Template-Based Document Generation

Generating well-formatted, print-ready PDF documents with PHP is a notoriously difficult task. Traditionally, there are two main approaches: “The HTML-to-PDF Approach” and “The Programmatic Approach”. Given sufficient time and patience, both get the job done, but still leave a lot to be desired. This article introduces an entirely new third approach: It relies on templates being created in a WYSIWYG environment, such as Microsoft® Word, and then being populated with data from PHP. The resulting document can be saved not only to PDF, but also DOCX, DOC and RTF. This cross-platform approach will be implemented using Zend Framework. —by Jonathan Maron

WebDAV Integration Using SabreDAV

WebDAV is a network protocol built on top of HTTP that lets you interact with a server as if it was part of your filesystem. This article will explain how to build a simple fileserver using the SabreDAV library and how to extend it for your own purposes. —by Evert Pot

Web-based Retrieval: fopen() and Friends

The elephant in the room when it comes to web-based retrieval is a breed apart from the cuddly, plush, blue one that Vince Pontier designed as the mascot for PHP. The other one, which is always there, we can conveniently ignore most of the time — until something goes wrong. It is the HTTP wrapper. —by Sharon Levy

Going Industrial

In the previous article, we discussed PHP in the context of the enterprise and some common misconceptions about the technological platform encountered there. We will now take a brief look at some common solutions, including tools and practices, relevant to each of the main phases or tasks occurring in the enterprise PHP software development life cycle, from the inception of the code to the production server. —by Stéphen Périn

PDF Management with Adobe LiveCycle Forms Server

Are you developing an application that has to manage massive numbers of PDFs? Do users need to fill out forms on the PDFs and save the data back to a database? Wrangle your PDFs with Adobe LiveCycle Forms ES. —by Nathan Dawson

Drupal Corner: Selecting Technologies for Drupal

Drupal is extremely powerful, but it is also very demanding. When deciding to develop with Drupal, it is important to choose technologies that are going to make your life easier with the platform. Learn more about the technologies that power Drupal most effectively. —by Adrian Webb

Security Roundup: New Year, Old Problems

XSS attacks have been around for years. Why are they still a problem when they are so easy to avoid? —by Arne Blankerts

exit(0): The Legendary Industrial Potato Peeler

Marco muses on his childhood in Italy and how he learned that the Industrial Potato Peeler really exists.—by Marco Tabini