As a web developer or web designer, you have to mindful of who your audience is when you are putting up a new web site or web application.

Back in the 1990’s when I started, you had to consider which web browser but you were pretty safe to assume that people would be visiting your website on a desktop computer and 95% of the time, it was Windows.

… Things have changed and will continue to change.

Check out what a well known hedge fund analyst is saying – Roger McNamee of Elevation Partners told CNBC:

The explosion of mobile platforms, particularly iOS and Android, means that Windows will account for less than 50% of all Internet-connected devices in 2011.

Now that doesn’t mean 50% of the people visiting your site will be using iOS or Android … at least not yet. But it does speak of a powerful trend that will not stop. That trend is toward smartphones, tablets and the death of the desktop. Since Windows on the smartphone and tablet is a non-starter, I think as a web application developers, we have to see Android and iOS as being the future.

What does that mean for PHP developers?

I think PHP programmers are going to have understand the new front end … the mobile device. As such, PHP’rs are really going to have to get into the client-side technologies because they have an impact how we write PHP code. I’m thinking:

- HTML 5
- CSS 3
- Javascript
- JSON
- Jquery

… You better understand how these technologies work with PHP if you want a job (or contracts) as a PHP programmer.

Stefan Mischook
www.killersites.com

One of the mistakes web developers make is to spend too much time perfecting the code base in a project. This waste too much time and ignores one very important fact: you need to get the software into the users hands as quickly as possible, so they can give you feedback.

… Most end users/clients have very little idea what they really want before they actually use the software. Once they do get their hands on it, they will be able to give you much more accurate feedback in terms of what the software should do ultimately.

In the following vblog I address this issue, framing it in the ‘good enough’ principle of application development:

Stefan Mischook.
www.killerphp.com

Hi,

In our continued efforts to make programming approachable (even for the non nerd,) I got my brother (Richard Mischook) to write a quick article/tutorial introducing iPhone and iPad development – he’s busy build an iPhone application as I write.

The goal of this article is to help you understand what you need to know and what tools you have available, when it comes to creating software/web apps for the iPhone and iPad.

Stefan Mischook

-

Introduction

The introduction of the iPhone by Apple a few years back caused a lot of excitement among both consumers and developers. The iPhone was arguably the first mobile device that made both mobile computing and web surfing practical. The iPad (which runs on iPhone OS) has been met with skepticism in some quarters. But so far it appears to be selling well and attracting a lot of interest from content creators.

Apple originally intended that the main source of third-party applications for the iPhone would be web applications, and there are of course many of these. But something funny happened when Apple released the iPhone SDK and an App Store to go with it – people came. Developers developed and consumers consumed.

Read the rest of this article on iPhone and iPad development.

Hi,

People ask me from time to time, what PHP framework is the best one to learn?

Well, I always look at technology choices with two things in mind:

1. How capable is the technology?
2. How accepted is the technology?

If you look around, it becomes pretty clear, that if you want to learn an effective web application framework, you want to learn the Zend Framework – indeed, the trend is with Zend.

Zend framework being used by companies large and small

I know from first-nerd experience that the Zend Framework is being widely adopted. Just recently for example, Intuit and the BBC have implemented new web apps that are Zend Framework based.

… I know because my good buddy Jon Lebensold of Zendcasts helped build one of them.

There are plenty of other examples out there I’m sure … and I am confident that the trend will continue towards the adoption of the Zend Framework. With the PHP company (Zend) and IBM behind it … it doesn’t take a brain surgeon to figure that one out.

Thanks for reading,

Stefan Mischook
www.killerphp.com

I decided to create a video based on my recent article on ORM frameworks. I shot this in HD … so select the HD option if you got big pipes.

Let me know what you think.

Stefan Mischook

In the following article we will learn a few things about ORM frameworks:

• What they are.
• What they do.
• When and why to use them.
• And finally, what ORM options PHP’ers have.

Let’s start …

If you’re working with PHP, you will certainly find yourself working with relational databases (like MySQL) sooner or later. Anyone who has ever built a reasonably complex web application knows, that the SQL can get really hairy at times – especially when you consider all the data filtering that you have to deal with!

ORM frameworks to the rescue!

ORM is yet another nerd-acronym, it is short for Object Relational Mapping. In a nutshell, an ORM framework is written in an object oriented language (like PHP, Java, C# etc…) and it is designed to virtually wrap around a relational database. If you look at the name (ORM), it basically translates into: mapping objects to relational tables.

There are many different competing ORM frameworks out there, because many nerds have their own ideas as to how to best do things – nothing new here! But you know what, some of these nerds are right … not all ORM frameworks are created equal.

OK, but what does an ORM framework do?

Basically, the ORM framework/software generates objects (as in OOP) that virtually map (like the map of a city) the tables in a database. Then you as a programmer, would use these objects to interact with the database. So the main idea, is to try and shield the programmer from having to write optimized SQL code – the ORM generated objects take care of that for you. So let’s take a look at a simple example:

Say for instance you had a database with two tables:

• Clients
• Products

With a little bit of configuration on your part, the ORM framework would then create corresponding objects (say, clients_object and products_object) that would handle all the database interaction. So let’s say you need to add a new client to the database, you would just have to use the ORM’s clients_object to add the new client.

For example, it could be as simple as calling the object’s ’save()’ method:

client = new clients_object("Stefan","Mischook");
client.save();

The above of course, is just pseudo code, mainly because the syntax will vary from ORM framework and from language to language. But hopefully you get the general idea of how much easier an ORM framework can make things (no SQL!) .. not to mention how much cleaner your application’s code will be.

