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Community News: Packagist Latest Releases for 05.18.2013

Sat, 05/18/2013 - 14:00
Recent releases from the Packagist:

DZone.com: Cloning in PHP

Fri, 05/17/2013 - 17:09

In this recent post over on DZone.com Giorgio Sironi takes a look at the "clone" feature of PHP - what it is, how it can be used and things to watch out for in its use.

Cloning is an operation consisting in the duplication of a data structure, usually to avoid the aliasing problem of having different code modify the same instance in inconsistent ways. In PHP, cloning can be accomplished in multiple ways - and in some cases it can be avoided altogether.

He talks some about how objects are passed around internally during the PHP execution and how you can tell if a function works with data by reference (from the manual). He then looks at the "clone" keyword and what kinds of things are duplicated from an object when it is used. He briefly touches on the "__clone" magic method for solving the "shallow clone" problem and how, possibly, serializing the object might be a better alternative for reproducing the entire object.

Link: http://css.dzone.com/articles/cloning-php

PHPMaster.com: Openbiz Cubi: A Robust PHP Application Framework, Part 1

Fri, 05/17/2013 - 16:36

On PHPMaster.com today they've posted the first part of a series spotlighting Openbiz Cubi, a PHP "framework" with a business focus.

Openbiz Cubi is a robust PHP application framework giving developers the ability to create business applications with minimal effort. In this two-part series I'll explain the concepts and steps necessary to create your own business web applications with Cubi. We'll look first at the challenges web developers face and how Openbiz Cubi can help, and then how to install Cubi. In part 2 we'll see how to create our own modules.

They start off by describing the tool and some of the features that come with it (including user management and the XML data object structure). Complete installation instructions are included and a screenshot is included of the end result. They include a "quick tour" of Cubi's features and some of the modules that come with it like the System, Menu and User modules. In part two of the series, they'll show you how to create a custom module.

Link: http://phpmaster.com/openbiz-cubi-a-robust-php-application-framework-1

Chris Jones: Offline Processing in PHP with Advanced Queuing

Fri, 05/17/2013 - 15:49

Chris Jones has a new post today showing you how to use Oracle and PHP together to process data offline via the Oracle Streams Advanced Queuing feature.

Offloading slow batch tasks to an external process is a common method of improving website responsiveness. One great way to initiate such background tasks in PHP is to use Oracle Streams Advanced Queuing in a producer-consumer message passing fashion. [...] The following example simulates an application user registration system where the PHP application queues each new user's street address. An external system monitoring the queue can then fetch and process that address. In real life the external system might initiate a snail-mail welcome letter, or do further, slower automated validation on the address.

He includes the SQL needed to create the database and configure the queue system as well as start it up and get it ready for requests. He shows how to push an address into the queue for processing and how to get the results once it has completed in both the SQL and from the oci_* functions in PHP.

Link: https://blogs.oracle.com/opal/entry/offline_processing_in_php_with

Community News: Packagist Latest Releases for 05.17.2013

Fri, 05/17/2013 - 14:08
Recent releases from the Packagist:

Site News: Popular Posts for the Week of 05.17.2013

Fri, 05/17/2013 - 13:07
Popular posts from PHPDeveloper.org for the past week:

NetTuts.com: How to Write Testable and Maintainable Code in PHP

Thu, 05/16/2013 - 17:53

NetTuts.com has a new tutorial posted suggesting a few ways you can make testable and maintainable code in PHP applications.

Frameworks provide a tool for rapid application development, but often accrue technical debt as rapidly as they allow you to create functionality. Technical debt is created when maintainability isn't a purposeful focus of the developer. Future changes and debugging become costly, due to a lack of unit testing and structure. Here's how to begin structuring your code to achieve testability and maintainability - and save you time.

There's a few concepts they cover in the tutorial including DRY (don't repeat yourself), working with dependency injection and actually writing the tests with PHPUnit. They start with a bit of code that needs some work and use the tests to help refactor it into something that can be easily mocked (using Mockery).

