The digest of interesting news and materials from the world of PHP for the last two weeks №1 (09/21/2012 - 10/05/2012)

Since spring of this year on Habré in the blog of our company are published digests of interesting news from the world of IT in the last week. The digest receives a lot of positive feedback, but many users have repeatedly asked whether a similar selection of news is planned in the subject of programming. And we are finally ready to present a similar digest for everyone. News, one way or another, is related to php, as it is one of the main programming languages ​​in our company.

We are planning to publish the digest once every two weeks, if, of course, Habr's readers will like it. Therefore, we are happy in the comments are ready to listen to your advice, feedback or recommendations.
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Enjoy reading!

News and Releases

• Zend Framework 2.0.2 Release - This release fixes a problem with the “Router” service that affected URL generation.
• Release PHPUnit 3.7 - A small set of changes. Reworked reports on the percentage of code covered by tests (PHP_CodeCoverage).
• In Codeception 1.1.4, a new class Locator is introduced - The post describes how to combine more than one element for positioning, using both tags and CSS or XPath selectors. It also shows how to use the “tabindex” method to simulate moving around the page elements with the “Tab” key. And besides, there is a small code example showing how to define an element by the value of its “href” attribute.
• Ext4Yii 1.1 is available. Along with many improvements and fixes, this version introduces the TreeGrid component.

Php

• Introduction to PHP 5.4 - Everything you wanted to know about the new version of PHP in the slides from Ilia Alshanetsky, author of the bestseller php | architect's Guide to PHP Security.
• Parsing binary data in PHP - In the post, the author first talks about unpacking the string “in C style” (getting the ASCII value of each character) and shows how it should NOT be done in PHP using ord. Instead, the author uses “unpack”, bit operators and bindec to work with the actual binary data string.
• How to add "syntactic sugar" in PHP? - Not the latest, but very entertaining article, in which the author talks about the basic things in the work of Zend Engine and how to expand the language with your own chips.
• Why is singleton a “problem” in PHPUnit? - An interesting reflection on the problems of testing components that use one of the most popular design patterns using PHPUnit.
• Cloud hosting for PHP - Describes the requirements that, according to the author, should have such a service, and an overview of the most popular solutions.

Study materials

• Abstract classes against interfaces - The author gives a detailed answer to probably one of the most frequently asked questions at the interviews. It is told about the difference between these concepts, about when and which of them is better to use, examples are given.
• Create your own short link service (URL Shortener) - Create a simple tool for converting URLs into a short and easy to use form (for example, for Twitter). The structure of a simple database for storing links between short and full links is described, PHP code for creating a random hash that corresponds to the link and code for shortening it is presented. Also, of course, PHP code is presented for inverse transformation - from short to full.
• Screencast PHPUnit unit testing - If you are new to unit testing then this screencast is a good way to start learning more about it. The author uses the Laravel framework as a base to demonstrate the TDD approach.
• Introduction to Zend Framework 2 for developers using Zend Framework 1 - The article discusses three main differences between the two versions, namely, support for namesplays instead of long, awkward class names, a modular approach and the use of bootstrapping.
• Webinar: Working with ZendForm in ZF2 - In ZF2, a completely reworked Form component is introduced that allows you to simplify the processing of forms in web applications. From the webinar, you will learn how using ZendForm to render forms, validate entered data using filters. The configuration of form elements, data filters, error handling and rendering using view helpers is considered.
• Create a Yii application using Composer - How simple and easy to manage dependencies in your Yii application
• Generating QR codes using PHP - The article describes the process of generating QR codes using the PHP QR Code library
• Namespaces in PHP - PHP 5.4 is already in full swing, and many do not take full advantage of PHP 5.3. Popularly about what namespaces are and how to use them.
• Node.js for beginners - The basic principles when working with Node.js, its pros and cons. And also about the difference between Node.js and traditional server languages ​​(PHP, Python, Ruby).
• Layout in CodeIgniter - The author’s blog recently published this post in which he describes how to use a common layout for pages.
• Using the IMAP library in the examples and continued - The first part describes the functions required for connecting to the mail server and reading messages. The second part is a continuation of working with e-mails and tells you how to delete messages, download attachments, etc.
• Using ServiceManager in ZF2 and continued - The article explains the basics of implementing models in controllers using ServiceManager.

CMS / CMF

• Linux Journal Special Issue on Drupal
• Wordpress 3.5 Beta Available

• Wordpress Plugin Releases

  
  
  • Post Forking - Git for Wordpress. Absolutely wonderful plugin that allows you to "fork" the content, creating its alternative versions.
  • Advanced Browser Check - allows you to show a warning to the user if his browser is not supported by your site.
  • WP Debug Robot is an unobtrusive debugging tool for WordPress that uses UDP.
  • Automatic Post Tagger - automatically adds user-specified tags to the post.
  • SiteFeedback.com Feedback Tab - allows you to add a tab with reviews on the pages of your site.
  • Cookie Compliance - helps you make your website compliant with the new EU cookie regulation.
  • WP Glossary - allows you to create a glossary with terms on your site.
  • Yet Another Related Posts Plugin - shows a list of recommended posts based on a unique algorithm.
  • Facebook - fully integrates your website with social features of Facebook.
  • qTranslate - adds multi-language support for your site.
  • BuddyPress - social network on Wordpress. Last updated in August, but the plugin is extremely interesting and therefore included in the review.
  
  

Material prepared dbritan , nesttor and pronskiy