0.3beta is not the finalized 0.3 release, it can be considered stable and ready for production use.

Artisan System 0.2 was released on January 6th, 2009, so this release was a while in the making.

In addition to the base release, the Subversion repository is reopened. The base URL for the repository is:

http://svn.leftnode.com/svn/artisan_system/

The repository for the 0.3beta release is found at the URL:

http://svn.leftnode.com/svn/artisan_system/tags/v0.3beta/

Artisan System Download Numbers

Vic Cherubini — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 19:02:02 -0700

It has been 4 months since I started to track download counts for Artisan System and other software products released through this site. I'm always interested in basic statistics and download counts, so following the download counts has been entertaining. This article will analyze some of the usage statistics through the last several months.

On Vacation

Vic Cherubini — Sat, 14 Mar 2009 05:03:19 -0700

I will be on vacation starting today, March 14th (Pi day) and will return on March 18th. I will most likely have Internet access, but will probably not have any time or desire to write any lengthy updates.

Thank you.

Update: On Building an Efficient Search Indexer

Vic Cherubini — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 18:55:54 -0700

This article is a short update to my article on building a fast search indexer for a simple search engine I recently wrote with a fellow programmer.

I wrote the article entirely by myself and made a large mistake. First, the indexer does not run in O(n³) time. It actually runs in O(N) time where N is the number of documents. Because for each document, there are Z number of Zones and within each zone there are T tokens, I mistakenly though it ran in O(n³) time. It's embarrassing to me that I made such an elementary mistake in computer science. I do have a degree in computer science from a respectable university and I feel that I did a disservice by not ensuring my writing was correct before publishing it. I apologize.

Other commenters were correct in saying I should focus my efforts in writing the algorithm to take parallelization into account, or to simply insert the index into a memory/heap table. I will certainly consider both alternatives.

I thank the commenters who pointed out my errors as it only helps. Thank you.

Happy programming.

On Building an Efficient Search Indexer

Vic Cherubini — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 03:37:16 -0700

In the first article on building a fast search engine I was criticized for needing to speed up the indexer. The indexer runs in O(n³) time, which is pretty inefficient for any algorithm. Matrix multiplication also runs in O(n³), unless you use a highly specialized algorithm. However, we simply can not get the indexer down to a running time less than O(n³). Update: Please see my followup entry correcting the mistakes I made in this entry.

While working on the indexer though, we did manage to get the total indexing time for 300,000 documents from 3 hours (on professional grade hardware) to 10 minutes (on consumer grade hardware). This article will describe how that was done.

Amazon S3 Simple Backup Script - s3backup

Vic Cherubini — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 08:36:08 -0700

Recently, I've begun to use Amazon S3 for storing backups of files for both my clients and myself. It works amazingly well, its fast, and very simple to use. There's a great PHP class for accessing it through cURL. This small piece of software I've written uses it extensively.

On Building an Efficient, Indexed Search Engine With a Word Proximity Algorithm

Vic Cherubini — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 03:06:40 -0800

This article describes how to build a very fast, index based search engine for a group of documents taking word proximity into account with a very basic algorithm. Actual coding will be left to the reader, however, the basic algorithms will be presented, along with the theory behind them. Additionally, the 0.4 version of Artisan System will have the search engine described in this article built into it.

The searching algorithm is actually quite simple. It uses very little memory and processing power. It is even possible to have the entire algorithm take place within a database using SQL. The algorithm uses a weight based approach, where the resulting items are weighted against the search query. Thus, the overall weight for each item is computed at runtime, rather than at index time.

To create the speed of the search engine, an index must be built first. The time to index the entire set of documents, called the universe, is directly proportional to the number of documents within the index.

Pieces of this algorithm are derived from the Apache Lucene Project.

Consolidation of 0.3 Roadmap

Vic Cherubini — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 08:30:08 -0800

As a result of the 0.3a1 release being pushed, back, there will be no 0.3a1 release, and instead, the entire roadmap will be consolidated into a single 0.3 release as the latest stable release. I aim to have Artisan System be very stable at each release, and the 0.3 release will be no different.

Versioned Objects in Artisan System

Vic Cherubini — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 03:21:58 -0800

A new feature in Artisan System 0.3a1 are versioned objects. Versionable objects have been mentioned in several previous posts, however I am officially announcing them now. Additionally, I want to hear if the community in general believe they are a neat or useful idea.

Framework Driven Development or Development Driven Frameworks?

