Author Archive for: Alan Seiden

Entries by Alan Seiden

ZendCon 2010

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The 2010 “Zend/PHP Conference” welcomed the full range of the PHP community: open source contributors, small businesses, practitioners of diverse technologies and platforms, including Microsoft Windows, Linux, and IBM i, and the largest names in technology and business: Adobe, GE, the New York Stock Exchange. All these contributed energy and momentum to ZendCon. I presented two talks and attended many more, given by some of the top names in IBM i and PHP. Beyond the great value of scheduled sessions, though, ZendCon offered even more. As noted by Zend’s co-founder Andi Gutmans in his opening address, ZendCon’s value comes not…

Rocking at COMMON

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COMMON’s fall conference and expo in San Antonio was the first of its kind, and a first for me as well. It marked my debut as a speaker for COMMON, as I presented three sessions about PHP on IBM i. The conference brought the Power Systems and IBM i community together for learning and networking. I met many great people and caught up with industry friends. After each day’s information-packed sessions, we gathered to relax and socialize. A social highlight for me was the “Power Down” evening on Tuesday, October 5. The organizers had set up the Wii “Rock Band”…

Zend Framework named among “Best of Open Source Software” for 2010

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Infoworld has awarded Zend Framework a “Bossie,” naming ZF one of the top 10 open source application development tools of 2010. Infoworld says: The Zend Framework, from the creators of the PHP runtime, combines a business-friendly open source license with a set of high-quality, object-oriented component libraries for building serious Web applications. The loosely coupled components extend from authentication and session management to Web services and APIs to the popular Web 2.0 sites, and they include everything in between. You’ll also find components for the MVC (model-view-controller) design pattern and “RAD” tools to generate your project structure and populate it…

VTMUG friends

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I had a great time yesterday at the annual conference of VTMUG (Vermont Midrange Users Group).  I gave two talks about PHP on IBM i. I got to watch Skip Marchesani give a talk about the IBM i’s SQL Script Center, and John Valance speaking about Web 2.0. I wanted to see Jon Paris and Susan Gantner’s presentations but conflicting time slots prevented that. I’ll try to catch Susan’s talk at the Zend/PHP Conference, where I’ll also be speaking. This photo shows us relaxing after a satisfying day of teaching and learning at VTMUG.

My upcoming PHP talks this fall (2010)

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Please join me for my IBM i-focused PHP talks this fall. I’ll present these topics: web services with PHP and Zend Framework batch and command-line tasks with PHP RPG-based 5250 applications as the basis for new web applications …all focused on PHP on IBM i! Here are the dates, locations and web sites with more information: Sept 28: Vermont Midrange Users Group (VTMUG) education day, South Burlington, Vermont Oct. 3-6: COMMON Fall Conference, San Antonio, Texas Oct. 26: OMNI Users Group education day, Chicago suburbs Nov. 1-4: Zend/PHP Conference (ZendCon 2010), Santa Clara, California I look forward to meeting many…

Two techniques for retrieving SQL from Zend Framework’s database components

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Zend Framework’s database components can build and run queries without the developer’s having to touch the underlying SQL. Sometimes, though, developers need the SQL for diagnosing problems or to look for efficiencies. That SQL can be accessed with a choice of two main techniques: getQuery() getQuery() is a method of Zend_Db_Profiler and seems, along with getLastQueryProfile(), to be the standard advice for retrieving SQL of a recent query: query = $profiler->getLastQueryProfile(); echo $query->getQuery(); Yes, getQuery() works, but what if I’m not using the profiler, or I need to retrieve SQL before a query has run? __toString() The “magic method” __toString()…

Zend Studio 7.2.1 faster, more reliable

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UPDATE: As of 2020, we recommend using Seiden PHP on IBM i and LINUX for reliability, speed, and ease of maintenance. I just upgraded my copy of Zend Studio for IBM i from 7.0.2 to 7.2.1. Big improvement! My use case: I typically use Zend Studio’s “Remote Server” facility to connect to the IBM i over FTP. With 7.2.1, FTP-based files now open and save much faster than before. In addition, the FTP connection no longer randomly disconnects the way it used to. I recommend upgrading to 7.2.1, especially for anyone using FTP. It provides a smooth, hassle-free user experience. Get…

A simple security measure

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A reader recently asked me this security question: If a user enters: http://<my_ip>/<mydirectory> instead of http://<my_ip>/<mydirectory>/script.php They get a listing of all scripts/files in that directory and they can then select and execute/run those scripts. This is a real concern for us, any suggestions? The solution is to turn off directory browsing in your Apache configuration. To do this, make sure your Apache configuration file (probably httpd.conf or .htaccess) includes this directive: Options -Indexes Note that this directive merely prevents people from discovering the names of your files. Users who already know your file names can still access them. But…

See me speak about web services and Zend Framework

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Join me at at Long Island PHP on June 7, 2010, where I’ll present a case study showing how I integrated Windows-based data into an IBM i-based application using SOAP with Zend Framework. The principles are the same no matter what type of servers you use. There will be plenty of time for questions and discussion. Hope to see you there! P.S. To see the slides from my past presentations, go to  https://www.seidengroup.com/presentations/.