php[architect]

by Hank Janssen and Pierre A. Joye

The Windows version of PHP has always lagged behind the other platforms in terms of features and stability, however, the situation has improved drastically during the last six or so months, with PHP on Windows reaching feature parity with other platforms. Developing with PHP on Windows is now easier than ever and, in some cases, has resulted in important PHP innovations. Learn how you can set up a development environment to compile and develop PHP on Windows within minutes.

by Joe Stagner

This article is intended to serve as an introduction to Microsoft Silverlight for developers that are probably not .NET developers. Learn how to get started integrating your PHP apps with the Silverlight features.

by Ruslan Yakushev and Hank Janssen

It has been pretty hard in the past to figure out how to install and configure PHP on Windows. Additionally, when you did get it installed, finding information on how to optimize PHP was even harder to find. Due to the recent work done by the PHP Community and Microsoft, doing exactly that is now easier than ever.

by Eric David Benari

Shortly after most new sites are launched, the creators discover that some necessary elements have been forgotten. Pilots employ a pre-flight checklist to avoid problems while airborne, so it is only natural that web sites should have a pre-launch checklist to avoid problems once users begin visiting the site.

by David Sceppa

Microsoft recently produced a PHP extension to communicate with SQL Server 2005 and 2008 databases, the SQL Server Driver for PHP. This article will cover the basic workings of this new extension, demonstrating how to connect to SQL Server, execute queries, retrieve results and manage transactions.

by Arne Blankerts

Take a look at the costs of securing your code up front or repairing it later. What are the actual costs, and what are the questions you need to ask yourself when deciding?

by Helgi Þormar Þorbjörnsson

In the last couple of years, there seems to be a growing trend in the PHP world where application and library developers put out claims that their piece of code is high-quality and thoroughly tested. Indeed, in many cases, this is more than true, but how can you really guarantee quality like this?

by Derick Rethans

In this second part of the three-part column on the new garbage collecting mechanism in PHP 5.3, we'll dive into a solution to the problem with circular references.

by Ivo Jansch

Frameworks are more popular than ever, and seem to have replaced the CMS as the implementation of choice for websites. In this article, Ivo interviews Matthew Weier O'Phinney, software architect for Zend Framework, on several topics, such as the reasons why frameworks are so popular.

by Marco Tabini

When the budget is tight and we have to develop for multiple browsers and platforms, creativity loses out.