On the AjaxRay.com site today there's a new tutorial for the Zend Framework users out there with a library they can use to extend Zend_Form for custom phone number fields.

When taking Phone number as user input, we can worn users about phone number format by setting a hint/description and can validate using Regular Expression. [...] Now, if we try provide this feature in Zend Form, that's possible. We can create three individual Zend_Form_Element_Text objects and join there value together to make the phone number. But, in this case, validating them together is a hassle.

Instead of separate fields, the library they create makes it simple to handle them as a whole field. It works as a helper for Zend_Form and lets you set things like the separator between the text fields, a "format" string and a validator to apply to their fields (in the example code, it's the "digits" validator). Sample code is included to show you how it fits in your form.

In a recent post o his blog Simon Harris talks about how you can make phone calls and send SMS messages from your PHP applications (well, sort of). He shows how to trigger phone calls and SMS on certain phones by way of an HTML page.

Okay, so you can't really make phone calls and send SMS messages using only HTML; that would be silly. However, if you are developing web sites and web applications for mobile handsets, you can take advantage of some features in XHTML Mobile Profile which make it easy for a user to call a number without typing that number in. You can also use the same mechanism to trigger - on the user's handset - an SMS or MMS dialog with the intended recipient's number and the message content prepopulated.

He includes three examples if it in action (using PHP to render the page) - creating a link to make a call from the HTML, sending an SMS if the text inside a link and doing the same with a MMS message. He uses the WURFL project to make it all work and code snippets are included.

In a recent post to the php|architect site Marco Tabini has a suggestion of five meta-skills he thinks every PHP developer should learn.

But being a PHP developer is much more than writing PHP code. In fact, good PHP skills would be something that I would take for granted that every PHP developer should have'"and, if enough employers are as crazy as I am, there's a chance that I'm not the only one who wants to look beyond mere PHP to decide who is good and who is exceptional.

His list five of meta-skills for the PHP developer covers a wide range of things, not just involving the technology of web development:

• HTML, CSS and JavaScript
• Understanding business
• Coming to grips with reality
• Using the phone
• Being humble

In this new post to his blog Vinu Thomas shows how to install an application onto his S60 phone to access his WordPress blog.

I just came across this S60 freeware today which allows me to manage my wordpress blog on my E71. Wordmobi is a Python app which can be used to perform the following tasks on the blog: create/publish new posts, include images in the posts, view/approve comments and delete posts.

You'll need to install Python on the phone before you can get Wordmobi up and running. He includes screenshots for quick blog setup and the resulting listing of posts it pulls in.

Having just received his brand new Neo Freerunner device (a linux-based phone) Derick Rethans did what any other good PHP developer out there would do - he installed PHP on it right away.

As I mentioned, the Freerunner is basically a Linux computer - which means total freedom of what you install on it. Traditionally it comes with perl and python, including GTK bindings. However, no PHP is found on it. I set out to change that. Unfortunately there were some issues with cross compiling, so I decided to compile PHP on the phone. There were some issues with this.

Because the included BusyBox toolset (that emulates much of the traditional Unix tools) didn't have all he needed to compile directly, he compiled the "coreutils" libraries and installed them to the phone. After a few manual tweaks and file copies he had what he needed and ran the compile without issues. He even created a package you can download (a countdown timer) to see if your install is working correctly.

Vinu Thomas talks about a platform on his blog today that can be used to create PHP applications to live on a S60 phone.

If you'd like to work on your favorite PHP apps on your S60 phones, here's PAMP - Personal Apache, MySQL and PHP. This is implemented on the Symbian OS using Open C, which is a set of industry-standard POSIX and middleware C libraries for S60.

The PAMP system is pretty easy to install and guides can be found over on the dev.mobi website to help get you started. You can download the latest version of the project from its SourceForge website.

The Zend Developer Zone is hosting a special event involving the PHP Women's user group - a live podcast as a part of the PHP Abstract series happening December 4th.

PHPWomen.org recently celebrated it's first birthday. To honor the occasion, four of it's prominent members, Ligaya Turmelle, Elizabeth Naramore, Elizabeth Smith and Sara Golemon have agreed to sit down with me on the phone and talk about PHPWomen.org, it's goals, how well they feel they are achieving them, and why the #phpwomen chat room has nice wallpaper and a couch in it.

Since it is live, listeners are invited to participate too through two methods - via IRC on the Freenode network and on a toll-free number to call in. And, as Cal puts it: "if you ask a good question and they answer it on the podcast, I'll send you one of the new elePHPants!"

You can get full details on the podcast from this post on the Zend Developer Zone's site.

On his web development blog, Joey has posted a new list of eight handy regular expressions you can use in your code for common validations.

Here are eight examples of practical PHP regular expressions and techniques that I've used over the past few years using Perl Compatible Regular Expressions. This guide goes over the eight different validation techniques and describes briefly how they work. Usernames, telephone numbers, email addresses, and more.

Each of the regular expressions comes complete with an explanation of what it is and the kinds of strings it's looking for. Comments on the post have helped even more, finding places where they might break or not catch all possibilities.

In one of his latest posts, Marcus Whitney looks at the upcoming year and what the future holds for mobile applications - and where PHP might fit into it (with a little help from Flash Lite).

Since meeting with Jackson for lunch this week, I am definitely convnced that he is on to something when he says 2006 is going to be huge for mobile. Here's another challenge to the PHP community. Flash Lite is pretty cool. So.. I'm pretty excited by Flash Lite, and the announcement that Samsung phones will support it is good news for me and all the Sprint/Nextel/Embarq customers out there.

Any chance us PHP devs will be able to start writing robust mobile apps? Maybe working in tandem wiith the beauty of Flash on the front end?

It'd be interesting to see if this line of thought would lead to any major PHP/Flash applications. The possibility is definitely there with its ability to not only import data like XML, but pull in other resources as well...