Hasin Hayder has proposed an interesting replacement for the usual caching mechanism - using the Facebook data storage API to cache copies of pages/data/etc.

Why not! All you need is a fast-n-furious caching storage for your Facebook application which stores values against a key, same like a hash table. Facebook data storage API does the same for you. using the batch API in Facebook rest client you can seriously think it as an alternative of memcache.

He shows the simple process for making the object (manually in a preexisting application), inserting data into the object through the API they provide and how to pull that data back out.

According to this new article from Application Development Trends today, a collaboration has been formed between FileMaker users familiar with PHP and Zend to create a new kind of API to the FileMaker system.

FileMaker's senior product manager Kevin Nathanson says that FileMaker is addressing two audiences with the API beta: existing users of the company's database software, and PHP developers looking for simpler database software than DBMSs such as MySQL.

In fact, developers have been interested in connecting this everyman database software with the popular embedded scripting language for some time, and FileMaker's PHP API has a predecessor: FX.php, an independently developed, open-source PHP class designed to pull data from FileMaker Pro using the XML output by Server Advanced for FileMaker 7 or the Web Companion for FileMaker 5 and 6.

Developers are reminded that the library is still in a beta format and that constant work is being done to enhance its functionality. You can get complete information about the library here.