Site News: Blast from the Past - One Year Ago in PHP

Here's what was popular in the PHP community one year ago today:

• Ibuildings Blog: DPCRadio: A Quickstart to Zend Framework 2
  
• Sherif Ramadan: A Closer Look Into PHP Arrays: What You Don't See
  
• NetTuts.com: Quick Tip: Deploy PHP to Heroku in Seconds
  
• Matthew Weier O'Phinney: OpenShift, ZF2, and Composer
  
• Smashing Magazine: Powerful Command Line Tools For Developers
  
• DZone.com: Deploying PHP Projects with Webistrano
  
• Shashikant Jagtap: Automating Web Performance Data Collection with Behat and BrowserMob Proxy
  
• PHPMaster.com: Debugging PHP Code with FirePHP
  
• Michael Kimsal: Things a web developer might need to know
  
• Gonzalo Ayuso: Managing Windows services with Symfony/Process and PHP
  
• Voices of the ElePHPant: It's the Booze Talking #4: The PHP Community (Part 2)
  
• Lorna Mitchell: A Little More OOP in PHP
  
• PHP Cloud Casts: #3 Creating Charges with Stripe.com (Screencast)
  
• Rob Allen: Sending an HTML with text alternative email with ZendMail
  
• PHPMaster.com: Practical Code Refactoring, Part 4 - Efficiency
  

Community News: Packagist Latest Releases for 10.31.2013

Recent releases from the Packagist:

• bitgandtter/twitter-bundle (0.2.1)
  Integrate Twitter Services into Symfony 2 app.
  
  
  
• slim/slim (2.3.5)
  Slim Framework, a PHP micro framework
  
  
  
• dreamfactory/app-admin (1.1.3)
  DreamFactory Services Platform(tm) Admin Application
  
  
  
• dreamfactory/app-launchpad (1.1.3)
  DreamFactory Services Platform(tm) LaunchPad Application
  
  
  
• snapshotpl/zf-snap-url (1.1.1)
  It's the shortest url view helper ever for Zend Framework 2
  
  
  
• sammaye/mongoyii (2.7.1)
  A Yii MongoDB ORM
  
  
  
• rhumsaa/uuid (2.5.0)
  A PHP 5.3+ library for generating RFC 4122 version 1, 3, 4, and 5 universally unique identifiers (UUID).
  
  
  
• kraksoft/mixins (2.3.2-patch4)
  LESS mixins forked from Bootstrap
  
  
  
• todc/todc-bootstrap (v3.0.1)
  Google-styled theme for Bootstrap.
  
  
  
• predictionio/predictionio-bundle (0.1)
  Symfony2 Bundle for PredictionIO PHP SDK
  
  
  
• stojg/silverstripe-resque (1.1.3)
  Wraps around the resque code for background jobs
  
  
  
• wemakecustom/wp-config-manager (v0.3, v0.3.1, 0.2.9, v0.2.8)
  Loader for different types of configuration stored in files in themes' directory
  
  
  
• wemakecustom/wp-mu-composer (v0.2, v0.1)
  MU Loader to auto-require composer in Wordpress
  
  
  
• payum/offline (0.6.0)
  Offline Payments
  
  
  
• voceconnect/objects-to-objects (v1.0.2)
  A WordPress plugin/module that provides the ability to map relationships between posts and other post types
  
  
  
• zeroclipboard/zeroclipboard (1.2.2)
  The ZeroClipboard library provides an easy way to copy text to the clipboard using an invisible Adobe Flash movie and a JavaScript interface.
  
  
  
• widop/http-adapter-bundle (1.1.1)
  Issue HTTP request.
  
  
  
• ixa/wordpress-core (3.7.1)
  WordPress fork that works with Composer
  
  
  
• hautelook/session-storage-handler-chain (0.1)
  This is a Symfony 2 bundle that allows you to read/write session data from multiple storage handlers in an efficient way
  
  
  
• ellipsesynergie/backenator (v1.0.4)
  ORM (Object Relational Mapper) build on top of Eloquent that maps REST resources
  
  
  
• herrera-io/go (2.2.1)
  A simple PHP build tool.
  
  
  
• kmd/logviewer (1.0.7, 1.0.6)
  Laravel 4 log file viewer.
  
  
  
• dflydev/hawk (v0.0.0)
  Hawk
  
  
  
• herrera-io/phar-update (1.0.3)
  A library for self-updating Phars.
  
  
  
• twbs/bootstrap (v3.0.1)
  Sleek, intuitive, and powerful mobile first front-end framework for faster and easier web development.
  
