The best applications for the rich Internet connect to the server to both read and write data. So, the easier it is to get data from the server and send data back to it, the quicker you can develop some awesome applications. Reading and posting to Extensible Markup Language (XML)-based services with Adobe Flex is easy. But what's even easier is using Adobe's Action Message Format (AMF) to send messages between the Flex client and the server. It's as easy to use as a method call on an object. This article written by Jack Herrington shows how to set up an AMF service on your PHP web server using the Zend Framework and Zend_Amf. […]

Did you submit a picture to the elephpantworldtour.com contest? They have announced the winners. If you think you may have won, you might want to head over and check it out. […]

Andrei Daneasa needed to do some fairly complex image processing and thumbnail generation: scaling, centering, resampling and finally changing the image background. He managed it all using PHP's GD extension and he's written a tutorial explaining how he did it, together with illustrative source code. An interesting read, for those looking to add even more pizzazz to their thumbnail collection. […]

Andi Gutmans has written about achievements by PHP and Zend in 2008, and also discussed future plans for 2009, including expected releases of application servers and development tools. Read it to get an idea of what the commercial PHP landscape will look like in 2009. […]

If you like mixing your languages together, you're going to love this one: Federico Cargnelutti has posted an article about running your PHP programs under Quercus, a "100% Java implementation of PHP", and the Jetty Web server. His article includes notes on installing and configuring the components, running PHP scripts, and importing and using Java classes in PHP. […]

A.J.Brown has published the first of a two-part series explaining how to write automated unit tests for Zend Framework applications. His article, which makes use of PHPUnit and Zend_Test in the context of a user account controller, also discusses creating seed data, setting authentication state and writing test cases.

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Johannes Schleuter has published the third part in his series of posts looking at the new features in PHP 5.3. While his earlier posts dealt with the fileinfo extension and new data structures in depth, this one discusses a topic that will undoubtedly generate discussion: the introduction of a limited GOTO loop. Take a look, and get a head start on what to expect in PHP 5.3! […]

Ivo Jansch of Ibuildings has an interesting blog post looking back at 2008 and discussing the business prospects for PHP in 2009. One of his key points is during an economic downturn, companies are increasingly attracted to open-source solutions like PHP, due to their cost-effectiveness. A statement that should warm the hearts of PHP developers everywhere as we roll into 2009!

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You already know that you can run PHP scripts through your Web server...but did you know that you could also run them through a console shell? In case this is news to you, take a look at Johan Mares' blog post on the topic, in which he's explained everything you need to know to use the PHP command-line interface.

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Johannes Schlüter, a member of the MySQL Connectors and Client Connectivity team, has suggested a novel use for PHP: a storage engine for MySQL!

In his blog post, he discusses how the plugin API in MySQL 5.1 makes it easy to write new storage engines, and he illustrates by implementing some of the plugin interfaces using PHP functions. A PHP array is used to store table data, with iterators and array functions being used to read and write records. Worth reading, both to gain a better understanding of MySQL's plugin API, and as an example of some ingenious thinking!

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