PHPMaster.com: Using YAML in Your PHP Projects

On PHPMaster.com today there's a new tutorial showing you how you can use YAML documents on your applications ("YAML Ain't Markup Language") for configuration files.

Test fixtures, configuration files, and log files all need to be both human and machine readable. YAML (YAML Ain't Markup Language) is a less-verbose data serialization format than XML and has become a popular format among software developers mainly because it is human-readable. YAML files are simply text files that contain data written according to YAML syntax rules and usually have a .yml file extension. In this article, you will learn the basics of YAML and how you can integrate a PHP YAML parser into your projects.

They start with a brief introduction to the YAML syntax by comparing them to the structure of a typical PHP array. They include the YAML output from these examples and how, despite the ease of its use, it shouldn't be considered a replacement for something like XML (they both have their strengths). He points out some of the current YAML parsing libraries and how to integrate them into your app (he uses the Symfony option).