Henrik Bjørnskov has a new post with a technique you can use to combine Symfony2 and Doctrine2 to create a multi-step form (a wizard) without having to worry about lost user information between steps.

The easy ways is doing it with Javascript and just show/hide the correct fieldsets when needed. The downside with this approach is that the data is only saved and validated once at the end. So if the user reloads the page the entered information is gone. The other way is to have every Step in the Wizard being a seperate form and validate the data based on what step you are on and save the necessary fields.

For his method, he created a Manager class with a StepInterface that returns the correct field names, forms and template information to render. The interface code is included in the post as well as an example of it in use setting up the wizard object, making a report and getting the correct step information from the wizard.

In this new post to his blog Sebastian Bergmann mentions yet another new tool he's released - the PHP Project Wizard, a tool that helps with the creation of configuration files for setting up project build automation.

The PHP Project Wizard (PPW) is a commandline tool that can be used to generate the scripts and configuration files necessary for the build automation of a PHP project. Given the location of a project's directories with sourcecode and tests as well as the project's name, the PHP Project Wizard generates scripts and configuration files necessary for build automation using Apache Ant.

An example of its use is included - a simple call to the shell script with information about the source, tests and project directories. It then generates the XML files for Ant and PHPUunit to run. The result can then be used in the Jenkins jobs for PHP setup seamlessly.

For those that have had trouble getting Xdbug up and working on your PHP installation, Derick Rethans has a new tool that just might help you out - a new wizard installer that handles some of the trickier parts (mostly for Windows issues).

Installing Xdebug seems to be a problem for some users. The main trouble is for Windows users that don't know which file to download. Over the past few days I've worked on a wizard that analyzes phpinfo()'s output.

It has suggestions for both sides of the common installation platform - Windows and Unix - showing you which file to download, how to set it up (or compile it) and what php.ini settings you'll need to add or modify to get it working.

In a new post to his blog today Johannes Schluter talks about a plugin for the NetBeans IDE that allows you to run tests for PHP's regression test suite right in the editor.

The test system therefore produces a bunch of files, a file containing the expected output, one containing the actual output and a diff between these as relevant files. The problem there is that the diff, for being portable, is using a quite simple mechanism which only shows the lines which differ without any context.

[...] Lately I've changed my way of working and use vim less, I still use it, but I use NetBeans as an IDE more and more. So I thought a bit about that test issue and searched my brain for my Java skills and started playing around to see whether I manage to write a NetBeans plugin which can run the tests and report the results in a usable way.

Hes created a project for the plugin (where you can download the latest version - 0.6.0) and install it to your local IDE copy. It adds a toolbar icon, asks for the location of the binaries to test and runs the diff quickly and easily. You can see a screenshot of the tool in action here.

David Van Couvering has posted about some of his experience with the latest version of the NetBeans editor for some of his PHP and Javascript development work.

Yesterday I spent the whole day trying to help a friend in need who had waded in too deep with a contract he has. He has no database experience, and was trying to customize a Wordpress plugin that uses PHP, JavaScript and MySQL. So I downloaded the daily build of the PHP bundle of NetBeans for 6.5 and started working.

He happily notes that things like syntax highlighting, inline documentation and completion were still there in the PHP bundle as well. He also mentions a few other things that could come in handy for the IDE - ssh tunnel support (see here), an "Add Column Wizard" and a "Insert DLL Wizard".

If you've ever wanted an easy, structured way to create a wizard-type form on your site (ie a multi-step form), then you might want to check out this new tutorial from phpRiot.com today.

There will be many situations when creating web forms, that either you cannot accept all data on one page, either because certain responses result in a different set of subsequent questions, or because you form is so long that you need to split it up into multiple pages.

This tutorial covers how to implement such forms using PHP. This will include covering the various issues that need to be taken into consideration, as well as a class to help build such forms. Finally, there will be real-world example of implementing a multi-page form using the class.

He shows you the creation process using his own "lightweight Wizard class" instead of a standby like PEAR's QuickForm for structural reasons. QuickForm works great for single-page forms, but trips up a bit when it comes to more than one. He talks about considerations you'll need to take, and provides the code for his "ZervWizard class"...

If you've ever wanted an easy, structured way to create a wizard-type form on your site (ie a multi-step form), then you might want to check out this new tutorial from phpRiot.com today.

There will be many situations when creating web forms, that either you cannot accept all data on one page, either because certain responses result in a different set of subsequent questions, or because you form is so long that you need to split it up into multiple pages.

This tutorial covers how to implement such forms using PHP. This will include covering the various issues that need to be taken into consideration, as well as a class to help build such forms. Finally, there will be real-world example of implementing a multi-page form using the class.

He shows you the creation process using his own "lightweight Wizard class" instead of a standby like PEAR's QuickForm for structural reasons. QuickForm works great for single-page forms, but trips up a bit when it comes to more than one. He talks about considerations you'll need to take, and provides the code for his "ZervWizard class"...