Hi PHP fans, and welcome to this weeks edition of phpweekly.com.
Lots of new releases have been announced over the past week. PHP 5.6.7, 5.5.23 and 5.4.39 are all available immediately, as are Drupal 7.35 and 6.35, plus WordPress 4.2 Beta 2.
Part 2 of the "Simple CRUD Application in PHP and MySql" series is out now, looking at creating a database and setting up a working environment.
Also this week, Scalar Type Hinting has finally been approved with the highest vote count so far. Find out all about it, and how you can benefit from it.
For the first time, the PHP Tour will take place outside of France. PHP Tour Luxembourg has been announced for May 12-13th this year, with the theme "PHP & the Cloud". Tickets are on sale now.
At the bottom of the email we've taken a slight departure from just links and added a review of Programming Joomla Plugins that we were sent.
And finally, the PHP Town Hall podcast team chat to creator of the Slim framework Josh Lockhart.
If you would like to sponsor your favourite PHP newsletter, we have several upcomming dates available. Contact me on [email protected] for more information.
Cheers
Katie and Ade |
We need your clicks please :)
From our sponsors:
|
Article
5 PaaS Solutions to Host your NodeJS apps
So, you have put all your best efforts into building an out-of-the-box Node.js application. If you’re contented with how the app has come up, it’s time to gear up for releasing it to the public. Well, numerous solutions can be chosen for hosting your Node.js application in the most refined manner. Through this post, I’ll be introducing you to five of the most recommended PaaS solutions which have made Node.js app hosting quite simple and efficient.
Get a Handle on PHP Handlers
PHP Handlers? mod_php? FPM? How do we make sense of the inner workings of PHP outside of our lines of code? We know we can run PHP on the server to build web applications swiftly, but how can we optimize our environment and configurations to reach maximum scale? We know that PHP has its drawbacks for not being asynchronous or event-driven, which is all the more reason to ensure maximum optimization. The impact of your server environment on your PHP application performance can be more than you think you can afford. A careful examination of your PHP ecosystem will help you avoid suffering performance loss in areas you can otherwise solve for easily.
PSR-7 is in Voting Stage!
As of this week, PSR-7 (meta) - HTTP Message Interfaces - is now in the voting phase! If you are a voting member of PHP-FIG, I urge you to read the specification and meta document now, and cast your vote accordingly. |
Tutorials and Talks
User Authentication in Symfony2 with UserApp.io
In this article, we are going to look at how we can implement a Symfony2 authentication mechanism that leverages UserApp.io. The code we write can also be found in this small library I created (currently in dev) that you can try out. To install it in your Symfony app, just follow the instructions on GitHub.
Ant, Composer and Code Quality Tools
Contributing open source is a topic raised time and again on blogs, during conferences, meetups and barcamps. This happens because of several reasons – many programmers want to be involved in extraordinary projects, create useful solutions or leave their marks on a masterpiece of software. I have always wanted to be a part of the open source community, be proud of my work and share it with the world. My goal is to create a useful application or contribute to an existing project which supports developers in their everyday struggle with code. In this article I’ll share one of my latest open source experiences.
Simple CRUD Application In PHP And MySQL – Part 2
This is the second part of the Simple CRUD Application In PHP and MySQL series. In the first part of the tutorial series, I did an overview of the application we will be developing. In this part, we will be setting up our working environment and creating our database.
Quick Tip: Develop Laravel 5 Packages the Laravel 4 Way
Laravel 5 is out, and you may have noticed that the old package development procedure has changed. In this quick tip we will see how we can bring the joy of package development as it was before Laravel 5 to the latest release.
How To Setup Your Own Private, Secure, Free* VPN on The Amazon AWS Cloud in 10 Minutes
So, we all know the benefits of using a VPN like privacy, anonymity, unblocking websites, security, overcoming geographical restrictions and so on. However, it has always been hard to trust a VPN provider who could potentially log and intercept your internet traffic! Launching a private VPN server will give us the best of what a VPN truly offers. This guide will walk you through all the steps to running your own VPN server in about 10 minutes.
