An insight into PHPStorm

PHPStorm- An intelligent IDE for PHP web developers: PHPStorm is like a blessing for PHP developer. It is an outstanding IDE or editor for PHP web developers. It is developed by Jetbrains and has a received a tremendous popularity from the IT industry in a very less span of time due to its magical features. It not only supports PHP codes but also other web scripts like javascript, JQuery, HTML and CSS etc. It helps in reducing the effort and time of a web developer to a large extent with its intelligent properties. When we say it’s intelligent, that means it is smarter than other IDEs like komodo or notepad plus etc.

Why IDE? IDE stands for integrated development environment. This is like an editor that capable to be integrated with a framework for better productivity. It provides numerous types of assistance to a PHP developer during the development process which helps in avoiding silly mistakes and hence bugs in the application. On the other hand it also reduces the effort of the tester to a large extent due to minor bug free application. Hence it is like a integral part of the development process for any web application development project.

Code assist: The basic nature of PHPStorm is to provide code assistance to the programmer during programming. It helps in different programming supports like code auto complete, code suggestion and highlighting different components of the web application. It also helps in maintaining proper indentation in the programme that can help the application to be well readable and maintainable for future. Moreover it can also suggest for different method name, variable name or even library name during the development process which definitely helps the developer in avoiding common spelling mistakes in the application. Different web components like HTML tags, CSS tags etc are highlighted on PHPStorm platform that helps the developer in avoiding unnecessary silly mistakes.

PHPDoc support: PHPDoc is well supported by PHPStorm. As a result it helps in developing enterprise standard web applications with global rules adopted by the developer. It gives the application a new standard that will definitely help the application to be debugged in future. Well we can make few customisations in this option for our requirements and needs.

Debugging can be hassle free: With PHPStorm IDE a PHP developer can debug the application in a more professional and efficient manner. He can take the help of other debugging tools like xdebug for quality debugging in less time and with more accuracy. In other words we can say the debugging process can be easier through PHPStorm.

Productivity increases: PHPStorm helps PHP web developers in writing industry standard professional codes on the platform. Moreover these codes are not only well readable but also highly maintainable and flexible in nature. Hence it reduces the overall maintenance cost of the application in a long run scenario. Due to its intelligent features as discussed above it reduces not only the time and effort of the developer and tester but also the overall cost of production of the project making it quite productive than before.

Mindfire Solutions provides expert PHP development services from India, gaining its expertise from years of experience in PHP web development and PHP application development. We also have dedicated teams of various important PHP Frameworks like Zend Developers Team, Kohana Developers Team and CodeIgniter developers Team. If you want to Outsource PHP Development or hire PHP Developers, you are at the right place. Please write to us at sales at MindfireSolutions dot com and we will be sending a free quotation in one business day.

Developing your e-Commerce app with PHP - Is it good

Why PHP: PHP has a good reputation in the industry as a cost cutter technology. It is an open source language that enables the web developers to create advanced web applications without much headache for the development cost. Hence there are many large scale web applications build in PHP, that are not only popular but also having a good user response. The number of websites being developed in PHP is increasing at a rapid tempo with time. In the initial phase of PHP, it was used to develop common websites that are not heavy in size or functionality; but with time due to introduction of many PHP frameworks in the industry, PHP developers get inspired to build enterprise standard web applications for almost all sectors including e-commerce websites or web apps. In past few years, we have seen many e-commerce applications being developed in PHP for different platforms like Android, iOS and Windows etc.

PHP is cost effective: Due to open source in nature and huge availability of resources PHP developers are getting more than enough support from the industry. As a result, the process of web application development is getting easier with time and this impacts the development cost for the client. Moreover, with the availability of many PHP frameworks in the industry it becomes even easier to develop web apps for smart phones and tablets. The future relies on smart devices and fortunately PHP developers have the potential to develop e-commerce apps for these smart devices within budget.

