Simplify PHP Development with WASP  Where are the all-in-one PHP frameworks that make building well-factored and maintainable applications as easy as building simple sites? Brian Fioca shows how to make a simple database-backed site with WASP in just a few lines of code.   [PHP]

Improve Your Build Process with Ant  Building and bundling web applications hasn't exactly grown easier over the years. This is especially true if you customize your projects for different clients. Don't go crazy with manual solutions--automate them. Michael Kimsal shows how the Ant build tool can make building, bundling, and deploying PHP applications much easier.   [PHP]

Implementing MVC in PHP: The View  The most popular "proper" way to build a web application seems to be to use the Model-View-Controller design pattern. While it sounds complex, the concepts are sound and the ease of development it provides are compelling. Joe Stump shows how the View works by developing a working version in PHP 5.   [PHP]

Testing PHP Code with PHPUnit  Type; reload web site; eyeball output; fix bugs; repeat--there's a better way to write PHP code! Testing gives you confidence not only that your code works, but also that you can make changes to improve your design and flexibility without breaking behavior. Sebastian Bergmann, the author of PHPUnit, shows how his library can help to ease your development woes.   [PHP]

PHP Code Generation with Elisp  There's plenty of near-repetition in software development; writing very similar code over and over again. Stop copying, pasting, and modifying, and start automating the process! Zachary Kessin shows how to use Emacs Lisp to generate useful and reusable database-access code for PHP.   [PHP]

Implementing MVC in PHP: The Controller  The most popular "proper" way to build a web application seems to be to use the Model-View-Controller design pattern. While it sounds complex, the concepts are sound and the ease of development it provides are compelling. Joe Stump shows how the Controller part of MVC works by developing a working version in PHP 5.   [PHP]

The Practicality of OO PHP  PHP is an easy language for doing practical things immediately. The easiest ways to begin aren't always the best ways to stay productive, though. PHP's support for object orientation requires a little more learning and a little more discipline, but it has many benefits for larger projects. David Day explains the basics of OO in PHP 4.   [ONLamp.com]

Understanding MVC in PHP  The most popular "proper" way to build a web application seems to be to use the Model-View-Controller design pattern. While it sounds complex, the concepts are sound and the ease of development it provides are compelling. Joe Stump shows how MVC can work in PHP by walking through working, example code.   [PHP]

Object Overloading in PHP 5  PHP 5 has greatly improved object-oriented programming support. It also has new hooks to overload methods and properties. How can you do this? Why would you want to? Martin Jansen demonstrates method and property overloading with PHP 5 objects.   [ONLamp.com]

Securing Web Forms with PEAR's Text_CAPTCHA  On the internet, how can you tell a person from a program written to act just like a person? One approach is to ask a question that (usually) only a human could answer. Marcus Whitney shows off a PEAR package to do this easily from PHP.   [ONLamp.com]

Important Notice for PHP DevCenter Readers About O'Reilly RSS and Atom Feeds  O'Reilly Media, Inc. is rolling out a new syndication mechanism that provides greater control over the content we publish online. Here's information to help you update your existing RSS and Atom feeds to O'Reilly content.  [PHP DevCenter]

Calculating Entropy for Data Miners  Quick--what's the relationship between the columns of your database? Don't know? Maybe it's time to pull out the information theory book and calculate how much data they store. Paul Meagher explains how this works while showing off premade PHP libraries to handle the details of the calculations for you.   [ONLamp.com]

Programming eBay Web Services with PHP 5 and Services_Ebay  PHP 5 added several new features to the language, yet laundry lists and high-level overviews don't really show what they are or why you might use them. Fortunately, Adam Trachtenberg writes for us. Here's how to use the new features of PHP 5 for writing web services clients.   [ONLamp.com]

Calculating Entropy for Data Mining  Eww, statistics. Right? Not necessarily--for example, calculating the entropy of your web statistics can help you analyze trends and correlations. Paul Meagher demonstrates statistical programming in PHP while explaining single-variable entropy.   [ONLamp.com]

Three-Tier Development with PHP 5  Well-factored applications separate data storage, manipulation, and display. For PHP programmers, PHP 5 and PEAR make that easier than ever. Luis Yordano Cruz demonstrates how to combine PEAR::DB_DataObject, Smarty, and PHP 5 to improve the design and maintenance of your applications.   [ONLamp.com]

Writing "Learning PHP 5"  Developers often write open source software in public, but what about developers who write about open source software? Do they build tools? How do your favorite books come about? David Sklar explains how he wrote Learning PHP 5.   [ONLamp.com]

Allowing Registration-Required Binary Downloads  You have a great PDF, MP3, or binary file to distribute, but you want to know who's downloading it. How hard could it be to write a little PHP program to require registration before letting your goodies loose? Robert Bernier demonstrates that it's actually pretty easy.   [ONLamp.com]

Migrating to Page Controllers  Simple web apps can start simple, but when they grow more complex, they often need pruning and refactoring to be maintainable. The Page Controller design pattern can help separate concerns such as templates and logic. Ethan McCallum demonstrates this language-neutral technique with PHP.   [ONLamp.com]

PHP Form Handling  If your PHP program is a dynamic web page (and it probably is) and your PHP program is dealing with user input (and it probably is), then you need to work with HTML forms. David Sklar, author of Learning PHP 5, offers tips for simplifying, securing, and organizing your form-handling PHP code.   [ONLamp.com]

Simplify Business Logic with PHP DataObjects  Are you sick of writing the same SQL over and over in your application? Would you like to simplify and unify your access to the same tables in multiple places? DataObjects may be for you. Darryl Patterson demonstrates how to write and use DataObjects in PHP.   [PHP DevCenter]

PHP Debugging Basics  Whether you're a PHP newbie or a wizard, your programs are going to have bugs in them. Nobody's perfect. David Sklar, author of Learning PHP 5, provides techniques for finding and fixing the problems in your programs.   [ONLamp.com]

ANOVA Statistical Programming with PHP  Data miners and researchers often have to review their work for statistical variances. The Analysis of Variance technique is a popular and effective way to gauge the effects of an experiment. Paul Meagher demonstrates how to use PHP, MySQL, and JpGraph for productive data-mining work.   [PHP DevCenter]