From JellyandCustard.com today, there's a good example of creating and using a DirectoryIterator instance to loop through the files in a directory.

They describe the functionality and provide a simple example of its use. Also included are the other functions you can use with the resulting file handles to make for a cleaner interface in your script. They also include two examples of its usage with the output it would give - getting some stats on selected files.

Developer.com has posted the next part in their series covering object oriented programming in PHP5, this time focusing on using delegation to enhance the functionality of their prexisting DBQuery class.

They explain each step of the way, giving you the code you'll need to attach to the current working script, making this delegation possible. They look briefly at tpye hinting and simple exception handling in the script before hitting you with a full-blown Exception handler class to improve your script's reliability.

The OSS blog as posted this new interview with one of the more prominent members of the PHP community - Tobias Schlitt.

It it, they cover a bit of Tobias' background, why he enjoys using PHP as much as he does, his position and feelings on open source software, as well as some opinions on PHP adoption and the Zend Framework.

Of course, they finish it off with the one question that every web developer (dealing with dynamic content/languages) gets asked in an interview - "What do you think of Web 2.0?" Read on to check out his answer.

On PHPFive.net, there's this new tutorial dealing with the creation of a dynamic Google sitemap with the help of SimpleXML - basically, the paths for Google to follow to best index your site.

He gets right down to it, illustrating what a sitemap looks like followed by a simple sample script to create it for that data. SimpleXML makes it a snap to generate the properly formatted XML and split it back out for Google's bots to consume.

Via this post from Christopher Jones we learn about Kian Hui Teo's blog post talking about making the switch between the normal PHP 5.1.x installation and the Zend Core for Oracle.

The post outlines a process to allow both the Zend Core and a normal installation of PHP 5.1.x to live peacefully (and still be able to switch from one to the other at any time). It's actually a relatively simple ten-step process to follow, especially if you've had much experience with installing PHP from scratch. When complete, you can start up one or the other, making it easy to test scripts in both or to just use the functionality in one (as he needed with PDO).

DevShed starts a new series today with this look at some of the easier ways to work with low-level sockets in PHP.

They start of at the basest level, an illustration of using the socket functions to connect to a port on the localhost. They explain each chunk of code before moving on to something slightly more complex - developing a simple web application. It's made up of two parts: the server from the previous example (taking a string and making it uppercase to return it) and the client that will send the string. This basic example is then enhanced by a "rebirth" into a class making the creation of the socket server as easy as making a new object.

It's one of the most base aspects of the internet and helps to connect users to the resources they're searching for, but it's surprising how many developers out there don't know how to work with it directly. WebReference.com is here to help with that in their new tutorial looking at the basics of the HTTP protocol.

The article is actually an excerpt from the Sams book "Teach Yourself Ajax in Ten Minutes", but it's one of the better overviews that I've seen. It introduces what HTTP is and some of the base components (request, response, formats, etc). There are brief code examples along the way to help with formats of things like the headers sent back and forth.

They move on to the status codes that can be returned and what each means. With the basic knowledge of a message format under your belt, they get into an example - working with GET and POST requests via a simple form (and what it's sending).

Yesterday I arrived here in Bari for the phpDay event (I will give an introductional talk about our PHP 5 library eZ components, soon). The trip was quite long, because I had to go to Milano first and then had another flight to Bari, but with about 4 hrs waiting in Milano. Anyway, I'm here now. After a fantastic dinner last night (man, _real_ italian food is soooooo delicious!) we have perfect weather here, today (32C and beautiful blue sky). A real pita that I forgot my digicam at home... But Fullo (one of the organizers of phpDay) is luckily taking photos... So, of to my session now. Greetings to rainy Germany and rainy Norway! ;-P