The PHP-GTK Community website has three new posts today - two concerning pieces of PHP-GTK software and one with news about the new RPC services the website offers.

First off is a look at the emuControlCenter software (version 0.9), a rom-manager for console and computer games:

emuControlCenter (ecc) is a rom-manager for retro and new console/computer games. ecc is build for people who want's to play retro games quick 'n' easy, without searching to much, ECC supports images and previews them directy in the 'Resultview'. Also there is a 'ImageCenter' build-in for a fullsize preview!

Next up is the PHP_Gtk Builderthis site for more information.

Finally, there's some information posted about the new web service offered by the site:

Starting today, the community site exposes a new XML-RPC service offering access to its daily statistics, in addition to the existing geo_nick API.

They include the list of information pages on getting started and using the API (like the access_stats API and a tutorial on getting started with PHP-GTK and the geo_nick service).

Edin Kadribasic shares some great news on his blog this morning those using the PHP Windows builds will be happy to hear.

During my time at Emini I was using an old beat up machine to build PHP snapshots for Windows. It was only a Pentium II 400MHz and compiling a PHP snapshot on that machine took more than an hour. After leaving Emini I needed to find a new box for compiling PHP snapshots and PECL extensions for the Windows platform.

The light at the end of the tunnel came when Wez Furlong reminded him about a box OmniTI had that could handle just that. Now, what used to take over an hour to run takes around six minutes (a full compile of the latest snapshot with all of the extensions, including checkout and upload of the Win32 snapshot).

DevShed is continuing on with their look at using Builder objects (part 1, part 2) with the third and final part of the series - Developing a Form Director Class.

In this article I'll complete the builder pattern, since I'll demonstrate how to define and use a form director class, in this way putting the final strokes on the example that you learned in the previous tutorial.

The tutorial goes back over a few of the concepts and code from the previous part of the series before getting into the form generation with these handy objects. They also show the FormBuilder class (creative name, eh?) that will generate the form's elements as created previously. They wrap it all up with the only new functionality - the Builder object Director class, creating a simple contact form.

DevShed is continuing their "using builder objects in PHP5" series today with this new article, a look at implementing the builder objects in a simple, common bit of functionality - forms.

Mastering some of the most popular design patterns with PHP 5 can be sometimes an overwhelming process that requires hard work and experience. However, if you want to tackle the challenge and expand your existing background on them, this article might eventually find a place on your quick reference list.

They start by defining the basic form element class, helping to build out the different elemnts like inputs, selects, and submits. They extend and implement this class with their example, making a complete form with working elements inside.

DevShed kicks off another three-parts series today with part one of a look at working with builder objects in PHP5.

In this article, the first of a three-part series, you will be introduced to the basics of creating directors and builder objects with PHP 5. As usual, there will be copious examples to help you quickly start using the builder pattern in your own PHP projects.

Well, to put things in a simple perspective, when the builder pattern is applied, two objects are put into action to create a third one. First, these two objects create a director; as its name suggests, the director controls all aspects of the creation process and determines what pieces and modifications will be introduced into the target object. Finally, a builder is tasked with constructing the third object in question, in accordance with particular specifications. Sounds fairly simple, doesn't it?

They start with a look at starting with the Builder pattern, building a basic XML document to provide the structure for the target object. From that information, they show how to create the object and give a simple class to help direct that object along.

In a previous WeberDev.com article, Mike Potter showed how to get PHP and Flex to play nicely together, combining the two for a simple application. In this new article, he takes it a step further by showing how you can directly pass data between Flex and PHP without the need for XML generation.

The key to doing this is a small project called AMFPHP. As stated on their webpage, the project was originally started by Wolfgang Hamann. The team has grown lately, and now has about 5 or 6 developers. Thanks to their hard work, we can now have a Flex based front end to our PHP backend applications.

He creates another application from scratch, providing all of the database structure, XML, and ActionScript, and PHP code that you'll need to follow along. The application is a simple display of database records, in this case user data from the MySQL table.

According to this post on PHPBuilder.com today, there's a new PHP-based Ajax-enabled site builder that's been released - Drag Drop Site Creator.

SQLFusion recently announced the release of its online site building application, built with "AJAX" technology. This online web site builder, called Drag Drop Site Creator, is intended primarily for web hosting companies, which offer Drag Drop Site Creator as an additional service to their hosting customers.

The software is entirely server-side, and uses the Ajax to work like a WYSIWYG editor on the user's local machine. You can even point/click/drag your way to any layout you want...

In the final part of their "The Singleton and Factory Patterns in PHP" series, DevShed has posted this new tutorial on the creation of a form generator class using all of the previous code.

In this final part of the series, Alejandro Gervasio examines a point that he has not taking into consideration so far: that the layout of form elements plays a relevant role within the overall development process. With this in mind, he encapsulates the logic needed to generate web forms by defining a form generator class. This class will implement the form element factory along with all of the required form element classes.

He guides you through the rest of the methods not mentioned previously in the class and puts it "to the test" with a practical example. He finishes it off with the full code for the class all in one place to make grabbing and using it a simple experience...