  
  
• twitter/bootstrap (v3.0.1)
  Sleek, intuitive, and powerful mobile first front-end framework for faster and easier web development.
  
  
  
• herrera-io/json (1.0.3)
  A library for simplifying JSON linting and validation.
  
  
  
• kunstmaan/form-bundle (v2.2.10, v2.2.9)
  Managing forms, fields and their submissions by the user is a key functionality missing in most platforms. By leveraging the KunstmaanPagePartBundle system in the KunstmaanFormBundle users gain an easy way to create and manage the form on their website, again without having to worry about the technical side of things.
  
  
  
• minime/annotations (1.7.6)
  Minime / Annotations is a lightweight PHP annotation library
  
  
  
• zircote/swagger-php (0.8.1)
  Swagger-PHP library implementing the swagger.wordnik.com specification to describe web services, operations/actions and models enabling a uniform means of producing, consuming, and visualizing RESTful web services.
  
  
  
• kunstmaan/media-bundle (v2.2.10, v2.2.9)
  To build your perfect website you probably need images, video's or maybe even a presentation too. The Kunstmaan Media Bundle handles all those media assets and centralizes them so you can find your content just the way you like it: fast and efficiently. No central asset management module is useful without some pretty advanced image editing functionality. To provide this we have integrated the Aviary image editing service right from the interface.
  
  
  
• claroline/web-installer (1.0.2)
  Claroline web installer
  
  
  
• kunstmaan/pagepart-bundle (v2.2.10, v2.2.9)
  The KunstmaanPagePartBundle forms the basis of our content management framework. A page built using a composition of blocks names pageparts. These pageparts allow you to fully separate the data from the presentation so non-technical webmasters can manage the website. Every page can have it's own list of possible pageparts, and pageparts are easy to create for your specific project to allow for rapid development.
  
  
  
• claroline/core-bundle (2.1.5, 2.1.4)
  Claroline core bundle
  
  
  
• kunstmaan/node-bundle (v2.2.10, v2.2.9)
  All websites need pages(we call them nodes) but you probably don't want to spend too much time building them. Plus they should look pretty and contain the right content and that takes time. We make sure you have to spend less time managing your pages but still offer you flexibility so you can focus on more important tasks and don't have to worry about it.
  
  
  
• fresque/fresque (1.2.4)
  A command line tool to manage your php-resque workers
  
  
  
• widop/http-adapter (1.0.2)
  Issue HTTP request.
  
  
  
• kunstmaan/admin-bundle (v2.2.10, v2.2.9)
  The Kunstmaan Admin bundle supplies your project with a basic, elegant backend interface you can modify and extend so you can make your perfect admin module. The clean interface makes it straightforward for you and the people working with it to change settings and modify content.
  
  
  
• kunstmaan/seo-bundle (v2.2.9)
  Annotating content with metadata for social sharing and seo purposes cannot be overlooked nowadays. The KunstmaanSeoBundle contains default editing functionality for OpenGraph data, meta descriptions, keywords and titles and Metriweb tags. Because the metatagging and tracking options are always changing, a free field to add custom header information is provided as well.
  
  
  
• ushios/elasticsearch-bundle (0.0.1)
  Symfony ElasticSearchBundle
  
  
  
• ushios/aws-bundle (0.0.3)
  Symfony AwsBundle
  
  
  
• wemakecustom/composer-script-utils (v0.1)
  Set of tools for Composer scripts
  
  
  
• astina/solvency-bundle (1.0.2)
  Symfony2 bundle integrating solvency check providers
  
  
  
• webbuilders-group/silverstripe-gridfielddetailformaddnew (0.2.0, 0.1.3)
  Adds the ability to create a new gridField item directly from the edit form
  
  
  
• claroline/bundle-recorder (2.0.3)
  Claroline bundle recorder
  
  
  
• openbuildings/jam-tart (0.2.15)
  Admin Builder for Kohana, using Jam ORM
  
  
  
• webbuilders-group/silverstripe-gridfielditemtype (0.1.3, 0.2.0)
  Adds type/class picking functionality to SilverStripe 3.0's GridField
  
  
  
• mf2/shim (v0.2.1)
  A parsing library for parsing pages from a few common non-mf2 sites into the mf2 structure
  
  
  
• mf2/mf2 (v0.2.2)
  A pure, generic microformats2 parser '" makes HTML as easy to consume as a JSON API
  
  
  
• amcsi/amysql (v1.0.2)
  Database abstraction library
  
  
  
• pugx/i18n-bundle (v3.0.4)
  Manage i18n
  
  
  
• bainboxlabs/brain-socket (v1.0.0)
  Websockets for event-driven Laravel apps.
  
