Andi Gutmans has pointed out an effort that Adobe has proposed that would go a long way towards adding AMF support to the Zend Framework.

This ZF component will allow for client-side applications built with Flex and Adobe AIR to communicate easily and efficiently with PHP on the server-side. Leading the design of the component for Adobe is Wade Arnold. Wade already has a track record of bringing the Adobe RIA technologies to PHP as a result of all of his work on AMFPHP.

Andi sees this as a next logical step to helping the framework become more "Enterprise oriented" and to compliment the recent Dojo integration. The plan is to release it with the 1.7 version of the framework, but the actual timing may vary due to the approval process.

On the Zend Developer Zone today there's a new tutorial (by Jack Herrington) talking about working with Adobe AIR and Javascript to make a desktop application for uploading images (or any other files) to a remote server.

To solve the upload problem, most of the big services have dedicated upload applications that run on all the different platforms. But it takes a lot of work to develop them, especially when they have to run on both Macintosh and Windows. Or is it so tough? As it turns out, Adobe AIR technology makes it possible to write applications for any platform using just HTML and JavaScript. It also offers access to cool desktop features, notably drag and drop.

The tutorial shows how to make the application with the HTML/Javascript version of an AIR app (as opposed to Flex) that lets you drag and drop files into it to be uploaded. They make the basic file upload form first as a foundation then extend it to make it accept the remote request (via POST) from the AIR application to handle the uploads. Javascript code and screenshots are included.

On the Zend Developer Zone, there's a new article/tutorial showing how to keep things in sync on your Drupal installation with the help of Adobe AIR.

Whether you're an enterprise developer working in a large shop or setting up a blog for yourself, you've almost certainly been tasked with keeping your development code in sync with some type of stable release. Whether a project is big or small, you still need to ensure that the core code you work with remains consistent.

The tutorial walks you through the setup of a basic AIR application, how to pull the configuration XML into it and parsing it to use in the interface. The next step is the sync, grabbing your config and pushing it out to other multiple configs across your sites (via a REST service).

The PHPBuilder.com site has a new tutorial showing you how to interface PHP with Adobe's Flex functionality and to use remoting to let them "talk".

They dive right in, throwing download links at you and working through setup steps to get your environment up and running. With that out of the way, they show how to get the demo set up that uses their weborb framework.

The end result of the article is a simple Flex/PHP application that pulls information from the database and pushes it into a datagraid for display.

On PHPBuilder.com, there's a new article that takes a look at the recently introduced (well, relatively recent) combination of Flex from Adobe and PHP to create rich internet applications.

Unlike HTML and the endless number of limitations it presents, Adobe Flex provides an intuitive environment with a vast number of options. There is a large variety of events and styles that far exceed what is available with custom coding in Javascript and CSS. [...] The purpose of this article is not to familiarize you with Adobe Flex, but to demonstrate its integration with PHP.

They introduce the concept of integration with a simple little script first - a "click me" button that makes "Hello world" appear when clicked. With that knowledge in place, they move to something a little more complex - the creation of a dynamic chart from database information (code included).

On his Adobe blog, Charlie Key has a new post demonstrating how you can transmit data back and forth between a Flex application and PHP using JSON messages.

In almost every RIA data needAdobe Flex makes implementing this solution an easy task. The solution explained in this tutorial uses PHP for the server-side programming and sends the data using JSON (JavaScript Object Notation) encoding. By the end of the tutorial you will be sending simple objects along with arrays of objects from your PHP code to your Flex client.s to be transmitted from a server to the client. [...]

There's a list of things you'll need to get started, the files you'll need to work with in the tutorial, and the steps to follow to make things work together nicely. Plenty of PHP and Flex code is included.

Mike Potter has an update on some of the upcoming "Hands on Flex & PHP" sessions happening all over the globe:

There are a number of hands on sessions that are coming up in the next few weeks that deal with Flex and PHP together. Head to any of the following conferences to get more information, and hands on training, about building Flex applications powered by PHP.

Conferences he will be attending and speaking at in the near future include php|works in Atlanta, Adobe MAX North America, Adobe MAX Europe, a Flex User Group and a PHP event happening in Paris.

On the ParanoidFerret.com blog today, there's a new tutorial showing how to get the Adobe Flex technology to talk happily with PHP over a JSON interface. Their example is a simple form that, given a person's information, finds matches from a backend XML.

To make sure we don't get too stuck in a rut with our tutorial posts I decided to branch out a little bit and talk about Adobe Flex 2.0. I recently spent a lot of time figuring out how to do this. Basically what I am going to go over here is how to use php and json to send data to your flex application, and then how to use that data in Flex.

He includes an example of the app in action plus all of the PHP and Flex code you'll need to make it work on your system. Since Flex has built-in JSON functionality, it makes it simple to query the resource and pull back the information that matches.

In a new post to his blog today, Mike Potter talks about the WebORB for PHP software and a new feature based on Adobe technology - a Flex-based console.

[It] includes a service browser, as well as a number of useful examples, showing both the client side code (in Flex) and server side code in PHP. The getting started guide (again, built into the console or available on the web) provides a good tutorial for creating your first WebORB powered application.

He likes the project overall, but notes a small issue he has with starting a new project - a prompt to use the Flex Data Services. Overall, though, he has high hopes for the future of the project.

If you missed the previous PHP/Flex online seminar from Adobe, Mike Potter has some good news for you - there's another one coming up on July 17th.

For those of you who missed my first online e-seminar for PHP developers, I'll be hosting another one on July 17th (next Tuesday). The content will be fairly similar, but instead of using AMFPHP I'll use WebORB for PHP, which was updated last week to 2.0.

You can register for the session here.