Developers just starting out with PHP have a pretty easy time getting the basics down, but there are a few things that can take a little time to get ones head around. I just looking around the PHP community, I've noticed a bit of a barrier when it comes to getting aquainted with sessions. So, to help overcome this bump in the road, here's a brief introduction to sessions - what they are and how they can help you.

Click here for the full article!

On php|architect's A/R/T article repository today, there's a new tutorial from Paul Reinheimer covering the SOAP support that's built into usual installations of PHP5.

One of PHP5's landmark new features is the inclusion of a library of SOAP functions that make it easy to interact with SOAP based web services. While these functions are very powerful, learning to use them the first time can be a little intimidating. The goal of this article is to introduce you to PHP5's basic SOAP functions and how they are used through a working example.

The tutorial dosen't teach you about what SOAP is, so you'll need to find a different resource for that. If you've already added that to your ever-growing list of web protocols you know, then you'll feel right at home. For his examples, he uses the Amazon Web Services interface.

He jumps right in, defining a new SoapClient object for a remote resource, and shows how to display the WSDL results and make a call to the API based on the information it provides (in this case, a KeywordRequest call). He shows the response message this sample call will get, and brings the code pieces from the article together in a complete client to display them.

IBM has posted the first part in a new series "Understanding the Zend Framework" today, focusing first on the basics of installing and coding a simple app.

We programmers are a paradoxically lazy lot. By that, I mean that we will spend hours, even days, creating something that allows us to complete a task in 30 seconds instead of five minutes. So perhaps the creation of the Zend Framework isn't much of a surprise. You mean you haven't heard of the Zend Framework? Don't worry -- you will.

This article gives you a high-level view of the Zend Framework, explaining its general concepts and preparing you for the rest of this "Understanding the Zend Framework" series, which goes into the details by chronicling the creation of a new online RSS/Atom feed reader. We won't do much coding in this article, but for the rest of the series, you should be familiar with PHP.

In part one, they take a broad overview of the following topics:

• The modules that make up the framework
• A summary (in the parts of the series) of the sample application they'll build
• Setting up the Framework
• A bit on the MVC pattern
• Some general coding guidelines to follow to keep with the "style" of the Framework

Joshua Eichorn has found a tutorial someone else has written on creating a stock lookup plugin for WordPress with his HTML_AJAX package.

The only problem I see is the code won't work in PHP5 since introspection will return the method name as GetQuote instead of getquote.

He gives the code changes you'll need to make to get it all working in your PHP5 installation, and includes another option as well - registering all of the functions you want to use instead of just automagically using them.

In his latest blog post, Jeff Moore adds a bit more background to his column in the newest issue of php|architect covering "dependency injection".

The June issue of PHP Architect is out. My column this month is on dependency injection, a topic which I've been warming up to lately.

First there was CORBA. Then insane complexity of CORBA was supplanted by the intolerable complexity of EJB. Influenced by an agile mindset and the power of Unit testing, a group of java programmers began to construct simpler alternatives to EJB. Thus, the inversion of control frameworks were born. Martin Fowler came along, clarified and renamed the pattern dependency injection. This activity has originated in the Java world, but the pattern applies in PHP as well.

It is heartening to see an industry solve a problem over the course of a decade, moving from complex vendor driven middle-ware to simple patterns. The thing I like most about DI is how dead simple it really is.

He goes on to say that Fowler's article on the topic is a "must read" for anyone who will even be looking into dependency injection. He also mentions two issues he has with most of the other introductions - the examples they use and the "over-emphasis on the container".

His goal in writing this month's column was to help to avoid some of those problems while still keeping it relevant and easy to understand.

OmniTI, the company that employs such PHP notables as Wez Furlong, Laura Thomson, and George Schlossnagle, is hiring according to this new post from Laura.