You can rely on PHP for an e-commerce web application: There was a time when all the e-commerce websites were being developed in java or .net. With time, PHP has reinvented itself to adopt all the security measures that we need to develop an e-commerce app. Now a PHP developer can build enterprise standard e-commerce app for the users with much more efficiency and within budget. Moreover all the major payment gateways are now providing direct support to integrate the gateway to the merchant website which is developed in PHP. Payment gateways like CCAvenue, PayPal etc provides support for PHP websites to integrate their payment gateway to the app.

You can get all modern amenities under PHP within your budget: HTML5, CSS3 and JQuery are the three pillars of success for any modern web app; and PHP supports all these amenities. As a PHP developer you can build an interactive and super smooth e-commerce app for your users using these technologies that will definitely attract all users irrespective of platforms. Moreover your e-commerce app can get the essence of dynamic web pages through PHP and AJAX that will definitely improve the user experience.

PHP has a strong support community: As an e-commerce PHP app developer you may need support for any unexpected situations during the development process. But you don’t need to bother much about that; because, PHP is well backed with a strong support developer’s community that can help you in any emergency situation and that too 24x7 hours. So what are you waiting for? Start building your first PHP based e-commerce web app for any of your favourite platform.

You can get in touch with a PHP development company who can help you build web projects within allocated budgets and time schedules.

We provide PHP web development services. If you would like to hire PHP programmers for your web development needs, please contact us Mindfire Solutions.

Ladder - Things to know about this PHP database migration tool

Are you developing an app without any support from framework in PHP? PHP is a web language which is extremely reliable and popular in the industry. PHP is an open source language and hence there is a tremendous support for PHP developers from the community. When PHP combines with MySQL it becomes a deadly combo for the web developer because he can develop any type and size of web application. Moreover, there are many frameworks available in PHP like cake PHP, zend and laravel etc. These frameworks make the life of the PHP developer much easier with their hilarious features. It helps in keeping track of all types of activities of the developer during the development process. On the other hand, if a PHP project is developed without the support from a framework then the PHP developer will miss the advantages that he would have gained from the framework. In this situation he should take the help of a third party data base migration tool to keep track of each and every activities of the web developer.

Why Database migration tool (Ladder)? When a team of web developers work on a PHP development project without any support from frameworks, there is a chance of data incompatibility among the developers. Sometimes at the middle of the project, we find it necessary to change the schema of a table in the database. In that situation it becomes very difficult to modify the table with all precautions. Moreover while modifying the schema it is necessary to consider the version of the application in order to avoid the compatibility issue. Moreover if one of the team members alters the configuration of the database then it should be visible to all other members and the process should be performed keeping all the versioning issue in mind; because this may lead to crash of the application if a synchronisation is not made among the programs. To avoid this issue a PHP developer should use something just like a SVN to keep track of all the activities of the team members who deal with sensitive data of the database. Ladder is one such database migration tool for PHP and MySQL to keep track of all the database changes made by the developer with detailed information like data and time of modification and it will also prevent unethical modification of the database. It also helps in comparing different modification versions of the database so that in future the PHP developer will not face any trouble while dealing with debugging process of the application.

Importance of Ladder: Ladder is a database migration tool that can help the web developer in creating, running and managing database migration in PHP environment. It is nothing but a PHP class, which has the capability to keep track of all the modification versions on your database. Moreover, it provides support to modify multiple database schemas in an application in one take. Well, though it is instructed to perform multiple modifications in one take; but, it performs the tasks in multiple steps. Moreover, it performs the migration or modification in a sequential manner so that there will be no redundancy error in future.

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Why MySQL with PHP is Comfortable for Development?

As a powerful server-side scripting language, PHP is used widely for creating a variety of rich internet applications. Likewise, MySQL is one of the most popular relational database management systems (RDBMS). Each of the open source technologies can be used independently for web application development. But web developers prefer combining PHP and MySQL to create applications that can beat the frequently changing trends in web development. Both technologies can be further used as part of LAMP stack to rapidly create stable, reliable and high-performing internet applications. If you are exploring server-side scripting languages and RDBMS for your web development project, it is a good idea to understand the benefits of putting PHP and MySQL together.

