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Looking Before You Leap!

What is it? Why do I care? How do I do it? DallasPHP Co-Organizer Jason Ragsdale will explain all these questions and even show you how to get started doing TDD with your own projects. We will cover testing frameworks such as PHPUnit and SimpleTest and the methods used to build good unit tests.

Straight from The Horse's Mouth!

Join Developer Evangelist Chris Koenig and IT Pro Evangelist for a guided tour of running PHP on Windows. In this talk Chris and Keith will explore enhancements to the Windows environment for installing, configuration and running PHP applications as well as explore some of the tools available on the Microsoft platform to the PHP developer. Featured in this talk will be Windows Server, IIS 7, the Web Platform Installer, Visual Studio 2008 and Expression Web 3.

For months, now, DallasPHP members have been approaching me about launching a community project. Given that the average length of PHP development experience of meeting attendees is around five years, we obviously have a lot of experience and talent to draw upon. The challenge is execution. That starts with planning.
At the June meeting, we will discuss options for an Official DallasPHP Development Project. The slate is clear, there are no established goals except:

BENEFICIAL:
The resulting code will be made available to all members and visitors to our website, so it should be useful under a broad spectrum of circumstances -- not so specialized that it requires massive customization in order to be of help to most moderately experienced developers. If the project should ultimately be executed using a specific PHP framework, it is vitally important that the structure and logic behind the application remain flexible enough that it could be implemented using other frameworks with minimal alteration and effort. Remember, the goal is creating a successful toolset or application design, not necessarily a specific, inflexible set of PHP code.
SECURE:
All code should be secure and safe for members of limited experience to implement, with every necessary precaution taken to protect the required web server and data resources from malicious mischief.
TEACHABLE:
I CONSIDER THIS TO BE THE PRIMARY GOAL OF THIS PROJECT. There are dozens of open-source PHP projects out there which accomplish practically any procedural function a developer could desire. Most of them, however, are extremely bad examples of PHP. Trying to learn application design from some of the popular PHP projects could teach a developer very inefficient (and even dangerous) practices. The scattershot nature of the code often demonstrates very little about its origins and development. A primary goal of this project should be to demonstrate the development process, including thorough planning, methodical execution and enduring documentation. I believe that the resulting documentation of this project could ultimately be of more value to the broader PHP community than the code itself.
PHP is a very simple language to learn. Project planning, good development practices, and working in a team environment are not simple, and there are not many good PHP resources or examples to be found. It should be a key goal of a User Group project to not only deliver good code, but to explain that code to less experienced developers: why key decisions about its operation were made, how and why changes evolved through the development process, and a complete and thorough explanation of how the final code operates (and can be customized).
DallasPHP's goal is to serve and educate the PHP community. This project should be a landmark step towards that goal.

At this point, there are no concrete plans, no hosting arrangements, and no personnel decisions have been made. Bring to this meetings your ideas, experience, needs, suggestions and enthusiasm.

We will discuss:

goals and purposes
necessary tools
ground rules and requirements
methods of communication/documentation among all developers who choose to participate
whatever else comes up

This is the very beginning of the process, and by no means will participation in The DallasPHP Development Project require your attendance at this or other specific DallasPHP meetings, but if you are interested in the project -- as a participant or as a spectator -- we would welcome your help.

If you ask a working PHP developer what their favorite development tool is, they'll probably talk about their Integrated Development Environment (IDE), but there are lots of other small applications developers use to run their servers, databases, version control systems and projects. Come to April's meeting prepared to talk about your favorite tools! Bring your laptop and program along, if you'd like. This month, we step outside PHP and look at the other toys in our toolbets.

After the Monthly Presentation, Jason Ragsdale (Co-Organizer of DallasPHP) and Chris Cornutt (DallasPHP Member and the man behind PHPDeveloper.org) would like to invite you to join us at The Fox & Hound for all the socializing we don't have time for during the meeting!

(If enough RSVP in advance, we might be able to throw in some goodies for DallasPHP Members! So make your plans now!)

The party starts at 9PM! See you there!