Some other advantages of using ORM frameworks

1. Harmonization of data types between the OO language (in our case, PHP) and the SQL database. All relational databases use data types for each of the fields, for example: int, small int, blob, char etc. The thing is, that sometimes you have to convert the data types on the fly to properly add a record to the database. A good ORM will take care of these details for you.

2. Using an ORM will create a consistent code base for your application since much (if not all) of the code used to interact with the database will be PHP – no SQL code to mess things up. This makes it easier to write and debug your application, especially if you have more programmers on a job.

3. ORM frameworks will shield your application from SQL injection attacks since the framework will be filtering the data for you.

4. Database Abstraction; I am a little hesitant to make this point because in practice, over the last 10-15 years, I have only seen it once where we switched databases on an application. That said, ORM will make this much easier since it takes care of writing all the SQL code, data type conversions etc …

When to use an ORM framework?

From my personal experience, an ORM framework becomes more useful as the size and complexity of the project increases. If you just have a simple database with say 5 tables and 5-6 queries … setting up an ORM framework may be overkill. I would start considering the use of ORM when:

• You have 3 or more programmers on a web application.
• Your database consist of 10+ tables.
• You have say 10+ queries to make.

ORM frameworks can’t do it all

If you think that using an ORM framework will allow you to forget SQL and never have to look back, think again. Once you jump into the ORM world, you will find that about 80-90% of your queries can be handled by the ORM generated objects. It is inevitable that at some point you will need to drop down and use some SQL or some SQL like query language.

In fact, ORM frameworks often have their own *QL query language that looks a lot like SQL. Doctrine, a popular PHP based ORM framework has DQL (Doctrine Query Language) and the very popular Hibernate (used in the Java and .Net world) has HQL. Going even further, Hybernate allows you to write straight SQL if need be.

Despite the need for a SQL like language in ORM frameworks, they can still be very valuable tools in your PHP work.

ORM Frameworks for PHP programmers

Not an exhaustive list, but here are a few ORM frameworks to consider:

• Doctrine
• Part of the cool Zend Framework Zend Db
• CakePHP has ORM built into it.
• RedBean ORM without configuration!

Thanks for reading,

Stefan Mischook
www.killerphp.com

Ok, let’s start …

You should protect your relational databases (like MySQL) from the dreaded SQL injection attack. These attacks are conducted by evil sniveling nerds, trying to insert damaging SQL code into your HTML form fields (and query strings too) to do things like … drop database tables or even wipe out your database altogether!

… These attacks are very real!

My Recent Experience

We recently put up our new shopping cart system … I personally keep on eye on activity, and to my surprise, we can get 25-30 attempted attacks a day! Man, if I could just get my hands on one of these guys ….

Fortunately, there are a few code-centric steps you can take to protect yourself from these SQL injection attacks:

• Use this function: mysql_real_escape_string() and wrap your input variables with it.
• Use an object-relational mapping (orm) system to basically avoid writing SQL to begin with. I hear the best one for PHP’rs today is Doctrine
• use a prepared statement that basically processes everything and cleans it up for you. PHP has the PDOStatement class for this.

Another option (that I like to use), is to just remove the database from any possible external interaction. Sometimes this is not possible but when it is, it works well. So for instance, our cart does not talk to a relational database at all, so all these SQL injection attacks we get just makes me giggle like a little school girl.

Stefan Mischook
www.killerphp.com

My good buddy and right-hand-nerd, Jon is being flown down to do a live webinar for the Zend geeks at Intuit. It seems the accounting giant has recognized Jon’s ability to take the complex and make it seem simple.

Just in case you don’t know, Jon is the author of our crazy cool shopping cart tutorial and our new series on advanced PHP.

… Jon is starting to realize that my choice to go with the Zend Framework a few years ago made sense. Actually, it made dollars and cents!

OK, bad nerd humor … I know. I’m just low on material that isn’t profanity laced.

If you want to know WHY, after looking at all the other PHP frameworks out there, that I thought the Zend Framework was the best choice long term (even back when Zend was still in Beta) .. you’re going to have to ask!

Anyway here is the official announcement:

Jon Lebensold, author of the popular PHP Shopping Cart and founder of Zendcasts.com will be writing a Google Wave Gadget in Boston at Intuit’s East coast office. Intuit is setting up a live webinar which you can attend by registering on the Zendcasts website.

Zendcasts.com began this year with the hope of assisting intermediate PHP developers further their Zend Framework skills. If you’re a PHP developer interested in building apps on Google Wave or want to watch someone build an AJAX application with web services like Google Wave and Intuit’s QuickBase, this free webinar will be worth spending a lunch hour at your desk.

The webinar takes place Wednesday, November 18 at 12:00 (noon) Eastern Standard Time (GMT -05:00).Register online now.

Here’s the banner:

Just in case you are not familiar with Quickbase … just click on the link.

That’s it for today. But coming soon, I will have some pretty big news … actually, the biggest thing to come to killerphp.com since we ordered that huge pizza! Ok, even bigger than that!!

Stefan Mischook
www.killerphp.com

In our never ending quest for pure PHP nerdness, we continue our look at advanced PHP. This is video 7 of a series of videos where we explore PHP6 and other advanced PHP concepts, concepts often seen in PHP frameworks like Zend, PHP Cake and others.

The video:

More to come.

Stefan Mischook
www.killerphp.com

They just keep on coming! This is video 6 of a series of videos where we explore PHP6 and other advanced PHP concepts, concepts often seen in PHP frameworks like Zend, PHP Cake and others.

The video:

Yes, I’m using Youtube … it saves me bandwidth! I’ve been pushing 250 GB a month just on Killerphp.com!

Many more to come,

Stefan Mischook
www.killerphp.com