In this quick post today Robert Basic shares a hint for using Xdebug together with Zend Framework unit tests to get effective results.

I've spent this weekend hacking on some unit tests for ZendDojo and I ran into an issue where I need Xdebug to, well, debug. Note, that this is not for debugging a Zend Framework application, but for debugging Zend Framework itself. I am using Netbeans + Xdebug to debug regular code, but debugging unit tests was something completely new for me. Turns out, it’s not entirely different from "regular" debugging.

Thanks to hints from this post and some trial and error on working with autoloading, he finally got things working in his Netbeans environment. The trick is setting up the "Index File" to the correct location.

Dave Marshall has written up a new post showing how he's used memcache, Gearman and Dojo to create an asynchronous progress bar he uses when generating large reports.

I have a (highly optimised) report that takes way too long to generate, up to around 30 seconds. [There's] too many variables to prime caches for every possible combination [and] personally, I don’t think the browsers inbuilt progress bar is enough feedback for todays web users.

He generates the data into memcache when the user requests it and uses the Gearman worker processes to handle requests for data that doesn't yet exist. The progress bar is a part of Dojo and uses the dijit.ProgressBar widget to keep checking the progress of the build. This way the user can even leave the page and come back if the process takes too long with no threat to the generating report. You can find all of his code he's used to make it happen on his github account.

The Zend Developer Zone has a new tutorial posted (from Vikram Vaswani) about adding in an auto-complete input field to your site. His example uses a PEAR class, Dojo and some components of the YUI libraries.

Fortunately, modern programming toolkits like Dojo provide ready-made widgets that have the necessary client-side functions for autocomplete. Add a little bit of server-side glue, in the form of a PHP script that talks to a database to generate valid suggestions, and enabling this functionality in a Web application now becomes a matter of hours, rather than days. In this article, I'll show you how to do this using three different libraries: PEAR HTML_QuickForm, YUI, and Dojo. Come on in, and find out more!

He shows how to combine Dojo, YUI and the HTML_QuickForm PEAR package to create a field that, based on what they enter into the input field, searches a database to find values in that table.

In a new post to his blog Matthew Weier O'Phinney shares a simple publish-subscribe system he's created based on a feature of the Dojo toolkit using the Zend Framework to create an easy notification architecture.

The system has elements of Aspect Oriented Programming (AOP), as well as the Observer pattern. Its power, however, is in the fact that an individual object does not need to implement any specific interface in order to act as either a Subject or an Observer; the system is globally available.

The script creates an object that publishes an event. This event then sends off messages to all of the other objects subscribing to it. A code example is included. You also can check out the code from its page on github (as a part of his Phly libraries) and play with it yourself.

Matthew Weier O'Phinney has put together a guide to answer some of the questions he's been getting about combining the Zend Framework and Dojo functionality for autocompletion.

I've fielded several questions about setting up an autocompleter with Zend Framework and Dojo, and decided it was time to create a HOWTO on the subject, particularly as there are some nuances you need to pay attention to.

He shows how to set up the correct Dijits and how to create the default form element in a Zend_Form instance. He creates a data store and a QueryReadStore to hold the information. The then modified that default Zend_Form element (a ComboBox) to include the storeType and storeParams for these instances.

Matthew Weier O'Phinney has made some updates to his pastebin example showing the combination of the Zend Framework and Dojo libraries.

I've been getting a lot of interest in my Pastebin demo app -- partly by those wanting to play with Dojo+ZF, partly by those just interested in the application. [...] I've created a Github repository so you can track the latest developments, as well as pull custom tarballs.

The demo application was a part of Matthew's Zend Framework & Dojo webinar from Zend.

Zend made several announcements in the opening keynote of this year's Zend/PHP Conference & Expo including collaborations with Adobe, IBM and the Dojo project to further PHP's place in the online development community.

These announcements pertained to partnerships with these other companies on projects like bringing out-of-the-box Ajax functionality to the Zend Framework with Dojo and updates to the Zend Core and Zend Studio software. Also announced was the release of a new certification specifically for the Zend Framework - "Zend Certified Engineer for Zend Framework".

One of the major announcements, though, was Zend's efforts with Adobe to help make the connection between their powerful Flex environment and what PHP has to offer. The key to the integration lies in the AMFPHP (Action Message Format) tool that acts as a layer letting Flex and PHP talk. Zend and Adobe will also be, from this point on, creating links between the Zend Studio software and the Adobe Flex Builder software to help developers to help make the integration that much simpler.

You can find out more about their efforts on the Zend Framework website and the Adobe Flex pages on Adobe's developer website.

Matthew Weier O'Phinney has posted an update on two things to his blog - that he will be speaking at this year's ZendCon and that new things have been posted from his Zend Framework & Dojo webinar the other day.

First off, you may now view my Dojo Webinar online (requires login and registration at zend.com). Attendance was phenomenal, and I've had some really good feedback. [...] Second, I've completed what I'm calling version 1.0.0 of the pastebin application I demo'd in the webinar. The PHP code is fully unit tested (though I haven't yet delved into using DOH! to test the JS), and incorporates a number of best practices and tips that Pete Higgins from Dojo was kind enough to provide to me.

This application can be downloaded directly from his site, ready to drop in and test with your local Zend Framework install.

Matthew Weier O'Phinney has another post full of Dojo/Zend Framework goodness today - this time he looks at making proper layer files by combining the two.

During my Dojo and ZF webinar on Wednesday, Pete Higgins of Dojo fame noted that I could do something different and better on one of my slides. This particular item had to do with how I was consuming custom Dojo build layers within my code. I contacted him afterwards to find out what he suggested, and did a little playing of my own, and discovered some more Dojo and javascript beauty in the process.

The improvement replaced the need for a manual commenting/uncommenting of an addLayer call with a bit of namespaced layers that, based on the environment, adds a dependency for the right file. One less manual process, one less thing to go wrong on deployment.

With the recent release of the 1.6 version of the Zend Framework, Andi Gutmans has posted some thoughts and highlights of features in the new version.

The Zend Framework Community has delivered another feature-rich release of Zend Framework and I'm extremely proud and happy to see the energy and excitement around this project. The ZF team (Wil Sinclair, Matthew Weier O'Phinney, Ralph Schindler, Alexander Veremyev) along with many others in the ZF community and at Zend, have been doing a superb job and have been working very hard to put this release together.

He mentions the Dojo integration, the updates to the SOAP component, updates to make test-driven development simpler and a reminder about ZendCon08 coming soon that will feature several Zend Framework-centric talks.