New on PHPMaster.com there's a tutorial from Lukas White about targeting users using geolocation based on the Geonames web service and a latitude/longitude. His example makes a call to find the closest "place" to the given coordinates.

Location-aware applications rely on being able to locate where you are, and this is what geolocation is all about. After all, once the application knows your location, it can go on to find the nearest store, guide you through the appropriate route to a destination, or target relevant advertisements to you. Geolocation, then, is simply the mechanism for identifying your geographical location.

He mentions two challenges associated with geolocation - finding where someone is and describing the location. With Geonames, he shows how to call the service's "findNearbyPlaceName" method to find the closest "place" to a given latitude/longitude combination. Included is a bit of sample PHP to connect to the service and Javascript to request the user's current location.

In a recent post to his blog Stuart Herbert asks his readers where they get their Windows PHP binaries from - there's more than just windows.php.net out there after all.

I'm currently working out installation instructions for phix on Microsoft Windows before my sessions at PHPNW 11 and ZendCon in October...and I need your help, because it has been many years now since I used Windows. If you do your PHP development using Windows on the desktop or laptop, where do you prefer to get your copy of PHP from?

He offers a few options: the obvious windows.php.net, the Microsoft Web Platform or a package like XAMPP/WAMP. In the comments of the post favorites include the Web Platform Installer and windows.php.net with the package versions (XAMPP/WAMP) coming in behind.

If you're attending this year's Dutch PHP Conference, they've just posted an important announcement about the conference social:

The conference social will now take place at a venue called ClubNL, which is also in central Amsterdam and within easy walk from the Amsterdam main train station. Please remember to hold on to your conference badge, as you will need it to gain access to the event. For more details check out the updated social page on our website. We are hoping to see you all there!

There's still time for you to get your tickets to this great event happening in a few weeks (May 19th-21st) in Amsterdam - full event tickets run 695 Euro and the single-day tickets (just tutorial or just conference day) are 375 Euro. Get yours today!

On LifeHacker.com there's a tutorial on how you can use a simple PHP script running on a remote server to tell Google Voice which is the best phone to forward your calls to. The method requires the use of an Android phone, though.

I figure the only way Google Voice could be improved is if it magically knew where I am and made my phones ring accordingly'"so that's exactly what I made it do. You can, too, with an Android phone, the Locale app, and a web server. The overall goal: have Google Voice know which phones to ring, based on your current location or situation.

You'll need a Google Voice account (obviously), some software for your phone and a remote web server running PHP 5 (with cURL and json functionality). You can then use the PHP script by passing parameters as to which phones to turn off and on and use the Locale tool to create the "situations" where it needs to make the switch.

On the PHPClasses.org blog today there's a new post from Manuel Lemos looking at user groups - how to keep them alive and what you can do to rekindle a faltering group.

PHP was spread by its users. Over time PHP user groups have been doing an extraordinary job in promoting the PHP communities everywhere, so local PHP users get more support in their local idiom and progress faster in their careers as PHP developers. Many PHP user groups organize meetings and events that help PHP users learning more and make valuable contacts that they often use to get in touch with more experienced and helpful PHP developers.

He mentions a big challenge for keeping groups alive - leadership shifts and dwindling membership - and something the PHPClasses site offers to help advertize groups all around the world. If you're looking for a group in your area (most of the coverage seems outside of the US right now) try their user group directory.

If you've been planning on attending either the Miami, Washington/Baltimore or New York City stops of the CodeWorks 2009 conference, you'll be happy to know they've announced the venues for each of the locations.

We're happy to finally be able to announce the CodeWorks 09 locations for our Miami, Washington/Baltimore and New York City locations'"and, in case you were waiting to find out where each event was going to take place, we're extending the early-early-bird special all the way to July 31st!

Here's the list of locations:

• New York will be at the New York Marriott Brooklyn Bridge
• Washington/Baltimore will be at the Embassy Suites Old Town Alexandria
• Miami will be at the Hilton Miami Downtown Hotel

You can get more information about the conference (including how to register - the Early Bird special is still going) from the main conference website.

In a new tutorial on the Zend Developer Zone, Sam reminds us that, sometimes, it's all about "Location, Location, Location" with Zend Framework applications.

I was having a conversation with a client recently on the topic of best practices. He asked me: "Where should I put the Zend Framework source code?" This is an excellent question that can not only be applied to Zend Framework, but to similar frameworks also. The question has in fact two answers in my opinion, which answer is right for you depends on how you answer this question.

He answers the question by asking a question of his own - is ZF part of your application or of your environment? There's (basically) two different paths to follow here and that question is the branching point. If its in the app, he recommends keeping it closely tied and in the "/library" of the app. If not, then it's recommended to place it out where multiple applications could get to it.

There's also third option, hybrid of the two that allows you to both keep the application split off on the backend but closely tied in deployment.

Recently on the Web Developement Blog, Olaf showed how to do a Location redirect with cURL while open_basedir is set.

If you need to follow redirects within your php code using Curl and the open_basedir is set you came into some trouble. If you disable this directive all your directories with a 777 permission are not safe (if one or more website on the same server has some security issues). If you don't have additional protections you should NEVER disable the open_basedir directive (at least if you're using 3rd party applications).

He writes up a simple cURL-based link checker to see which of the URLs in question would throw an error. He modifies it so that it checked the HTTP response code from the server and, if its a 200/302/301, you know things are okay and a shell_exec can be called to execute the file from that location.

The PHP-GTK Community site has launched a new service to help PHP-GTKers out there find out other developers that might be in their area - a world map (based on Google maps) of other PHP-GTK developers around the world.

I reviewed the coordinates given by existing members and noticed a good number had visibly inverted latitude and longitude; so I inverted them again to place them where it appeared to make more sense (are there really PHP-GTK devs in the middle of the pacific, or near the South pole ?). So you may want to double-check your coordinates to make sure the values are correct, because it's likely I've not found every error.

He's also asking for the Brasil PHP-GTK community to include their information in the map as well as a request for anyone out there that might want to make a "prettier" icon for showing the developers on the map.

DevShed has posted a new tutorial today looking at one of the more useful tools a developer can add into an application - logging.

If there is no logging mechanism, then if there's a goof-up in a production environment, you have absolutely no idea what went wrong. The only thing which a support developer can do in this case is to reproduce the issue at the developer end, which sometimes work and sometimes don't.

The look at the types of logging (trace logs, audit logs and user logging/history) and create a simple class that allows flexibility for file location, priority and timstamping. Their script contains a writelog method that does all the work (including pushing it through the PEAR logging class).