On the PHPBuilder.com site today there's a new tutorial continuing in their Oracle theme about using the ADOdb libraries to access the database from your application.

Last week we discussed the use of the OCI8 extension and connection methods for using ADOdb to connect to an Oracle database. This week we'll delve further into the ADOdb library and will disect some example code to get you up to speed!

He gives an overview of some of the functions needed to make the connection and fetch results from a simple query. Some sample code and explanation is also included.

In an earlier post John Lim pointed out an interesting issue with how certain numbers are handled in PHP - ones starting with a zero:

That's because any number preceded by 0 is treated as an octal number, and 9 is an invalid octal number. [...] The silly thing is that hardly anyone uses octal nowadays, but it continues to be part of the C, C++, Java and PHP standards. The mistake is also very common.

There's not much way around it, he notes - the format's been in use for a long time now and is so ingrained in just about every C-based language out there that it's "too deeply imprinted in modern compiler DNA" to take out.

John Lim has posted about an interesting bug he's come across when working with the output of two strings that should look the same:

Someone reported a bug in ADOdb, the open source db library i maintain. I went crazy for half an hour until i realised the problem.

According to him, "if you expect the above code to produce the same values, you are sadly mistaken". His example gives an interesting result for the first echo statement - not echoing the 9 in the first character like it seems would make sense. Check out his post for the code and try it out for yourself.

On the Floss Valley blog, there's a tutorial posted on creating a sample PHP-driven, Ajax-enabled website using the Smarty templating system and the Xajax library.

This tutorial will explain how to develop a simple AJAX application using Smarty and Xajax with a simple example. The sample application is developed in a Fedora 7 + Apache-2.2 + MySQL-5 server.

They require you to already have some software installed (like PHP, MySQL, ADOdb, Xajax and Smarty) before you get started - no installation guides for those though. They do, however show how to:

• Create the database structure
• Lay out the source code files
• Make the configuration
• Connection to the database and to the Ajax script

On the Floss Valley blog, there's a tutorial posted on creating a sample PHP-driven, Ajax-enabled website using the Smarty templating system and the Xajax library.

This tutorial will explain how to develop a simple AJAX application using Smarty and Xajax with a simple example. The sample application is developed in a Fedora 7 + Apache-2.2 + MySQL-5 server.

They require you to already have some software installed (like PHP, MySQL, ADOdb, Xajax and Smarty) before you get started - no installation guides for those though. They do, however show how to:

• Create the database structure
• Lay out the source code files
• Make the configuration
• Connection to the database and to the Ajax script

In a new blog entry today, Hasin Hayder tells the reader a "little story" about a journey he made to get to framework happiness with CodeIgniter.

He walks through his thoughts and needs at different stages of the development process - a database abstraction library here, version control there - and ending up with the framework choice that faced him. Among his options were offerings by Prado, Seagull, Symfony, CakePHP and his pick - CodeIgniter.

Suddenly I got codeigniter and I was able to run a whole lot of controllers, templates and models in minutes (well not in minutes, but much less time than previous ones). A rich , pleasing to read, friendly set of documentation, a bunch of in built libraries and less autonomous control gives me full freedom over my application. It was easy to integrate my old friend smarty with it, in case it comes with it’s own active record, but it gives me chance to add adoDB with it. I fall in love with code igniter soon after i realize that it comes with almost zero learning time (or i better say learning on demand)

He also mentions that, had the post been a bit more technical in nature, other factors would have been included. As it is, though, it flows a bit better this way.

In a new blog entry today, Hasin Hayder tells the reader a "little story" about a journey he made to get to framework happiness with CodeIgniter.

He walks through his thoughts and needs at different stages of the development process - a database abstraction library here, version control there - and ending up with the framework choice that faced him. Among his options were offerings by Prado, Seagull, Symfony, CakePHP and his pick - CodeIgniter.

Suddenly I got codeigniter and I was able to run a whole lot of controllers, templates and models in minutes (well not in minutes, but much less time than previous ones). A rich , pleasing to read, friendly set of documentation, a bunch of in built libraries and less autonomous control gives me full freedom over my application. It was easy to integrate my old friend smarty with it, in case it comes with it’s own active record, but it gives me chance to add adoDB with it. I fall in love with code igniter soon after i realize that it comes with almost zero learning time (or i better say learning on demand)

He also mentions that, had the post been a bit more technical in nature, other factors would have been included. As it is, though, it flows a bit better this way.

In his new post on PHPEverywhere today, John Lim shares some of the experiences he's had so far in making the move up from PHP 4 to PHP 5 in his applications.

The transition was relatively painless. [...] What's nice about PHP5 is that it caught some errors that have been lingering in our code: PHP5 no longer allows a function to be defined twice, and some basic variable referencing errors that we missed previously.

They made the move to PHP5 for the latest versions of their applications, but have still stuck with the legacy, PHP4 versions for the time being to give customers a buffer period to make the move themselves. He also mentions changes to the way they make Ajax calls. John is a lead developer for both the ADOdb and PHPLens projects.

In his new post on PHPEverywhere today, John Lim shares some of the experiences he's had so far in making the move up from PHP 4 to PHP 5 in his applications.

The transition was relatively painless. [...] What's nice about PHP5 is that it caught some errors that have been lingering in our code: PHP5 no longer allows a function to be defined twice, and some basic variable referencing errors that we missed previously.

They made the move to PHP5 for the latest versions of their applications, but have still stuck with the legacy, PHP4 versions for the time being to give customers a buffer period to make the move themselves. He also mentions changes to the way they make Ajax calls. John is a lead developer for both the ADOdb and PHPLens projects.

Christopher Jones has reviewed one of the first Oracle PHP books that has been published ("Easy Oracle PHP: Create Dynamic Web Pages with Oracle Data") in his latest blog post today.

The writing style of Easy Oracle PHP is very clear. The book is relatively short at 264 pages but it focuses directly on PHP-Oracle interaction and does not need to be longer (though everyone will always wish for more).

Some topics covered in the book include the basics of PHP, the OCI8 model, using PEAR, using ADOdb, and installing the PHP5/Apache/PEAR combo. Christopher's opinion of the good overall is good, but notes that the target it would best fit with is for developers coming from Oracle to PHP (but will work as well for those coming the other way).