Well, the code base of patTemplate is pretty majure and new releases quite seldom. Still patTemplate is alive and in heavy use. Working with patTemplate in larger projects always includes writing custom extensions like variable modifier and template functions for it. Every now and then, modules for general use appear and I usually add them to patTemplate's code base. This way patTemplate grows little by little, even if it's core stays the same.

Here are some variable modifiers that were recently added:
Calc (like a pocket calculator), Dateformat, Numberformat, Sizeformat (displays human readable file sizes) and Truncate (makes verbose text brief).

This week Torben Egmose provided a template caching driver based on famous Memcache. Now there are five cache backend modules available: File, eAccelerator, Memcache, MMCache and XCache.

As mentioned above, there are no major changes, but as usual, it those little bits and pieces that make life enjoyable.

Under normal circumstances I would not post this here, but I am getting desperate - and I thought a job offer is infinitely more useful if not as entertaining than the recent "seven things" chain postings

My company, Mistralys, is based on the southern mediterranean french coast and offers services to german companies as well as local and nationwide subcontractors and companies. Due to the amount of project requests piling up, it is time to grow. I need someone who can work autonomously, and who has a foot both in PHP development and design.

To keep things simple, these are the main job requirements:

- Good knowledge of german (at least read & write it)
- Very good knowledge of Photoshop and Web-based design
- Good all-round PHP knowledge, including object-oriented development
- Be available full-time (or part-time in the beginning)

I am aware that moving to france is not going to be an option for many (although that would be ideal). Working remotely from your home is a possibility, as long as you are available during CET working hours (roughly 9am to 17pm).

NOTE: freelancing does not mix well with the projects I work on, as I often get requests that have to be finished on very short notice (sometimes within a few hours). This is why I avoid working with freelancers, and discourage freelancers applying for the offer.

I have a full job description on the website, feel free to read up on all the details. If you want to apply or know more, please contact me at s.mordziol at gmail.com with your portfolio and salary expectations. Comments welcome, as always.

Regards,

Sebastian Mordziol.

After a year of inactivity in our blog, there are finally some news worth mentioning. Some minutes ago, I release version 1.2.0 of patError. Although this release contains no new features, it might be interesting for any of you using patError, as I adjusted the code to PHP 5. When using this new version, you will get not E_NOTICE or E_STRICT warnings any more as it has been the case with previous releases. There will also be no E_DEPRECATED errors, when you make the switch to PHP 5.3.0. As usual, you can get the release from our PEAR channel.

I decided to port patError to PHP 5 while writing the second edition of my PHP Design Patterns book, which covers patError as a depency of patTemplate.

Today Timo told me that his session proposal got approved! Yippie! We both applied for the AJAX in Action in Frankfurt November this year.

I submitted a session about some essential JavaScript tricks for modular sites that make extensive use of Web 2.0 technologies. I planed to focus on real live examples - stuff that we implemented at My Nero, in other words sneak into a big AJAX site's internals . Unfortunately it got rejected

However I'm looking forward to see Timo's session about a flexible and easy to use AutoSave Framework. Adapting his thoughts, you can add the AutoSave feature to any form on a web-site easily. As I know some internals about his implementation, I can tell you that he solved some big issues. Though he focused on reusability and came out with a bunch of really nice lines of code.

It's going to become a very interesting conference this autumn.

Yesterday, the Stubbles project got its own blog at www.stubbles.org.

Stubbles is a new framework for PHP 5.2 which focuses on clean OO design, the use of patterns and ports some features from the langauges commonly referred to "enterprise languages" to PHP. If you are looking for new ways to develop your PHP applications, you should definitely take a look at the stubReflection package, which brings Java Annotations to PHP. The next issue of the German PHP Magazin will feature an article, that shows how to use this package.

The blog will feature tutorials, thoughts on Stubbles and surely rants on PHP itself. So it will be definitely worth the read.

Stubbles currently is developed by Frank Kleine, Nico Steiner and Stephan Schmidt. The design of the Stubbles logo and the Stubblog design have been created by Sebastian Mordziol of Mistralys, who is also responsible for the PAT design and several PAT packages.

Cal Evans, editor of the Zend Developer Zone, wrote a review of "PHP Programming with PEAR", the book I wrote together with Carsten Lucke, Aaron Wormus and Stoyan Stefanov.
The review is very positive and what's especially nice about it, is, that he liked Chapter 4 (Web services) the most and this is one of the chapters that I wrote. If you are interested in buying a copy of the book, you can find more information at the book website, which has been set up by Aaron. And of course you can directly order it at Amazon.com.

XJConfForPHP, the XML-to-object-mapper, Frank Kleine and me are working on is now available as a daily snapshot from snaps.php-tools.net.
While the project started as a 1:1 port of the Java version, we are constantly adding new features as well as unit tests. If you need a flexible solution to parse XML documents and create PHP data structures, you might give XJConfForPHP a try.

As Aaron blogged earlier today "PHP Programming with PEAR" has finally been published. It is a colaboration between Carsten Lucke, Stoyan Stefanov, Aaron Wormus and me. It takes a quite practical approach that showcases a lot of code to get the job done very quickly using various PEAR packages. Packages covered in the book range from Date and MDB2 to XML_Serializer and Services_Webservices. I contributed to chapters that introduce the reader to the XML and Webservice packages, as I contributed a lot of code to these categories.

The book is available for order from Amazon.com or if you are living in Europe you might as well order it from Amazon.de or Amazon.co.uk. Aaron also set up a wiki for the book, where you can find more information or even contribute.

After nearly a year of work, my first very own book has finally been published and arrived last weekend.
PHP Design Patterns is published by O'Reilly and introduces the reader to the world of patterns by providing practical examples. The patterns used in the book include simple patterns like the Singleton, Subject/Observer or Composite, but also more complex patterns like the Intercepting Filter or Event-Dispatcher patterns. If you never used PHP5 for object-oriented development, you might also finde the short introduction to PHP5's new features, including interceptors, SPL and exceptions, worth reading. All patterns covered in the book can be applied to web applications, and to stay on the practical side of development, PEAR, Propel and patTemplate are used in some examples.

So if you are capable of understanding German and interested in learning more about patterns and software design in general, feel free to buy it at Amazon.de. More information and code examples can be found at the book website or at O'Reilly's online catalog. If you're still not convinced to buy the book, it might help, that the book has been published as a hardcover so it will last longer than most other books