On NetTuts.com Jonathan Cutrell has posted some ideas for you to consider when designing your enterprise-level applications, regardless of the language(s) they're written in.

Organization can make or break the maintainability of an application. With smaller applications, organization is more obviously apparent; however, as the application grows and as the number of application developers and front-end engineers producing code increases, the more confusing organization can become. In this post, we will go over some basic concepts for keeping applications organized so that finding relevant code is an efficient and systematic process.

He's broken it up into a list of suggestions to make it a bit easier to take it all in:

• Learn from Frameworks
• Building a Standard
• Uniformity of Connected Parts, Uniqueness of Discrete Parts
• Another Note About Static Files
• What Should Be Unique?

There's some good advice in there, especially around things like standards, naming conventions, site complexity and how much usage the site is likely to see.

Johannes Schlüter has a new post to his blog today mentioning the beta release of the mysqlnd_ms plugin (previously mentioned by Ulf Wendel and a new feature that can be plugged into the MySQL Enterprise Monitor to make the Query Analyzer directly use PHP instead.

When running a PHP-based application with MySQL it is often quite interesting to see what actually happens on the database sever. Besides monitoring of the system load etc. it is often interesting to see what queries are actually executed and which of them are expensive. A part of MySQL Enterprise Monitor is the MySQL Query Analyzer which helps answering these questions.

This was handled via a proxy that sat between the database and app server and ran through the queries looking for improvements. This new plugin keeps it closer to PHP itself without having to hit against the proxy. You can see the result in these two screenshots from inside the Manager application. You also have the side benefit of getting a stack trace of it running through the app to help you identify the spots most needing improvement in the code too.

New on the Ibuildings techPortal site, there's an article from Rupert Jones that walks you through the installation of Magento Enterprise on a linux-based platform (LAMP).

Magento is an increasingly popular e-commerce platform due to its sheer flexibility, wide range of features and the facility to customise it relatively easily. In this post we will examine how to get Magento Enterprise set up and running. We assume a debian-based LAMP stack but these instructions could be adapted for any other platform as required.

He shows you how to install ionCube first (a requirement for Magento) and how to get the latest Magento package, unpack it and set up some permissions so the application can write to things correctly. From there it's a simple database creation and Apache config away from being setup and working.

On DZone.com today Giorgio Sironi offers some of his opinions on web applications as enterprise software.

In this article we'll focus on a case study on enterprise software where the porting failed, to list the issues of introducing a web application into the enterprise, and hopefully pave the way for future successes. This is kind of a written retrospective.

He briefly touches on some of the advantages first, mentioning the portability they offer and the fact that it's an "automatic upgrade" for users without having to install additional software. He also talks about a case study of an application that failed but also covers things learned along the way like:

• How complex the domain the application lives in could be (enterprise needs from enterprise software)
• Worries about data portability
• Struggles with the limitations of the browser (like working with large file downloads)
• and, of course, the huge amount of requirements that come with the application just because of the needs of the company

On the Zend Developer Zone today there's a new article looking at how you can build an enterprise-grade stack with the combination of Zend Server and Oracle's 11g database.

Setting up an Oracle/PHP/Apache/Linux (OPAL) development environment isn't the easiest of tasks, especially in corporate IT environments which are used to point-and-click simplicity. [...] One of the easiest ways to quickly configure a PHP environment in this environment is Zend Server, a PHP stack that runs on both Windows and Linux and that can be used to build Oracle-based applications out of the box.

The article introduces Zend Server and the functionality it provides (like a web-based management console, built-in optimization and application troubleshooting) as well as how to get it installed and working on your system. With everything all set up and ready, they show you how to configure the Oracle support for it including the use of connection pooling page caching.

According to Matt Asay, both PHP and Perl are crashing the enterprise party and are rapidly closing the gap between themselves and some of the more traditional "enterprise-ish" tools out there (like Java or .NET).

While dynamic programming languages like PHP and Python dominate Web engineering, the signs that they are breaking Java and .Net's hold on the enterprise are less clear. Forrester recently reported that PHP claims the highest instance of open source use within enterprises, at 57 percent penetration. But it's also the case that the bulk of enterprise software spending goes to Java and .Net-based software. Who is winning?

He links to a graph from Indeed showing the trends in the job market with PHP and Python (two dynamic languages) shooting their way to the top.

No, Java and .Net aren't going away anytime soon. But then, neither are the dynamic programming languages, which are increasingly blessed "enterprise ready." This is good for enterprise software, and potentially very good for ActiveState, SugarCRM, and others who build their businesses on dynamic programming languages.

If you're looking around for software to fill the needs of your company or group and your sights fall on Open Source software, Builder.com.au has a few suggestions for you to consider.

All open source projects, by definition, provide the end user with certain perpetual rights and freedoms in using, studying, modifying and redistributing the product. However, there is a lot of inconsistency in terms of the product quality, the governance model and the availability of support. Thus, when selecting open source components for your enterprise, it is important to do some background checks to ensure the open source product you have selected is compatible with your enterprise business model and IT standards. Below are 10 questions you can ask to evaluate open source maturity.

Among things on their list to consider are:

• Are the open source licence terms compatible with my business requirements?
• How well is the product adopted by users?
• How is this project governed and how easily can I influence the road map?
• Will the product scale to my enterprise's requirements?
• Are there regular security patches?

On InfoQ.com there's a recent discussion with three members in a virtual panel discussing a common question among businesses all over the world considering PHP - is it ready for the Enterprise?

Although PHP boasts of being the most widely used environment for web application development, it has been traditionally considered as not suitable for the enterprise. InfoQ has conducted a virtual panel regarding the evolution of the language/platform and its suitability in enterprise environments.

The three members of the panel (Zeev Suraski, Rob Nicholson and Derick Rethans) are asked about PHP's interoperability with other platforms, the trend of scripts moving into a JVM, the transitions from the major versions of the language (ex. PHP4 to PHP5), the role more advanced features might play in PHP and if PHP might be considering a move into more functional programming.

PHPClasses.org has released a book review of the php|architect "Guide to Enterprise PHP Development" (Ivo Jansch) reviewed by Mauricio Garcia Nascimento.

Do not expect an advanced on PHP programming. As the author says, "this book is about PHP, but it is not about code" and "writing PHP code is only a part of the entire development life-cycle". It is definitely not about coding, neither about technical programming tricks. The book describes best practices, lessons learned, practical experiences, tools, techniques, methodologies and other related knowledge areas that all PHP professionals should follow to develop better enterprise software products.

Mauricio goes on to look at where the book fits in the development process and some of the specific chapters and what they offer to the Software Development Life Cycle process.

Despite it is difficult to focus the scope and the target public of the book writing about an area that encompasses too many topics of interest, Ivo Jansch, the author, did a great job to achieve this result with success.

On the Ibuildings blog cal Evans has made a new post about the future of PHP - the future is now!

PHP is at an inflection point. We are at a once in a lifetime place where several factors are coming together to help boost the profile of PHP up and above the "scripting language" label and into a serious tool for enterprise development. Many developers inside the PHP community have looked at PHP as serious development tool for years. [...] In a growing number of large development shops, PHP has gone from "why" to "why not".

Cal mentions a few reasons why now if the time for PHP developers to help push PHP over the top and even further into becoming the well-known, well-used powerful language that it is. Things like the low cost of Open Source tools and the upcoming release of PHP 5.3 are two among many things that could mean PHP's "coming of age" into Enterprise development.