If you're thinking about taking the Zend Certified PHP Developer (5.5) test but aren't sure exactly where to start, Lorna Mitchell has provided a list of some good resources to help you out.

Yesterday I updated my previous ZCE certificate to the Zend Certified PHP Developer qualification (the new ZCE for PHP 5.5 also got a new name). Since the ZCE 5.3 exam is no longer available and I work with various clients to prepare their teams for these certifications, it was important to me that I keep my own certification up to date. Now I've done that, I'd like to share some resources for others doing the same thing.

She points to a few things that could help you make the grade:

• A set of sample questions she's put together
• A bundle of helpful links
• Some flashcards she made to help with arrays and strings
• and a few other things to helpful external resources.

Iwan Luijks has a recent post to his blog trying to dispel some of the myths and misconceptions about becoming a certified ZCE through Zend's testing. He also includes some of the benefits of having the certification to go with your name.

In the community of PHP developers there are more non-certified professionals than certified professionals. PHP developers mostly don't really see the pro's of getting certified. These developers mostly honor the fact that PHP is a quick and easy language to learn and to get started with, and professionalism is found even by building a simple dynamic web page, leaving the discussion of whether this is a good or bad thing for what it is.

He talks about the confidence it can give current (and future) employers in your skill level and let them know you're the kind that keeps on learning/improving in your career. It also lets them know that you're dedicated enough to learn what you need to pass and can put it into practice easier in the future.

If you've been considering taking the Zend Certified Engineer exam for PHP 5.3 but want to be sure you know what you need to pass, take a look at this new post to the Zend Developer Zone with some helpful hints on the topics the test covers.

According to Zend , the exam covers the following topics: PHP Basics, Functions, Data Format & Types, Web Features, Object Oriented Programming, Security, I/O, Strings and Patterns, Databases and Arrays. I will detail each topic as to what you should expect at the exam, however I will first tell you some basic information about the exam. Then I will tell you about the three most important changes of PHP 5.3 and another new feature I find very useful.

He starts with a few of the basics of the exam (how many questions, his testing strategy, the number of fill-in-the-blank questions) before moving into each of the topics. It's not an exhaustive description of each, but it gives you a good idea of where to start when studying. There's lots of links to resources for each that'll take you to some great places to learn in more detail.

A new post on the Zend Developer Zone talks about the Zend Certified Engineer oDesk site that has been set up. oDesk is a marketplace for "providers" (programmers/development shops) to interact with "buyers" (companies looking for their services).

Recently oDesk set up a group called Zend Certified Engineers and they require verification of eligibility via the providers certified ZCE ID #s in order to join this group. Why is oDesk interested in providing a ZCE group to their users? Primarily this came about because buyers of software services who are part of the oDesk ecosystem requested from oDesk better ways of distinguishing experienced, trained programmers from those who are not as knowledgeable.

You can check out a few different pages for more information - the oDesk trends page for PHP, the main page for the ZCE group and a link back to Zend's site for more information on becoming a Zend Certified Engineer.

According to this post on the Zend Developer Zone website (a press release from Zend), they're classifying Windows Server 2008 as being certified "PHP ready".

This announcement is the latest in a series of collaborations between Zend and Microsoft aimed at delivering high performance and reliability for PHP applications running on the Windows Server platform. Several of these enhancements have been contributed back to the PHP community.

As a part of the project, Microsoft has even put effort into ensuring that several of the popular PHP packages (like Mambo and WordPress) work right out of teh box with a Windows Server 2008 installation.