Joomla 1.5 Knocking At Your Door
Getting a Grip on the Next Release

By Mitchell Pirtle

Joomla! core developer Mitch Pirtle takes you through a quick tour of the advancements in the latest update to the award winning content management system. This article outlines and demonstrates some of the most important improvements in Joomla!, from a developer perspective.[Read More]

Review of NuSphere's PhpED 4.5
What's New From the Folks at NuSphere? Plenty!

By Elizabeth Naramore

It's been a while since we've reviewed NuSphere's PHP IDE, PhpED. The latest release of this IDE, PhpED v4.5, boasts plenty of new features for PHP coders such as an integrated PHP debugger, instant browser preview and numerous helpful tools to speed up development. As well, there are tools embedded in the software that help improve the quality of your code, and to help you decipher code inherited from someone else. In this article we take an in-depth look at what PhpED has to offer, as well as some things that might be nice to see included in the future.[Read More]

XSLT for the Meek, the Cowardly, and the Terrified
Elements

By Thomas Myer

XSLT can be a bit scary for those who first experience it. However, with a bit of perseverance, you’ll get the hang of it. In this article, you will learn about namespaces, how to match a root node, how to loop through a series of nodes, how to print out both elements and attributes, and how to count, sort, and use conditional logic.[Read More]

Leveraging the Power of XUL and PHP
A Definitive Primer on a Useful XML Dialect

By Markus Wolff & Stefan Neufeind

XUL is an amazing technology. It offers everything you need to write applications whose look and feel, overall responsiveness and comfort level are on par with desktop applications. Read this definite primer on XUL to tap into its power and write something cool.[Read More]

Database Abstraction – From PEAR::DB to PEAR::MDB2
Introduction to PEAR::DB and PEAR::MDB2 Database Abstraction Layers

By Stoyan Stefanov

This article aims to familiarize you with two database abstraction layers – PEAR::DB and PEAR::MDB2. Learning them both in parallel is easy (even easier if you already know one of them) because they share very similar APIs.[Read More]

Book Review: Pro PHP XML and Web Services
From the Apress Stable

By Mitchell Pirtle

When I was approached to write a review for this book, I had to think several times about it. My bookshelf is littered with XML books, all of which were disappointing. After 5 or 6 books all promising to get me up to speed and using XML in a productive fashion, I approached this one with a wary eye. Read on to see if this book could break free of the shackles of my previous bad XML book experiences.[Read More]

Aspect-Oriented Software Development and PHP
Integrating AOSD Into Your PHP-based Projects

By Dmitry Sheiko

Aspect Oriented Software Development (AOSD) is a methodology meant to implement new aspects in software components using external components, but without altering the code that implements the core functionality. This article will run you through several examples of how you can easily integrate basic AOSD approaches into your own PHP-based projects.[Read More]