  
  
• symfony/symfony (v2.4.0-BETA2)
  The Symfony PHP framework
  
  
  
• veridu/veridu-php (0.3.0)
  Veridu PHP SDK
  
  
  
• igraal/twig-assetic-filter-bundle (v1.0)
  Twig Assetic Filter Bundle for Symfony
  
  
  
• beelab/user-bundle (v1.0.3, v1.0.2, v1.0.1)
  Simple user provider for Symfony2
  
  
  
• namshi/utility-bundle (1.0.1)
  A bunch of utilities we find pretty useful and use in our web systems.
  
  
  
• webignition/html-document-link-checker (0.8)
  Check the links in a HTML document, find the working ones, find the broken ones, make happy people
  
  
  
• isotope/isotope-core (1.4.7)
  Core repository of Isotope eCommerce, an eCommerce extension for Contao Open Source CMS
  
  
  
• elnur/abstract-controller-bundle (v0.2.1)
  Simplifies doing controllers as services
  
  
  
• zibok/class-cache-warmer (v0.1)
  Allow Symfony2 to warmup the classes.php cache file
  
  
  
• kunstmaan/generator-bundle (v2.2.9)
  If you're like us, you like to build applications without having to do the same things over and over again and dislike copy/pasting code and change a couple of words every time you need feature X. The KunstmaanGeneratorBundle gives you the possibility to generate code for new bundles, adminlists and can even make you a basic default website. That way you don't have to wait too long before you see some results and you have more time to do other things. Easy no?
  
  
  
• aimfeld/zend-di-compiler (1.1.4)
  A Zend Framework 2 module that uses auto-generated factory code for dependency-injection.
  
  
  
• kunstmaan/adminlist-bundle (v2.2.9)
  Every website contains several lists of content ranging from articles on a blog, to drop down values. The KunstlaanAdminListBundles takes CRUD a step further by supplying filtering, exports to csv and editing capabilities to these content entities.
  
  
  
• ghua/ext-direct-bundle (v2.3)
  ExtDirect implementation for Symfony2
  
  
  
• menatwork/synccto (2.5.0.beta2)
  Synchronize multiple contao installations with each other
  
  
  
• fsi/doctrine-extensions (v1.0.1)
  FSi Behavioral Doctrine Extensions
  
  
  
• icap/wiki-bundle (v2.0.2, v2.0.1)
  Claroline wiki plugin from ICAP
  
  
  
• gigablah/silex-qrcode (0.0.1)
  Silex QR Code Provider
  
  
  
• ass/xmlsecurity (v1.0.0)
  The XmlSecurity library is written in PHP for working with XML Encryption and Signatures
  
  
  
• silex/silex (v1.1.2, v1.0.2)
  The PHP micro-framework based on the Symfony2 Components
  
  
  
• twig/twig (v1.14.2)
  Twig, the flexible, fast, and secure template language for PHP
  
  
  
• nesbert/nobjects (0.5.0)
  A collection of PHP classes for application development.
  
  
  
• whatthejeff/nyancat-phpunit-resultprinter (v1.2.0)
  Nyan Cat result printer for PHPUnit
  
  
  
• whatthejeff/fab-phpunit-resultprinter (v1.1.0)
  Make your unit tests fabulous!
  
  
  
• laiz/laiz-framework (v2.0.0-alpha4)
  Web Framework
  
  
  

Manuel Stosic: Understanding Zend Framework 3...before it's out!

Manuel Stosic has a new post today talking about the upcoming Zend Framework v3 (not "coming soon", but coming) and three places you can follow to keep up on the latest in this version as it develops.

ZF3 is not close around the corner. It's still many, many months ahead. But there are reasons why you should bother and get information about ZF3 as soon as possible. If you understand why changes are introduced - and most of them are explained, some will be explained at a later point i guess - then you can spot errors in todays code already! You can improve your current code by knowing what's going to be "in" a couple of months away.

The three resources he points to are the Google Moderator group for ideas around the framework, issues on the Github repository tagged for ZF3 and a series of planned Google Hangouts where core developers will talk about the work on this new version and answer questions from those watching.

Link: http://samminds.com/2013/10/understanding-zend-framework-3-before-its-out/

Zumba Engineering Blog: Incorporating Mongounit into Multi-datasource Models with Traits

On the Zubma Engineering blog today Chris Saylor has written up a tutorial showing how they used traits to use multiple data sources with Mongounit, working around the single source limitations it enforces.