Why Developers Prefer Putting PHP and MySQL Together?

Make the Application Compatible with Major Platforms

Along with being fast and flexible, PHP can be deployed on major web servers and operating systems. Also, it can be easily integrated with other popular web technologies including Java. The programmers can further avoid writing additional and repetitive code by reusing the software components. So the dynamic server side scripting language along with MySQL makes it easier for developers to create cross-platform applications.

Implement Functionality Changes

Nowadays, each business wants its application to deliver richer and more personalized user experience. So the features and functionality of an application often changes during the lifetime of the project. The developers, therefore, look for technologies that allow them to implement changes during various stages of the project. As PHP allows programmers to implement changes during various stages of the project, it along with MySQL helps programmers in creating applications that deliver richer user experience.

Create Dynamic Web Pages Rapidly

Many developers combine PHP and MySQL to create dynamic web pages that can interact with visitors in a more personalized way. The developers can use HTML to make web pages more useful and well-formatted. As PHP code can be mixed with HTML code seamlessly, they can use the combination to create web pages that collect a wide variety of data from the visitors. Further, they can keep the visitors engaged by creating customized content on the fly. So PHP and MySQL can be used along with WYSIWYG editors to create dynamic web pages without putting any extra time and effort.

Reap Benefits of LAMP Stack

Within a shorter span of time, the LAMP stack has emerged as a powerful and popular platform for rich internet application development. Along with PHP and MySQL, LAMP stack also includes components like Linux and Apache. Linux is an open source operating system, whereas as a web server Apache helps the application reach maximum users. Along with helping programmers in curtailing development time, LAMP stack further helps them in stable, reliable and efficient applications. So the developers can use LAMP stack to deliver highly efficient application through a well-defined development process.

Simplify Development and Deployment of Rich Internet Applications

The LAMP stack makes programming a breeze. It ensures that the coding is relatively bug-free. So the programmers are not required to invest additional time to identify and fix the errors and flaws in the software application. The feature drastically reduces the overall coding time and efforts. At the same time, the LAMP stack further makes it easier for developers to deploy the web application without any hassle. Often developers have to put additional time to integrate the programming language with the server and the database. As PHP is a designed as a standard Apache module, it can be easily integrated with MySQL and the web server.

Both PHP and MySQL are free software. So the technologies can be used by developers without incurring any additional cost. Many developers put the open source technologies together to curtail the overall development cost. The curtailed development cost also makes it easier for enterprises to beat competition.

You can get in touch with a custom PHP development company who can help you build projects within allocated budgets and time schedules.

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Symfony framework for developers - Is it good for development?

There are a number of frameworks that are available in the market today which the developers can use to create applications at a faster pace. Symfony is one such framework that can be used to achieve this end. However, the developers are mostly unaware of its benefits that can be utilized well in developing effective solutions.

Faster and requires less memory

This is one of the benefits owing to which the developers should prefer Symfony2. From the very start it was conceived as a framework that would be fast and deliver highly effective performance. Besides delivering faster solutions, Symfony also demands less memory space.

Adaptability

The flexibility that it offers is outstanding. No matter what the developers require, Symfony can be adapted for all kinds of requirements. The dependency injector and Event Dispatcher enable it to be completely configurable where each of the bricks is entirely independent. Thus, a developer can build the framework depending on the functionalities required. Secondly, it can also be used to develop a particular functionality in a project. There is no need to develop anything or install the whole network. All the developers need is a single brick. Permanence is another factor why it is used. The company that offers Symfony is its biggest support. In addition, an impressive community has also developed around it along with various service companies investing in the framework.

Expandability

Right from the smallest brick to a whole core – herein everything is presented as a bundle or plug-in. each of this bundle is expected to add a separate functionality. These can also be reused in another project or be allowed to be shared with the rest of the community. These bundles help in altering everything within the framework. This also includes the core. Without any need for an entire configuration, the behavior of the framework can be altered.