Link: http://net.tutsplus.com/tutorials/php/how-to-write-testable-and-maintainable-code-in-php

Bob Majdak: On SQL in PHP

Thu, 05/16/2013 - 16:11

In a new post to his site Bob Majdak looks at using SQL in PHP and some of the challenges he's come across (some of them with his own tools). He talks about things line inline SQL, loading SQL by unique key or creating a "build object".

There is no right or wrong way, but no matter what there is no *pretty* way to do SQL inside of a PHP application. I have been having a personal debate with myself all week about how to make SQL statements nicer in an application without going to a huge DBAL package like Doctrine.

He looks at each idea and provides some of the pros and cons about each of them, noting that he hasn't quite decided on which is the best method. Some sample code is included to help clarify the points, showing the "find by unique key" version and how a more complex query might be created with the "builder object."

Link: http://catch404.net/2013/05/on-sql-in-php

Community News: Google App Engine now Supports PHP runtime

Thu, 05/16/2013 - 16:05

On the Google Developers Blog (and lots of places across the web) there's a major update that Google has done for their AppEngine service - the introduction of a PHP runtime to their offerings.

App Engine 1.8.0 is now available and includes a Limited Preview of the PHP runtime - your top requested feature. We're bringing one of the most popular web programming languages to App Engine so that you can run open source apps like Wordpress. It also offers deep integration with other parts of Cloud Platform including Google Cloud SQL and Cloud Storage.

You can get more information about how to use this new feature on Google App Engine site.

Link: https://gaeforphp.appspot.com

Pádraic Brady: Publishing Security Disclosures In Consumable Formats

Thu, 05/16/2013 - 15:03

Pádraic Brady has a new post today proposing that what the PHP ecosystem needs is a way to better publish security disclosures in a format that's easy to parse and deal with.

This is a branch off from a separate discussion on the PHP-FIG mailing list about other ways the Framework Interoperability Group can encourage and foster wider interoperability among its member projects (and by extension, the whole PHP community). I'll start by noting two interesting developments in recent months and one long standing best practice.

The two "interesting developments" he mentions are the relatively recently released SensioLabs Security Checker that uses you Composer file to find security issues and the new entry in the latest version of the OWASP Top 10 list for "Using Components with Known Vulnerabilities". The best practice he talks about is more around the timely/responsible disclosure of vulnerabilities and how some kind of decentralized tracking of these issues that puts the responsibility back on the developers of the tool and not on one tracking resource.

Link: http://blog.astrumfutura.com/2013/05/publishing-security-disclosures-in-consumable-formats-for-simpler-aggregation-and-security-checking

Community News: Packagist Latest Releases for 05.16.2013

Thu, 05/16/2013 - 14:04
Recent releases from the Packagist:

Site News: Blast from the Past - One Year Ago in PHP

Thu, 05/16/2013 - 13:02
Here's what was popular in the PHP community one year ago today:

MaltBlue.com: Zend Framework 2 - Hydrators, Models and the TableGateway Pattern

Wed, 05/15/2013 - 17:13

Matthew Setter has written up a post to his site that continues his look at the features of Zend Framework 2. This time he's looking specifically at hydrators, models and the table gateways and their use in connecting your application with a database.

One set of features has really been helping me of late ones that really have me smiling; these are: Hydrators, Models and Table Gateways. If you're new to ZF2 or database interaction with frameworks, then you're in a perfect position as today's post will be giving you a good introduction to the basics of using both together.

He starts with a look back at how it all was done in ZF1 and shows how using these three components makes for an even better system, allowing the model to be completely data-source agnostic. His examples start with the table gateway class, showing how to connect it with a "users" table. From there he adds in the model (with an "exchangeArray" method) and a hydrator that maps the table columns to the properties on the entity. He shows how to add this setup to the service configuration and its use in a controller, returning a full list of the records in the "user" table.

Link: http://www.maltblue.com/tutorial/zendframework2-hydrators-models-tablegateway-pattern

Chris Jones: Getting Started with PHP Zend Framework 2 for Oracle DB

Wed, 05/15/2013 - 16:55

In his latest post to his site Chris Jones shows you how to update the Zend Framework 2 tutorial app (quickstart) to make it work with an Oracle database instead.