A while back we open sourced Mongounit, a PHPUnit extension for testing models utilizing mongodb. One key issue that we've discovered as we incorporate MongoDB into more of our data models is that extending Mongounit's TestCase class limits that unit test towards Mongo only as the datasource. Since only a portion of our data is in Mongo while the remaining is in MySQL, limiting a test case to work with one datasource or another is too limiting.

They tried two other solutions first, separating out the tests by data source and manually clear the Mongo data in the tests, but both ran into problems. Instead, they opted to use traits to provide drop-in Mongo testing support as needed. It provides a simple interface to set up and tear down the needed Mongo resources - an example of which is also provided in the post. The code for the trait can be found on Github.

Link: http://engineering.zumba.com/2013/10/30/multiple-data-sources-phpunit-testing/

Hasin Hayder: Installing gearmand, libgearman & pecl gearman for php from source in Debian 6 & 7

Hasin Hayder has posted a complete guide to getting Gearman and PHP playing nicely together. The guide gives you a step by step (and command by command) list to follow so you don't have the same pains he did trying to get it working.

I had a pretty rough evening today. No, not because the waiter forgot to add sugar in my tea, but because it was so boring to go through the trial and errors of installing gearman daemon and pecl gearman extension for php.

He walks though the whole process, starting with the failures, that he took getting it installed. Unfortunately it wasn't just as easy as installing a package and using PECL to drop in the extension. There was other software packages that needed to be installed as well and were a bit harder to figure out - libboost, gperf, libevent, uuid-dev and libcloog-ppl-dev. With these installed, the PECL install command was finally able to build and he got the shared module he needed.

Link: http://hasin.me/2013/10/30/installing-gearmand-libgearman-and-pecl-gearman-from-source/

/Dev/Hell Podcast: Episode 36: Maybe PHP Isn't as Lame as We Thought

The /Dev/Hell podcast, hosted by PHP community members Chris Hartjes and Ed Finkler, has released its latest episode - Episode 36, "Maybe PHP Isn't as Lame as We Thought".

So our pace is a little slower due to work crap, but DEV HELL LIVES. Episode 6d6 kicks off with us waxing about what's exciting in PHP development nowadays. We also talk about upcoming appearances at TrueNorth PHP, NomadPHP and SkiPHP. Then we get into the discussion of alcohol consumption at tech conferences, and malware on the PHP.net site.

You can listen to this latest episode either through the in-page player, by downloading the mp3 or by following their feed in your reader of choice.

Link: http://devhell.info/post/2013-10-29/maybe-php-isnt-as-lame-as-we-thought/

Community News: Latest Releases from PHPClasses.org

• PHP Antihack Environment
  
  
  

  Package:

  
  

  PHP Antihack Environment

  
  

  Summary:

  
  

  Check request values to detect hacking attempts

  
  

  Groups:

  
  

  HTTP, PHP 5, Security

  
  

  Author:

  
  

  Oliver Leuyim Angel

  
  

  Description:

  
  

  This class can check request values to detect hacking attempts...
  
  
  
  Read more at http://www.phpclasses.org/package/8291-PHP-Check-request-values-to-detect-hacking-attempts.html

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Antihack Env
  
  
  

  Package:

  
  

  Antihack Env

  
  

  Summary:

  
  

  Check request values to detect hacking attempts

  
  

  Groups:

  
  

  HTTP, PHP 5, Security

  
  

  Author:

  
  

  Oliver Leuyim Angel

  
  

  Description:

  
  

  This class can check request values to detect hacking attempts...
  
  
  
  Read more at http://www.phpclasses.org/package/8291-PHP-Check-request-values-to-detect-hacking-attempts.html

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• URL Fetch
  
  
  

  Package:

  
  

  URL Fetch

  
  

  Summary:

  
  

  Get the URL of the current request

  
  

  Groups:

  
  

  HTTP, PHP 5, Utilities and Tools

  
  

  Author:

  
  

  omi omm

  
  

  Description:

  
  

  This class can get the URL of the current request...
  
  
  
  Read more at http://www.phpclasses.org/package/8316-PHP-Get-the-URL-of-the-current-request.html

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• PHP Attachment Emailer
  
  
  

  Package:

  
  

  PHP Attachment Emailer

  
  

  Summary:

  
  

  Send email messages with attached files

  
  

  Groups:

  
  

  Email, PHP 5

  
  

  Author:

  
  

  Andy Dixon

  
  

  Description:

  
  

  This class can send email messages with attached files...
  
