This entry is a continuation of the Solar CLI series--a series that aims to detail Solar CLI commands, available options, parameters, and usage examples. In this entry we take a look at make-vendor, a command to generate a new project, otherwise known as a "vendor space."

Their example shows how to make a new vendor for your application and all of the directories and files that are built out with it according to the standard Solar application layout. You can read more about this layout on the skeleton system page of the Solar manual.

While I really prefer to use tools like this for deployment, I understand that not everyone wants to mess with standalone programs and configuration files. I've been asked before about Cake-specific deployment techniques, so I figure the easiest way is to see about adding a task to the Cake console.

His idea consists of two new commands - "cake deploy config" and "cake deploy" to make it simple to set up and directly deploy applications without having to go to outside software.

In 2003 I wrote "Plesk Auto Email", the first fully funtional Plesk email automation suite. Now, I am going to show you how to do it. You will need a dedicated server with Linux, Plesk 7.5 and higher, php5, mysql5, and root access. This will show you how to code the auto creation, I am not going into deletions and edits at this time because I don't have all night to blog.

Included are the database table to store the commands in, the PHP script to create the commands (the integration into the other piece of software) and the PHP cron script that looks in the command table and executes each as it goes through.

One thing, I missed with either of the two [other solutions mentioned], was the ability to see the entire manual entry. It's quite often, that the manual actually holds useful information (Who'd known that!), so I find myself using www.php.net a lot. Or I did, until I decided to do something about it. Now, shell-scripting isn't what I spent most of my time on, so it's not with out a bit of pride, that I present to you phpm two-oh.

Most of the rest of the post is his bash script ready top cut and paste as well as some simple instructions on getting it working. (An emacs bonus is also included - a method for binding the script to a key to act on the current word.)

Upon further investigation both of these commands can be used to take screen shots of the desktop of your server, or any applications window (such as a web browser). Both commands are listed as being "Windows only" and also possibly only in CVS, but I found both of them are in the 5.2.3 standard release and compile without error. However at the moment neither appear to actually do anything other than return fully black images

In testing the functionality, though, his only results were black screens and images instead of the expected image results.

phpa is an interactive command line shell for PHP by David Phillips. Stefan Fischerlander, usually known as a SEO expert and Perl admirer, has patched phpa for Mac OS X and Windows (the default builds theredo not seem to support a feature required by phpa). The result: phpa-norl. Stefan successfully ran this on OS X, and I could confirm that it runs on Windows, as well

He also mentions some features of the client including a history feature that makes looking back through previous commands simple.

With the foundation of the routing in place (from part one), they move on to bigger and better things:

• assign responsibilities (what needs to be accomplished)
• creating a standard command object
• interpreting the URLs and the parameters passed in it
• using this information to dispatch the correct commands

Most PHP frameworks use some variation of the front controller pattern to centralize common code and logic. There are advantages and disadvantages to this. I am going to ignore those for now. In fact the first part of this series will explore a simple procedural URL routing method that contains many of the disadvantages. In later articles we will build upon this basis and address the disadvantages.

He walks through the steps to get things set up - working with mod_rewrite, creating the "entry point" for your application, and finally, how to execute a command based on the request's action.

I'm going to extend the creation and use of command objects to use the pattern in a more helpful fashion. Essentially, I'm going to explain how to utilize command classes for defining and handling self-saving objects, that is objects capable of storing a copy of themselves on a database, text file, etc.

They start by defining the core modules and classes for the creation of the objects. They build the other functionality on top of that, creating the save and load mechanisms. The wrap things up and add a few more small bits of functionality before giving a real-life example of the pattern and code in action.

Turning special attention to this second article of the series, I'll develop a few more hands-on examples concerning the pattern in question, thus you can reaffirm the concepts learned in the preceding installment.

They start off by building an array command class to act as a base for the rest of the tutorial. They make two more command classes to point to the commands to be issued (lowercase or reverse a string). Next up is the commanded class to handle the actions themselves. Finally, they plug it all together and show a complete example, including usage.