On the ZetCode.com site there's a five part tutorial posted about getting your PHP application up and running on a PostgreSQL database (updated on the 4th).

This is a PHP tutorial for the PostgreSQL database. It covers the basics of PostgreSQL programming with PHP. The examples were created and tested on Linux. [...] PostgreSQL is a powerful, open source object-relational database system. It is a multi-user, multi-threaded database management system. It runs on multiple platforms including Linux, FreeBSD, Solaris, Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X. PostgreSQL is developed by the PostgreSQL Global Development Group.

The chapters guide you through every step you'll need:

• An introduction to PostgreSQL and getting it and PHP support installed (with the php5-pgsql package)
• Example code showing how to extract data from your tables
• Working with images and storing their data in a table
• Pulling out the metadata from the database, things like number of rows returned and table information
• Transactions and database-side processing

New on PHPBuilder.com there's a tutorial from Leidago Noabeb about using the PDO functionality that comes installed on many PHP platforms out there to access just about any database you might need to work work. This includes technology like MySQL, DB2, SQLite and PostgreSQL.

PHP Data Objects, or "PDO" as it is commonly known, is a lightweight database abstraction layer that is arguably the best, at least in terms of speed. A great deal of this speed is owing to the fact that the PDO extension was compiled with C/C++. The extension became available in PHP5, and as with any other database abstraction layer, its aim is to provide a uniform interface to access a variety of databases. This is also a way for developers to create portable code for a variety of platforms.

The tutorial shows you how to find the enabled PDO connection types for your installation (and where to go if you have access to turn more on or off). They show an example connection - in this case, to a MySQL database - and how to run a query or two using this new resource.

On PHPBuilder.com today there's a new tutorial that walks you through the process of creating a simple MVC framework in PHP based on Smarty, PostgreSQL and the PEAR XML_Serializer package.

PHP now enables you to build robust, manageable, and beautiful enterprise web applications. The best way to do that is to divide the application into three components: model, view, and controller. In other words, you need to separate the presentation, the database, and the business logic from each other. The most common approach for achieving this design goal is to adhere to a strict Model-View-Controller (MVC) framework.

He uses the example of creating an application (a feed reader) to show how the parts of the MVC will fit together as a whole. You won't find any code examples in the article, just an explanation of how everything works together. You can, however, dowload the source and follow along.

Mohammed Berdai has a quick tutorial posted about getting a full installation of PostgreSQL and phpPgAdmin up and working in an XAMPP environment.

XAMPP is an easy to install Apache distribution containing MySQL, PHP and Perl, plus many additional modules. The whole package is well integrated and can save a lot of time and hassle for the inexperienced web developer. [...] phpPgAdmin is a web-based administration tool for PostgreSQL, exactly as phpMyAdmin for MySQL.

It's a simple three step process (with a few sub-steps inside each) to get the system up and running - basically: install XAMPP, install PostgreSQL and install phpPgAdmin.

Wez Furlong wants a bit more out of his PHP script, naemly the ability to be able to process things in the background without tying up or immediately using the script that's running.

In my recent talk on sending mail from php I mention that you want to avoid sending mail directly from a web page. A couple of people have asked me how to implement that, and one of the suggestions I have is to queue your mail in a database table and have some other process act on that table.

He gives a solution that's a bit more optimized for this solution than just polling the same information over and over - using PDO and LISTEN/NOTIFY processing along with transactions to make the CLI script only grab information when there's something new.

OmniTI, the company that employs such PHP notables as Wez Furlong, Laura Thomson, and George Schlossnagle, is hiring according to this new post from Laura.

We are currently in need of four people:

• A junior PHP dev
• A junior-ish web designer (Photoshop, HTML, CSS, Javascript + ideally some coding)
• An Oracle DBA
• A PostgreSQL DBA

The job ads will be up on our website shortly, but if you are eager to act before then, please email me your resume at jobs@omniti.com.

You can find out more about OmniTI as a company from their site and more about previous jobs and how they hire from these two links.

David Costa has submitted a new item today about the start of a new contest to win one of the DotGeek free PHP5 web hosting offered by the - one of 50 hosting slots that are open each month.

Since 2004 Dotgeek.org has provided a free hosting solution for PHP developers. It is currently the only hosting service offering a free plan (no catch, no need to upgrade, there is no upgrade) with CPANEL, PHP 5, the possiblity to host your own domain and the usual suspects (MySQL, Sqlite, PostgreSQL).

However, to face the great volume of requests Dotgeek has for new hosting signups, we've just started a monthly contest, the PHP Hosting Bingo. Every month you can win one of the 50 hosting plan openings by signing up for a "ticket". Once again, there are no ads, no upgrade plans and simply no plan, and to participate to the PHP 5 Hosting Bingo visit http://dotgeek.org.

The next drawing will be On May 27th (2006) and will be announced both live on IRC (in #dotgeek on the Freenode network) and on their site. Head over to the signup page for your chance!

Justin Silverton has posted a quick introductory tutorial on how to use the PostgreSQL database from inside PHP.

This is a simple guide on how to start connecting to a postgres database with php. I also assume that you already have a database setup with a table/tables.

He shows how to make a connection to a database, perform a simple query, and provides the names of some other "helpful functions" from the PostgreSQL part of the manual along with what they do.

The Utah PHP Users Group has posted a new announcement already about their March meeting to be held on the 16th.

This time, the topic is still a bit up in the air and they request that those attening vote on one of two - either "Ajax tools in Eclipse" or "postgresql + stored procedures" - but from Ray Hunter. The meeting will be in the usual place, the Linux Networx offices, and will get going around 7pm.

For more details on the group and this meeting, check out their website.