Crossing the Divide

Your PHP applications most likely need to store some kind ofdata. While databases provide high performance and reliability,actually using them when writing object-orientated code can provetedious. In this article, author Theo Spears describes threesolutions which help you to forget about storage and allow you tofocus on functionality.—by Theo Spears

An OO Layered Approach To Web Apps

By now, you’ve probably heard about the benefits of OOP andhow it provides the ability to have more reusable, maintainable,and extensible code. But, if your background is in proceduralprogramming, switching to OOP may seem like an overwhelming task.Author Ronel Sumibcay shows you how to harness the power of OOdesign patterns, to organize your code into layers, and allow youto more confidently develop a piece of code by knowing its placeand responsibilities in the overall application.—by Ronel Sumibcay

References in PHP – An In-Depth Look

PHP’s handling of variables can be non-obvious, at times.Have you ever wondered what happens at the engine level when avariable is copied to another? How about when a function returns avariable “by reference?” Major PHP contributor Derick Rethans givesan inside look.—by Derick Rethans

Tired of fighting with full-text search in MySQL? Do you needto create a professional-quality search engine and don’t wantto have to deal with all the details? Then look no further thanXapian, the open-source search technology that you can integratedirectly into your PHP scripts.—by Marco Tabini

Test Pattern: The Construction Industry

We write slices of applications. The PHP architectureinvolves writing code on a page by page basis. At the start ofevery page we have to create every object and at the end of thescript they are all torn down. This constant setting up and tearingdown makes object construction very important to the PHPer. It’snot always an easy task though, as if one object can create anotheryou have introduced a dependency just as much as if one object usesanother. Columnist Marcus Baker describes the variousobject-contruction options.—by Marcus Baker

Tips & Tricks: CAPTCHA That Form Before It Gets Away!

Has your blog (or that of a friend) been inundated withcomment spam? Columnist Ben Ramsey brings back the Tips &Tricks column with an overview of ways to prevent this annoyingside-effect of running a publicly-commentable website.—by Ben Ramsey