The document discusses advancements in PHP applications, covering language improvements, community changes, and new frameworks. It highlights persistent myths surrounding PHP and outlines the evolution of features such as namespaces, PDO, and testing tools like Composer. The document also emphasizes the shift towards modern PHP frameworks that adhere to new standards, improving development practices and application performance.

1. Building Modern PHP Applications
How PHP language, tool, and framework
advancements will help you improve your
applications.

2. Me
● Developer at Blend
Interactive
(blendinteractive.com)
● Sioux Falls, SD
● Contact Me:
– shellrunner.com
– @jacksonmurtha
– github.com/jxn
– gplus.to/jacksonmurtha
– jackson@jacksonmurtha.com

3. Attendee Survey
● Are you developing applications in PHP?
– Which version? Which Platform(s)?
– Are you using a framework?
● What other languages are you using?
● Are you testing your PHP applications?
– Unit testing? Browser integration testing?

4. PHP's Image Problem
● Language origins
● Deprecated features
● Disorganized/disparate community
● Poor release-planning
● Persistent myths
● Bad code (in high-profile applications)
● New features are not well known
● Some legitimate concerns (threads, enforced
security policies, naming / param consistency)

5. PHP Myths
● OOP is difficult or impossible ● Not a “real” programming language – a
preprocessor
● Performance problems
● Insecure
● Windows is a second-class citizen
● All “blog code”
● Community in decline
● Immature platform or only immature
● Difficult/Impossible to separate applications
responsibilities (view-code littered with
business logic)
● Poor garbage collection
● Not testable
● Tools are outdated
● Tools are focused on the document-web
● Everything is global
● Fate of the language is tied to the fate of
● No longer needed given client-side state
mod_php
● Dumb PHP “features” get in the way ● No modern language features
● New deployment methods are not ● Not enterprise-friendly
available (e.g. Heroku)
● Difficult to add contributions
● Poorly-managed releases, slow release
cycle
● No visibility of roadmap

6. Valid Criticisms
● Naming / parameter consistency*
● Multi-byte strings can cause problems*
● Threading*
● Few “forced” conventions*
● PHP is rarely “first to feature”*
● ???

7. Changes to the web
● Javascript is now viable / sexy ● emergence of “big data”
● ajax is ubiquitous ● multi-server environments
● rising application complexity ● viability of non-shared hosting
● client / browser enhancements ●
rise of the web application and decline
● ascendancy of the web API of the document web
● new code lifespan requirements ● popularization of rails/django
● popularity of agile development ● viability of compiled languages (C# /
● automated application testing Java)
● event-driven designs ● growth of the mobile web
● virtualized environment advancements ● alternatives to database for storage
● return of the generated static page ●
commercialization of
● new expectations and legal compliance software/developer tools and training
● web development buzz and hype

8. PHP is constantly evolving
● Release / cultural
changes
● Feature removal
● New PHP features
● New PHP tools
● Second generation
frameworks
● New external tools

9. Release / core development changes
● New developers on the core team
● New RFC process
● Reworked community resources
● Feature-release timetable, ~1 year
● Bugfix / maintenance timetable
● Bug reporting improvements, reworked documentation approval
process
● Clearer expectations, more development visibility, smoother release
transitions, greater predictability
● Larger, more diverse developer community and a more experienced
security team
● Inter-framework cooperation & standards organizations

10. Framework Interop
● http://php-fig.org
● Growing influence, with three standards
● PSR-0
– Autoloading/namespacing
● PSR-1
– Basic coding standard
● PSR-2
– Thorough style-guide
● More coming....

11. Feature removal
● Removal of some of the features caused the
worst code offenses and security /
predictability problems
– Magic Quotes
– register_globals
– safe_mode
– outdated mysql functions

12. New Features – PHP 5.0 – 5.3
● Improved inheritance model
● Namespaces
● PDO
● Closures
● Phar
● Exceptions
● SPL work / extensions improvements
● Late static binding
● Garbage collector improvements

13. Namespaces
● Encapsulate Classes,
Interfaces, Functions,
Constants, Traits
● Provide grouping, prevent
collisions, allow aliasing
● Encourage segregation of
code
● Replace hackish
alternatives
● Compile-time, not runtime

14. PDO
● PHP Data Objects
● “data-access” abstraction layer
● Provide for object-oriented database access
● Encourage prepared statements:

15. Phar
● Single-file PHP archive
● Executable package
● Can access assets within and outside itself
● phar:// stream wrapper available

16. Closures / Lambda functions
● Hijacked from
functional languages
● More efficient than
create_function()
● Very useful for sort(),
array_map(),
array_filter(), or
function using a
callback parameter.

