On PHPMaster.com today David Shirey is back with the third part of his series looking at using PHP on the IBM i (formerly the Series i) platform. In his previous articles he's introduced the platform and shown what knowledge you'll need to get started. In this latest post, he talks about some implementation ideas to keep in mind.

No one ever talks about how to create quality pages, what they should look like, how should they be structured, and so on. The reason for that is simple: we don't need no stinkin' instructions for that! Everyone knows how to design good screens (opps, pages). That's the easy part, right? Well, maybe not. [...] Of course, business pages are different from the pages that we may develop for a blog or website.

He goes on to talk about things like the number of "switches" (shifts in context between just using the keyboard vs using the mouse as well) and how you should "mirror the task" not the database that lives behind it. He also makes a recommendation about keeping the important things "above the fold". He notes that, unlike some of the usual sites out on the web, business applications are a bit more about usefulness and less about style.

On PHPMaster.com today they've posted the second part of their "PHP and the i" series (here's part one). In this new article, he looks a bit closer at what kind of knowledge is needed to develop PHP on the IBM i.

In this somewhat risqué episode, we’ll look at just what you need to be able to do development work on the i. Many people in the i world will that PHP is native to the i, but I don’t think that’s really true. To me, native means that it just runs, no problems or questions asked, nothing special needs to be done, it just sort of happens like when you see someone across a crowded room and know she/he is “the one”. That’s not the way it works with PHP and the i.

He starts off by talking about Zend and its contribution to the IBM i's abilities to run PHP through RPG thanks to a "bridge" they created. There are other options, but as he points out, they're not as well developed (or supported) as Zend's offering (being Zend Server, Zend Studio and Zend Framework).

He then talks about the details of creating and running scripts - where to put them, what kind of RPG knowledge you'll need to implement them, and which parts of the typical MVC stack work best where.

On PHPMaster.com there's a new article that looks at running PHP on a specific environment and some of the considerations the author had to make - using PHP on IBM i.

We’ve talked about a lot of weird things so far on PHPMaster (well, at least I think some of them are weird), but this may take the cake. In this series I want to talk to you about PHP – and the IBM I. That’s right, the IBM i, formerly known as System i and before that as the AS/400. Let’s start by dispelling the myth that the i is dinosaur; it’s actually a very wonderful machine, and there are lot of opportunities for brave PHP programmers who venture into this realm.

He starts off with "the truth" about the IBM i and some of the features it brings to the table - total system integration, scalability, etc. He talks some about the current GUI the system uses, functionality RPG provides, and some concepts you'll need to think about before getting into PHP on the IBM I.

Zend has issued a press release about a new series of online training classes they will be offering.

Zend Technologies, The PHP Company, continues its series of free online seminars started in early 2007.The so-called "Webinars" are aimed at anyone interested in PHP - web developers, consultants, project managers and technical decision makers. Topics include PHP as well as specific solutions and the tools Zend offers for enterprise-use of this programming language.

You can get more information on the events from the Zend website but here's a few to give you an idea: "Zend Cargo and Present: Using PHP to Build a Mobile Internet Platform", "Get Rich Quick: Building Ajax-based RIAS with Zend Framework and Appcelerator" and "i5 - Application Lifecycle Management for the Enterprise".

All of the webinars are free and, if you miss a session and you want to catch up, you can always download it from their archive.

A new article on the ITJungle.com website asks if Zend's support of PHP on IBM's System i machines could be the "next RPG", replacing the current language as the language of choice.

For years, the System i platform and its followers have marched through the wilderness of development languages, seeking a suitable replacement for the aging RPG, whose benefits aren't a good fit for a Web world. Now, some platform advocates see the server-side scripting language PHP stepping into that role.

The bulk of the article is an interview between Alex Woodie (of ITJungle.com) and Duncan Kenzie, president of Excel Systems. They cover topics like:

• Duncan's first perceptions of PHP
• why he decided it would be a good language to go with
• how it works in their WebSmart software
• differences between Java and PHP impacts
• the ease of the shift for RPG programmers to PHP

A new article on the ITJungle.com website asks if Zend's support of PHP on IBM's System i machines could be the "next RPG", replacing the current language as the language of choice.

