In a new tutorial over on PHPBuilder.com today, they demonstrate how to create and work with one of the most popular data exchange formats on the web today - RSS.

Recently I was looking for an RSS aggregator. I was having surprising difficulty finding one that did exactly what I wanted. [...] I began seriously considering writing my own. This month, I show you how to create a basic RSS reader yourself.

He gives a simple primer to what RSS is and what it looks like (explaining the XML spec) and includes an example of what a simple document looks like. He uses the older XML functionality in PHP (expat) to do the parsing and includes to code that he uses to get the job done.

DevShed starts off a new series today in this first part of the series looking at the creation of and working with command objects in PHP5.

In this article, the first part of a series, you'll learn the basics of applying the command pattern with PHP 5. As always, plenty of hands-on examples are included.

A command class involves having a commander and the implementers that work together to do things like (what they illustrate) manipulating strings. They create the commander class and give a simple example of a subclass that implements it. They create a few more and tie them all into a master class to work together. Finally, they give an illustration of the code in action - uppercasing a string and inverting it to read backwards, then output.

DevShed takes a look at another of the design patterns in a new series starting with this new tutorial - a look at the implementation of Adapter objects in PHP.

You may have already encountered situations in coding PHP applications in which you would like to use inheritance, but could not for one reason or another. Fortunately, there is an alternative for these situations that can help you achieve the same result. In this first article in a two-part series, you'll learn about the adapter pattern.

They start off with the basics of the Adapter pattern and move quickly into the first definition of a class using them - a directory processor. Once that's built, they show how it all works with a more practical example.

On the Shadow Fox Network today, they've posted parts one and two of their look at building a better blogging system.

In part one, they talk about things where all good projects should start - with the planning and what it will take to get the project done. This includes the structure of the application, the usability, and the extensions you'll want to use.

Part two goes a step further into the planning stage by looking specifically at the design and usability of the application. They start with the base HTML and add some styling and images to make it easier to use.

Yet another new series is starting over at DevShed today with part one of a look at the creation of a blogging application in PHP 5.

Assuming that building a blogger with PHP is really an interesting topic for you, let's learn together how this useful application can be developed in a few easy steps.

These easy steps include:

• defining the structure of the application
• creating the insertBlog method
• creating the updateBlog method
• creating the deleteBlog method

Each of the above functions provides just the basics of the functionality needed to make a more fully-developed blogging system, but there's more to come in future parts of the series. You can download a zip file of the current code here.

With frameworks growing more and more popular, especially in the PHP community, it's good that major sites are working up tutorials to shwo their readers how to work with them. One such tutorial is this look at the CakePHP framework over on Developer.com.

In this first installment of a two-part series I'll introduce to how the aptly-named CakePHP framework can make implementing such features a total breeze, using the theme of a fantasy football application as the basis for introduction. In this article I'll implement the first two aforementioned features, and in the second we'll build additional features into the application, adding user authentication and allowing others to maintain their roster.

They don't teach you about the MVC pattern of design (Model/View/Controller), so you'll need to become aquainted with it. After that, though, they give you all you'll need - the table schemas, how to set up the scaffolding, creating the models and controller, and some data to help you fill in the details.

In his his latest blog entry, Felix Geisendörfer makes a recommendation for anyone working with the CakePHP framework. He suggests doing something that most might avoid - diving into the source to find out how things work.

When hanging out in #cakephp I usally try to answer questions people have as good as I can. A lot of the times I have no idea what the answer is and in most cases the fastest way to find out is by looking at the core code. Ok, the manual is pretty decent these days and I would recommend most people to look for an answer in there first. But if you take the time to study the core code, you'll be able to answer almost any question by yourself, no matter if it has been answered somewhere before.

He talks about other advantages like finding those hidden, undocumented features already supported by the framework. Since this is the first part of the series, he just looks at how to get into the source. He starts off with the basic index.php file that comes installed with the distribution and a chunk of code that helps run the index file and is at the heart of how CakePHP works - the Dispatcher.

DevShed is starting up another new series today, this time looking at the DirectoryIterator methods out of the Standard PHP Library functionality.

Because this class might be handy to use in projects where handling directories is a must, in this new series I'll be taking a close look at some of its most important methods. We will explore these methods appropriately in conjunction with the corresponding code samples.

They introduce the class, noting why it's handy to use and where's the best place to use it - including an example. They get into a bit more detail, looking at the key() and current() methods as well as using the rewind() method to reset the pointer for the directory.