On the php|architect site today Beth mentions a contest that's being put on by the WestHost hosting group is putting on to find the best function - custom bits of functionality that are the most impressive and do their job the best.

Submit your entry by March 15th to win one of the above prizes. Winner's will be selected from a panel of judges reviewing the top rated PHP functions / code based on utility, creativity, efficiency, and readability. Make sure to get the word out about your submission in order to get votes to have a chance to win.

The submission form lets you fill in your contact details and copy & paste in the function. You can use any version of PHP you'd like and even the framework of your choice (just be sure it include instructions on its use).

With the passing of the end of 2008, another thing has come to a close - the contest being held for the best elePHPant photo submission at the ElePHPant World Tour. In this new post they talk about the contest and some of the prizes the winners (first, second and third places) will win.

2008 is over, which means the Elephpant World Tour is coming to an end! The contest that started in September got over 240 entries! That is a whopping 60 elephpant pictures a month. The PHPWomen, who we managed to convince to be the judges for the contest, are now going to sift through all the posts and select 3 winners

Prizes include subscriptions to php|architect magazine, a copy of Zend Studio Professional, a ticket to the Dutch PHP Conference and a license key for the Flex Builder Professional software (from Adobe).

Stay tuned for the list of winners when they're posted!

The folks at php|architect have announced something new happening at this year's php|works/PyWorks conference - a Pecha Kucha event (with prizes!)

Pecha Kucha will be the center of the php|works/PyWorks evening cocktail event. Compete against others to win an XBox 360! [...] With this fun and fast-paced presentation style that limits the talk to 20 slides, 20 seconds each, this year's evening event and cocktail hour will prove to be educational and a great time! The best part is that you could go home with a brand new XBox 360!

Slots for your chance in one of these presentations are limited, so if you're attending the conference about would like to give a talk, send an email over to Elizabeth Naramore at elizabeth [at] phparch.com with your topic.

Along with mentioning their 9th anniversary, the PHPClasses.org website has announced a contest for all of those out there who want to help improve the look for the site.

One frequently received suggestion is to redesign the site. As I explained before, changing the site design is not a big issue. The greatest challenge is to change the current design to another that pleases more users than the number of users the change may displease.

So, to keep things interesting, he's had a contest out of it with the winner, besides having their design applied to the site, will get their every own elePHPant and a prize of at least $1000 USD. The winning design will be the main one for the site, but it is possible that paying subscribers could have the ability to define their own.

More to come on the contest in the following weeks...

php|architect is hosting a coding contest that started on Saturday. The task is to grab the contents of an HTML file and grab all of the links out of it, removing duplicates.

You may use any built in function, the phpinfo() of the server used for testing will be attached. You just need to retrieve the links, you don't need to worry about them being relative or absolute.

It should be able to be called from the command line and return the links, one per line. They include how the scripts will be measured (speed, accuracy, etc) and the prize list - $100 gift card for phparch.com, a one year subscription or *drum roll* an autographed picture of ProPHP podcast hosts Paul Reinheimer and Sean Coates.

To submit your entry just email it over to c7ycontests@phparch.com with the subject of "C7Y Contest - February" on it.

According to this new post on the SitePoint blog, you could win some cash if your Facebook application is chosen as best:

Our current feature article about developing for the Facebook Platform with PHP is extraordinarily timely, given the recent announcement from venture capital firm Bay Partners on Tuesday that they will be offering cash prizes for the best Facebook applications.

According to the article, Bay Partners will be offering cash awards (ranging from $25,000 up to $250,000) for the best applications built on top of the Facebook API. You can get more information about this AppFactory program from the Bay Partners website (as well as how to apply for the contest).

According to this new post on the SitePoint blog, you could win some cash if your Facebook application is chosen as best:

Our current feature article about developing for the Facebook Platform with PHP is extraordinarily timely, given the recent announcement from venture capital firm Bay Partners on Tuesday that they will be offering cash prizes for the best Facebook applications.

According to the article, Bay Partners will be offering cash awards (ranging from $25,000 up to $250,000) for the best applications built on top of the Facebook API. You can get more information about this AppFactory program from the Bay Partners website (as well as how to apply for the contest).

Nick Halstead has announced a contest on his blog today for PHP developers everywhere to participate in - a programming competition surrounding a challenge he's created.

It has been a lot harder than I thought to come up with a fair programming challenge that would not take too long or require lots of knowledge in any particular framework or other associated technology. It could have been to make use of a whole host of currently available API’s and to make a useful mash-up but these again require other external knowledge beyond just PHP. I finally settled on a logic problem that is hopefully not too hard to solve but will test a range of PHP skills.

The problem he's worked up involves changing a word, one letter at a time, into another word using user-defined lists and choice of word. There's several requirements you'll need to follow an d rules for things like the submission process and what server setup can be used.

So, what's the motivation? First prize is a copy of Zend Studio Professional and a year of support, second prize is a Zend t-shirt, and third is a Zend Pen. For full information on participating and on all of the rules you'll need to follow, check out Nick's full post.

Nick Halstead has announced a contest on his blog today for PHP developers everywhere to participate in - a programming competition surrounding a challenge he's created.

It has been a lot harder than I thought to come up with a fair programming challenge that would not take too long or require lots of knowledge in any particular framework or other associated technology. It could have been to make use of a whole host of currently available API’s and to make a useful mash-up but these again require other external knowledge beyond just PHP. I finally settled on a logic problem that is hopefully not too hard to solve but will test a range of PHP skills.

The problem he's worked up involves changing a word, one letter at a time, into another word using user-defined lists and choice of word. There's several requirements you'll need to follow an d rules for things like the submission process and what server setup can be used.

So, what's the motivation? First prize is a copy of Zend Studio Professional and a year of support, second prize is a Zend t-shirt, and third is a Zend Pen. For full information on participating and on all of the rules you'll need to follow, check out Nick's full post.

Zend wants to know a bit about your PHP IDE preference, so says Cal Evans in this new post to the Zend Developer Zone:

Zend (Disclaimer:Zend pays the bills here at DevZone) is running a survey on IDE usage and gathering opinions on IDE features. If you would like to participate and give us your opinions please fill out the survey. It should only take about 5 minutes of your time.

It's not just for fun, though. There will be prizes awarded for certain lucky voters, 21 of them to be exact including an iPod and Zend T-shirts. Get your vote in now!