Archive for July 12th, 2006
PHP Developer - July 12th, 2006
On the Zend Developer Zone today, there’s this new look at extending the popular CakePHP framework with three different options - helpers, components, and plug-ins.
They describe each of these items:
- Helpers - functions/functionality to help out in the views
- Components - extra building blocks in controllers
- Plug-ins - little “applications” to add instant functionality to a site
For each, they include a more complete definition, how they fit in with the overall “Cakeness” of an application and even a bit of code to explain things. Daniel also includes a few helpful links to get aspiring coders a head start.
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PHP Developer - July 12th, 2006
On the Chronosight Blog, there’s a follow-up post with a look at some enhancements to the original tutorial - Simple Calendar Tutorial.
Almost a year ago I made a tutorial on Simple Calendar Tutorial which trained us to develop a calendar using PHP. Now it times to enhance that tutorial to a whole new level. Let trou in some AJAX code and Javascript Document Object Model (DOM) to create not one, but three type of calendar: Single Calendar, Time Period Selection Calendar, Month-Year Calendar
He steps you through the creation of two files - one to provide a space for the Ajax interface and another for the calendar PHP class. Toss in a little CSS and some explainations along the way and you have all that you need to make a simple, easy to use calendaring system.
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PHP Developer - July 12th, 2006
Ever the fount of technical knowledge, Slashdot.org has posted this new book review covering the O’Reilly book “PHP Hacks” by Jack Herrington.
Given the current popularity of the Web development language PHP, it makes sense that newcomers to the language have a large number of introductory and reference volumes from which to choose. But for the more advanced PHP programmer, there are far fewer titles that explain how to make the most of the language, by applying it to solve relatively substantial problems. One such book is PHP Hacks: Tips & Tools for Creating Dynamic Websites.
They explore the contents of the book, noting that the bredth of topics covered is a bit more than they wanted to get into (and to check out the book’s website for more). Overall, their review is good - the book does want it says and provides helpful and handy bits of code to help you just when you need it. There were a few technical issues they noticed, but, on the whole, it’s a positive review.
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PHP Developer - July 12th, 2006
In the ever-raging PHP versus Java debate, there’s no shortage of opinions to go around. Included in these thoughts is a new post from Julian with one of the more rational comparisons I’ve seen in a while.
In summary: a killer app in PHP will always sway me. But my recent hands-on experience with test-driven development has really underscored how essential it is to have good Agile development tool support.
He starts with PHP5, listing out the pros (performance, large community) and the cons (easy to write bad code, huge number of frameworks). Next up is Java - giving it the same treatment - the pros (rigorous typing, leads ‘enterprise’ tools) and the cons (behind the curve on tests, develpment timeframe slower).
There are several other he lists for each of of pros/cons mentioned above, so check out the full list in his post.
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PHP Developer - July 12th, 2006
PHP Frameworks are really starting to come into their own, and the leaders of the pack are starting to emerge. One of these go-getters is the CakePHP Framework, an MVC-based approach to developing web applications. In this new article on SitePoint.com today, they take a look at this framework and help you take that impotant first bite.
At the same time, at least one person gave up on the idea of totally cloning Rails in PHP, but instead, decided to borrow its structure and basic concepts to make PHP more organized. This is what makes CakePHP not only different, but one of the most popular frameworks for PHP: its modest, yet important goal is to provide an appropriate structure for PHP applications.
They go on to introduce the MVC architecture CakePHP uses, including how those parts fit into the framework’s overall directory structure. They step you through the installation process and even help you create a sample application - a “note manager” to create/add/edit/delete notes stored in a database.
Finally, they have a few FAQs about some of the other handy features that CakePHP natively supports (such as the Sanitize class, using the debugging mode, and the default helpers).
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