PHP Community Magazine

Will You Get Benefits From the Newest easy to get SQL Server Master Qualification?

2010-12-21T05:08:18Z

This Guest post is by Michele P. Rouse of SQL Certification Blog :

In my experience the top DB platforms are Microsoft and Oracle. I have come to learn that MySQL is trusted in start-up companies and DB people who know this platform could make higher salaries, but I honestly rarely ever encountered MySQL in job searches.

One reason I like MS SQL Server is because it also includes the SSRS BI platform which is powerful and popular. DB folks who know SSRS (SQL Server Reporting Services) have become very sought-after candidates in many companies. In most cases, companies end up needing to buy licenses for third-party BI (Business Intelligence) applications that may cost a lot of extra money.

With SQL Server, BI and ETL (extract, transform, load) tools come with the initial license. I understand that maybe the interest in databases is mainly to understand DB construction, however you can't predict when or if you branch out and find out more.

Quality Control, Track and Squash Bugs with Wordpress

2010-12-19T21:48:20Z

Wordpress is more than a blogging platform, and here is one of its amazing application : Support tickets and Bug tracking. Quality Control is a Wordpress theme which allow you to turn a basic WordPress installation into a simple and straight-forward ticketing system. With Quality Control users can create tickets, assign statuses, milestones, categories, and tags. Other users can then interact with the tickets, updating their state, milestone, or any other property.

The theme require a lot of customization to make it usable for real world applications, and support the basic workflows for ticketing support systems, however I think it's a great platform that you can build on and customize easily.

Get Quality Control from wordpress themes, demo available online at http://getqualitycontrol.com/demo/.

HelpSmith 3.3: Improved Unicode Support and New Multi-Media Features

2010-10-19T21:29:07Z

VANCOUVER, Canada - October 18, 2010: Divcom Software today announces the release of HelpSmith 3.3, an important update of the help authoring tool for professional technical writers and software developers. The new version of HelpSmith includes improved Unicode support, the ability to use Flash and QuickTime animations in help projects, better compatibility with recent versions of Google Chrome, and other new features. The update is available immediately at http://www.helpsmith.com.

HelpSmith, a help authoring tool that combines a professional feature set, slight learning curve and comparatively low price, continues to receive new features, providing its users with up-to-date technologies and standards in help authoring.

One of the most important requirements for modern help authoring software is the ability to work with multiple languages due to support of the Unicode standard. HelpSmith 3.3 introduces improved support for Unicode: now not only the built-in word processor allows you to type text in multiple languages simultaneously, but all text controls that store numerous parameters of a help project. Such an approach meets the today's highest software standards and makes it easy to create, distribute, and view help projects written in different languages.

Ilia Released PHP Excel Extension

2010-08-01T19:46:03Z

Ilia Alshanetsky have just announced a new PHP Excel extension that he wrote after getting his right hand broken three weeks ago while biking. Good to hear that you are well Ilia ! I'm not a big fan of Excel, but I had faced similar issues mainly with memory usage while generating Excel files with PHP. The new extension uses LibXL, a closed source commercial product but very fast and small according to Ilia.

"The library natively generates BIFF 7/8 format, which can be opened all devices and Excel readers I've tried it on and is available for Linux, Mac and Windows". he added "The end result is a PHP extension that offers a complete, object oriented interface to the library that allows you to do just about anything with Excel. I've also introduced a few helper functions to streamline reading/writing from Excel files. The speed and memory usage are pretty damn impressive, on my debug build of PHP, it can generate 10,000 cells in 0.03 seconds with a 262kb complete PHP memory usage, not just the code."

Sample usage of the extension :

$sT = microtime(1);

$x = new ExcelBook();
$s = $x->addSheet("Sheet 1");

for ($i = 0; $i < 1000; $i++) {
for ($j = 0; $j < 10; $j++) {
$s->write($i, $j, ($i * $j));
}
}

$x->save("bench.xls");

$eT = microtime(1);

var_dump(($eT - $sT), memory_get_usage(1), memory_get_peak_usage(1));

Code source available here, more information available here.

Report : PHP Dominates and HTML5 Demand Increasing

2010-07-24T23:22:52Z

DoNanza, the world's leading work-from-home job search engine, released its quarterly trends statistics report for the second quarter 2010. The report is based on the analysis of millions of work-from-home projects, aggregated from all over the web, indexed by the DoNanza search engine. According to the report demand for HTML5 Developers increased while demand for Flash developers decreased; however it's noticeable that the number of Flash-related projects is still 11 times higher than HTML5 projects.

In mobile market, it's amazing to see how the competition between Android and Apple become crucial. In the report, and in only three months, iPad overtakes Android in Mobile Development Projects. It's also interesting to notice that the average budget for iPhone-related projects is 30 percent higher than Android projects, which may be the result of only 28 percent of iPhone apps being free, compared to the Android market with 57 percent of its applications being free.