Vic Cherubini — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 06:30:23 -0800

When I started to write Artisan System, I did so for selfish reasons. I knew there were already a lot of competent PHP Frameworks out there, however I wanted one that was my own. After starting several times without much direction, I realized how difficult it is, which had me asking the question: are frameworks development driven, or is development framework driven?

Finally - Artisan System 0.3a1 Updates

Vic Cherubini — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 09:26:26 -0800

It's been a while since I last talked about Artisan System itself because I've been busy actually using it on a project I'm working on. That'll be released later this month/early March.

The 0.3a1 tag is coming along very nicely and when released, will replace the current stable version. The 0.3a1 tag is very stable and only continues to get better.

The e-commerce side of Artisan System is taking place. A little restructuring of the roadmap will take place because of the side project using Artisan System. The new 0.3 release will have Payment and Shipping classes for credit card transactions through Authorize.net, Payflowpro and Paypal, and shipping calculations through UPS.

Downloads are continuing to pick up too, which is encouraging. I still haven't received much mail about Artisan System directly, but if you're using it/have viewed the source, I'm interested in hearing what you have to say.

As a final note, I put an online source viewer at http://svn.artisansystem.com to check things out.

How HTML Templates Should Work

Vic Cherubini — Sat, 14 Feb 2009 05:25:21 -0800

There appears to be a bit of a stir recently on the correct way to do templates in web applications. I am a huge proponent of templates as I try to use them as much as possible, and when set up properly, it makes coding so much easier. However, getting templates "right" is difficult to do.

A Situation Not So Unique

Vic Cherubini — Sat, 07 Feb 2009 06:05:25 -0800

Often, programmers will make assumptions as to how a system will work, either based on good evidence or on their past history with how the system previously worked. Recently, I made one such assumption about the uniqueness of the products in a shopping cart that lead to some interesting results.

Programmers, Promise Yourself This

Vic Cherubini — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 18:35:40 -0800

It is easy to get lost in programming as you spend countless hours hacking away at your most precious code. Unfortunately, this can lead to some problems regarding your health.

Blog Code

Vic Cherubini — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 03:06:04 -0800

I'm often asked for the code that makes up the ArtisanSystem.com website. Now that it's been slightly redone, I finally feel slightly better in releasing it because I know it really needs some peer review.

The blog code can be downloaded from the link on the right hand side or by downloading the Artisan System Blog.

I'm really anxious to recieve some feedback on how it's recieved (both the framework and blog), so please let me know at vcherubini@gmail.com

Artisan System Gets Result Aggregators

Vic Cherubini — Sun, 25 Jan 2009 08:05:14 -0800

Starting with the 0.3a1 tag, Artisan System now supports aggregators with the database result class. This allows for easily returning a set of aggregate data from a database result based on the methods in Artisan_Db_Result_Aggregate class.

0.3a1 Updated - Iterators, Aggregates, and Caches

Vic Cherubini — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 21:00:15 -0800

Over the past few days, a lot of development has been happening on the 0.3a1 tag (svn_root/tags/v0.3a1/). I started developing all of the new code in the tag rather than the trunk. That way, the tag contains all of the very freshest code that is extremely unstable. When its more fleshed out, it'll be pushed into the trunk and more tests will be executed on it. There has been a lot of development with Iterators, Aggregates, and Caches recently.

Artisan System Framework Manifesto

Vic Cherubini — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 19:06:49 -0800

Inspired by the Django Project, a few things will be changing with how the Artisan System PHP Framework is developed. This will be known as the Artisan System PHP Framework Manifesto and it contains the following items:

Customer Revision Control in Artisan System

Vic Cherubini — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 19:44:32 -0800

One of the coolest new features of Artisan System 0.3 is the new Customer class. I've been working on it a lot this weekend and got some pretty neat things going. By far, the nicest feature is having revision control over every thing that is updated about the customer. For example:

// Configuration for using a customer, requires a few
// tables for best support.
$config_cust = new Artisan_Config_Array(array(
  'table_list' => array(
    'customer' => 'customer',
    'comment' => 'customer_comment_history',
    'history' => 'customer_history',
    'field' => 'customer_field',
    'field_type' => 'customer_field_type',
    'field_value' => 'customer_field_value',
  ),
  'db_adapter' => $db // $db object created elsewhere
  )
);
$C = new Artisan_Customer_Adapter_Db($config);

// Load up customer ID 15
$C->load(15);
$C->firstname = 'Vic';
$C->lastname = 'Cherubini';
$C->age = 24;

// Write the updated values to the `customer` table of the database
// but not before writing the previous values to the `customer_history`
// table and creating a revision number.
$C->write();

// Or, we can do...
// This loads customer 97 at revision 3, so the value in $C->firstname
// is the value it was before revision 4 was made.
$C->load(97, 3);

// So, to revert everything back...
// Simply load up the customer at the revision you want
// and then write them back to the database.
$C->write();

I think it's pretty neat and will help with things like bank software or e-commerce software that has to be PCI compliant by keeping a record of all updates to specific tables.

