NETTUTS has posted the second part of their series looking at the basics of CakePHP and how you can get started developing.

In our last CakePHP tutorial we looked at setting up the CakePHP framework and introduced some of the framework's basic concepts and terminology [...] In the next set of tutorials we will build the blog application incrementally so that the basic CakePHP development process is laid out clearly instead of briefly mentioned as in other similar tutorials. In this tutorial we start with a basic authoring authentication component for the example blog application.

He's broken it down into a few steps - defining the goal of the application, creating the models to interface with the database, making the views to output the results and making the controllers to bind it all together.

The ProDevTips site continues their look at using Doctrine in PHP with this latest article in the series that adds in a simple, automatic CRUD system to the application.

I just found myself wishing for automatic CRUD, for quick and simple administrative tasks, as it turned out a very easy thing to add.

They create a model for their Company table and a new controller to handle the admin requests. Throw in some fetching functions, a bit of form handling and a bit of Smarty login and you have a simple admin form that automatically creates itself based on the columns in the table.

Matthew Weier O'Phinney and Lee Brimelow will be giving a free webinar tomorrow (Wednesday, Oct 22nd) covering the Zend_Amf component of the Zend Framework.

They'll go over the Zend Framework and the Zend AMF module that allows PHP developers to connect Flex applications to Zend Framework powered applications using AMF. You have to register for the e-seminar to attend.

You can find out more about using Flex and the Zend Framework together in this section of the Adobe website.

Robert Basic has posted the second part of his introduction to the Zend Framework series (here's part one).

This post is the second part of my introductory text on Zend Framework, Starting with Zend Framework. This time I cover the basics about controllers, actions, view scripts and view helpers. On request routing and the Front Controller I will write one (or more) big post(s), so this part won't be explained now. I will also skip explaining the models; they deserve their own post.

He goes a step further and looks at Controllers - what they are and some intro steps to you making one of your own - and the parts around them, the views, actions and view helpers.

In a quick new entry to his blog, Richard Thomas shows how to integrate the popular jQuery javascript library into your Solar application.

Going to go through a quick walk through of how to use a hacked together version of my old jquery library with solar. You can find the class source files here.

He sets up a callback in the Base controller (that all other controllers extend) for the jQuery calls so that any of the "child" controllers can just call "/controller/jquery" to make jQuery requests.

Richard Thomas has two new Solar framework posts added to his PHPJack blog - one talking about the new Firephp support integrated into the framework (similar to other frameworks) and a tip he's come across so far in using the framework.

In talking about the Firephp support:

There has been a flurry of work around Firebug recently including announcements that Zend Framework and Symfony both now have Firebug logging support through the use of the Firephp. As of this weekend Solar can be added to the list with its own support.

A quick example is included.

In the second post he looks at a simpler way to share information between all of your controllers without code duplication - adding it to the constructor of the Base controller your application is built on.

Eli White has written up a new post about his opinions on certifications (and his habits relating them when it comes to resume reviews).

As it stands, I've shocked more than my share of people in the past when I've mentioned my stance on certifications for programmers. Specifically, when I have a pile of resumes in front of me, and I'm giving them an initial pass to sort them apart, I take any that mention their programming certifications, and sort them to the bottom.

He justification is that most of the certifications out there are pretty much useless and that, from his experience, those that list them on their resume are using it to appear more qualified.

So what is it that's so wrong with the certifications in the first place? Simply put, they prove nothing to me. They only prove that you could cram and pass a multiple choice test.

But, as he notes, programming is more about art than knowing the order of the arguments in str_replace. He illustrates his other point, "passing - yes but by how much?" with how the Zend Certified Engineer exam is handled. You get a pass or fail and you only know what you didn't do so well on if you fail.

WebReference.com has the second part of their CakePHP introductory series posted, this time focusing on the actions in the controllers.

They talk (briefly) about how the call to the page is passed off to the controller's action and how you can get more information into it via POSTed values.

There's also a look at redirection, from action to action in a controller (or even to another one) and a look at a very handy method of sharing functions between the child controllers - a "master" parent controller (in their case, AppController).

At the end, they throw in a bit about components - module and reusable bits of functionality that can be passed around from controller to controller, action to action.

This series of articles are excerpts from the Packt book CakePHP Application Development.

On the Zend Developer Zone Cal Evans points out some of the upcoming Flex tour dates to local groups all around the United States and Canada.

The Adobe technical evangelism team will be hitting the road in October talking about our recent announcement with Zend. PHP developers who are interested in learning about Flex and Zend should join Kevin Hoyt, Danny Dura, Ryan Stewart and Christophe Coenraets as they show developers how to get started with Adobe Flex, Adobe AIR and Zend.

Check out this list of locations to find one near you to attend. They run from the first of October through the first part of November.

This recent article on the Redmond Developer News site looks at a partnership one of their largest local businesses, Microsoft, has with Zend and the work they're doing with PHP. They ask "what's next" for these two companies and their future of Microsoft in the community.

Despite speculation that Microsoft would make an announcement around its Silverlight runtime environment at last month's fourth annual Zend/PHP Conference and Expo (ZendCon) in Santa Clara, Calif., the company kept a relatively low profile.

They do mention the collaboration that Zend and Microsoft have already done and note that going forward there will be more initiative to get Windows and PHP to work even better for desktop applications.