After putting together an example setup of how to run multiple PHP versions all on the same machine with as little hassle as possible, Christian Weiske is back with the second half - putting those multiple versions into Apache.

After showing you how to set up multiple PHP versions on a single machine, it's time to explain how to stuff all those compiled php-cgi executables into a single Apache web server instance.

The key lies in using the mod_fastcgi module for Apache rather than the usual mod_php one. Each PHP version gets its own CGI server and the versions are changed based on the virtual host names.

Phil Sturgeon has posted a look ahead at everything you need to know about the next version of the popular CodeIgniter framework, version 2.0.

It has been 6 months since the last CodeIgniter minor update and 18 months since the last major update. Through all this time we were given no information about the next release of CodeIgniter, but finally 2.0 is on the way.

Because of the Ellis Labs move to Mercurial for its version control system (and BitBucket for the repository), it allows for a more "social coding" environment where it's easier for developers to just fork and contribute. Other major changes for this upcoming version include the fact that PHP4 support will officially be deprecated, driver libraries, application "packages", a smaller reserved controller name list and the dismissal of plugins.

Check out the Changelog for more detailed information as things are updated.

On the Template Monster blog there's a recent post looking at some of the upcoming features in WordPress 3.0 that many WordPress site owners have eagerly been waiting for.

Alright bloggers, web surfers and simple web enthusiasts, we've got some fascinating news for you all. Yes, Internet community can't stop buzzing about the forthcoming release of the new version of #1 blogging software '" WordPress 3.0. [...] The official release is scheduled for May 2010 but now we have opportunity to mark the major advantages that this release will bring.

They list a few of the major enhancements that'll happen in the new release including:

• a built-in multi-user option
• custom post types
• a new default design/theme
• and changes related to security concerns

You can find out more about this upcoming release from this post to the man WordPress blog.

Juozas Kaziukenas has a suggestion for all of those developers (and web applications) out there that are still resting back on their comfort zone of PHP 5.2 - don't be afraid of PHP 5.3, the earlier the adoption the better!

While attending PHPUK conference in London, I noticed how much talk there is about PHP 5.3 and "when to upgrade?", there was even a presentation about that. Because I have been using PHP 5.3 for more than half a year, I decided to share my views on this topic. This topic is very important as the earlier PHP 5.3 is adopted, the sooner second iteration of frameworks can be released (story for Symfony).

He goes through a few of the concerns he's heard about making the move and tries to show things in a PHP 5.3 light and how it can help. He mentions the new features that come with the upgrade, the difficulties of porting over legacy code, package support by some of the major linux distributions and gives a few reasons why you should switch right now.

On his TellingMachine.com blog today Klaus Graefensteiner has a few things you should consider when selecting the right PHP version for your Windows+IIS server.

Questions he suggests will get you started down the right path are things like:

• What version of PHP do I need?
• What CPU architecture is my computer running?
• What http web server is PHP running under?
• What VisualC/C++ Runtime Libraries are the PHP binaries linked against?

If you're looking to run PHP 5.2+ on Windows, you have two main choices - the VC9 version or the VC6 version.

According to this new message posted by Scott MacVicar of Facebook, the first versions of HipHop have officially been pushed to their account on github.

Today we've pushed an initial version of HipHop onto GitHub at http://github.com/facebook/hiphop-php. This source should build on CentOS 5.2 and Ubuntu 9.10. Any specific hard to find libraries are bundled where the license permits. Remember that while we're running HipHop in production it might not yet be stable for you. You should be comfortable with this sort of software as it's the first public release.

You can read more about the release on its github wiki and how to get it installed. Issues can be reported to this list.

The Zend Framework has updated their documentation site with a very handy feature for those that may not be working with the latest version of the framework - the ability to select a version of the framework to view the documentation for.

As of the time of this post, they have versions 1.10 back through the original 1.0 of the documentation as well as having them in six different languages. The site's search can also be limited to a certain version as well, making it super simple to find just what you're looking for.

Check out their updated documentation site to see these new features in action.

In a new post today Mark van der Velden looks at how to run more than one PHP version on one web server.

This is a blog about running two PHP versions on one webserver and using multiple php.ini files, this combination can be a tricky one to tackle. But luckily one we can tackle quite easily as long as one of the PHP versions is >= 5.2.7. For this example I'll be using Apache, but the webserver flavor doesn't really matter. The most important part is the "PHP_INI_SCAN_DIR" environment variable.

He wanted to be able to run a specific version (or versions) on the web server for applications that depended on or required a certain PHP version - like one that was written in PHP4 that would have all sorts of quirks if moved to PHP5. You'll need to know a bit about installing packages and how to compile one of the versions yourself, but configuring the Apache httpd.conf is simple. Virtual hosts make it easy to define a specific version for different parts of the site.

In a new article from PHPBuilder.com today Marc Plotz starts from the beginning and guides the reader through some of the basics of PHP.

It's been a few years since I echo'd my first HELLO WORLD script. PHP has developed and evolved and yes, it has changed since it was first devised as little Perl extensions on Rasmus Lerdorf's localhost. Still, for a little Home Page script, it has grown into something that is now used on over 200 million websites around the world. That is nothing to be scoffed at. In this article we'll discuss the two most important things we should try to remember when developing in PHP.

His two things are "develop on linux" and "use SVN or CVS". The first tip is up for debate - one of the best things about PHP is its ability to work well on both linux and windows-based systems but the second point is an absolute must for anyone doing any kind of serious development work.

On CakePHP's Bakery blog Joel Perras has made a new post that, he hopes, will clear up some of the confusion around which versions of PHP will be supported in which CakePHP release.

There seems to be a bit of confusion as to what version of PHP will be supported in what CakePHP releases, and where to find which projects on http://code.cakephp.org/projects. Hopefully, this post will help answer any questions you may have. If you only read one line of this entire post, read this: CakePHP 1.3 != Cake3.

Basically, PHP 5.3 support is being worked into the 1.3 series of the framework but not the 1.2 versions. Currently, though, the 1.3 branch isn't considered stable. There's also a distinction made between the CakePHP 2.0 project and the CakePHP 3.0 project.