In Part I of this series, we started the process of creating user polls for a business web site. Part I gave the layout of the data layer and began the construction of the class file. In this part we will continue with adding methods to the class file that will enable the administrator to set the variable values and read from the database tables.

Code is included for setting the poll and answer ID values (setters), grabbing the number of polls currently defined, finding the active ones and pulling out poll data along with its answers. If you need to catch up, you can find the other parts here: part one, part two.

In the first two parts of this series, we created the data layer that will hold the polling data and established methods for setting the variable values and reading from the database tables. In this part, we will build the methods that will write new polls and answers to the tables.

They include the code for an "addPoll" method that inserts the questions and answers for the polls. Their "editPoll" method updates the poll questions/answers and the "addVote" method does exactly like it sounds - adding a vote to one of the poll options. Also included are "deletePoll", "activatePoll" and "deactivatePoll".

My interest was mostly because I'm working on a book chapter which includes some static analysis content, and there are a couple of these tools that I include in my own builds, but I don't do much with the output of them. However I didn't want to drop anything from the chapter if it was actually a valuable tool and I was just missing the point - pretty much all the tools got a good number of votes though, so I'll be covering all of the [options].

According to her results, the most used tool by developers is the PHP_CodeSniffer with the PHP Mess Detector and PHP Copy & Paste Detector tied for second place.

After two weeks, we have closed the poll among the PHP community of Web Builder Zone to establish which are the most wanted features, which will influence development of applications on PHP 5.4. Hopefully this poll would also shape our focus in tutorials in the future - I personally plan to dedicate more time to the winning features.

Runners up included the removal of magic quotes and strict mode with the top three being (in this order) the upload progress patch, traits and the array improvements leading the pack. You can see the results here.

A disclaimer: creating this poll was a bit of a catch-22, as I could not include all PHP frameworks (would have been a very long list) and had to make a selection based on popularity; of course that meant a guess by using Twitter and google results, but the ultimate popularity of the framework, at least in the audience of Web Builder Zone, would only be established by a poll. I thank you for the participation and the suggestions: we had more than one thousand votes, and this means we gathered responses from a statistically valid sample of the PHP community.

According to the results, the Zend Framework comes in at first place with Symfony and CodeIgniter coming in just behind. CakePHP was in fourth and "Other" in fifth. He points out that the top three frameworks all have something in common - they're all company-backed, but still derive a large part of their contributions from the community.

After two weeks of gathering votes, the PHP paradigms poll is now closed. With 216 votes (73%), the winner paradigm in popularity is Object-Oriented Programming. The old procedural approach to PHP, which has given fame to Wordpress and Drupal, is coming to an end. Even Drupal 7 has an object-oriented database layer as a primary component, and this paradigm is by far the most diffused in the world for web sites and applications written in high level languages (different from C).

While the overwhelming amount of votes went to OOP, there were still a few for some of the other options including the second place winner - procedural programming. He also talks a bit about OOP's current place in the PHP ecosystem and how it has allowed for certain great tools to be developed, but how it also has a good ways to go in functionality.

Tis the season for Zendcon. I am going to be giving a talk at Zendcon called "Do You Queue". It will be about doing asynchronous computing in PHP. In order for me to gather some data I posted a twitpoll poll. The response has been pretty good. However, there have also been several misunderstandings as well.

He points out a few comments on the poll that talk about asynchronous processing being included in the language and dismiss it as something that other technology already does. He agrees that threads shouldn't be in PHP because it would break on of PHP's strongest features - the Shared Nothing architecture. Want to share your opinion? Vote on the poll and be heard!

Polls are nearly ubiquitous on the web today, and there are plenty of services that will provide a drop-in poll for you. But what if you want to write one yourself? This tutorial will take you through the steps to create a simple PHP-based poll, including database setup, vote processing, and displaying the poll.

They include all of the code and markup you'll need ready for cut & paste - the SQL for the database backend (they chose SQLite), the HTML for the question and answer sides and the CSS to style them both. No javascript is needed to make the example work. There's even some process flows to help you understand the paths the application can take.

As those in the open source community who either contribute to, use, or advocate open source projects, we understand the importance of keeping them vibrant and active. We understand how great it is to be a part of a growing project we believe in. We understand the benefits of being an active community member. We understand that it not only helps the good of those around us, but it helps us hone our own skills. So what can we all do to get more people to contribute?

The results from her completely non-scientific poll showed that the three largest factors people don't get involved were time commitments, unsure about where help is needed and a lack of confidence in their own skills. She offers some suggestions about what project leads and other developers can do to help bring more people in like:

• Break up big jobs into little jobs
• keep commitments minimal
• Define exactly what's needed
• Save the low-hanging fruit for those just coming in
• Appoint an ambassador (especially useful on larger projects)

Options include CakePHP, CodeIgniter, Prado, Zend Framwork and Symfony. You'll need to get your vote in before November 15th and represent your framework of choice.

As of the time of this post, Zend Framework is out in the lead with around 35 percent of the votes with the "I use my own framework" and "Other" options following up behind with around 16 percent each.