We are currently in need of four people:

• A junior PHP dev
• A junior-ish web designer (Photoshop, HTML, CSS, Javascript + ideally some coding)
• An Oracle DBA
• A PostgreSQL DBA

The job ads will be up on our website shortly, but if you are eager to act before then, please email me your resume at jobs@omniti.com.

You can find out more about OmniTI as a company from their site and more about previous jobs and how they hire from these two links.

The last week has been a bit crazy because of the eZ publish conference. The whole week was packed with all kinds of activities.

Now that life returned to normal busyness I managed to recover my photos from New York. (I wiped them off my memory card... which is not smart). The photos from the New York trip are here.

During last week there were several different events as well. On Tuesday we had a crew day where I for the first time met all of my collegues. And the last weekend there was PHP Vikinger - an unconference about PHP related things.

All events were very succesful. Photos can be found here.

From Monday to Wednesday we at eZ systems AS had our internal developers conference in Skien, Norway.

Since I joined eZ systems only recently, this was the opportunity for me to get to know all employees that gathered from all over the world. Most of the Tuesday was reserved for a "Crew Day" with some "team-building" which took place in a forest nearby.



On Thursday and Friday the eZ publish conference 2006 took place.



Last, but not least, Saturday and Sunday belonged to the PHP Vikinger, an unconference for PHP.

From Monday to Wednesday we at eZ systems AS had our internal developers conference in Skien, Norway.

Since I joined eZ systems only recently, this was the opportunity for me to get to know all employees that gathered from all over the world. Most of the Tuesday was reserved for a "Crew Day" with some "team-building" which took place in a forest nearby.



On Thursday and Friday the eZ publish conference 2006 took place.

During the conference I met with Sébastien Hordeaux of WaterProof SARL, the company behind such great products as PHPEdit (PHP IDE) and wIT (Issue Tracker built using the eZ components). I had a great time discussing with Sébastien ideas to integrate PHPUnit with both PHPEdit and wIT. The architecture (and roadmap) he showed me looked very promising.

I also used the opportunity to "pick the brains" of Lenara Anafieva and Sergiy Alyeksyeyev, both from the eZ systems Ukraine office, on the subject of Selenium, a test tool for web applications [...] that runs the tests directly in a browser, just as real users do. At eZ systems, it is used to test the user interfaces of the eZ publish Open Source Enterprise Content Management System. The three of discussed how PHPUnit could be integrated with Selenium to get combined reports from both Unit Tests and Functional Tests.



Last, but not least, Saturday and Sunday belonged to the PHP Vikinger, an unconference for PHP.

It was great to finally meet Stuart Herbert with whom I work on the PHP packages for Gentoo Linux.

From Monday to Wednesday we at eZ systems AS had our internal developers conference in Skien, Norway.

Since I joined eZ systems only recently, this was the opportunity for me to get to know all employees that gathered from all over the world. Most of the Tuesday was reserved for a "Crew Day" with some "team-building" which took place in a forest nearby.



On Thursday and Friday the eZ publish conference 2006 took place.

During the conference I met with Sébastien Hordeaux of WaterProof SARL, the company behind such great products as PHPEdit (PHP IDE) and wIT (Issue Tracker built using the eZ components). I had a great time discussing with Sébastien ideas to integrate PHPUnit with both PHPEdit and wIT. The architecture (and roadmap) he showed me looked very promising.

I also used the opportunity to "pick the brains" of Lenara Anafieva and Sergiy Alyeksyeyev, both from the eZ systems Ukraine office, on the subject of Selenium, a test tool for web applications [...] that runs the tests directly in a browser, just as real users do. At eZ systems, it is used to test the user interfaces of the eZ publish Open Source Enterprise Content Management System. The three of discussed how PHPUnit could be integrated with Selenium to get combined reports from both Unit Tests and Functional Tests.



Last, but not least, Saturday and Sunday belonged to the PHP Vikinger, an unconference for PHP.

It was great to finally meet Stuart Herbert with whom I work on the PHP packages for Gentoo Linux.