Improving The Use of a MongoDB Database with The Help of Symfony Listeners
Sometimes applications need to filter large amounts of information to show to the user a small subset of relevant data. However, when the amount of data to filter is too large, it may not be feasible to filter the information retrieving the whole data into memory. Read this article to learn about an alternative approach using a MongoDB document and Symfony listeners to limit the amount of data that needs to be traversed in memory.
First Look at Platform.sh – a Development and Deployment SaaS
Not so long ago, many of us were satisfied handling deployment of our projects by uploading files via FTP to a web server. Over the past few years, demand for the services and features offered by web applications rose, team sizes grew and rapid iteration became the norm. Platform.sh is a new player on the market, built by the team at Commerce Guys, who are better known for their Drupal eCommerce solutions. Initially, the service only supported Drupal based hosting and deployment, but it has rapidly added support for Symfony, WordPress, Zend and ‘pure’ PHP, with node.js, Python and Ruby coming soon.
Using Aura.Html with League\Plates
Aura has its own native PHP template package, Aura.View, a direct descendant of Savant and Solar_View, as well as a cousin to Zend_View. The v1 Aura.View package used to include a helper system. Once we realised that there was no reason to tie the helper system directly to the view system, we released the helpers as a standalone Aura.Html package. This means the helpers can be used in any PHP presentation code, framework-based or otherwise.
Thoughts On The Design Of APIs
Developers as a whole suck at API design. We don't suck at making APIs. We don't suck at implementing them. We don't suck at using them (well, some more than others). But we do suck at designing them. In fact, we suck so much that we've made entire disciplines around trying to design better ones (BDD, DDD, TDD, etc). There are lots of reasons for this, but there are a few that I really want to focus on. For the purposes of this article, I'm taking the definition of API to mean literally every form of interface between programmers or portions of a program.
Programming With Yii2: Working With the Database and Active Record
In Programming with Yii2: Getting Started, we set up Yii2 locally, built a Hello World application, set up a remote server and used GitHub to deploy our code. In part two, we learned about Yii's implementation of its Model View Controller architecture and how to build web pages and forms that collect and validate data. In this tutorial, we'll use Yii's database and active record capabilities to automate code generation for a basic web application.
How to Integrate APM and Log Management: Loggly and New Relic
In this article I will show you how both New Relic and Loggly work as a combined tool. Once you get the basics I will show you how these two powerful tools combine into a developers dream for analyzing bad performance or downtime.
PHP 7 Scalar Type Hinting Finally Approved
After a long debate, a proposal to implement type hinting for scalar function parameters and return values was just approved, with the highest vote count so far. Read this article to understand what scalar type hinting is, and how you can benefit from it when you run your code with PHP 7. |
News and Announcements
PHP 5.6.7 is available
The PHP development team announces the immediate availability of PHP 5.6.7. Several bugs have been fixed as well as CVE-2015-0231, CVE-2015-2305 and CVE-2015-2331. All PHP 5.6 users are encouraged to upgrade to this version.
PHP 5.5.23 is available
The PHP development team announces the immediate availability of PHP 5.5.23. Several bugs have been fixed as well as CVE-2015-0231, CVE-2015-2305 and CVE-2015-2331. All PHP 5.5 users are encouraged to upgrade to this version.
PHP 5.4.39 is released
The PHP development team announces the immediate availability of PHP 5.4.39. Six security-related bugs were fixed in this release, including CVE-2015-0231, CVE-2015-2305 and CVE-2015-2331. All PHP 5.4 users are encouraged to upgrade to this version.
Drupal 7.35 and 6.35 released
Drupal 7.35 and Drupal 6.35, maintenance releases which contain fixes for security vulnerabilities, are now available for download.
WordPress 4.2 Beta 2
WordPress 4.2 Beta 2 is now available! This software is still in development, so we don’t recommend you run it on a production site. Consider setting up a test site just to play with the new version.
