Pragmatism in the real world

UK PHP Conference

I'm not sure how many people follow my the Zend Framework in Action website yet, so I thought I'd advertise here that I've just posted about my upcoming session at the UK PHP Conference. Go and read it and then subscribe to the RSS feed!

Code cleanliness guidelines from Etienne Kneuss

I don't often post links to articles I read via my RSS reader as I assume that most people who read this blog also read sites like Planet PHP, PHP Developer or DevZone. Having said that, Etienne Kneuss has posted an article aimed at less experienced PHP programmers providing some quick guidelines to code cleanliness which are actually a very good reminder to us all.

New Zend Framework Blog/Website

I thought I'd start a new website to talk about all things Zend Framework, so I'm introducing www.zendframeworkbook.com to the world. The intention is to highlight interesting things that I see on the Zend Framework mailing lists and also to talk about book stuff periodically as well. Obviously, if you follow the ZF mailing lists religiously, then you may find that you recognise the content of a lot of the posts, but if not, then… continue reading.

OT: Need something? Ask Hoosgot!

If it takes off, I expect everyone will be talking about hoosgot over the next weeks and months. The idea is to allow you to ask the world if anyone has got what you want maybe help you find what you are looking for, given the international nature of the web. All you have to do is include "hoosgot" (pronounced "who's got") or "lazyweb" in your blog post or tweet and it'll pick it up.… continue reading.

Notes to self, re: IE6

I've just spent way too long today debugging stuff in IE6 that I already knew once I found the problems! So, next time I have vertical spacing issue in IE6, I can come here and remind myself that in IE, <form> has margin on it by default… Also, the YUI panel doesn't seem to work properly in IE6 if it's contained within an element that is positioned "relative" with CSS. Now that Christmas is over,… continue reading.

Simple Zend_Layout Example

Zend_Layout is in the trunk now, so here's a super simple MVC example that shows it in action: This example consists of three view files: the outer layout file, the index action view script and a right hand side bar. The remainder of this post describes the key files. If you just want to poke around with the code, then it's at the bottom, so page down now! Setting up This is the directory layout:… continue reading.

Where to set up your view?

With Zend_Layout on the horizon, I've been looking at how to use it and it will remove the need for my own front controller plugin which I call SiteTemplate. As a result, I need to find a new home for the view customisation stuff I do in SiteTemplate. My current plan is to create a new front controller plugin called ViewSetup (for want of a better name!) that contains just the view setup stuff from… continue reading.

Zend_View: Access the view from a view helper

It's in the manual, but I thought I'd blog about my simple View Helper setup that ensures that I can get at the view with minimal effort. Firstly we create a parent class: < ?php abstract class My_View_Helper_Abstract { protected $_view; public function setView($view) { $this->_view = $view; } } This class contains the code required by Zend_View to collect an instance of the view and assign it to a protected variable. All my view… continue reading.

Back to zero bugs

I've just finished going through the open Zend_Config issues and fixing them all. Nothing major, but a couple of nice fixes and one new function. The bugs recently fixed are: ZF-2209 Zend_Config* contructor should have the section defaults to null ZF-2162 Zend_Config_Xml usage without sections bug ZF-2021 Zend_Config::toArray() does not support generic object values Lastly, I've added a new function called setReadOnly() in response to issue ZF-2061. This allows you to lock down a Zend_Config… continue reading.

TaskPaper

One of the apps that I've found that I'm using daily is TaskPaper from Hog Bay Software. It's a brilliantly simple idea where all it does is format up a standard text file to make it easier to use as a todo list. You just start each item with a dash and it will automatically provide a checkbox next to the item. When you tick the checkbox, then a tag, @done, is added to the… continue reading.