Seiden Group Blog

ZendCon, the premier PHP conference, October 27-30, 2014, in Santa Clara, California, has a discount expiring August 15 31 (extended!). When you register, be sure to include the tutorial day (Oct. 27). If you already registered but forgot to add the tutorial day, you can contact the organizers via a link at the bottom of the registration page. Among other half-day tutorials, I’ll be presenting two focused on IBM i:

• PHP Performance on IBM i
  • If you’re interested in performance of PHP, or IBM i generally, in order to scale your application up to meet increased user demand, or if you have specific performance needs right now, you’ll want to attend.
  • Additional insight to be provided by IBM’er Tony Cairns (see below)
  • Testimonial from last year: “Our process now runs 30-50% faster, thanks to one tip from Alan’s presentation.”
    —Mike Meszaros, Software Developer, Specialty Pipe & Tube
• DB2 with PHP in Depth
  • DB2 on IBM i has received major enhancements over the past year, including a dozen new settings in the PHP ibm_db2 middleware. Hear  how they can help improve security, performance, and stability. Other topics will include, but not be limited to:
    • Basic topics (with added commentary to make it interesting for everyone) such as library lists, prepared queries for security, persistent connections
    • DB2 in frameworks
      • Zend Framework 2
        • Including pagination (page-at-a-time logic)
      • Status of PDO and how it can be used in Laravel and other frameworks
    • The real scoop about modernization and the DDS vs. DDL (SQL) debate
    • Connecting to IBM i’s DB2 from Windows and Linux and other IBM i partitions
    • How to link MySQL-based applications (WordPress, etc.) to DB2 with the DB2 Storage Engine, with special tips
    • Using DB2’s HTTP features to make PHP-based web services even more accessible, including to allow RPG to call PHP and get results back
    • How to optimize queries
    • Strategies to safely open your application to the public
    • Topics and questions that YOU request (contact me in advance if you wish)

My co-presenter for tutorials will be IBM’s Tony Cairns, who helped bring PHP to the IBM i in the first place. He also created XMLSERVICE (toolkit back-end) and is a maintainer of ibm_db2 on the IBM i. One reason Tony comes to ZendCon is to hear from attendees such as yourselves. Normally he stays locked up in his lab. Take advantage of this opportunity to meet him. Watch Tony and me argue and debate in front of the class!

I’m also presenting a session during the regular conference about the PHP Toolkit for IBM i. I’ve updated my presentation with new features of the toolkit and best practices for calling RPG and COBOL.

ZendCon‘s topics are generally advanced ones to enable professional, enterprise-ready development practices. There’s also an IBM i track and plenty of networking time so that IBM i users of PHP can learn from speakers and each other, making the conference appropriate for intermediate users of PHP on IBM i as well.

Hope to see you there, October 27-30, 2014! Remember to register for tutorial day when you register for the conference. Get in touch with questions you’d like answered during my presentations.