Special Speaker: Derick Rethans on MongoDB

MongoDB (http://mongodb.org) is a scalable, high-performance, open source, document-oriented NoSQL database. It features JSON-based document storage with dynamic schemas providing simplicity, power and flexibility, combined with full indexes similar to what a traditional RDBMS user would expect. It also provides solid replication and high-availability features as well as an auto-sharding system for transparent horizontal scalability.

Derick Rethans (http://derickrethans.nl/) (@derickr (https://twitter.com/derickr)) is a PHP Engineer and Evangelist at 10Gen (http://www.10gen.com/), the company behind MongoDB, and maintainer of the PHP driver for MongoDB. He has contributed to the PHP project in numerous ways, including the Xdebug PHP extension (http://xdebug.org/). He’s a frequent lecturer at conferences (http://derickrethans.nl/talks.html), the author of php|architect’s Guide to Date and Time Programming (http://www.phparch.com/books/phparchitects-guide-to-date-and-time-programming/), and the co-author of PHP 5 Power Programming (http://www.amazon.com/PHP-Power-Programming-Andi-Gutmans/dp/013147149X/). In his spare time, he contributes to the OpenStreetMap (http://www.openstreetmap.org/) project.

This talk introduces MongoDB for developers who aren't familiar with it through a detailed introduction of how to work with MongoDB from PHP. Derick will cover the basics: from installing the PHP driver and connecting to a MongoDB server to creating, inserting, querying, and updating documents. He'll also cover some accepted best practices in schema design and indexing.

The folks at 10gen have also supplied us a ton of swag for the meeting: books, books, books, shirts, stickers, and more books! If you're looking to learn about MongoDB, this is one you'll not want to miss!