Ready, Set, Drupal 8! D8 Accelerate Fundraiser
Last November we launched Drupal 8 Accelerate, a grant program designed to eliminate Drupal 8 release blockers. Through the progam, we’ve made a small number of grants that have had a huge impact. In fact, we only have about 50 release blockers left between us and release. So now the Association is going to take it to the next level. We've already pledged $62,500 of our general operating budget in 2015 as matching funds for youf donations. Now we are announcing that the board has partnered with 7 outstanding community supporters to “match the match” and provide another $62,500 of the program, bringing us to $125,000 available for grants.
Lone Star PHP Conference - April 16-18th 2015, Dallas
Welcome back to Lone Star PHP for another great year! We're in our fifth year and we're making things better all the time. This year's event will provide all of the great PHP speakers and content you've come to expect from Lone Star PHP. Also this year we are introducing the Training Day, which will provide a more hands-on experience for all that attend. There'll be plenty of time to spend with the local PHP community too through after-parties and other events. Tickets are available now.
LoopConf - May 6-8th 2015, Las Vegas
LoopConf is the WordPress developer conference. LoopConf came about as we heard technically-minded folks talk about wanting to get together and dive deep into advanced engineering and development topics. We've assembled an amazing group of speakers to get this inaugural event started off on the right foot, and we're excited to share our excitement and passion for WordPress with all of you in an exciting three-day event. Discounted tickets are available now.
PHP Tour Luxembourg - May 12-13th 2015
For the first time, the PHP Tour will take place outside of France. This year the event will be partly focused on the theme "PHP & the Cloud": tools, continuous integration, security, costs... But of course, a lot of talks will be about PHP itself, innovation and improvement. Tickets are available now.
Italian PHP Conference - May 15-16th 2015, Verona
Two days of talks about design, project management, agile and various php-related technologies like Zend Framework2, Symfony2, Laravel, Drupal and Wordpress. The Call for Papers is now open. |
Podcasts
PHP and JavaScript Innovation Award Report March 2015 Edition - December 2014 Nominees
This is the March edition of the Innovation Award podcast hangout, recorded by Manuel Lemos and Arturs Sosins, to comment on the outstanding features of all the past month nominees' and winners' PHP and JavaScript packages, plus the prizes that the authors earned, starting with the nominees from the month of December 2014.
PHP Town Hall #39: Hi Josh!
Phil and Ben catch up with Josh Lockhart who has been on the show a few times before. Josh is involved in some great projects and interested in some new tools, which all kinda wind in together. PHP, FIG, League, etc. We touch on a few topics, and really this one is just a fun fluid chat with a really relaxed guest.
MageTalk Magento Podcast #27
Earwax Gold and Poop Brown
Acquia Podcast: Behat & BDD: "Deploying Better Software with Confidence" - Meet John Bickar
While speaking with Melissa Anderson about behavior driven development (BDD) at BADCamp 2014, she suggested I get John Bickar from Stanford Web Services in front of my cameras to talk about his experience during last year's "Drupalgeddon" security vulnerability. The result is this podcast and some great insight into how this kind of testing can significantly improve initial, ongoing, and emergency delivery of software.
Voices of the ElePHPant - Interview with Samantha Quinones
This week Cal Evans talks to principal software engineer at Aol, and PHP community member, Samantha Quinones. |
All About the New NEW Facebook PHP SDK v4.1
When developing on Facebook, things change all the time. And things are about to change once again with the release of the Facebook PHP SDK v4.1. It’s got tons of new powerful features that have never existed in a Facebook PHP SDK before. This lightning talk is focused on giving a crash-course on the new Facebook PHP SDK v4.1 and it’s features. By the end you should have the confidence to start using the new SDK within your own app.
MLAPHP and N+1 Books: Half-Price Sale Starts Early!
The “Modernizing” and “N+1″ half-price bundle is on sale now, at the bargain price of $22.99. Purchase your copy here.
What Every Open Source Project Needs
In the last few years open source has transformed the software industry. From Android to Wikipedia, open source is everywhere, but how does one succeed in it? While open source projects come in all shapes and sizes and all forms of governance, no matter what kind of project you’re a part of, there are a set of fundamentals that lead to success. This presentation was delivered at sinfo.org in Feb 2015.
