Community News: Packagist Latest Releases for 12.03.2012

Recent releases from the Packagist:

• dflydev/ant-path-matcher (v1.0.3)
  
• lankit/datatables-bundle (v0.1.0)
  
• websublime/pressly (0.3)
  
• phery/phery (2.3.1)
  
• instaclick/php-webdriver (1.0.11, 1.0.10)
  
• cypresslab/gitelephant (0.9.5)
  
• alexbilbie/hawk (1.1)
  
• notifier/notifier (0.1.0)
  
• primal/query (v1.0.1)
  
• shivas/pheal-bundle (0.1.1, 0.1.0)
  
• webcreate/vcs (1.0)
  
• eloquent/typhoon (0.5.0)
  
• phpunit/phpunit (3.7.10)
  
• phpunit/php-code-coverage (1.2.7)
  
• kphoen/propel-multiple-aggregate-column-behavior (1.0.0)
  
• fabpot/goutte (v0.0.1, v0.1.0)
  
• cac/phpcs-git (v0.1)
  

Community News: WebAdvent 2012

From the folks that have brought you the PHP Advent series of posts in the past (Chris Shiflett, Sean Coates and all of their great contributing authors) comes this year's more general selection of articles - webadvent.org.

Christmas is upon us once again, and it's time to have a look at what's under the Web Advent tree. Join us each day as our wonderful authors provide presents of tips, tricks, & tidbits to usher in the new year.

This years posts are (list will be updated as more are added)

• Debugging Zen (Ben Ransey)
  
• Going from One to a Million Users (Joël Perras)
  

You can find articles from previous years in the site's sidebar.

Lars Strogny: The state of meta programming in PHP

Lars Strojny has written up a new post about the current state of metaprogramming (software that writes other software) and how it sits in today's PHP functionality including some current features to make it happen.

Metaprogramming is quite an interesting sub-discipline and knowing about certain techniques and tools allows you to cut corners quite dramatically for certain tasks. As always, don't overdo but to find out when you are overdoing, first start doing, get excited, overdo, find out the right dose. Let's have a look at what kind of tools you have available in PHP to solve typical meta programming problems.

He starts by defining what kinds of things metaprogramming can and can't do (like type introspection, lower level syntax inspection and metadata management) and gets into what you can use in/with PHP for each. He mentions several tools, some internal to PHP - like the Reflection API and the Tokenizer extension - as well as external projects like the PHP-Parser, AOP in PECL and annotation support from the doctrine-common package.

Ben Ramsey: Writing an Effective Talk Proposal

if you've ever considered contributing to a PHP (or any other technology conference) but weren't sure about how to even get started writing up a proposal for a session, you should check out this recent post from Ben Ramsey with a good guide (and some advice experienced speakers could use too).

Earlier today, I was asked "Any tips on how to write a proposal for a major conf?" I've never shared tips on this, and since the calls for proposals for Sunshine PHP and Midwest PHP both end tomorrow, I thought it would be a good idea to share my approach to writing conference proposals. Remember those standard, five-paragraph essays you used to write in high school? Remember how you thought they sucked and wouldn't provide any practical benefit to your life? Well, it turns out they do have some redeeming qualities.

He suggests that this "five paragraph essay" format helps you not only come up with a more fleshed out, full idea but also can provide you with the abstract to submit to the conference (possibly the first paragraph). He mentions the need for a "hook" and finishing off with an opinion that's the basis of the talk. He also has a reminder of a few things - don't talk down, don't use negative language and try not to use absolutes.

Community News: Packagist Latest Releases for 12.02.2012

Recent releases from the Packagist:

• liip/rmt (0.9.2)
  
• lisphp/lisphp (v1.0.0)
  
• pihi/industrial (0.2.0)
  
• brickoo/brickoo (v3.0)
  
• danmatthews/req (v1.1.0)
  
• evert/sabredav (1.8.1, 1.7.3)
  
• sabre/dav (1.8.1, 1.7.3)
  
• mobiledetect/mobiledetectlib (2.5.2)
  
• deweller/cliopts (1.0.0)
  
• endroid/twitter-bundle (v1.0)
  
• endroid/twitter (v1.0)
  
• matthimatiker/molcomponents (1.4.2)
  
• inori/banklink (v0.2.0)
  
• jms/serializer-bundle (0.10)
  
• bento/bento (0.1.1)
  
• troydavisson/phrets (1.0.1)
  

Community News: Packagist Latest Releases for 12.01.2012

Recent releases from the Packagist:

• atukai/at-php-settings (1.0.0)
  
• ocramius/ocra-cached-view-resolver (0.1.3, 0.1.2)
  
• primal/errorhandler (v1.0.0)
  
• jsonrpc/jsonrpc (v1.0.3)
  
• hipchat/hipchat-php (v1.2)
  
• danmatthews/req (v1.0.1)
  
• jyggen/youtubethumb (v2.0)
  
• backend/base (0.1.1.1, 0.2.1, 0.2)
  
• backend/core (0.5.2.1, 0.5.2)
  
• fp/openid-bundle (1.3.5)
  
• webignition/string-parser (0.2)
  
• phery/phery (2.3.0)
  
• devster/ubench (1.0.0)
  
• rcrowe/twigbridge (v0.0.3)
  
• jalet/tvnu-config (v1.1.0)
  
• backend/interfaces (0.2.3)
  

Site News: Popular Posts for the Week of 11.30.2012

Popular posts from PHPDeveloper.org for the past week:

• PHPMaster.com: Debugging and Profiling PHP with Xdebug
  
• Josh Adell: Migrating to Dependency Injection
  
• Community News: Packagist Latest Releases for 11.24.2012
  
• thePHP.cc: Do No Enter!
  
• PHP.net: PHP 5.4.9 and PHP 5.3.19 released!
  
• Community News: Packagist Latest Releases for 11.25.2012
  
• Community News: Packagist Latest Releases for 11.23.2012
  
• Chris Jones: How (and when) to move users to mysqli and PDO_MYSQL?
  
• Ulrich Kautz: PHP Validation & Sanitization
  
• Symfony Blog: A full track dedicated to Symfony at SunshinePHP conference