The SitePoint PHP blog has posted a tutorial introducing the use of ProxyManager in RESTful APIs to help interface your API endpoints directly with backend objects for the typical CRUD (create, read, update, delete) handling a REST API provides. ProxyManager is a tool created by Marco Pivetta to creating various kinds of proxies through a set of factory classes.

The proxy pattern is another cool design pattern in software development. A proxy is a class working as an interface to another class or web service. For the sake of simplicity, we’ll refer to proxied classes as subjects throughout the rest of the article. A proxy usually implements the same interface as the subject, so it looks like we’re calling the methods directly on the subject.

They start with a brief overview of proxies and the proxy design pattern for those not familiar then "cut to the chase" and show how to hook in ProxyManager via a custom adapter for the REST endpoints. They help you get all dependencies needed installed (via Composer) and the creation of a simple API using Silex and it's provider handling. They then create the application, set up the front controller and configure the relation between endpoint and proxy. Code is then included to create the required factories, interfaces and mappings. The tutorial wraps up with an example of using the API you've just created.

On the Inspire Trends site they've listed out what they think are 35 useful PHP classes and libraries that can make you more efficient in your development.

PHP is a scripting language that also happens to be the most popular in the domain. It is famously used in web development and may not be all that easy to learn for newbies, but it certainly does work wonders and magic. The best part about the internet are the numerous free resources offered on pretty much everything known to mankind and since this particular posts regards PHP, we shall be focusing on that. PHP has allowed web developers around the world to make the web a better environment. It supports several features that automate several processes making your job easier. If you are looking to learn this language, which we believe a developer should, you have come to the right place.

Their list includes tools like:

• Idiorm
• Munee
• Imagine
• OpAuth
• Ratchet Websocket for PHP
• Fpdf
• Sajax

Check out the full post for the entire list, screenshots of them in action and links to the project sites.

On Script-Tutorials.com today there's a new tutorial showing you how to use one of the more under-used and powerful features of recent PHP releases - the phar packaging for creating self-contained archives.

I guess you noticed that due your project become larger – the more and more files it contain. Sometimes it comes to the thousands of files. And then – Phar can help you. This utility allows us to pack a variety of files in the single library file. Thus, we can significantly reduce the number of include files in the project, and work with the entire library as with single file. It is also possible to have a packed (gzip/bzip2) version of the library.

They show you how to create simple phar archive (sample code here) that contains a few classes linked by an index.php file.

On his blog today Jani Hartikainen looks at how you can use the SPL exception types to allow for better overall error handling in your application. Things like BadMethodCallException and OutOfBoundsException make the errors much more descriptive.

Since PHP 5, there has been a bundle of built-in exceptions – the "SPL exceptions" – in PHP. However, the documentation for these classes is quite lacking in examples, and it can be difficult to understand when you should be using them. The short answer is always.

The list of exception types he recommends include:

• BadMethodCallException
• DomainException
• LengthException
• OutOfRangeException
• UnexpectedValueException

For each he gives an example usage of it, sometimes including a bit of code to illustrate.

NETTUTS.com has posted the second part of their series looking to help PHP developers understand a bit more about the world of ASP.NET. This second part gets a bit more advanced than the first part.

It's been a hard climb for me, as a PHP guy for many years, to get to grips with ASP.NET. However I've found many good things in the framework, and have come to appreciate the power of the C# language - without losing my love for PHP.

He talks about using a development method he's come up with (rather than ASP.NET WebForms or ASP.NET MVC) because of his standards for the output, their reliance on Javascript and why he chose to learn the base .Net framework. He shows how to create a master page (template), work with custom classes, hook the script into databases and handling user controls.

The PHP::Impact blog has posted a list of thirty classes and components that can make your PHP development life so much easier:

Simplicity and extensibility are the main reasons why PHP became the favourite dynamic language of the Web. In the last decade, PHP has developed from a niche language for adding dynamic functionality to small websites to a powerful tool making strong inroads into large-scale Web systems.

Their list includes software like:

• LINQ for PHP
• Doctrine
• HTML Purifier
• SimpleTest
• Phing
• PHP Security Scanner
• SimplePie
• Smarty

...and many more. Check out the full list for all sorts of useful tools.

Stefan Mischook shares a little question and answer he had recently concerning object properties in PHP.

The question asked about accessing properties outside the class and/or defining them as protected/private to prevent it. Stefan's response was basically:

Many OO techniques are designed for situations where you will have more than one programmer involved, now or later. By declaring variables as protected or private, you are adding security to the code base by forcing the use of getter and setter methods where you can control how objects are used.

Stefan Mischook shares a little question and answer he had recently concerning object properties in PHP.

The question asked about accessing properties outside the class and/or defining them as protected/private to prevent it. Stefan's response was basically:

Many OO techniques are designed for situations where you will have more than one programmer involved, now or later. By declaring variables as protected or private, you are adding security to the code base by forcing the use of getter and setter methods where you can control how objects are used.

In his latest blog post, Matthew Weir O'Phinney shares some of his newfound love for the Reflection API that PHP5 brings to the table:

When I first read about the Reflection API in a pre-PHP 5 changelog, my initial reaction was, "who cares?" I simply failed to see how it was a useful addition to the language. Having done some projects recently that needed to know something about the classes they are using, I now understand when and how it can be used.

It shines when you need to work with classes that may not be defined when you write your code -- any code that dispatches to other classes, basically.

To emphasize the point, he lists a few things you can do with the API, including determine if a method exists in a class and instantiate an object instance with a variable number of arguments to the constructor. He also includes a code example, showing a simple method of getting all of the methods on a class.

In his latest blog post, Matthew Weir O'Phinney shares some of his newfound love for the Reflection API that PHP5 brings to the table:

When I first read about the Reflection API in a pre-PHP 5 changelog, my initial reaction was, "who cares?" I simply failed to see how it was a useful addition to the language. Having done some projects recently that needed to know something about the classes they are using, I now understand when and how it can be used.

It shines when you need to work with classes that may not be defined when you write your code -- any code that dispatches to other classes, basically.

To emphasize the point, he lists a few things you can do with the API, including determine if a method exists in a class and instantiate an object instance with a variable number of arguments to the constructor. He also includes a code example, showing a simple method of getting all of the methods on a class.