This post shows the changes to the ZF2 tutorial application to allow it to run with Oracle Database 11gR2. [...] The instructions for creating the sample ZF2 application are here. Follow those steps as written, making the substitutions shown [in the rest of the post].

The full schema definition is included in the post, complete with the same sample data as the tutorial. He includes the updates you'll need to make to the database configuration for the OCI8 connection and changes to the code to accommodate the Oracle data format (mostly uppercasing everything).

Link: https://blogs.oracle.com/opal/entry/getting_started_with_php_zend

Brandon Savage: Compiling PHP 5.5 From Scratch

Wed, 05/15/2013 - 15:48

Brandon Savage has a new post to his site today showing you how to compile and install PHP 5.5, the next major upcoming release for the language (in RC status as of the time of this post though).

There's always a lag behind new releases of PHP and releases of packages for operating systems such as Ubuntu. This lag time means that you could be kept from upgrading to the latest and greatest PHP for a year or more, unless you use an outside repository like Dotdeb. [...] Instead, I roll my own version of PHP. It's simple and easy to do, and something that any developer can do. Here's my instructions for doing so on a fresh Ubuntu installation.

He gives a reason or two why you might want to "roll your own" installation and helps you get the environment prepared via some "aptitude" install commands for supporting software. Commands are included for installing needed dependencies, configuring/building PHP and updating Apache to use this new install. He finishes it up with a few smaller things to do like making the php.ini and enabling the Zend opcode caching extension.

Link: http://www.brandonsavage.net/compiling-php-5-5-from-scratch

Community News: Packagist Latest Releases for 05.15.2013

Wed, 05/15/2013 - 14:07
Recent releases from the Packagist:

Community News: Latest Releases from PHPClasses.org

Wed, 05/15/2013 - 13:03

Simon Holywell: Improve PHP session cookie security

Tue, 05/14/2013 - 20:55

Simon Holywell has a new post talking about cookie security in PHP, focusing on some of the PHP configuration settings that can help.

The security of session handling in PHP can easily be enhanced through the use of a few configuration settings and the addition of an SSL certificate. Whilst this topic has been covered numerous times before it still bears mentioning with a large number of PHP sites and servers having not implemented these features.

He talks about the httponly flag when setting the cookie/in the configuration, the "use only cookies" for sessions and forcing them to be "secure only".

Link: http://simonholywell.com/post/2013/05/improve-php-session-cookie-security.html

PHPMaster.com: Safely Deprecating APIs

Tue, 05/14/2013 - 19:09

On PHPMaster.com today there's an article with some good suggestions about ways to deprecate parts of an API safely.

Deprecation can happen for various reasons - perhaps an API is no longer useful and has reached its end-of-life, or the refactoring of code to improve its reusability and testability obsoletes particular methods. In this article I'll share with you some key points that you should follow when deprecating APIs so you can continue to grow your code and provide fair warning to those who depend on it.

They break it up into a few different steps:

  • Prepare for Refactoring
  • Employ the Single Responsibility Principle
  • Communicate with your Users
  • Remove the Old Code
Link: http://phpmaster.com/safely-deprecating-apis

Juan Treminio: Introduction to Vagrant/Puppet and introducing PuPHPet

Tue, 05/14/2013 - 18:11

Juan Treminio has written up a post about a new tool he's created that makes generating Vagrant/Puppet configs easy - PuPHPet.

I just released the initial version of PuPHPet, my GUI-based gnerator for Vagrant/Puppet environments! [...] Enter PuPHPet, my GUI configurator. I have created a simple, easy to use web app that targets PHP developers and the classic LAMP stack. You will not need to learn the ins and outs of Vagrant or Puppet to build your own working VM to your specific needs. As of now you can define things like custom virtual hosts, what version of PHP to install, set up some MySQL databases, etc, all without having to touch a manifest file.

His tool (hosted version is here) lets you define things like machine name, IP address, memory and target folder. You can pick from various server, PHP, MySQL and Apache packages you want installed as well. A custom archive (zip) file will be created that can be dropped into your system ready for use.

Link: http://jtreminio.com/2013/05/introduction_to_vagrant_puppet_and_introducing_puphpet_a_simple_to_use_vagrant_puppet_gui_configurator