php[architect]

by Derick Rethans

Despite its relatively young age, Xdebug is a very popular extension for PHP 4 and 5 that adds a great set of functions to the standard interpreter to debug, profile and analyze PHP scripts. In this article, Xdebug's author Derick Rethans provides a Q&A session for PHP developers who want to know how Xdebug can help make solving debugging, profiling and testing problems easier thanks to its advanced features.

by Michal Wojciechowski

The ability to launch external programs from PHP scripts enables the developer to extend the functionality of an application beyond the capabilities of PHP func-tions and extensions—all this with little effort and in a short time. Author Michal Wojciechowski shows you a way to do this quickly and efficiently right from your scripts.

by Ron Goff

Have you ever suffered a defacement of your website or even a fellow employee delete and important file from your server by mistake without you knowing until you got a phone call telling you to fix the server now? Then you may benefit from one of the automated PHP robots that Ron Goff describes in this article!

by Eric Wiener

Imagine a user-friendly shopping cart that allows the customer to make instantaneous order adjustments without waiting for the page to refresh, queries UPS for all the available shipping rates and charges the customers credit card upon checkout. That same cart also handles the SSL security automatically, maintains function regardless of browser and is XHTML 1.1, Section 508 and W3C WAI compliant. In Part Two of this two-part article, Eric David Wiener tackles the most important topic of all: getting the customer's money—from checkout to credit cards, he's got you covered.

by Mark Evans

Why do users of open-source software sometimes get disillusioned with the con-cept of open-source? How can users and developers work better together? In this article, I will address the issue of supporting open-source applications from both a user’s and developer’s perspective and will provide suggested guidelines on how the users and developers can help each other to make each project a success.