NetBeans just announced the first milestone of 6.9 release which should be final for Summer 2010. Most notable feature in NetBeans 6.9 for PHP developers is the integration of Zend Framework (see our PHP Frameworks trends) in addition to an enhanced code formatting options. NetBeans IDE is really fast and lots of developers using Eclipse PDT should consider giving a try to NetBeans.

NetBeans PHP IDE include already a plugin for Symfony frameworks; more new features in this release include :

- Error badges : easily recognize files having errors directly from Projects view
- Symfony projects with custom directory structure supported
- Improved PHPDoc in Code Completion
- Formatting - the setting for formatting PHP code was extended and there are categories : Tabs and Indents, Braces, New lines, and spaces.

You can read more details on new features available in this milestone at NetBeans wiki.

Posted by Hatem at 7:05 AM to Dev Tools | Permalink | Comments (0)

RedBeanPHP is a zero-config, easy-to-use object database for PHP and an ORM tool. It works very simply. Just create bean objects and throw them at RedBean. RedBean will analyze your objects and infer a readable, comfortable data scheme from it and create all required tables and columns on the fly. RedBean is not schemaless, it makes neat tables and columns for you, but on the fly without any configuration.

RedBean try to change the way you use ORM by eliminating the complexity of the configuration part. RedBean store objects only, and can manage object relations as well. The core of RedBean is very minimalistic for an ORM, but functionnality could be easily extended with plugins, already included : Transparent Locking, Caching and Automatic Database Optimization and Cleaning.

RedBeanPHP is open source released under BSD license. Also available for download with RedBean : RedShoe a compact PHP script that automatically syncs MySQL databases for RedBean; RedUNIT a set of Unit tests to confirm that RedBean works according to specifications; and Pre-packaged since it works well with other frameworks such Zend framework, Shozu... etc. Version 1.1 already available for download in the nightly build page and include support for SQLite 3.

More information and download at http://www.redbeanphp.com

Posted by Hatem at 6:45 AM to Dev Tools | PHP Frameworks | Permalink | Comments (0)

OdinJobs have a interesting resources for PHP developers, an US job market overview for PHP related jobs. Beside that data are available for 2008-2009 only you can have an idea about salary range of PHP related jobs in different US states. I have found many new jobs from the website search but unfortunately it's not yet available in the market overview.

According to Odin's PHP Salary Histogram salaries are between from $20K to $180K, while average salary range around $70K. Notice that Odin collects jobs from job boards, corporate websites, groups etc.

PHP jobs demand in US seems concentrated mainly in New York, Illinois, Texas, California, and Massachusetts, with a peak in California with 28229 jobs overall. But from a salary point of view, Idaho got the highest salaries with $100K median salary, followed by Washington, Arkansas, California, and Massachusetts.

More trends available at Odin PHP Job Market overview

Posted by Hatem at 9:52 AM to General | Permalink | Comments (0)

Manuel Lemos - phpclasses.org - posted an interview with Khaled Al-Shamaa, one of the very known PHP figures in the Arab world especially for his book "PHP and the Arabic language" and his classes around Arabic language usage within PHP. In the interview Khaled talked about himself, his experience, projects mainly with PHP and ar-php project.

Arabic is a language spoken in many countries. The number of PHP developers from countries that use the Arabic language has been growing a lot. Currently it represents almost 2% of the users that access the PHPClasses site.

Posted by Hatem at 5:58 AM to General | Permalink | Comments (0)

Skill Testing Partner ExpertRating Launches New Code Testing Platform Exclusively On Elance

Mountain View, Calif. (November 17, 2009) - Elance, where companies hire and manage independent workers and teams online, announced today an expansion of its skill testing platform to augment Elance's existing 250 skill tests. The new Code Tests, developed in collaboration with partner ExpertRating, provide technical experts new ways to demonstrate their expertise in writing and debugging leading programming languages such as PHP and SQL.

To launch Code Tests, Elance is simultaneously announcing a 14 day "code-off" in PHP - currently the programming skill in highest demand on Elance -- offering $250 and a full-year premium membership to each of the coders who score in the Top 10 for PHP programming.

Information Technology is the largest category of work on Elance. The November edition of the monthly "Elance Work Index" shows that PHP programming has retained its #1 spot of skills in demand across all categories. "PHP continues to be the hottest technical skill on Elance. The addition of these new Code Tests gives employers yet another way to be certain that the talent they find on Elance has the skills required to get great results," said Jon Diller, VP of Elance's Provider Network. "Meanwhile, the best coders in the market can now further distinguish themselves to help them get paid for what they do best."

The new Code Tests require the test taker to work with actual code to solve a problem. Each test is made up of 10 questions with a time limit for completing the entire test with recommended time allocations for each question. The test taker will be scored on whether they are able to solve the problem in the allotted time, how concisely the code is written, and how efficiently it uses system resources. "We are pleased to partner with Elance and provide programmers with an opportunity to demonstrate verifiable expertise for key technology skills such as PHP, SQL and many more," said Ravi Saundh, Co-Founder of ExpertRating (www.ExpertRating.com).

Continue reading "Ready? Set? Code! Elance Introduces New Code Testing Platform And Sponsors PHP "Code-off"" »

Posted by Hatem at 5:48 AM to General | Permalink | Comments (1)

Microsoft IIS team released today the first beta of the Windows Cache extension for PHP (WinCache 1.0) for PHP 5.2 and 5.3. The new cache extension is a PHP accelerator that aims to increase PHP applications speed running on windows platform. The extension doesn't require any code change, it just need to be enabled in IIS. WinCache have many directives that could be enabled/disabled in php.ini and six utility functions to return extension-specific information about the cache internals.

Joe Stagner, posted an introduction to the windows cache extension and pointed to some notes about compatibilities :

• The extension can only be used with non-thread-safe builds of PHP
• The extension can only be used when IIS is configured to run PHP via FastCGI
• The Windows Cache Extension 1.0 for PHP 5.3 can only be used with the x86 VC9 build of PHP 5.3.

The Windows Cache Extension includes 3 different types of caches. The following describes the purpose of each cache type and the benefits it provides.

Continue reading "Windows Cache Extension for PHP Released" »

Posted by Hatem at 8:23 PM to Dev Tools | Performance | Permalink | Comments (0)