Why Writing Software Is So Hard

Vic Cherubini — Sat, 10 Jan 2009 20:26:47 -0800

Writing software, no matter what level, or how much, is very difficult. The most difficult thing about writing any piece of software is finishing it. Writing good software is even harder. It takes hours upon hours of time invested in the smallest of details to ensure each piece works together smoothly. It is precisely this that makes software such a rewarding and most difficult occupation.

Update at end of article on January 10th, 2009 7:56am.

Subversion Hooks Best Practices - Part 2

Vic Cherubini — Sat, 03 Jan 2009 15:35:46 -0800

In this second part of the Subversion Hooks Best Practices series, we'll go into the post-commit hook, or the hook that is executed after a commit is successfully made to the repository. It is rare to find a software project (open source or not) that does not have some type of bug database. However, having to write what you are doing in the bug database for a bug and manage the checkins of your code can be time consuming and wasteful. Thus, this hook will add your commit message and changed files to a comment on a specific ticket in your bug database. This tutorial will use the Mantis Bug Tracker, however, it can easily be updated to work on other bug trackers as well.

Moving Forward

Vic Cherubini — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 04:54:57 -0800

The new 0.3 Roadmap has been written and can be found in this Wiki article.

Even Tom Thumb Supports Artisan

Vic Cherubini — Sun, 28 Dec 2008 20:58:44 -0800

Even Tom Thumb is supporting Artisan System.

Artisan System 0.2 Release

Vic Cherubini — Sat, 27 Dec 2008 23:07:34 -0800

The Artisan System developers are happy to announce the 0.2 Release of Artisan System Framework. The new release has a completely rewritten Database model and Model-View Controller layout.

Download ASFW

As well, a lot of documentation was written for this release. Please see the online documentation for the updated class docs.

You can easily download the latest version from the homepage link or from the Download Page

Artisan System RSS Feeder

Vic Cherubini — Thu, 25 Dec 2008 11:12:49 -0800

It appears that there is a lot more traffic recently which is a great thing! The 0.2 release is just about ready to go, but a few things got added in at the last second.

A new RSS class is being added to allow easy creation of RSS feeds from a database. Essentially you'll create a mapping between the database tables and fields and the array to create the XML for the feed. Then that can be outputted via a controller to a specific URL. Instant RSS feed. To do this requires fixing a bug in the XML creation code.

A lot of the PHP XML libraries (either the ones written as a module in PHP or written using PHP) are broken in that they can't take an array and convert it back to XML.

Subversion Hooks Best Practices - Part 1

Vic Cherubini — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 21:04:24 -0800

Artisan System makes extensive usage of Subversion, and for it to be a successful project, the use of Subversion hooks is necessary. Writing a good hook takes some time, but once it's done, it will make your project much more robust. Rather than simply discussing how to install hooks, this article will explain how to use two of them in a production environment. Keep in mind, this Article will be aimed at PHP developers, but can easily be adapted to other programmers. This article is the first of a two part series on Subversion hooks.

New Bug Database

Vic Cherubini — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 20:42:50 -0800

One of the earliest complaints I received about Artisan System is the fact that it had a private bug database, but not by choice. I initially used Eventum (from MySQL) which is a very nice, open source bug tracking system. Unfortunately, it had no public bug listing that I could see (without me requiring any code changes).

As a result, Artisan System is now using Mantis as the bug tracker of choice, and the URL has changed from issues.artisansystem.com to http://bugs.artisansystem.com.

You can browse the public bug database at any time and create bugs and write comments. Each new bug is sent to the developers, so you'll be sure they see it.

Artisan System 0.2b1 Release

Vic Cherubini — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 23:12:36 -0800

The Artisan System team is proud to announce the beta release of 0.2. Because the 0.2 release is small in terms of actual development, this will be the last release before the 0.2 release.

