With Solar, you connect to SQL databases using the Solar_Sql factory class, which returns a Solar_Sql_Adapter class for you. Most developers only need to connect to a single MySQL server. [...] However, when you get into a situation where you need to scale up, you might need a replicated MySQL database setup. In such cases, there is one "master" server that handles reads and writes, and there are one or more "slave" servers that are read-only.

The Solar_Sql_Adapter_MysqlReplicated adapter does all of the switching for you, making it as simple as dropping it in and changing your configuration to point to the master and slave servers (examples included).

Solar_Registry is a class for storing singleton objects which are used usually for things like SQL objects and the response and request objects. Now what's interesting, is that in the new version of Solar a new configuration key registry_set was added for the Solar arch-class. You can use it to tell Solar to automatically add objects to the registry when it starts up.

He compares the two methods - manual loading and the automatic version and includes a "real world" example of loading up an SMTP object.

The other thing I see there are people telling me what errors in their applications they are currently fixing. I can't see why that's interesting. But as people seem to be interested I found out that I have stuff to say, too, or better my PHP has, since sometimes I have errors there, too. But well, I'm lazy so I don't want to "twitter" them myself.

His "little PHP extension" that automatically sends the reported error out to the designated account. Of course, it tends to slow things down (connection to a remote machine and all) but it could be useful for sending an SMS is something pops up.

Every major website seems to have a tag cloud. Users love tag clouds; they help navigate masses of content quickly and easily. [...] How do we actually build a tag cloud at application level? In this tutorial, I'll take you through putting together a full-blown, calculated web 2.0 tag cloud in PHP.

They start at the end, with an example cloud with some sample tags ("php" being the largest, of course). The code for it is pretty simple - it looks at an array of counts, the number of times the tag is used, and builds the links with the correct font size automatically.

For a future project I needed these days some easy to use zip or gzip class to create a zip file from files / folders inside a specified directory. [...] I tested two [other] scripts before and must say that this script works great for single files if you add them manually. To compress a whole directory with an unknown number of files into one zip file I created some class extension to get this job done.

In his class, the get_file_from_folder method is called with the directory and the file to load them into. This loops through the files, pulling them all (directories and all) into the new zip file. An example of the class' use is also included.

Recently though, I was working on a PHP project, and I decided that the time had come to rewrite my Mint recipe to allow deployment of any PHP project, totally independent of Rails. I set to work, and I'm happy to share the result.

The example makes it a simple matter of using the command "cap deploy:php" to use the recipe and push out your PHP application.

Just as views can be automated'"that is, you don't have to instantiate a Zend_View object; the controller does it all for you when you call $this->render() from any controller action'"you do not have to explicitly tell Zend_View where your helpers reside, as the manual suggests. Instead, place your helpers in a special "helpers" folder where the Zend_Controller_Action's initView() can find them.

He includes how the directory structure would be altered (the addition of the helpers folder) and how to name the helpers so they can be used in an application (Zend_View_Helper_*). Also, check out the post for some of his interesting thoughts on a recent visit of his to New York City.

This article contains information on how to improve your application stability by controlling how the changes affect the Model-View-Controller Zend Framework application. As a result, you will be able to deliver better software to your customers and reduce the time needed for testing of the software.

He breaks the post out into several different sections:

• Testing should be automatic
• Program tests program
• MVC improves testability
• MVC application creating is easy with Zend Framework
• Select and modify data to test Model
• View is simple but unsteady
• Testing View includes testing Ajax
• Use cases show how to test Controller

But how can you build a tag cloud for a site that did not have any kind of content tagging or categorization? This is a problem that can be solved by the Automatic Keyword Generator class written by Ver Pangonilo from the Philippines.

The ZDZ post includes an example of the class' usage - a pretty simple example of how it parses a string of data and, using a set of rules, parses through it to create the tags for the information.

This is a Mac OS X droplet for PEAR developers that run Chiara_PEAR_Server. This little droplet just takes in your PEAR Package .tgz and it will release it to Chiara_PEAR_Server.

He idea of the droplet is to automate the packaging process for a tgz file to post it out to a PEAR channel server. Sounds quite handy - check it out for yourself by grabbing the source from svn.saltybeagle.com.