10. Building PHP-GTK with Cairo Support on Ubuntu Jaunty – 2009-04-25

Very interesting that this post was in the running at all. It’s over two years old, goes back five Ubuntu versions, and deals with PHP 5.3.0RC1 (current is 5.4.0RC4) and PHP-GTK when Cairo support was relatively new. (There’s now a separate PECL extension for it now.) If you want to learn more about this, you should definitely check out Elizabeth Smith and Michael Maclean.

9. Renaming a DOMNode in PHP – 2010-02-09

It seems this isn’t as uncommon a problem as I would have thought. Sadly, in the 22 months that have passed since I authored the post, it seems the DOM extension hasn’t been updated further to support the DOM 3.0 standard or the renameNode() method mentioned in this post.

8. PHP_CodeSniffer Article in php|architect – 2011-04-28

It’s nice to see this post get attention even if was just a brief hand-waving to point people to the article, which is one of two I wrote for php|architect Magazine this year. It’s also nice to see that despite being seen by some as a more menial facet of quality assurance, other people consider it important enough to read the article and take something away from it.

7. ‘New SPL Features in PHP 5.3′ Hits php|architect – 2011-02-01

Another post that was just hand-waving to an article that dealt with a topic I saw as underrated. The article followed my php|tek 2010 session and preceded a Zend webinar this year on the same topic.

6. Process Isolation in PHPUnit – 2010-08-19

Between views and comments, it seems I wasn’t the only one who ran into this head-scratcher. However, if memory serves, I think there are plans to remove this feature from PHPUnit in future versions.

5. Node.js: A Beginner’s Perspective – 2010-10-19

The post is about a year old now, and sadly I haven’t done anything of merit with Node.js since (though I hope to change that), but it seems the community is still as vibrant and growing as it ever was. Heck, you can even integrate PHP-FPM with Node via FCGI now. Node is definitely a technology to continue keeping your eye on if you don’t already use it.

4. PHPUnit and Xdebug on Ubuntu Karmic – 2010-01-03

It’s surprising that this post is still relevant since there have been four Ubuntu releases since the version that this post deals with. I’ve since moved over to Fedora 16, at least for now, and it seems to address most of my regular needs. I may look at other distributions like Mint later on.

3. Models in Zend Framework – 2010-03-26

Even though it’s over a year old now, I think this post gets the traffic it does because there’s not really one prescribed way to build models and because the existing documentation describes a number of components that can be used to build models, but doesn’t really offer specific guidance on how to approach it. Bit of a double-edged sword, I suppose.

2. New SPL Features in PHP 5.3 – 2010-05-20

I published this post on the same day that I gave my session on the topic at php|tek 2010. It’s one of my longer and more content-rich posts and I’ve updated it on occasion as I’ve had cause to update the benchmarks that go along with it. Good to see that interest in SPL seems to be rising.

1. Database Testing with PHPUnit and MySQL – 2010-01-04

While I love that this post is driving as much traffic to my blog as it is, I do want to get around to contributing related documentation to the PHPUnit project. Hopefully that will happen soon. In the meantime, you can also read more about this topic in the Testing chapter of my most recent book.

So, one big take-away from this post has been that most of my high-traffic posts were written last year rather than this year. I can’t say it’s very surprising since, looking back, a number of my posts from this year were of the hand-waving variety. I’m hoping to publish more content-rich posts more frequently in 2012. I won’t call it a resolution, because I’d likely be jinxing myself in the process, but I will say that I’ll make my best attempt.

Best wishes to everyone in the new year.

We discuss our recently published book PHP Master: Write Cutting Edge Code, how SitePoint brought us together to work on the project, what it was like to write the book, and some reflections on the experience from each of us.

If you’ve heard about the book and not read it or been curious as it, I heartily recommend giving it a listen.

Just over a year ago, I found ledger and began using it to manage my household finances. Some people may find that sort of thing boring, but I think it’s it neat to look at the past year’s worth of transactions, get a bird’s eye view of our spending, identify trends, and so forth.

I’ve had it in the back of my mind lately that I’d like a better and preferably more visual way to do those things. After perusing through a few charting libraries, I found that Highcharts seem to do what I needed. Among other things, it provides a plugin for the the JavaScript library I’m most familiar with: jQuery.

I already had a bit of PHP code lying around to parse ledger’s XML output, give me a monthly spending breakdown by account, and output it in CSV format. I lifted the parsing logic, wrote some more PHP to search transactions by several criteria based on form input, implemented a very simple plugin system to consume the search results and output various charts, and wrote a few simple plugins. Thus, ledger stats was born.

It’s still in a very rough prototypical stage, but it’s got enough functionality for others to start playing around with it. Feel free to fork it on GitHub and suggest improvements.

[2011-08-09 19:14:46 - Emulator] emulator: ERROR: unknown virtual device name: 'avd'
[2011-08-09 19:14:46 - Emulator] emulator: could not find virtual device named 'avd'

The first few results in Google didn’t turn up any useful information. The culprit turned out to be buried in the Eclipse UI.