Pro-testing framework

For unit testing this is one of the most suitable tools. It is testing-prone which makes it quite easy for isolating classes, mocking objects and injecting stub dependencies.

Perfect for complicated web applications

There is an extensive cache system in Symfony. This is easy to configure for both a new user and a PHP expert. What is important here is to decide about the size of the project. If you are developing a project of 10 pages, there is no need to employ a framework. But for the complex web applications, using PHP is not adequate. In this regard, the Symfony would be of great use.

Stable and Sustainable

Most of the major versions of this framework are supported for a span of 3 years by the company that develops it. As far as security related issues are concerned, it gets lifelong support from the parent company. To ensure better security, there are minor versions available which ensure that the API is defined by public interfaces.

Provides a comfort level

It is a functional environment that also guarantees a comfort level to the developers. By dealing with various erroneous tasks, it allows the developers to shift their focus on the actual issues within the application and authenticate their roles and enhance the productivity. The Web Debug Toolbar simplifies the development process. This also helps the development environments, native security and detailed error pages.

Easy to use

Being accessible and tremendously flexible, it even allows the beginners to feel comfortable.

Innovation is the key

Symfony is always endeavoring to bring newness to PHP. In fact, it was the first major framework to accept PHP 5.3. It also introduced the use of Dependency Injection container and the usage of Twig. The latter was later adopted by the primary CMS-es, including, Drupal and eZpublish.

Owing to such benefits it has developed as a framework that is being widely used to build major websites. There are several well reputed companies that have adopted Symfony for building solutions. You can hire developers from custom PHP development company, who can help you build web apps within allocated budgets and time schedules.

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Some New Features in PHP 5.4 that Needs To Be Listed

The new version, 5.4 of PHP has finally arrived, and it comes up with a string of new features that is extremely important for the developers to know or need to have a grip on. While there are features that have already been there in PHP, and have only been further developed, there are certain features that have been added afresh.

Traits

This is one of the most significant features of the version 5.4, which consists of code fragments or a set or string of methods, which can be used repeatedly across the classes horizontally. In case of other languages, mixins or multiple inheritances address this particular issue. However, traits do not offer states in forms of properties. It offers a copy and paste method that is assisted by interpreter. Moreover, traits come up with a unique conflict resolution mechanism. Besides, the multiple traits can be used in the same class, even if certain methods are overlapping.

Improved Arrays though syntax and dereferencing

Arrays act like super glue In PHP. They are one of the strongest as well as the longest constructs. As a result of this, shorter syntaxes can also be used in the new version for defining in associative as well as numerical way. The structure of the syntax introduces brackets as short-hand, which has properly been defined and included in PHP scripts.

HTTP Server that is built-in

It also comes up with an in-built HTTP Server for current directories, for the purpose of testing as well as development. Then there are a number of additional options, which include customer document root as well as a router script that can be called upon each request.

Built-in Web Server (CLI)

CLI Server is not designed or developed to be used as a production Web server. It is basically used for conducting some of the PHP regression tests as well as other mechanisms of unit testing. In version 4.5, it comes up with some interesting as well as useful features for daily code debugging jobs that are conducted from the command line.

Deprecations

The latest version of PHP does not have a few of the older features such has the Magic Quotes option, which are either modified in the new version or have been dropped altogether. Again, the PHP namespace is now exclusively reserved to deal with the native code. The E_STRICT errors, which cover the correct usage of the object-oriented constructs as well as deprecation warning, are now covered by E_ALL error reporting, which will point out to each and every error, notice or warning.

Other changes and improvements

PHP version 5.4 has also seen some other minor, not so revolutionary, yet handy improvements that the developers will appreciate at the end of the day.

The latest edition has the ability of disabling the processing of POST data for saving memory CPU cycles. In case this property is activated, it is still possible to go and read the raw data through the input stream path.

JsonSerializable Interface has been introduced and this will help making an object acceptable to the json_encode().

Other improvements include:

Added callable typehint, which provides a function name, an array, composed of an object or a classname, a closure, and a method name, for a definite string.