  
  
  Read more at http://www.phpclasses.org/package/8300-PHP-Send-email-messages-with-attached-files.html

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• PHP Prime Numbers Generator
  
  
  

  Package:

  
  

  PHP Prime Numbers Generator

  
  

  Summary:

  
  

  Generate a list of prime numbers up to a limit

  
  

  Groups:

  
  

  Algorithms, Math, PHP 5

  
  

  Author:

  
  

  Assaad Youssef Abou Rached

  
  

  Description:

  
  

  This class can generate a list of prime numbers up to a limit...
  
  
  
  Read more at http://www.phpclasses.org/package/8313-PHP-Generate-a-list-of-prime-numbers-up-to-a-limit.html

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Conexao PDO
  
  
  

  Package:

  
  

  Conexao PDO

  
  

  Summary:

  
  

  Simple MySQL database connection using PDO

  
  

  Groups:

  
  

  Databases, PHP 5

  
  

  Author:

  
  

  RODRIGO PEIXOTO

  
  

  Description:

  
  

  This is a very simple MySQL database connection using PDO...
  
  
  
  Read more at http://www.phpclasses.org/package/8312-PHP-Simple-MySQL-database-connection-using-PDO.html

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Simple PDO wrapper
  
  
  

  Package:

  
  

  Simple PDO wrapper

  
  

  Summary:

  
  

  Simple database access wrapper using PDO

  
  

  Groups:

  
  

  Databases, PHP 5

  
  

  Author:

  
  

  Jan Baader

  
  

  Description:

  
  

  This class is a simple database access wrapper using PDO...
  
  
  
  Read more at http://www.phpclasses.org/package/8302-PHP-Simple-database-access-wrapper-using-PDO.html

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Download ZIP from URL
  
  
  

  Package:

  
  

  Download ZIP from URL

  
  

  Summary:

  
  

  Download and extract a zip file from a remote site

  
  

  Groups:

  
  

  Compression, Files and Folders, PHP 5

  
  

  Author:

  
  

  Brian Travis Mutende

  
  

  Description:

  
  

  This class can download and extract a zip file from a remote site...
  
  
  
  Read more at http://www.phpclasses.org/package/8297-PHP-Download-and-extract-a-zip-file-from-a-remote-site.html

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• PHP Password Entropy Calculator
  
  
  

  Package:

  
  

  PHP Password Entropy Calculator

  
  

  Summary:

  
  

  Calculates entropy of a given password

  
  

  Groups:

  
  

  Algorithms, PHP 5, Security, Text processing

  
  

  Author:

  
  

  Peter Kahl

  
  

  Description:

  
  

  This class can calculate entropy of a given password to determine if it easy to guess...
  
  
  
  Read more at http://www.phpclasses.org/package/8307-PHP-Calculates-entropy-of-a-given-password.html

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• PHP Save Complete HTML Page
  
  
  

  

  
  

  Package:

  
  

  PHP Save Complete HTML Page

  
  

  Summary:

  
  

  Save HTML pages complete with images, CSS and JS

  
  

  Groups:

  
  

  HTML, PHP 5

  
  

  Author:

  
  

  Sarfraz Ahmed

  
  

  Description:

  
  

  This class can save HTML pages complete with images, CSS and JavaScript...
  
  
  
  Read more at http://www.phpclasses.org/package/8305-PHP-Save-HTML-pages-complete-with-images-CSS-and-JS.html

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• PHP Birthday To Age
  
  
  

  Package:

  
  

  PHP Birthday To Age

  
  

  Summary:

  
  

  Calculate the age and other values from a birthday

  
  

  Groups:

  
  

  PHP 5, Time and Date

  
  

  Author:

  
  

  Miguel Villaseñor

  
  

  Description:

  
  

  This class can calculate the age and other values from a birthday...
  
  
  
  Read more at http://www.phpclasses.org/package/8292-PHP-Calculate-the-age-and-other-values-from-a-birthday.html

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• PHP CDS ISIS Database Extract
  
  
  

  Package:

  
  

  PHP CDS ISIS Database Extract

  
  

  Summary:

  
  

  Open and extract bibliography from ISIS databases

  
  

  Groups:

  
  

  Databases, Files and Folders, PHP 5

  
  

  Author:

  
  

  Carlos Sosa

  
  

  Description:

  
  

  This package can open and extract bibliography records from ISIS databases...
  
  
  
  Read more at http://www.phpclasses.org/package/8295-PHP-Open-and-extract-bibliography-from-ISIS-databases.html