On the Floss Valley blog, there's a tutorial posted on creating a sample PHP-driven, Ajax-enabled website using the Smarty templating system and the Xajax library.

This tutorial will explain how to develop a simple AJAX application using Smarty and Xajax with a simple example. The sample application is developed in a Fedora 7 + Apache-2.2 + MySQL-5 server.

They require you to already have some software installed (like PHP, MySQL, ADOdb, Xajax and Smarty) before you get started - no installation guides for those though. They do, however show how to:

• Create the database structure
• Lay out the source code files
• Make the configuration
• Connection to the database and to the Ajax script

As mentioned on the Zend Developer Zone, there's a new article over on the IBM developerWorks website talking about getting Ajax and PHP to play nicely together with DB2 through Xajax.

Various PHP class libraries are available for using Ajax with PHP, among them Xajax, an open source, object-oriented, PHP class library. In this article, learn how to implement PHP, Ajax, and Xajax to develop a dynamic Web application solution accessing IBM DB2 9 for Linux, UNIX, and Windows.

They look at what Xajax is before getting started (to level the playing field) and then start with the installations and usage:

• Install DB2 for Linux, UNIX, and Windows
• Install PHP and Xajax
• Create a DB2 database table
• Sending a request
• Processing a request

By the end, you'll have a simple (form) application that can interact easily with a PHP backend, talking to a DB9 database, that can save catalog information.

In this new blog entry, Jared White notes that he's "back in the running" and working on his projects - Willowgarden and xajax.

First on the agenda: getting Willowgarden Developer Preview 2 out the door! The first step in that direction is adding the code to a Subversion repository, and to that end I've put Willowgarden up as a project at Sourceforge.net.

In other news, xajax 0.5 is still on the table, and I'm hoping we can get a beta release out by late September. Keep your fingers crossed! Much more news on that to come in the days ahead.

He notes that the codebase for DP2 of Willowgarden is just about 95% complete, but that it will still take a bit to finish and build a release he feels good about.

Jared White provides us with an update on his two main projects right now - xajax and Willowgarden - including some highlights surrounding the Willowgarden framework.

I know I promised to post something last week, but I was just feeling too crummy. However, I'm much better this week and getting back into the swing of things. Man, I feel like most of June just completely disappeared on me.

Anyway, I want to give you all a status update on the two big PHP projects I've been working on, xajax and Willowgarden. First off, however, I want to thank my day-job employer, Commandtext, for allowing me to spend some time working on these projects during business hours.

The main update to the xajax project is a shift in the API to move towards version 0.5 (a large shift that will break backwards compatibility). They have suggested, though, a "legacy layer" that would make this transition easier.

On the Willowgarden front, they're working more and more towards a new release - Developer Release 2. This new version will include things like a Data Access layer, configuration classes using XML, framework-wide access to logging/sessions, and "smart archetypes" to make the flow of the code easier.

Jared White has posted this new item over on his blog about his work with both of his projects - xajax (client-side) and Willowgarden (server-side) - including updates on both.

Whew, I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed with the amount of work I have ahead of me for xajax 0.5 and Willowgarden DP2. Not that it's particularly difficult or time-consuming compared to the work I've already done, but in both cases the work requires a singularly focused and specific train of thought, which is tricky to keep up for long.

In the case of xajax 0.5, we're looking at the most substantial and architecture-altering upgrade in the entire history of the project. want 0.5 to provide an incredible platform for a huge ecosystem of innovation around the Ajax concept, and it's going to take a huge amount of design precision to make that happen.

As for Willowgarden, Developer Preview 1 was a decent first start, but there's a ton of work still to do - a lot of which isn't even code related. I need to get the wiki up and running and start writing How To's and the beginnings of a real User's Guide.

He also includes specific mentions of new features for each. In xajax, a hot-swappable plugin system, and for Willowgarden, the development of unit tests and some more sample applications.

In the Ajax Magazine site today, there's an interview with the project lead for a popular PHP and Ajax development framework, XAJAX - Jared White.

The interviewer starts off just getting to know Jared, including the large amount of other projects he's associated with (both technology and not-tech related). From there, they move into the Web 2.0 discussion, asking him what he finds interesting about the movement and what he doesn't like about it all.

The remainder of the interview is talk about the XAJAX framework - what functionality it currently has, who's working on it currently, and a few hints on what's coming up in the next versions.

There's also a quick mention of Willowgarden, a rapid application development platform for PHP. Developer Preview 1 has been released for those that are interested.