For years, the System i platform and its followers have marched through the wilderness of development languages, seeking a suitable replacement for the aging RPG, whose benefits aren't a good fit for a Web world. Now, some platform advocates see the server-side scripting language PHP stepping into that role.

The bulk of the article is an interview between Alex Woodie (of ITJungle.com) and Duncan Kenzie, president of Excel Systems. They cover topics like:

• Duncan's first perceptions of PHP
• why he decided it would be a good language to go with
• how it works in their WebSmart software
• differences between Java and PHP impacts
• the ease of the shift for RPG programmers to PHP

Ivo Jansch has a recent post made the other day that takes a look at one of the recent offerings from IBM targeted at PHP developers - the functionality to allow PHP to run on their System i platform.

Some of the developers at Ibuildings are working with PHP on IBM's System-i platform. If that name doesn't ring a bell, it has been called 'iSeries' for a while and it's basically a new name for the old AS/400. [...] Recently IBM and Zend have teamed up to port PHP to the i5/OS operating system. So far this port seems succesful; one of the reasons is perhaps that PHP is easier to adopt by traditional System-i developers than Java, which forces you to learn Object Oriented Programming.

He makes mention of the db2 database extension you can use to access the database as well as a "i5 toolkit" to help with the same. He even links to an article talking about it.

Ivo Jansch has a recent post made the other day that takes a look at one of the recent offerings from IBM targeted at PHP developers - the functionality to allow PHP to run on their System i platform.

Some of the developers at Ibuildings are working with PHP on IBM's System-i platform. If that name doesn't ring a bell, it has been called 'iSeries' for a while and it's basically a new name for the old AS/400. [...] Recently IBM and Zend have teamed up to port PHP to the i5/OS operating system. So far this port seems succesful; one of the reasons is perhaps that PHP is easier to adopt by traditional System-i developers than Java, which forces you to learn Object Oriented Programming.

He makes mention of the db2 database extension you can use to access the database as well as a "i5 toolkit" to help with the same. He even links to an article talking about it.

As mentioned on the Zend Developer Zone today, there's a new article posted over on the TMCNet.com website about the support and cooperation that IBM is giving PHPers all over the world running System i machines.

Over the past year, Zend and IBM have worked together to make Zend's popular PHP products available for V5R3 and V5R4 versions of i5/OS. Zend Core for i5/OS is a fully tested and enhanced version of open source PHP; Zend Platform for i5/OS is a PHP production environment that improves application management and performance; and Zend Studio for i5/OS is a PHP Integrated Development Environment (IDE) that includes all of the components necessary to support the lifecycle of PHP applications created on i5/OS.

Mark Shearer, general manager IBM System i also notes that one of the goals of the cooperative effort was one they've met successfully so far - to bring tools to System i users to allow them to quickly and easily develop applications in their environment.

The article also includes a small list of companies already using this technology including Parts Depot, MedDirect and HarrisData.

As mentioned on the Zend Developer Zone today, there's a new article posted over on the TMCNet.com website about the support and cooperation that IBM is giving PHPers all over the world running System i machines.

Over the past year, Zend and IBM have worked together to make Zend's popular PHP products available for V5R3 and V5R4 versions of i5/OS. Zend Core for i5/OS is a fully tested and enhanced version of open source PHP; Zend Platform for i5/OS is a PHP production environment that improves application management and performance; and Zend Studio for i5/OS is a PHP Integrated Development Environment (IDE) that includes all of the components necessary to support the lifecycle of PHP applications created on i5/OS.

Mark Shearer, general manager IBM System i also notes that one of the goals of the cooperative effort was one they've met successfully so far - to bring tools to System i users to allow them to quickly and easily develop applications in their environment.

The article also includes a small list of companies already using this technology including Parts Depot, MedDirect and HarrisData.