On the Nginx.com site they've posted the first part of a series showing you how to maximize your performance with PHP 7 and this already speedy web server.

PHP is the most popular way to create a server-side Web application, with roughly 80% market share. (ASP.net is a distant second, and Java an even more distant third.) [...] Now the PHP team is releasing a new version, PHP 7 – more than a decade after the introduction of PHP 5. During this time, usage of the web and the demands on websites have both increased exponentially.

[...] This blog post is the first in a two-part series about maximizing the performance of your websites that use PHP 7. Here we focus on upgrading to PHP 7, implementing open source NGINX or NGINX Plus as your web server software, rewriting URLs (necessary for requests to be handled properly), caching static files, and caching dynamic files (also called application caching or microcaching).

They start by looking at why "PHP hits a wall" in its execution in high load situations, stepping through the process it follows to handle each request. They also share some of the common ways PHP developers have combatted these issues including more hardware, better server software and multi-server setups. They then get into the actual tips themselves:

• Tip 1. Upgrade to PHP 7
• Tip 2. Choose Open Source NGINX or NGINX Plus
• Tip 3. Convert Apache Configuration to NGINX Syntax
• Tip 4. Implement Static File Caching
• Tip 5. Implement Microcaching

For each tip there's a summary with more information on why they make the suggestion and, for some, how to make the transition happen. In the next part of the series they'll get into reverse proxy servers and a multi-server Nginx implementation to boost performance even more.

The Full Stack Radio podcast has posted their latest episode today, episode #17, hosted by Adam Wathan and featuring guest Adam Culp. Adam and Adam talk about ways you can maximize your conference experience.

n this episode, Adam talks to Adam Culp, organizer of Sunshine PHP and ZendCon. They talk about how to get into conference speaking, how to make the most of a conference as an attendee, as well as tips for running a great local user group.

You can listen to this latest episode either through the in-page audio player or by downloading the mp3 for the show. If you enjoy it, be sure to subscribe to their feed for more great episodes as they're released.

Mike Willbanks has posted another part in his "PHP performance" series today. In his previous article, he talked about caching techniques including things like opcode caching and database memory tables. This time he talks about getting the most out of your MySQL database.

Application level SQL performance is much different than the performance of the SQL query itself but rather how it has been designed to work in the application. Many of the items I will be addressing in this area is designing your application to make less queries thus improving scalability and likely performance. However, performance does not always equal scalability as the same with scalability does not always equal performance.

He looks at a few different topics like lazy connections, iterating queries, need-based selects, normalization and a few simple things that you can apply to every SQL your application uses to optimize it as much as possible.