In programming languages demand, PHP dominates the websites development market. The request for .Net developers is decreasing dramatically even though the average budget for .Net projects remains the highest among the other programming languages. This is a result of the lack of developers, unlike PHP where the number of programmers available is much higher.

phparch Training : Rich Internet Applications with PHP and AJAX

2010-07-21T20:36:45Z

Enjoying your Summer ? What about taking an RIA with PHP and Ajax online course ? Marco Tabini just sent an email about an upcoming 19 hour, on-line, live, instructor led class titled "Rich Internet Applications with PHP and Ajax".

The course start on August 6th-20th, 2010 and include :

* Proper (X)HTML programming
* Web service creation and management
* REST, XML-RPC and SOAP
* JavaScript primer
* Asynchronous operations
* Debugging
* Using JSON for data transfers
* Managing events with JavaScript
* Security

You can register for the class here.

TeeChart for PHP Open Source edition

2010-07-19T23:26:46Z

Steema Software have just announced the new free, open source version for non-commercial use, of TeeChart for PHP, the native Charting component library for PHP developers. The new version is downloadable with full PHP source code included, meaning that no loader or plug-in are necessary in order to make it work, thus helping developers with the task of posting the scripts to their hosting servers. This also permits customisation of any part of the code if required.

Key features :

- Includes a palette component for Delphi for PHP programming environment.
- Export formats include: JPEG, GIF, PNG, Native Tep, WBMP. Charts may be streamed directly to the browser to avoid maintenance of temporary files.
- Flash / Flex Chart format is now available for some Series types, including animations.
- Add and setup Multiple Axes or add them at runtime. Virtually unlimited Axes may be added and independently configured.
- The PHP Chart is packed with functionality to produce high-class financial Charting applications. Open-High-Low-Close Series, Candle, Volume and MACD, ADX, Stochastic, Bollinger, Momentum, Moving Average and many more statistical functions.
- Codefree tools to offer Annotation, Colour banding with transparency, Custom Lines, Page numbering, Background image display.
- TeeChart's Custom Canvas gives you full access to any part of the Chart for unlimited customisability.
- Available for PHP 5 and above.

More information at www.steema.com/teechart/php

Xdebug 2.1 Released

2010-06-29T20:14:11Z

Derick have just announced the availability of Xdebug 2.1 with full PHP 5.3 support, and drop support for PHP versions below 5.1. Key features in this release include :

- Error Collection : to collect all notices, warnings and error messages that Xdebug generates from PHP's error_reporting functionality so that you can output them at a later point in your script by hand
- Header Setting Interception : intercept all functions that set HTTP headers such as with header() and setcookie(). Very useful in cases you need to test certain functionality that sets headers somewhere deep in your code.
- Variable Assignment Tracing : The new setting xdebug.collect_assignments allows you to record changes to variables in scripts to trace files.
- "Scream" Support : The scream PECL extension disables the @ (shut-up) operator to actually see all notices, warnings and errors that PHP generates.
- Additions for Stack Traces : added CSS class to html generated by Xdebug, in addition to a new setting xdebug.file_link_format which allows you to turn any file/line link in Xdebug's output to be decorated to a link with a specific format.
- Remote Debugging : new setting xdebug.remote_connect_back allows Xdebug to try to make a debugging connection to the IP address from which the browser request came from.
- Overloaded var_dump : xdebug.overload_var_dump can be used to turn off Xdebug's default behavior of overriding PHP's var_dump() function with the xdebug_var_dump() function that uses pretty HTML for formatting a variable structure.

More details on Derick's post, Download from xdebug.org. Released under a modified PHP License v3.

NetBeans IDE 6.9 M1 Released

2010-02-17T07:05:48Z

NetBeans just announced the first milestone of 6.9 release which should be final for Summer 2010. Most notable feature in NetBeans 6.9 for PHP developers is the integration of Zend Framework (see our PHP Frameworks trends) in addition to an enhanced code formatting options. NetBeans IDE is really fast and lots of developers using Eclipse PDT should consider giving a try to NetBeans.

NetBeans PHP IDE include already a plugin for Symfony frameworks; more new features in this release include :

- Error badges : easily recognize files having errors directly from Projects view
- Symfony projects with custom directory structure supported
- Improved PHPDoc in Code Completion
- Formatting - the setting for formatting PHP code was extended and there are categories : Tabs and Indents, Braces, New lines, and spaces.

You can read more details on new features available in this milestone at NetBeans wiki.

RedBeanPHP 1.0 Released, Easy Object Database

2010-02-14T06:45:46Z

RedBeanPHP is a zero-config, easy-to-use object database for PHP and an ORM tool. It works very simply. Just create bean objects and throw them at RedBean. RedBean will analyze your objects and infer a readable, comfortable data scheme from it and create all required tables and columns on the fly. RedBean is not schemaless, it makes neat tables and columns for you, but on the fly without any configuration.

RedBean try to change the way you use ORM by eliminating the complexity of the configuration part. RedBean store objects only, and can manage object relations as well. The core of RedBean is very minimalistic for an ORM, but functionnality could be easily extended with plugins, already included : Transparent Locking, Caching and Automatic Database Optimization and Cleaning.

