php[architect]

by Dejan Bosanac

CVS is one of those tools that everyone seems to use. It drives every project on SourceForge, and is used on numerous other projects, including PHP and PEAR. CVS also, however, seems to bring fear to the eyes of those who don't use it and don't understand it. This month Dejan takes you on an introductory tour through the CVS system, showing you how to use it, how it works, and why you care. Pay attention--your code will thank you.

by Alessandro Sfondrini

Everyone knows that PHP4's object model is not a full implementation, and that PHP5 will offer a vastly more complete system. But did you know that one of the coolest features of PHP5's object model is available in PHP4? The overload extension allows you to capture calls to methds that don't exist in your objects, and to catch attempts to read and write non-existant properties. Once caught, you have full control over how those calls and accesses are handled. Alessandro shows you the ins and outs, and how you can implement traditional method overloading.

by Eric Persson

PHP-GTK is an area of PHP that has been largely ignored by the masses. A few (very good) desktop applications exist that have been written in this flavour of our favourite server-side language, but you can almost count them on your fingers and toes. Eric wants to change that. This article takes you from A to Z in the PHP-GTK model, and leaves you with a pretty cool example application to learn from.

by John Coggeshall

SQLite is being hailed as one of the most exciting parts of PHP5. As an embedded database engine that is bundled with PHP5, it will make it possible to use SQL for almost anything, without worrying about the availability of a database server and client libraries on target systems. John shows you how it works, and what you can do with it.

by Stephan Schmidt

XML is two-sided. It is an incredibly descriptive and usable method of transferring information, but the XML API's out there manage to make it hard to work with. Then along comes PEAR::XML_Serializer. All of a sudden, XML is easy--you're writing XML, and you don't even care. It's a beautiful place to be, and Stephan's going to take you there.

by Rodrigo Becke Cabral

What happens when you get an unexpected number of hits on your site? Does your server tip over? Do you get another ulcer? No way--you manage the load and think about going out for lunch! Join Rodrigo as he uses concepts like system-wide sessions and queue theory to describe a load throttling mechanism he developed for a University registration system