Please take a moment to download the Artisan System 0.2b1 release. The current stable release is still 0.1. It is recommended if you are using 0.1 in any type of production environment, you stop for the time being as the 0.2 release has a tremendous amount of integral changes to the controller and database classes.

As always, we're happy to hear feedback from you! Thanks!

Artisan System Codeswarm

Vic Cherubini — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 08:26:00 -0800

Here is the codeswarm for Artisan System. I always love doing things like this. Represents the last 7 months of work.

Development and MVC

Vic Cherubini — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 05:00:00 -0800

Development on Artisan System has continued very strongly. The whole Model-View Controller system has been rewritten from scratch and works much much better and faster. The Controller Translation Table (see the Controller Translation Table docs) has been removed in favor of allowing exceptions to be thrown when a specified controller/method called does not exist.

Most of the last weekend was spent working on a few side projects using Artisan System and I'm happy that its maturing.

New Website Up

Vic Cherubini — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 00:00:00 -0800

This is a newly launched website. Although it looks similar, the behind the scenes code has changed dramatically. Now the entire site is a blog system written in Artisan System. I'll post a link to download the code that it uses in the future. As well, I have a few other blog posts that I want to post about development and the PHP community. Stay tuned. Thanks for the interest so far.

Artisan System - Open Source PHP5 Framework

Vic Cherubini — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 00:00:00 -0800

The Artisan Framework is a new PHP5 Framework that allows developers to quickly build robust web software. However, it can be used to build command line and non-web software quickly as well. Like other PHP5 frameworks, it makes use of the Model-View Controller design pattern to operate. Artisan System is fully Object Oriented, and all of the objects that can be built with it interact with each other nicely.

Artisan System is released under the zlib License.

Download ASFW

Current Stable Release: 0.2

Artisan System Framework License

Vic Cherubini — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 00:00:00 -0800

This software is provided 'as-is', without any express or implied warranty. In no event will the authors be held liable for any damages arising from the use of this software.

Permission is granted to anyone to use this software for any purpose, including commercial applications, and to alter it and redistribute it freely, subject to the following restrictions:

1. The origin of this software must not be misrepresented; you must not claim that you wrote the original software. If you use this software in a product, an acknowledgment in the product documentation would be appreciated but is not required.
2. Altered source versions must be plainly marked as such, and must not be misrepresented as being the original software.
3. This notice may not be removed or altered from any source distribution.

History and Name

Vic Cherubini — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 00:00:00 -0800

Artisan System has been in development for about a year and has gone through two distinct rewrites from scratch. The rewrites were as the result of underestimating the complexity of a framework. The version released today has been in development for 6 months. Development has been slow, but deliberate. Artisan System was written to be fast, small, and with an emphasis on good PHP coding standards.

Where did the name come from? Why Artisan System? In it's first revision, the framework was named Artisan. Clearly, an Artisan is a master of their craft, and we envision PHP programmers using Artisan System as a tool to perfect their craft. After the initial versions of Artisan were written, they were named simply Artisan. Because it severely lacked a lot of features, development on this version began. The framework was renamed to Artisan System because it is meant to be used as system level libraries for web applications. In the end, a group of applications will be written with the name Artisan and they will use the Artisan System framework for their underlying structure.

Finally, we want to improve the image of PHP and PHP Programmers. Yes, there are a lot of very poorly written PHP software for myriad of reasons. However, we feel that great software can be written in PHP and we want Artisan System to prove that.

Questions, comments, and help offers can be redirected to vmc@leftnode.com

Download Artisan System Framework

Vic Cherubini — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 00:00:00 -0800

You can download Artisan System Framework two ways, either through Subversion or through a file archive. The Subversion repository has been reopened.

Subversion

The preferred method of downloading Artisan System is through Subversion. This way, you can easily receive updates and easily commit changes back to the project if you so desire.

You can easily checkout Artisan System from the link below. If you do not wish to take any advantages that Subversion offers and simply want the source code, you'll have to use export rather than checkout, as shown below:

svn co http://svn.leftnode.com/svn/artisan_system/trunk/ artisan_system_trunk/

Or to export:

svn export http://svn.leftnode.com/svn/artisan_system/trunk/ artisan_system_trunk/

Tarball

Alternatively, you can download the latest tarball by the link below.

Download ASFW 0.3beta

Archive - Artisan System Framework

Contact Us

Vic Cherubini — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 00:00:00 -0800

Tell the Artisan System developers what you think. Use the Comment form below to contact us, or contact the project lead, Vic Cherubini, directly at vmc@leftnode.com