The PHP Community Is Also About Promoting Lifestyle Changes & Nurturing Healthy Habits – Get OnBoard With Coderabbi!
On the Seven PHP website this week, an interview with the Coderabbi about #BiggestLoserPHP15, a social weight loss challenge in the PHP community.
FuelPHP Application Development Blueprints (by Sébastien Drouyer, published 27th February 2015)
FuelPHP is an open source framework that uses some of the most advanced features of PHP to allow you to build projects as easily and quickly as possible. It is gaining popularity with developers as you can build powerful, complex, and yet efficient applications with very little code.
Modern PHP: New Features and Good Practices (by Josh Lockhart, published 1st March 2015)
PHP is experiencing a renaissance, though it may be difficult to tell with all of the outdated PHP tutorials online. With this practical guide, you’ll learn how PHP has become a full-featured, mature language with object-orientation, namespaces, and a growing collection of reusable component libraries. |
Jobs
To post a job advert please contact [email protected]
Full Stack Developer - London
We design, make and sell furniture, and we’re on a mission to make the world a more beautiful place for everyone. We're looking for a PHP-expert full-stack engineer to join our team in London. You should have a track record of solving problems across all parts of the development stack, from debugging JS in the browser to full OOP analysis and design. |
Interesting Projects, Tools and Libraries
php-functional
The purpose of this library is to explore Functors, Applicative Functors and Monads in OOP PHP, and provide examples of real world use case.
php-markdown
This is a library package that includes the PHP Markdown parser and its sibling PHP Markdown Extra with additional features.
unirest
Unirest in PHP: Simplified, lightweight HTTP client library.
stripe
Stripe PHP bindings.
humbug
Humbug is a Mutation Testing framework for PHP.
uber-php
A PHP client for authenticating with Uber using OAuth 2.0 and consuming the API.
php-fusion
PHP-Fusion is a light-weight open-source content management system.
libphutil
A system for organising, loading and introspecting PHP classes and functions.
php-gallery
Simple automatic PHP image gallery with Bootstrap, SASS and Lightbox integration.
nymph
Nymph is a real time, pubsub ORM that is easy to use in JavaScript and PHP.
opencart
OpenCart is a free open source ecommerce platform for online merchants.
hanoi
Hanoi is a simple yet powerful PHP framework.
codelite
CodeLite is an open source, free, cross platform IDE for the C/C++ programming languages which runs on all major platforms.
phinx
Phinx makes it ridiculously easy to manage the database migrations for your PHP app.
bolt
Sophisticated, lightweight & simple CMS.
pharext
Distribute your PHP extension as self-installing phar executable. |
Please help us by clicking to our sponsor:
From our sponsors:
|
Programming Joomla Plugins - A PHP Weekly Review
We were sent this book to review and whilst we normally provide links to content on other sites we made a decision to write our own review here.
Joomla has many different extension types - components, modules, templates, plugins. The book Programming Joomla Plugins, written by Jisse Reitsma, focuses on one type only - plugins - and gives a good overview of how Joomla plugins work and how to modify them. While modules and components can be seen as extension-types to extend Joomla with more content functionality, plugins allow you to modify the existing features of Joomla. When you are building a Joomla application and want to modify things to your own needs, plugins prove to be vital. The book describes the basics of plugins, how a plugin class is constructed and how plugin events can be picked up upon. Next, the book provides you with a detailed explanation of each event group, providing both the various method arguments and practical examples to make use of that event. In the last chapters, Jisse also deals with proper development standards (unit testing, coding standards, proper packaging). All in all, the book tells you all there is to tell on Joomla plugins and plugin events. It makes it definitely interesting for anyone involved with Joomla implementations or development.
A couple of links where you can purchase this (no affiliate links, just so you know!):
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/9082278707
For European customers, it is cheaper to buy directly from Yireo though.
http://yireo.com/pjp
We will be giving away the book in a forthcoming competition |
So, how did you like this issue?
|
Protect your PHP code with SourceGuardian 10. Free trial.
|
|
