In this new post to his blog Rob Allen looks at how to use a standard installation of the Zend Framework on a shared hosting environment.

When you deploy a Zend Framework website to a shared host, you usually cannot change the DocumentRoot to point at the public/ folder of the website. As a result the URL to the website is now http://www.example.com/public/. This doesn't look very professional, so we'd like to remove it. The easiest way, given a ZF project created using Zend_Tool.

In the index.php file you'll need to define a constant and an .htaccess file to route everything back to that index. You'll need to be aware of this change when working with files and can check in the front controller for that constant to reset the base path if needed (code example included).

PHPFreaks.com has posted this new information about running PHP on a Windows 2008 Server instance and how you can give it a try for thirty days.

Microsoft has been recently engaging in a number of open source projects. They have been working on enhancing performance, security and stability of PHP applications on Windows Server platforms. [...] In cooperation with Microsoft, [we] invite you to trial a Windows based web stack consisting of IIS 7, PHP 5 and SQL Server. Via the PHP on WS 2008 website you will be able to request a 30-day trial with a Microsoft hosting partner

By signing up, you can request a trial of the IIS 7 software. They also provide a Q&A discussion board for those participating in the program that might need any help.

The Zend Developer Zone has pointed out a recent blog post from Mauricio Cuenca showing how to run two (or more) Zend Framework applications on one account on a shared hosting environment.

Shared hosting environments can be a nightmare when it comes to PHP Web Development, specially in testing stages. Yes, I know one should not be using and paying for a hosting plan if the code is still not production ready, but I have seen some cases. I will try to show how to have the Zend Framework installed with as many projects as you want (if your server quota allows you to) in the same web space and all these projects sharing the same ZF copy.

He includes his basic directory structure - separate directories for each of the projects - and the boostrap code to keep the requests for that application inside of the correct directory (setting the LIBRARY_PATH, APP_PATH and CONTROLLERS_PATH).

Noupe.com has posted a few tips to help you get the most out of your WordPress installation - everything from basic tweaks to database optimization.

Performance is a key factor for any successful website. And since WordPress is becoming more popular than ever, it will only be at its best when raised in the proper conditions. Here are a few things to try if you find that your WordPress site is not performing as well as it could be due to high traffic or hidden issues you don't know about.

Here's their list of tips and tricks:

• Upgrade to latest WordPress release
• Remove unnecessary Plugins & upgrade current ones
• Minimize PHP and database queries
• Optimize and Repair your Database from myPhpAdmin
• Use Reliable image hosting service
• Optimize your images with this great tool
• Install WP Super Cache Plugin
• PHP Speedy WP
• WP CSS
• DB Cache
• Speed up access to your favorite frameworks via the AJAX Libraries API
• Display page loading time + number of queries
• Optimize DB

NETTUTS.com has posted this new tutorial about using the CodeIgniter PHP framework to create a simple file hosting site (where a user can upload a file and it's linked and available for download immediately).

I have seen a few introductory tutorials for Codeigniter, and was hoping to show you something a little more advanced. This tutorial will show you how to build a powerful web application for hosting images, using the flexibility of Codeigniter. This tutorial should teach you about the MVC coding philosophy, integral to producing serviceable applications.

Henry (the author) walks you through the setup and configuration of the database and source, but you'll need to have a copy of the CodeIgniter framework working and have a basic knowledge of how it's all laid out. The mini-application includes a login form that authenticates off of a MySQL database and the actual upload form that lets users submit their files and display the ones currently available for download.

Juozas Kaziukenas has a new post to his blog today looking at using Phing to keep files in sync on a shared hosting, FTP only kind of environment.

Today I was trying to use [Phing] in shared hosting server, but as you will see, Phing can't do a lot of it's functionality without direct access to server (over shh for example). [...] Things get worse, when you try to sync files in shared hosting environment, where only FTP is available. [...] Code in the hole some months ago posted solution which uses Net_FTP (FTP functionality wrapper) package to upload files to server. I decided to try given solution, so I modified it to download source code from SVN first and then upload them.

His Phing configuration sets up the application, defining the source directory, the files to push, the FTP connection to make and pushes the files over out of an svn export. He has a slightly different solution (no code/config for this one) that would grab the last revision value from the remote server and only push out the files have have changed since then.

Lorenzo Alberton has a quick tip for those dealing with Zend Framework applications and shared hosting:

The public directory contains all the files that should be directly accessible via the web server, so you must set your web server's document root to this directory. The problem is, in most shared hosting setups you can't change the document root. [...] To solve this problem without changing the above directory structure, you can remove the .htaccess file from the public directory, and place this one in the root directory instead.

His new .htaccess file makes use of the mod_rewrite Apache extension to force everything back into the bootstrap file for your application. You can find out more about setting up a Zend Framework application in their QuickStart guide.

After looking around for different hosting for some of his projects (one that was a bit more PHP-developer friendly), Brandon Savage looked into Slicehost, a virtual server option that gives a bit more control than the larger, more typical shared hosting environments. Here's his review of the move.

I'm not sure what I was expecting, but what I got was pretty amazing. Slicehost works by offering virtual servers for each account - that is, for each account they offer, you get your own box. [...] You're responsible for putting anything on it you want. And that's where the fun starts: you really can put anything you want on it.

The slices allow you to customize your PHP builds, add in MySQL, change up Apache - whatever you want. All you need to know is how to compile things and get them working together. Slicehost isn't a good option for someone that's not familiar with linux system administration, but if you know exactly what you want and how to put it there, their pricing is one of the best out there (plus they just got bought up by Rackspace so their future seems bright).

The Total PHP site has a few suggestions for you to look at before choosing your next web host - five of them:

• PHP 4 or 5? - if you haven't made the switch to PHP5, there's no better time
• Linux/Apache - Windows is largely an ASP.NET platform
• Access to outside the document root - it can be very useful for templates, config files and the like
• Scripting requirements - be sure anything you might need for an outside application (like WordPress) is there
• General advice

There's a bit more detail on each of the points to round out the advice.

Mark Kimsal has posted part one of a new series he's working up on creating a virtual host control panel by pairing with PHP a few other technologies.

I still come across a person now and then who does not appreciate the power that any server control panel gives you. [...] They reduce the margin of error that a human can bring to the table when editing files and performing commands "by hand". If host control panels are so good, why would you want to write your own control panel when there are so many out there already? Well, the answer is, there aren't any open source ones.

He talks about starting out right by defining the build and the technology to use and only then gets started coding. His application uses the Cognify framework, SQLite, Nanoweb and, of course, PHP. At the end of this part of the series, you'll have the framework set up and a sample module in place to mess with.