1. If the Package Explorer view isn’t already active, activate it by selecting Window > Show View > Package Explorer.
2. In the Package Explorer view, right-click on your project and select Run As > Run Configurations.
3. In the right half of the Run Configurations window, select the small Target tab.
4. On the far right side of the window, use the scrollbar to scroll to the bottom of the Target tab’s contents.
5. Find the text box labeled Additional Emulator Command Line Options. It probably has a value like this: -cpu-delay 0 -no-boot-anim -avd avd.
6. Change the value of the text box to look like -cpu-delay 0 -no-boot-anim -avd AVD Name where AVD Name (which defaults to simply avd) is the name of the AVD you’ve created for this project. In other words, if you open the Android SDK and AVD Manager window (Window > Android SDK and AVD Manager), the value you should use in place of AVD Name within this text box is the same value that appears in the AVD Name column of that window for the desired AVD. So, if your AVD is named MyProjectAVD, the value of the text box should be -cpu-delay 0 -no-boot-anim -avd MyProjectAVD.

• Accessing Web Resources with PHP session – slides, feedback
• Creating Desktop Applications with Titanium and PHP session – slides, feedback
• Introduction to Android Development unconference session – slides, comment on this blog post to leave feedback

The topic of this post is not new. Let’s face it: once there’s an Oatmeal strip about a topic, chances are it’s been around the block once or twice. However, it seems like the point isn’t being driven home to its intended audience: restaurant owners. So, I’m aiming to present the material at a slightly different angle than I generally see it presented in hopes that it has the intended effect. Feel free to pass the link around to anyone you think is a member of that audience.

Let’s look at a hypothetical scenario. There’s a person, who we’ll call Joe, and he’s coming up on his lunch break at his office job. A few of his coworkers come around, say they’re thinking of dining out for lunch, and invite him to join. The group then tries to decide on a venue. To give them a better idea of their options, Joe pulls up a web site like Google, Google Maps, or Urbanspoon to see what’s nearby. A number of questions need to be answered when considering any individual option.

• What are the restaurant’s hours?
• Is it open for breakfast, lunch, or dinner?
• What type of food is served (e.g. burgers, Chinese, etc.) and how is it priced?
• Where is the restaurant and what are the directions to get there from the office?
• Does the restaurant offer orders for carry-out or delivery?
• How long is the wait time before a customer is served?
• Is a reservation required? If so, how far in advance does it need to be made and can it be done online?
• For more uncommon questions, how can the restaurant be contacted?

How much of this information does your site provide and how easily can potential customers find it? Are different pages of the site clearly named, linked to in a prominent navigation section, and populated with well-organized and relevant information? Are important basics like location, hours, and phone number prominently featured on every page?

Now, information from internet sources isn’t always accurate. Let’s say that the group chooses a restaurant, drives there, and realizes that the restaurant has closed down. They’re no longer near a computer, but with the increasing availability of mobile devices, each has a mobile phone. They use them to search again and review other options. There are several things that might make the group pass up a particular venue at this point.

• Desktop-targeted web sites. While these can be viewable on a mobile phone, they can require a lot of zooming and panning to read and may not display as well in mobile browsers. Offer an alternative minimalistic version of the site for mobile devices.
• Flash animations. Not only can they be large to download over a mobile network, but many mobile phones don’t support them and simply won’t display them. You probably don’t need Flash on your web site to begin with. If you really think you do, only use it on the desktop version; leave it out of the mobile version.
• Menus in PDF format. Like Flash animations, they’re typically larger than a web page and many mobile phones can’t read them without supplemental software. Even with that software, they can be annoying to navigate. PDF files are great for printing and passing around the office, but the ideal situation for mobile phones is having the menu content on an actual web page, preferably one that’s mobile-specific. This also gives search engines additional content to pick up and associate with your restaurant.

How mobile-friendly is your web site? Can all the information it offers be easily consumed by mobile devices as well as desktop computers?

One last parting thought: the end goal of a web site depends on the business it represents. Too often, I see restaurant owners lose sight of what the purpose of their web site should be: to get customers off the site and into the restaurant as quickly as possible. This contrasts with some sites like Facebook or Amazon, where the goal is to keep customers on the site as long as possible.

A restaurant web site can accomplish its goal by enabling prospective customers to get the information about the restaurant that they need and then leave. While it isn’t always feasible to measure, a web site that doesn’t do this effectively can have a very real, negative impact on the bottom line of the restaurant as a business because it is a reflection of that business.

If you own a restaurant and don’t have a web site yet, please keep these things in mind when having one developed. If you already have a web site and it veers from these guidelines, I urge you to consider having it changed. As usage of the internet and mobile devices increases, these guidelines will only become more important.

Synacor, the company I work for, is one of the sponsors for php|tek. Knowing how much we all enjoy these conferences, I encourage you to take a moment while you’re at php|tek and voice your appreciation to Synacor representatives. Also, if you’re in the market for a job, consider applying there to join me in working on cool stuff with smart people.

Lastly, consider placing this badge on your web site or blog to promote the conference.

I look forward to seeing you there.