In the bad old days of processing forms and saving each field to a column in a database row, you'd have to do a lot of manual gruntwork: accessing each field from the $_POST superglobal, checking the values, constructing the SQL query, connecting to the database and executing the query, and so forth. Wouldn't it be great if you could just import the form right into an object, and let it do the validation and the database saving based on just a few simple rules? Let's take a quick look at how that might work.

He shows how to make an instance of the WFFormCreator class in a simple script and add actions to it to handle the successful submission and the errors that might come up.

Unlike many Web frameworks, Willowgarden doesn't provide a different template for every action. All actions are provided via a single template file for the entire page. This works because of the concept of template modes.

He includes a quick example of these templates, creating two files to show the difference - one with the normal templating methodology and the other showing the difference Willowgarden's templates make (more concise and more flexible).

I'm so pleased to announce that Developer Preview 2 is ready. This is where the project is really starting to solidify and settle into a cohesive whole that can be used for hands-on development. I've been working on several Web site and applications using the DP2 codebase, and it has made my life as a PHP developer so much more fun than the bad old days of cobbling together scripts nearly from scratch.

A new wiki for the project has also been launched with content already being added - a User Guide and areas for tutorials and howtos. Jared also puts a call out to PHP 5 developers out there looking for something to get involved with to take a good look at the Willowgarden project and send him an email ("remove everything after jared before the @ sign").

First on the agenda: getting Willowgarden Developer Preview 2 out the door! The first step in that direction is adding the code to a Subversion repository, and to that end I've put Willowgarden up as a project at Sourceforge.net.

In other news, xajax 0.5 is still on the table, and I'm hoping we can get a beta release out by late September. Keep your fingers crossed! Much more news on that to come in the days ahead.

He notes that the codebase for DP2 of Willowgarden is just about 95% complete, but that it will still take a bit to finish and build a release he feels good about.

I now realize I was too ambitious. I tried to "pull a Vista" (sorry Microsoft) and come out with a new release with practically everything new, improved, re-engineered, etc. Like Vista, it has resulted in a long delay and a lapse of immediate functionality improvements for interested users. Unlike Vista, I'm actually getting close to done with what I wanted to accomplish, and I'm pretty happy with the result.

He hopes to have a Subversion repository up and going by early next week which will contain his official DP2 release of Willowgarden. There's still some documentation issues to work out, but the code will be ready and out with no delays from those.

I know I promised to post something last week, but I was just feeling too crummy. However, I'm much better this week and getting back into the swing of things. Man, I feel like most of June just completely disappeared on me.

Anyway, I want to give you all a status update on the two big PHP projects I've been working on, xajax and Willowgarden. First off, however, I want to thank my day-job employer, Commandtext, for allowing me to spend some time working on these projects during business hours.

The main update to the xajax project is a shift in the API to move towards version 0.5 (a large shift that will break backwards compatibility). They have suggested, though, a "legacy layer" that would make this transition easier.

On the Willowgarden front, they're working more and more towards a new release - Developer Release 2. This new version will include things like a Data Access layer, configuration classes using XML, framework-wide access to logging/sessions, and "smart archetypes" to make the flow of the code easier.

He also includes specific mentions of new features for each. In xajax, a hot-swappable plugin system, and for Willowgarden, the development of unit tests and some more sample applications.

Keep an eye out on his blog for further updates - the results should be interesting, productive or not.

The interviewer starts off just getting to know Jared, including the large amount of other projects he's associated with (both technology and not-tech related). From there, they move into the Web 2.0 discussion, asking him what he finds interesting about the movement and what he doesn't like about it all.

The remainder of the interview is talk about the XAJAX framework - what functionality it currently has, who's working on it currently, and a few hints on what's coming up in the next versions.

There's also a quick mention of Willowgarden, a rapid application development platform for PHP. Developer Preview 1 has been released for those that are interested.