DevShed has posted the fourth part in their introduction to the CodeIgniter framework. This time they focus on form validation.

If you're a web developer, you've probably written any number of scripts designed to validate the input entered into a web form. More than likely, then, you'd like something that will make that job easier. Enter the Code Igniter PHP framework. In this fourth part of a nine-part series on this framework, you'll learn how to use it to do basic validation on a web form.

Making and validating forms in CodeIgniter is a pretty simple process thanks to the built-in validation features of the framework. They show you how to create a form and how to implement the validation and output error messages when an issue comes up.

DevShed continues their look at using the CodeIginiter PHP framework to build a sample application in this latest part of their series - a look a paginating the database results from a query.

As you may guess, however, Code Igniter comes bundled with a robust set of core classes, which can be used to perform all sorts of clever tasks, such as working with databases, performing file uploads, validating user-supplied data, and so forth. [...] I'm going to show you how to improve the MySQL-driven application developed in the preceding tutorial, since it'll be provided with the capacity for paging database records, via the pager class included with Code Igniter.

He starts by reviewing the previous part of the series, pulling the data from MySQL, then shows how to push that through the pagination component to create a simple user listing.

DevShed continues their series looking at the creation of an application with the CodeIgniter framework in this second part of the series (here's part one).

In this second part of the series, I'm going to teach you how to use some core classes bundled with Code Igniter, this time for building a MySQL-driven program, which will first fetch some data from a MySQL database table, and then print this information on the browser.

They show how to grab information from a table, how to create a controller class and how to use it to output the MySQL data into a view.

The CodeIgniter blog has a new community voice article posted today. This time Bruce Alderson takes a look at setting up a CodeIgniter project in a Subversion repository.

After working with CodeIgniter for a few months (and WordPress for a few years), I've settled on a way to set up web projects that works well for development, deployment, and source control.

He includes his typical folder layout (that lends itself well to a vhost setup) and includes the steps (five of them) you'll need to get the CodeIgniter application and your source into your subversion repository.

DevShed has started off a new series looking at the popular PHP framework CodeIgniter with this first part, an introduction to what the framework is and how to get it installed.

I'm talking about CodeIgniter (http://codeigniter.com), a solid piece of software written by Rick Ellis in PHP 4. It permits users to develop small and middle-scale PHP applications in minutes (literally) with minimal setup. In addition, CodeIgniter is built around the Model-View-Controller pattern, which allows you to easily separate data from application logic and visual presentation.

They show how to get it installed and up and working with a basic site including a little MySQL integration.

In a recent post on his blog David Otton shares some of his thoughts on a major struggle between web developers (and not just PHP ones) - frameworks versus libraries.

We all know that loose coupling is good and tight coupling is bad, so why, over the past couple of years, has the web industry gone nuts for tightly-coupled frameworks?

He talks about the evolution of the framework, how Ruby on Rails really popularized it and some of his experience with a few of the PHP ones (CakePHP, Zend Framework, CodeIgniter and Symfony). Of those he experienced, he felt that that strongest player of the group was the Zend Framework. It allowed for the framework feel and functionality but provided enough separation to be able to drop in libraries and configure custom settings easily.

The CodeIgniter blog has posted another Community Voice spotlight on one of its members. Thsi time they focus on Chris Monnat and his tutorial on creating PDF files with the CodeIgniter framework.

When generating reports in PDF format you suddenly have a lot more control over layout and design than you do with plain old HTML and CSS (although much progress is being made with print style sheets). You can create some really nice reports on the fly that your users can view, save for later or e-mail to their co-workers for review. In this post I will show you how I generate PDF reports using CodeIgniter.

You'll need this external library to get the PDF building to work, but integrating it with CodeIgniter is simple. It comes with its own interface you can use after making a cezpdf object. He shows you how to work with normal text, tabular data and inserting headers and footers for each page.

On the Zenning! blog there's a recent post, the first part of a series, that looks at various web application frameworks both PHP and not (including Ruby on Rails, Prado and Django).

As of now, we are moving through the era of web application frameworks. That's the landscape we are surrounded with. Plenty of frameworks have been built during these years broadly categorized under software frameworks, web application frameworks and JavaScript frameworks (or libraries), and plenty more are being developed.

He starts with these frameworks:

• CakePHP
• CodeIgniter
• Symfony
• Prado
• Django
• Ruby on Rails

He looks at the non-PHP frameworks first to see how difficult they'd be to get into. Despite reservations about the different language structure, he shows favoritism towards Ruby on Rails. He has reviewed the PHP frameworks yet, so it's not a final decision.

In the most recent CodeIgniter Community Voice, Lee Tengum talks about how he lost a bet and ended up paying for quite a bit of soda/beer because of CodeIgniter's flexibility, power and simplicity.

This week, our Community Voice author is Lee Tengum, who discusses how CodeIgniter has cost him over $8,800 in beer and soft drinks. Lee is a bit of a serial entrepreneur, with 5 successful startups under his belt including the recently launched http://cleverandy.com. He has become something of a cookie! jar of startup knowledge.

The group was developing a contractor management system for their business in CodeIgniter. They started the development on Wednesday and set Saturday as a goal for release (with plenty of fuel to get them there). Check out the rest of the story...

The CodeIgniter community has announced a new level for involvement in the framework's community - CodeIgniter Community Chieftain, volunteers that have shown commitment to the framework and its community.

As the community grows, the EllisLab development team often does not have the time that we would like to interact with the community in various ways, but it's always been a key part of our success. So as the need arises, we have created this program to help keep the wheels greased so to speak, making sure that our forums, wiki, and bug tracker are handling the needs of the community and are properly moderated.

They have already brought in their first Chieftan, Michael Wales, a staff sergeant in the US Air Force.