Caching your ZF2 merged configuration

Zend Framework 2's ModuleManager has the ability to cache the merged configuration information for your application. This is very useful as it allows you to separate out your configuration within the config/autoload directory into logical files without worrying about the performance implications of lots of files. Enabling caching is simply a case of setting these configuration keys in config/application.config.php within the module_listener_options section: 'module_listener_options' => array( 'config_cache_enabled' => true, 'module_map_cache_enabled' => true, 'cache_dir' => 'data/cache/',… continue reading.

Posted on 19 June 2013 in Zend Framework, Zend Framework 2

Contracts and NDAs for Nineteen Feet

Now that I have my own business, I've become an avid listener to the Unfinished Business podcast presented by Anna Debenham and Andy Clarke. From the first episode, they have emphasised the importance of having a contract and, in a recent episode, why an NDA is a good idea. I don't know about you, but when I hear the words "contract" and "NDA", the word "incomprehensible" comes to mind and I was not enthused at… continue reading.

Posted on 15 June 2013 in 19FT

Injecting configuration into a ZF2 controller

One thing you may find yourself needing to do is access configuration information in a controller or service class. The easiest way to do this is to use the ServiceManger's initialiser feature. This allows you to write one piece of injection code that can be applied to multiple objects. It's easier to show this in action! Let's assume that we have this configuration file: config/autoload/global.php: return array( 'application' => array( 'setting_1' => 234, ) );… continue reading.

Posted on 30 April 2013 in Zend Framework, Zend Framework 2

Adding Diff syntax highlighting to Sublime Text

My chosen colour scheme for Sublime Text doesn't include support for diff/patch files, so I added my own. To the bottom of my .tmTheme file, I added this just above the closing </array>: <dict> <key>name</key> <string>diff.header</string> <key>scope</key> <string>meta.diff, meta.diff.header</string> <key>settings</key> <dict> <key>foreground</key> <string>#009933</string> </dict> </dict> <dict> <key>name</key> <string>diff.deleted</string> <key>scope</key> <string>markup.deleted</string> <key>settings</key> <dict> <key>foreground</key> <string>#DD5555</string> </dict> </dict> <dict> <key>name</key> <string>diff.inserted</string> <key>scope</key> <string>markup.inserted</string> <key>settings</key> <dict> <key>foreground</key> <string>#3333FF</string> </dict> </dict> <dict> <key>name</key> <string>diff.changed</string> <key>scope</key> <string>markup.changed</string> <key>settings</key> <dict> <key>foreground</key>… continue reading.

Posted on 26 April 2013 in Software

Simple logging of ZF2 exceptions

I recently had a problem with a ZF2 based website where users were reporting seeing the error page displayed, but I couldn't reproduce in testing. To find this problem I decided to log every exception to a file so I could then go back and work out what was happening. In a standard ZF2 application, the easiest way to do this is to add a listener to the 'dispatch.error' event and log using ZendLog. To… continue reading.

Posted on 24 April 2013 in Zend Framework, Zend Framework 2

Notes on embedding fonts in rst2pdf

I wanted to use Helvetica Light in a PDF that I'm creating using rst2pdf and this proved a little tricker than I expected. Note that to use fonts with rst2pdf, you need to install fontconfig using brew: brew install fontconfig Now, on to the problem! In this case, I discovered that setting stdFont: Helvetica-Light or stdFont: HelveticaLight in the style file resulted in Verdana being used in the PDF file! Fortunately, the -v switch to… continue reading.

Posted on 18 April 2013 in rst2pdf, Software

Setting the umask when using Capistrano

This is one of those posts to remind me how I solved a problem last time! I've recently been using Capistrano for deployment and other remote tasks and it's proving quite useful. One problem I ran into was that the umask was being set to 022 when using Capistrano and 002 when I was ssh'd into the server itself. After a bit of research, I discovered that the secret is to put the umask statement… continue reading.

Posted on 16 April 2013 in Development

Minding my own business

After nearly ten fantastic years at Big Room Internet, I have decided to take the jump and run my own business! Having concentrated on project management for the last year or so, I am happy to return to hands-on development. I also intend to provide training and consultancy services. I'm really excited by this new phase of my career. I have created a shiny new company for interesting projects: Nineteen Feet Limited. If you want… continue reading.

Posted on 3 April 2013 in Me

Objects in the model layer: Part 2

I previously talked about the terms I use for objects in the model layer and now it's time to put some code on those bones. Note that,as always, all code here is example code and not production-ready. An entity My entities are plain old PHP objects: namespace Book; class Entity { protected $id; protected $author; protected $title; protected $isbn; public function __construct($data = array()) { $this->populate($data); } // Data transfer methods public function populate($data) {… continue reading.

Posted on 1 April 2013 in PHP

Ideas of March: It's my content and my opinion

If there's one thing Twitter is not good at, it's holding a discussion on something controversial. Sean Coates noted this problem when he said: "I’m not worried about having my opinion disagreed with; I *am* concerned that I will be crucified for something I don’t mean." I suspect this is because you don't have the space to develop an idea on Twitter. It also doesn't help that Twitter is a conversation which means that people… continue reading.

Posted on 28 March 2013 in Me