PHPBuilder.com has posted a list of resources that they offer to help both beginning and experienced PHP developers to further their knowledge:

PHP is one of the most popular scripting languages used to develop applications on the web today. As a result, internet.com has a multitude of PHP resources throughout our network of websites. Here are some of our best PHP resources, along with some featured tutorials and out-of-network resources that you may not know about.

The grouping of links also include external resources like the main PHP site and Zend's website.

NETTUTS has posted the second part of their series looking at the basics of CakePHP and how you can get started developing.

In our last CakePHP tutorial we looked at setting up the CakePHP framework and introduced some of the framework's basic concepts and terminology [...] In the next set of tutorials we will build the blog application incrementally so that the basic CakePHP development process is laid out clearly instead of briefly mentioned as in other similar tutorials. In this tutorial we start with a basic authoring authentication component for the example blog application.

He's broken it down into a few steps - defining the goal of the application, creating the models to interface with the database, making the views to output the results and making the controllers to bind it all together.

New on the AskAboutPHP.com blog, this tutorial concerning CodeIgniter view organization has been posted:

Trying my hands at using CodeIgniter, one of the first obstacles I had was how to organize my 'blocks' on a page. Without knowing any better, I thought I had to reiterate the same view calls in every function within the controller, making the controller codes very messy. It turns out that CodeIgniter allows us to nest views within views, and that has made things a lot simpler for me.

Instead of loading and calling the view() method over and other in his actions, he chooses to make a "template" view with each of the other calls to view() contained inside. Then you just pass in the data you want the view to render and call that template view. This also allows you to easily create a site-wide template.

Matthew Weier O'Phinney and Lee Brimelow will be giving a free webinar tomorrow (Wednesday, Oct 22nd) covering the Zend_Amf component of the Zend Framework.

They'll go over the Zend Framework and the Zend AMF module that allows PHP developers to connect Flex applications to Zend Framework powered applications using AMF. You have to register for the e-seminar to attend.

You can find out more about using Flex and the Zend Framework together in this section of the Adobe website.

Robert Basic has posted the second part of his introduction to the Zend Framework series (here's part one).

This post is the second part of my introductory text on Zend Framework, Starting with Zend Framework. This time I cover the basics about controllers, actions, view scripts and view helpers. On request routing and the Front Controller I will write one (or more) big post(s), so this part won't be explained now. I will also skip explaining the models; they deserve their own post.

He goes a step further and looks at Controllers - what they are and some intro steps to you making one of your own - and the parts around them, the views, actions and view helpers.

Eli White has written up a new post about his opinions on certifications (and his habits relating them when it comes to resume reviews).

As it stands, I've shocked more than my share of people in the past when I've mentioned my stance on certifications for programmers. Specifically, when I have a pile of resumes in front of me, and I'm giving them an initial pass to sort them apart, I take any that mention their programming certifications, and sort them to the bottom.

He justification is that most of the certifications out there are pretty much useless and that, from his experience, those that list them on their resume are using it to appear more qualified.

So what is it that's so wrong with the certifications in the first place? Simply put, they prove nothing to me. They only prove that you could cram and pass a multiple choice test.

But, as he notes, programming is more about art than knowing the order of the arguments in str_replace. He illustrates his other point, "passing - yes but by how much?" with how the Zend Certified Engineer exam is handled. You get a pass or fail and you only know what you didn't do so well on if you fail.

On the Zend Developer Zone Cal Evans points out some of the upcoming Flex tour dates to local groups all around the United States and Canada.

The Adobe technical evangelism team will be hitting the road in October talking about our recent announcement with Zend. PHP developers who are interested in learning about Flex and Zend should join Kevin Hoyt, Danny Dura, Ryan Stewart and Christophe Coenraets as they show developers how to get started with Adobe Flex, Adobe AIR and Zend.

Check out this list of locations to find one near you to attend. They run from the first of October through the first part of November.

This recent article on the Redmond Developer News site looks at a partnership one of their largest local businesses, Microsoft, has with Zend and the work they're doing with PHP. They ask "what's next" for these two companies and their future of Microsoft in the community.

Despite speculation that Microsoft would make an announcement around its Silverlight runtime environment at last month's fourth annual Zend/PHP Conference and Expo (ZendCon) in Santa Clara, Calif., the company kept a relatively low profile.

They do mention the collaboration that Zend and Microsoft have already done and note that going forward there will be more initiative to get Windows and PHP to work even better for desktop applications.

In this new tutorial from WebReference.com Ahsanul Bari walks you through one of the core parts of any application made in the CakePHP framework - the controllers.

Controller, the name suggests its job'"it controls, supervises, and manages. In CakePHP, controllers are the classes that handle browser requests and facilitate communication between models and views. It is the central hub where application logics are defined to control program flows of browser requests.

He talks about actions, working with models and interacting with views to pass the requested information out to the user. He also shows how to pass in parameters to the controller to give your application a bit more customization.

In this new post to the PHPInfo site, Brian Fioca takes a look at the WASP framework and how it can help you develop your applications quickly.

In this article I will demonstrate the power and simplicity of developing PHP applications using the WASP Framework through the illustration of a simple user module design pattern. The example code will encompass the creation of a user account and subsequent login validation. In the course of this discussion, we will cover the creation of the three tiers of the application- model, view, and controller-and introduce a simple approach to using AJAX to save application form data and present flexible user interfaces.

The provides the code and database structure to make the application work, including the "touch of Ajax" made using the Prototype Javascript library.