In this quick new post to his blog Henrik Bjørnskov shows how to use the validators in Symfony2 in a more traditional Symfony 1 style for a form.

Two of the more complicated components in Symfony2 is the Form and Validator component. The Validator is created in such a way it "always" need an Domain Object with Constraints associated through metadata. This is explained in detail here. But there is another way. A way that resemble's the symfony1 forms. Where you could specify the validations directly in your form class.

Code is included in the post to show how to load in a few of the validators (like NotBlank, Email and Choice) and how to use them in the settings defined in the "getDefaultOptions" method.

On the Amazium blog Jeroen Keppens has a recent post looking at some of tools available to you when needing to filter input and escape output in your applications. This post specifically covers filtering on command line applications.

When you need data input in a web context, you send a GET/POST request to your script. On the command line, things work differently. In this blog post, we will talk obout input and output in php-cli.

The post is broken up into a few different sections:

• Handling arguments
• File descriptors
• Interactive input
• Resources mentioned in the post

Tools mentioned include everything from getopt and PEAR's' Console_Getopt out to using file descriptors and working with readline.

On the php|architect blog today there's a new post from Joel Clermont about some of the recent cloud-based offerings that have popped up in the PHP world - Platform as a Service solutions that can help take the effort out of the usual application hosting issues.

Enter the newcomer to the world of PHP deployment options: Platform as a Service (PaaS). You may be rolling your eyes at the introduction of yet another buzzword and acronym, but before you dismiss it, consider how it might fit in to your application hosting strategy. I've heard Platform as a Service described as a "layer above the cloud," that is, it builds on the existing cloud infrastructure, like Amazon's EC2, but abstracts away all the setup and maintenance tasks of running an entire server. As David Coallier described it to me, the goal is to "deploy apps, not servers."

Joel mentions two different offerings that have popped up recently - PHPFog and Orchestra. Both services have some nice features that he gets into including application templates, git integration and configuration for specific kinds of technologies (like database support and memcache availability).

In this new post to his blog Gonzalo Ayuso talks about his quest for the perfect PHP IDE (well, for his needs at least) and several of the contenders he tried out along the way.

I've got a problem. I haven't found the perfect IDE for me. Yet. I've got problems with every software. Now I will try to explain the problems I have and maybe someone shows me the light and helps me to discover the perfect editor/IDE.

His needs include that it be able to run on Linux, that it include code auto-completion, syntax highlighting and a built-in debugger. He tried out a whole list of IDEs including Zend Studio 7, Eclipse PDT, Netbeans and Vim. For each he describes his opinions and talks about what's right and wrong as far as his needs. If you're on a quest for that "perfect IDE" for yourself, you might read his thoughts as well as the suggestions of others on the comments.

Craig Buckler has added a new post to the SitePoint PHP blog today that looks at some of the PHP configuration options and how you can change them from two different places (besides the php.ini file).

Configuring PHP is easy. You can change almost any aspect of the interpreter within the php.ini configuration file, e.g. modify error handling, increase memory usage, etc. Unfortunately, problems can occur when you move your application to a live hosting environment or are distributing the code to customers. ISPs usually lock down the php.ini configuration file - especially on shared hosting. This could cause your application to fail.

If you're lucky enough to be able to use htaccess files, his first method will work for you - using the "php_flag" or "php_value" directives to change settings for your entire application. The other option is more on an as needed basis - using the ini_set method to change configuration options. Be careful, though, only some configuration options can be changed using these methods. Some still require changes to the php.ini and a restart of the web server.

If you're a NetBeans user and have been frustrated by it's default handling of non-PHP extension files as PHP, you should check out this new post from Sachin Khosl on digimantra.com on how to fix the issue.

You love coding in Netbeans and you find it pretty uneasy when it does not function the way you want it to. That was the same with me when I started development in drupal and I was unable to associate the .module as PHP in my favorite editor Netbeans. However with little play around with options I was able to associate .module files as PHP file in Netbeans IDE. So for doing so follow [these] steps.

You can change the setting for plenty of different extensions (and add your own custom ones) in the Options under the Miscellaneous section's Files tab. Check out this screenshot to see the location.

Brandon Savage has a few recommendations when it comes to taking your application to the next level - scaling it up to meet the needs of the masses using your application every day.

The modern age has brought us lots of new ways to take a growing site and scale it. From Amazon Web Services to cloud computing and grid computing, to Mosso and Akamai, there are lots of options we should consider. This article won't make a recommendation as to which you should pick; it will simply discuss what each service has to offer and leave it up to you.

He suggests four different alternatives to pick from when making the move up - the old standby of purchasing more hardware, making use of the Amazone Web Services, using a "cloud" like Mosso or implementing a Content Delivery Network to lighten the load and spread it out across a wider range of servers.

On the O'Reilly OnLamp.com website today, there's a new article that compares searching methods on a site - a "search engine showdown".

It's a universal frustration. You just know that the piece of information you're looking for is somewhere on a site. You click one link, then another, and another. You go back to the home page and try a different branch of the site. After dozens of clicks, you still can't find the information you need. Then it's back to Google and on to another site. At last you find one with an internal search engine. You enter your search term, and voilá!--the information you need pops up in less than a second.

They compare these two types - hosted versus local - and show how to get started on integrating one, the local option, into your site. They start with a few things consider before getting into the choices - the physical issues involved, the page information itself, and how the engine will index.

The rest of the article is devoted to the different options they'd recommend along with ratings, what technology they use, if they're PHP5 compatible, difficulty of installation, and many more criteria. Their list of leading local search engines for your site are:

• Sphider
• MnogoSearch
• TSEP
• PHPDig
• iSearch
• RiSearch

On the Inside Open Source blog today, there's a "quick hit" post from Jason Gilmore for WordPress users out there using the WP-Cache and being frustrated by it's functionality during the development process.

I'm using WordPress to build out a blog for a new endeavor, and couldn't figure out why I had to go through a rather unwieldy refresh process (disabling a template and then enabling it anew) every time I changed it from within the WordPress administration interface.

It was the WP-Caching mechanism that WordPress comes with that was causing the issue, so he tracked down where to disable it for the duration of the development time. (Options -> WP-Cache -> Disable It).

Pierre-Alain Joye has posted this new note today about the release of PEAR 1.4.10.

I just released PEAR-1.4.10 (Greg released it again later, I forgot to commit the new state, stable ;) ). Besides many bug fixes, this release boost the open_basedir and safemode support.

Also, I really hope it is the last 1.4.x release, we will now focus on PEAR 1.5.x and up but more about that later this week.

With this new update, you can finally run the installer with open_basedir in effect, as corrected with two new config options. You can grab the latest update here.