Court Ewing has written up a new post to his blog about creating a "choice" list (a select list as defined by Symfony 2) with dynamic options and validating the resulting submission. His example uses Doctrine 2 entities to work with most of the data handling.

A standard select list can be created using Symfony's choice field type; it is pretty clear how to create a new choice field with simple, non-dynamic options (e.g. gender), but it gets a little more complicated when you want to create and validate a dynamically generated choice list.

He includes the code for a simple entity, a Post model to fetch the category information and the set up of the form element - a select list of post types/categories. He also includes a bonus section showing how you can achieve the same thing without a model to bind to. The code's a little bit more complex than the previous example, but it's basically just reproducing some of the validation and fetching logic manually.

On the Sourcefabric blog today they've posted their reasons for choosing the Zend Framework to rebuild their applications in - Newscoop and Airtime.

Back in the Fall of 2010, we needed a new PHP framework for our applications. Neither of our applications - Newscoop or Airtime - had anything that could really be called a framework, though our code was generally separated into Models, Views, and Controllers (MVC). But it wasn't pretty. We were in need of an established MVC framework to build on.

They tried out several different frameworks including Yii, CakePHP, Kohana, Symfony and, of course, the Zend Framework. They talk briefly about their evaluation process and some of the pros and cons they found along the way.

Overall, using Zend has helped us to create clean, structured code and for most cases has lowered our implementation time for new features. [...] Even though there are some things that could be better, the net benefit has been positive for us.

On LearnComputer.com there's a new post with their top five choices of PHP books they see as good resources for any developer wanting to improve their grasp of the language.

Continuing with our best-five-book series, today we are introducing our pick of the top 5 PHP books. Obviously, PHP has been around much longer than our other review subjects such as Android or HTML5, and there is a greater general variety of books to choose from.

Their list of top five covers a pretty good range of skillsets, but leans more towards the introductory level:

• Professional PHP6 (and yes, they mention that the title is "blatant false advertising" since PHP6 is nowhere to be found)
• Learning PHP, MySQL, and JavaScript: A Step-by-Step Guide to Creating Dynamic Websites
• PHP Solutions: Dynamic Web Design Made Easy
• Beginning PHP and MySQL: From Novice To Professional
• Head First PHP & MySQL

On the Web Builder Zone today Gorgio Sironi asks you, the larger development population of the web, what framework would you use today to start a new application?

One of the difficult parts of framework adoption, especially in the PHP world, is about choosing the right framework. There is a proliferation of open source solutions and a team must analyze the overall picture thoroughly before locking itself into a particular framework. Changing the framework which an application is built with without shaking its foundations would be probably impossible after a certain period of development.

He lists a few of the things he looks for in a framework - functionality, performance, community and a good license - and asks for some feedback (in the form of a poll) as to which you'd prefer to use next. He's narrowed it down to four options: Zend Framework, Symfony, CodeIgniter and CakePHP. (Expect plenty of comments asking "what about [insert framework here]?")

On Blancer.com they've posted what they call ten compelling reasons to use the Zend Framework for your next application (or even to rework a current one).

Trying to decide which framework to use for your new project? In this article, we'll go in-depth about why Zend Framework should absolutely be your PHP framework of choice.

Their reasons cover a wide range of the framework's functionality including:

• Extend classes like there's no tomorrow
• Use what you need, forget everything else
• No model implementation choose your own adventure
• Guidelines and standards
• Community and documentation

On NETTUTS.com today there's a new article that shares ten different reasons you should use the Zend Framework in your development.

Whether you're starting a new project or improving an existing one, in this article, I've provided ten reasons why you should use Zend Framework for your next project, and hopefully, it helps you in making an informed decision.

Among the reasons on their list are things like:

• Extend Classes like There's no Tomorrow
• Use What you Need, Forget Everything Else
• It lets you do a Lot of Things!
• No Model Implementation - Choose your Own Adventure!
• Guidelines and Standards

On the Web Builder Zone there's a new article from Giorgio Sironi that compares the current states of PHP and Ruby on Rails when it comes to adoption and overall options they each provide.

It has been said ad nauseam that comparing PHP and Ruby on Rails is unfair as one is a programming language and the other is a full-stack framework. In spite of this, we can compare PHP frameworks (which have learned a lot from their first releases) and Ruby on Rails, again not by piling up a list of features, which would be also cluttered by different extensions and plugins. I'm talking about the different approaches taken by PHP and Ruby framework developers.

He talks about the options (or lack there of) that each side of the same web development coin provide and how "magic" and configuration come in to play when developers are making their selections for the most relevant technologies.

On his TellingMachine.com blog today Klaus Graefensteiner has a few things you should consider when selecting the right PHP version for your Windows+IIS server.

Questions he suggests will get you started down the right path are things like:

• What version of PHP do I need?
• What CPU architecture is my computer running?
• What http web server is PHP running under?
• What VisualC/C++ Runtime Libraries are the PHP binaries linked against?

If you're looking to run PHP 5.2+ on Windows, you have two main choices - the VC9 version or the VC6 version.

On the Java section of the Sys-con.com site today there's an interesting perspective from the Java side of things as to why people (the "cool kids") choose Ruby or PHP over Java despite some of the things it has to offer.

Here is a question that I have been pondering on and off for quite a while: Why do "cool kids" choose Ruby or PHP to build websites instead of Java? I have to admit that I do not have an answer. Why do I even care? Because I am a Java developer.

He wonders why, when the Java community, toolset and user base seems so strong, would developers opt for PHP/Ruby to build their "middleware logic". He suggests that maybe Java is more difficult to use so developers shy away from it. He does mention one things that could cause a the sway more towards these simpler languages - that Java could be overkill for a good number of the smaller sites out there.

Check out the comments on the post for more thoughts and ideas from both the PHP/Ruby and Java sides of the discussion.

On StackOverflow.com what started out as a question about framework choices has turned into a good discussion about preferences, features and thoughts on several including the Zend Framework, CodeIgniter, CakePHP and Symfony.

Over the course of your web development experience, what PHP framework(s) have you worked with? What strengths and weaknesses have you observed in those frameworks? Considering these, what framework would you recommend if beginning a new application?

Fans and developers from most of the popular PHP framework have contributed their two cents into the discussion including links to other resources showing "versus" comparisons and even a mention or two of Ruby on Rails.