The PHPedia blog has posted their top five list if scripts to replace the default listing Apache does for a directory without an index file.

Here's their list:

• phpFe - PHP file explorer
• fileNice
• Autoindex
• QuiXplorer
• GaMerZ File Explorer

Check out the PHPedia post for example screenshots of each.

On the Ibuildings blog, Ian Barber has a reminder to PHP developers out there used to their servers "just working" because of the popularity of LAMP. He recommends digging a little deeper to the "behind the scenes" of how the server is configured.

PHP programmers generally know what a good systems architecture should look like, but it is often a reality of development that they will have little input on the system itself until the last minute. In fact, it's far from uncommon for a developer to be faced with an off-the-shelf dedicated LAMP server, and left up to their own devices.

He recommends getting to know things like the package manager for your distribution (apt, yum, yast, etc), stripping down the modules your installation is using, check that all of the packages in use need to be enabled and ensure that the network connection is set up correctly and is what you need for the site.

In the process of debugging one of his scripts, Brian Moon came across a default setting (and problem) in the MySQL extension that didn't seem to make much sense to him:

There are several reasons that PHP could not be able to connect to MySQL. [...] Or, perhaps the entire server is offline.

The mysql.connect_timeout setting in the php.ini is supposed to handle this sort of instance, but the default is set tpo 60 seconds. It's only apparently used when the server is completely offline and, in his opinion, is set way too high. He's proposing a patch to the MySQL extension to change this setting's default to shorten it to something a bit more reasonable.

In recent work, Ian Selby came across something odd - a setup where PHP was segfaulting without any real indication of where the error might be:

Starting to get a little frustrated, I took a peek at my error logs (/var/log/httpd/error_log for the unitiated), and discovered a wonderful message [about the segfault]. As any person scratching their head would do, I hit up google.. to no real avail. Just a bunch of php bug reports. So, what happened, and how did I fix it?

After searching through the code and narrowing down where it could be, the culprit looked like a custom session handler he was using. It uses MySQL to store the sesion information and, unfortunately, when Ian had compiled the server he didn't let PHP know about his unique setup.

His default installation was trying to use the default MySQL information (including the socket) to reach the database. Obviously failing, the server simply gave up and segfaulted. Thankfully, all it takes it a recompile with a few extra parameters and you're back in business.

Nexen.net has a new look today at something most people take for granted - some of the default extensions loaded (and how often they are) in a PHP installation.

Since PHP 5.2.3 has been published, over 9700 tests were sent to the Quality Assurance Team. In those tests reports, we can find the list of failed tests, and an anonymous PHPinfo(), that helps the PHP team to understand the origin of the errors. With such a number of phpinfo(), it is tempting to get some stats about compilation choices.

Damien has graphed out a few different data sets - the extensions included in most default installations, other popular extensions that may or may not be compiled in, the list of rare extensions (a long list) and how often they show up and, finally, the graphing of all extensions included in any PHP install anywhere. Links to more information about these extensions can be found immediately following the graph.

In this new entry on his blog, Alexander Netkachev shares a hint for those PHP IDE Eclipse users out there frustrated with php.ini issues.

You may notice that the IDE does not load options specified in the php.ini and this makes customizing extensions impossible. I run into this problem today and looked over the source code of PHP plugin for it.

The solution he found was in an update he found to one of the Java files, pointing it to the correct location. Changing this changes the default setting for the editor.

As this post over on APress' Inside Open Source blog today, there's a discussion that's been going on over on the php-dev mailing list about namespaces in PHP6.

I find both sides of the argument quite compelling, and while FWIW I'm in favor of including them in the next release, I'm somewhat indifferent to the matter. According to one of the very latest messages in the thread, Zeev Suraski confirms they simplistic support will likely be enabled.

That's Jason Gilmore talking there, and he goes on to reinforce something Rasmus Lerdorf has said about namespaces in the past - they'll implement them when they find the right way (in the PHP spirit) to do it.

DevShed shares some basic PHP knowledge today with this new tutorial, an introduction to functions in PHP. This time, they're specifically focusing on custom function creation.

If you're looking for a way to save time when you program, look no further. Creating functions lets you reuse code that you've used before without having to rewrite the whole thing.

This will save you time and make programming easier, especially as websites become more complex. Another advantage of a function is that it executes wherever and whenever you call it, in the same way that print() displays text.

They start off basic, defining what a "user defined function" is before moving on to arguments in their use. They include the method to define default values and how to return values once the function is through.

Jonathan Snook is back today with more information gleaned from his voyages into the world of the CakePHP framework, this time focusing on setting up default values in your script.

If you've got a user seeing a form for the first time, normally the fields are blank. But there are times where you want to prefill fields with data or preselect a certain option. Setting a default value turned out to be really straightforward.

He includes the code to make this "really straightforward" functionality happen. It's a simple seven line affair to make the value for the Project's name set to "Default Project Name". It uses the special "data" variable to push the value into, which, as he mentions later, is best set with a "$this->data" format as is in his example.

In this new blog entry, Bård Farstad shares what he, a recent "switcher" to the OS X operating system, had to do to get Apache and PHP completely installed on his system.

HE notes that the default install of Aapche/PHP on an OS X system is a bit different than on others - the entire isntallation isn't in the directory defined by the "prefix" parameter. He worked around this kind of setup, and includes the configure lines in the post as an example.