Added Closure rebinding as parameter to bindTo

This particular feature has been modified so much so that it will now accept any other type of argument, which will define a new scope. This can well be an object in case its class is used as class name or a scope.

Improvement in Memory and Performance

Besides, there are quite a number of internal structures that have either been contracted or have been altogether been eliminated and this has led to almost 20 to 50 per cent memory savings in the larger applications. This has also bettered the performance by 10 to 30 percent, though a series of optimizations that include inlining of various common paths of codes. You can hire PHP developers from PHP development company for your web development needs, who can help you build web apps within allocated budgets and time schedules.

We provide custom PHP development services. If you would like to hire developers or would like to discuss with our developers about your projects, please contact us at Mindfire Solutions.

PHP and Its Evolution over the Years

As a dynamic programming language, PHP can be used for both general programming and server-side scripting context. But PHP was originally not written by Rasmus Lerdorf as a new programming language. After designing the language to maintain his personal home page, Lerdorf subsequently extended it build simple and dynamic web pages. He publicly released "Personal Home Page/Forms Interpreter" or PHP/FI as "Personal Home Page Tools (PHP Tools) version 1.0". Since its first public release in April, 1996, PHP has been evolving over the years as a powerful and dynamic programming language.

Continuous Evolution of PHP as a Dynamic Programming Language

PHP/FI: It is the second-generation implementation of the programming language that provided a complete makeover to it. The implementation further converted PHP into an independent programming language from a set of tools. Along with supporting cookies and user-defined functions, PHP/FI also came with built-in support for several databases including mSQL, DBM and Postgres95.

PHP 2: The version 2.0 of PHP was released in June 1995. It is also a single and full version of PHP 2.0. When PHP 2.0 was released in November 1997, it came with a completely rewritten underlying parsing engine. The parsing engine also distinguished the commercial release from the earlier beta release.

PHP 3: The version 3.0 of the programming language closely resembles the modern PHP. PHP 3.0 was developed by the combined efforts of many developers across the world. The version was released officially after thorough open public testing. The release also made PHP installed on 10% of web servers across the world. It was further hosted on web servers running on Macintosh and different versions of Windows.

PHP 4.0: PHP 4.0 was designed with the objective to optimize the performance of complex applications. Along with making PHP’s code base more modular, the version 4.0 also supported a wide range of databases and third-party APIs. It was further made based on the new Zend engine. The engine and new features improved the programming language’s performance drastically. PHP 4.0 also supported additional web servers, output buffering, HTTP sessions, while handling user input more securely.

PHP 5.0: After several pre-releases, the version 5.0 of PHP was officially released in July 2004. Along with Zend 2.0, it came with a number of new features and significant improvements. Along with supporting XML, PHP 5.0 further allowed programmers to access and manipulate XML as PHP objects. At the same time, it also came with an improved MySQL extension called MySQLi that included an object oriented interface. It further enable programmers to create make Web Services more interoperable by using the built-in SOAP extension.

PHP 5.1: The version 5.1 of the programming language was released in November 2005 with a completely rewritten date handling code, improved time zone support, several built-in extensions, and bug fixes. By enabling PDO extensions, PHP 5.1 simplified and improved data handling.

PHP 5.2: PHP 5.2.0 was released in November 2006 with features to improve the performance of heavy-traffic websites. Along with more tracking memory usage more accurately and efficiently, the version 5.2.0 also came with a new memory manager for the Zend Engine. It also came with a number of new features including ZIP extension, JSON extension, input filtering, date and time objects, and hooks for tracking the progress of file uploads.

PHP 5.3: The earlier versions of PHP were lacking the better object model required by complex application. So the version 5.3 of PHP was designed with improved object oriented programming. Along with several new extensions and optimal garbage collection for cyclic references, PHP 5.3 also supported namespaces, closures, late static binding and similar concepts related to object oriented programming.