17. Garbage Collection / Late Static Binding /
Performance and memory enhancements
● Efficiency gains
● Don't try to outsmart the compiler

18. New Features – 5.4
● upload progress ● $this in closures
● binary notation ● callable typehint
● array short syntax ● jsonSerializable
● array dereferencing interface
● class member access
● short echo tag always
on instantiation available
● indirect method call by
● built-in webserver
array var ● traits

19. Array Dereferencing

20. Built-in webserver
● Easy / no configuration in most environments
● Development-only
● To start: php -S localhost:8000
● Provides many server environment variables
● Configuration php.ini, port, docroot can be
changed at execution

21. Traits
● Horizontal code-reuse
(cf. mixins)
● “Compiler-assisted
copy and paste”
● Obey most class
behaviors, but cannot
be instantiated

22. ● Traits can be
composed of other
traits
● Aliasing and collision
prevention with 'as'
and 'insteadof'
● Multiple traits can be
used at once

23. New Features – 5.5
● Password API
●
Setters / Getters
● Generators
●
Intl improvements
●
array_column()
●
Fully-qualified class names
●
Try / Catch / Finally
●
Parameter skipping
●
Read-only properties
● Named Parameters?

24. Generators
● Simpler method for working with iterators
● Nearly identical to the python implementation

25. Setters / Getters

26. Password API

27. New PHP Tools
● Package tools
– Composer (Pyrus/Pear2, Pear, Pecl, extensions,
Pirum)
● Testing tools
– PHPUnit, Behat, Mink, php-selenium, goutte,
phpspec
● Static analysis tools
– Php_Depend, phpcpd, phpdcd, codecoverage,
codesniffer, mess detector, PHP-CS-Fixer

28. Composer
● http://getcomposer.org
● Repository management through packagist.org, bitbucket,
github, etc.
● Solves many issues with PEAR
● easy install:
● curl -s https://getcomposer.org/installer | php
● Package lists, sources, dependencies, updates, installation
locations
● easy package setup, simple hosting setup, vcs/pear
integration, github/bitbucket API tools, satis integration
● library autoloading via require 'vendor/autoload.php';

29. Composer.json

30. Second Generation Frameworks
● Post-PHP v. 5.3
– Symfony 2+, ZendFramework 2.0, Silex, (Lithium?
CakePHP 2+ ?)
● More modular than predecessors
● Compliant with PHP-FIG (PSR-0)
● Use modern PHP extensions, testing tools,
OOP, abstraction layers

31. Symfony 2.0
● Installation/dependency resolution: Composer

32. Component Development
● Bundles
● Scaffolding
● ORM
● Components
symfony.com/components:
– Routing
– EventDispatcher
– HttpFoundation/HttpKernel
– Assetic

33. Run Symfony
● run php ./app/console server:run
● or configure webserver manually

34. Create a bundle: the “hard” way
● Create a bundle directory in src/
– e.g. src/MyPackage/MyBundle
● Create bundle definition class
● Create controller class
● Create routes
● Create view
● Register bundle in AppKernel

35. Create the bundle definition class
● contains
namespaces and
build functions for the
bundle, if necessary

36. Create a controller class

37. Create view / Create routes

38. Register the bundle in AppKernel

39. Create a bundle: the easy way
● Generates:
– template skeleton
– resource directories
– appKernel registry
– unit test skeleton
– bundle definition class
– default controller
● multiple routing options

40. Run the app
● Start / visit webserver
– app/console server:run
● Navigate to your route to see the response
– e.g. http://localhost:8000/app_dev.php/yourRoute/yourParameter
● How is this better than non-framework PHP?
● How is this better than existing (first-generation) frameworks?

41. The End...
● Questions...
● Feedback...