RedBeanPHP is open source released under BSD license. Also available for download with RedBean : RedShoe a compact PHP script that automatically syncs MySQL databases for RedBean; RedUNIT a set of Unit tests to confirm that RedBean works according to specifications; and Pre-packaged since it works well with other frameworks such Zend framework, Shozu... etc. Version 1.1 already available for download in the nightly build page and include support for SQLite 3.

More information and download at http://www.redbeanphp.com

PHP Job Market Overview (US) by Odin

2010-02-10T09:52:56Z

OdinJobs have a interesting resources for PHP developers, an US job market overview for PHP related jobs. Beside that data are available for 2008-2009 only you can have an idea about salary range of PHP related jobs in different US states. I have found many new jobs from the website search but unfortunately it's not yet available in the market overview.

According to Odin's PHP Salary Histogram salaries are between from $20K to $180K, while average salary range around $70K. Notice that Odin collects jobs from job boards, corporate websites, groups etc.

PHP jobs demand in US seems concentrated mainly in New York, Illinois, Texas, California, and Massachusetts, with a peak in California with 28229 jobs overall. But from a salary point of view, Idaho got the highest salaries with $100K median salary, followed by Washington, Arkansas, California, and Massachusetts.

More trends available at Odin PHP Job Market overview

PHP in Arabic, Interview with Khaled Al-Shamaa

2009-11-18T05:58:54Z

Manuel Lemos - phpclasses.org - posted an interview with Khaled Al-Shamaa, one of the very known PHP figures in the Arab world especially for his book "PHP and the Arabic language" and his classes around Arabic language usage within PHP. In the interview Khaled talked about himself, his experience, projects mainly with PHP and ar-php project.

Arabic is a language spoken in many countries. The number of PHP developers from countries that use the Arabic language has been growing a lot. Currently it represents almost 2% of the users that access the PHPClasses site.

Ready? Set? Code! Elance Introduces New Code Testing Platform And Sponsors PHP "Code-off"

2009-11-17T05:48:54Z

Skill Testing Partner ExpertRating Launches New Code Testing Platform Exclusively On Elance

Mountain View, Calif. (November 17, 2009) - Elance, where companies hire and manage independent workers and teams online, announced today an expansion of its skill testing platform to augment Elance's existing 250 skill tests. The new Code Tests, developed in collaboration with partner ExpertRating, provide technical experts new ways to demonstrate their expertise in writing and debugging leading programming languages such as PHP and SQL.

To launch Code Tests, Elance is simultaneously announcing a 14 day "code-off" in PHP - currently the programming skill in highest demand on Elance -- offering $250 and a full-year premium membership to each of the coders who score in the Top 10 for PHP programming.

Information Technology is the largest category of work on Elance. The November edition of the monthly "Elance Work Index" shows that PHP programming has retained its #1 spot of skills in demand across all categories. "PHP continues to be the hottest technical skill on Elance. The addition of these new Code Tests gives employers yet another way to be certain that the talent they find on Elance has the skills required to get great results," said Jon Diller, VP of Elance's Provider Network. "Meanwhile, the best coders in the market can now further distinguish themselves to help them get paid for what they do best."

The new Code Tests require the test taker to work with actual code to solve a problem. Each test is made up of 10 questions with a time limit for completing the entire test with recommended time allocations for each question. The test taker will be scored on whether they are able to solve the problem in the allotted time, how concisely the code is written, and how efficiently it uses system resources. "We are pleased to partner with Elance and provide programmers with an opportunity to demonstrate verifiable expertise for key technology skills such as PHP, SQL and many more," said Ravi Saundh, Co-Founder of ExpertRating (www.ExpertRating.com).

Windows Cache Extension for PHP Released

2009-09-01T20:23:26Z

Microsoft IIS team released today the first beta of the Windows Cache extension for PHP (WinCache 1.0) for PHP 5.2 and 5.3. The new cache extension is a PHP accelerator that aims to increase PHP applications speed running on windows platform. The extension doesn't require any code change, it just need to be enabled in IIS. WinCache have many directives that could be enabled/disabled in php.ini and six utility functions to return extension-specific information about the cache internals.

Joe Stagner, posted an introduction to the windows cache extension and pointed to some notes about compatibilities :

The extension can only be used with non-thread-safe builds of PHP
The extension can only be used when IIS is configured to run PHP via FastCGI
The Windows Cache Extension 1.0 for PHP 5.3 can only be used with the x86 VC9 build of PHP 5.3.

The Windows Cache Extension includes 3 different types of caches. The following describes the purpose of each cache type and the benefits it provides.

Move That Bus

2009-08-30T21:34:21Z

Here is a very good reading for the weekend, Jason Austin and Garrison Locke shared their experience on Zend DevZone since they discovered PHP the first time in 98, passing by their PHP 4 certification, ZendCon, Zend Framework, ... etc. Some of the interesting point they mentioned :

- Using Classes is not Object Oriented Design
- Never edit code on the server
- A sign with the aphorism "Do not reinvent the wheel until you know everything there is to know about wheels" was prominently displayed in our office.

Read Move That Bus at DevZone.