PHP 5.4: As a major version of the programming language, PHP 5.4 was released in March 2012. Along with over 100 bug fixes, it came with new features like shortened array syntax, traits and built-in web server for application testing. At the same time, the version also introduced optimized performance and memory footprint.

PHP 5.5: The version 5.5 of PHP was released in June 2013. It introduced several new features including finally keyword, support for constant array/string dereferencing, simplified password hashing API, generators and coroutines, and support for list() constructs in foreach statements.

According to several reports, a new major version of the programming language called PHP7 is under development. The next version of PHP aims to optimize its performance by refactoring the Zend framework, while retaining its language compatibility. You can hire PHP developers from PHP development company for your web development needs, who can help you build web apps within allocated budgets and time schedules.

We provide custom PHP development services. If you would like to hire developers or would like to discuss with our developers about your projects, please contact us at Mindfire Solutions.

Symfony - A Weapon for PHP Developers

As a server-side scripting language, PHP is used widely by developers for creating a wide variety of websites and web applications. Some programmers prefer mixing PHP code with HTML code, whereas others combine PHP code with different web development frameworks and templating engines. But most web developers use Symfony to rapidly create large and complex PHP applications. As a leading PHP framework, Symfony makes it easier for developers to curtail the both development time and efforts. At the same time, the innovative features of Symfony make it a powerful weapon for PHP developers.

Features that Make Symfony a Powerful Weapon for PHP Developers

Easy to Use and Configure

Symfony is compatible with most platforms, infrastructures and business libraries. So it can be used for creating PHP applications for clients belonging to different sectors. However, the framework is still easy to use and configure. The programmers have option to start development simply by configuring certain things in the application. Unlike other PHP frameworks, Symfony can be configured without requiring any extra time and efforts.

Fast and Saves Memory

Symfony2 is designed with strong emphasis on performance and speed. So it is much faster than other frameworks like Zend Framework 1.10 and Symfony 1.4. At the same time, Symfony can work efficiently without taking much memory. So the programmers can use the PHP framework without investing in expensive hardware and memory devices.

Expandable

Symfony enables developers to add new bundles to the framework through bundles. They also have option to present all aspects of the application as bundles. Thus, the system of bundles allows all aspects of Symfony modifiable. Also, the bundles can be reused for multiple projects, and be shared with the Symfony community. The bundles make it easier for programmers to control the framework’s behavior without complete reconfiguration.

Extensive Cache System

Symfony2 also comes with an extensive cache system. The cache system can be used to optimize the performance of websites and internet applications. The extensive cache further makes it easier for developers to easily optimize the performance of large applications.

Supports MVC Architecture

Despite being a powerful scripting language, PHP cannot be used exclusively for creating complex web applications. But Symfony makes it easier for programmers to create large and complex application by using the Model-View-Controller (MVC) architecture. The MVC patterns enables programmers to keep the business logic, presentation and controls separate. So the large projects can be developed in a distributed environment. The MVC architecture further makes it easier for developers to maintain and modify their code.

Generates Reusable and Testable Code

Unlike other PHP frameworks, Symfony is effective in producing reusable and testable code. The developers can simply create plug-ins and use them to add new functionalities to the application. The plug-ins can also be reused from several projects. Likewise, Symfony improves the application’s performance by delivering testable code. Symfony also provides built-in unit and functional testing framework to facilitate test-driven development.

Command-Line Interface and Tools

Symfony also allows programmers to use a command-line interface. The command-line interface makes it easier for developers to automate the deployment of applications between two web servers. Symfony also allows programmers to access a wide range of command line tools to effectuate project management and administration. For instance, they can use the in-built form generator to automate the repopulation and validation of forms. Likewise, the administrator can track the application’s activities by using the logging features provided by the PHP framework.

Despite being a leading custom PHP development framework, Symfony is open source and free. So the programmers can use the web application development framework without incurring any additional expenses. Further, they can avail the assistance of huge community of Symfony fans to easily enhance the application’s functionality and performance.

We provide PHP development services. If you would like to hire PHP programmer for your web development needs, please contact Mindfire Solutions.