In this new post on the PHP::Impact blog, Federico looks at some examples of directory setups for web apps that can help to make them both scalable and flexible.

Designing a modular and component-based directory structure for your Web applications can seem like an easy task. If your system is small, it may seem logical to go with the simplest design possible, but if there's anything more time consuming and complex than developing a new directory structure design, it's trying to redesign an existing system that wasn't developed with growth in mind.

He breaks it up into a few different topics that can be applied where needed to keep the application in check:

• Consistency
• Scalability and Flexibility
• Single Application
• Multi-application
• Naming Conventions
• Versioning
• Proposed Structure

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.

Builder.com.au has a new tutorial posted today talking about the use if Iterators (from PHP's SPL) to recurse down through directories on your local drive.

One of PHP5's most interesting new features is the addition of Iterators, a collection of ready-made interfaces designed to help in navigating and processing hierarchical data structures. These Iterators significantly reduce the amount of code required to process an XML document tree or a file collection.

They give three examples - two basic ones showing a simple use of the DirectoryIterator and RecursiveDirectoryIterator and another slightly more complex one showing how to get information from the recursive iteration as it goes down.

Sebastian Bergmann has posted some details about an update that's been made to the test runner for the PHPUnit (3.3) unit testing suite - an allowance for directories instead of just files on the command line.

Given a directory, the test runner will recursively scan the directory for *Test.php files, build a test suite out of the *Test classes, and run it.

PHPUnit is framework that makes writing tests for your code easy and also includes functionality to run the tests and analyze their results.

In this new blog post today, Lars Strojny talks about a new magic constant that will be joining its brothers in the upcoming PHP 5.3 release - __DIR__.

In PHP 5.3 there will be another magic constant __DIR__. [...] To allow this, the internal function php_dirname() has been moved in the Zend Engine and is now called zend_dirname(). Nevertheless an alias still exists.

__DIR__ will join the other constants (like __LINE__ and __FUNCTION__) to help give the currently running script a little introspection for things like its filename, what class it's currently in and now, what directory the file currently lives in.

Evert Pot has posted about a library he's creating to integrate WebDAV support with PHP and make things simpler for those needing to access the shares.

I intend to make this library as easy as possible to use, without making it a black-box-like system. Focus will not be on everything WebDAV could possibly provide, but instead on the features that are actually supported by the operating systems.

His goal is to make it as simple as making a 'File' and 'Directory' class to interface with the remote system and has two things he's deliberating on as far as features to include in the library - support for the custom properties WebDAV allows and the ability to lock files and directories.

If you'd like to check out the current progress of the library, check out its page on the Google Code site (as well as this discussion group he's set up).

Richard Heyes has posted about a mail() replacement he's come up with that adds the additional functionality of backing up all of the data to a certain directory of your choosing.

A simple drop in replacement function for PHPs mail() function called mailb() which backs up all the data to a specified directory. [...] I've also added a simple header file to Apache and the download directory so it looks nicer.

You can download a copy of his library here as a .phps file (a quick and easy 40ish line script).

Manuel Lemos has posted an update about the PHP professionals directory hosted on the PHPClasses.org website - there's a new widget/gadget for your custom Google homepage that will show all of the professionals from a country in a map.

The PHP professionals directory initiative has been enhanced to make it more efficient in its goal to bring together more PHP professionals and businesses willing to hire them.

Now there is a gadget available to provide more exposure to PHP professionals in iGoogle (Google personalized home page), Google Maps, Google Earth or in any other Web site page.

You can add the gadget to a few different places including:

• your iGoogle page from this link
• your Google "My Maps" page with this link
• to your own site with this information
• or you can just import the whole list in a kml format

The professionals directory is located here.

Danne Lundqvist has a helpful hint for anyone looking to set up a development environment (he did it on his local machine, but it'd apply for remote setups too) with Apache 2.2.6.

I downloaded Apache 2.2.6, PHP 5.2.4 and MySQL 5.0.45. I compiled and installed them and finally added a few virtual hosts. None of the vhosts worked. They all gave me [an error]. I had missed that apache now ships with a slightly different configuration for the / directory

He includes the fix for this, what he thinks is a better way to handle it - setting the Directory value to only the directory Apache needs to allow.

In an effort to help employers/recruiters/etc find the PHP people they're looking for, the PHPClasses.org website has launched their PHP Professionals Directory:

So, I thought to myself, instead of recommending people, I could provide a place where available PHP professionals looking for work could list. Then companies can look up the list of available professionals and contact them directly.

Developers are divided first by country, then by name and have all the contact information you'd need (address, zip, location, phone) to get in contact with the developer. You can also add your own profile to the directory to make it easier for others to find you.