I gave a talk for the San Jose PHP meetup last night on PHP scalability and optimization. Everything from good code (and bad code) to infrastructure (including Cloud Hosting with Aptana) was covered.
If you have any questions, feel free to post them in the comments, I’ll respond to them as soon as I can!
Enjoy.
It’s well overdue, but I’ve finally managed to get this stuff up. Here are the slides from my presentation on Server-Side JavaScript, as well as the source code for the Jaxer REST API provider and consumers that I wrote.
I will do a post in the near future going over the code, and some of the configuration tweaks that I made, but hopefully this will hold you over until then.
So, if you’ve been following me for a while, you’ve probably noticed that I’ve seemingly dropped off the face of the planet. Essentially, I did, but I’m back now with lots of good news. We’ve been hard at work on a big-ass milestone for Aptana: Three products launched… most notably our cloud initiative.
Here’s a quick run-down of each product:
In addition to all this new goodness, I’m also working on some fresh new content. Look for articles about building REST consumers and providers in Jaxer, load balancing queries using MySQL replication, progressive file uploads with APC, REST in PHP, and more. Stay tuned, and check out all the cool stuff we’ve been working on over at Aptana while you wait!
That’s right kids, I’m speaking at the 6th International AJAX World RIA Conference & Expo! I’ll be giving a session on server-side javascript, and how it will make your life better, your apps cooler, and your friends jealous!
Read the full entry for details on the session, but here’s a little introductory overview (for the sake of not re-writing everything, I have just copied and pasted the announcement)…
Server-side JavaScript (SSJS) is growing in popularity fast since developers realize it can drastically simplify Web app creation by letting you use using the same technology stack on both the client and the server. While server-side JavaScript is not new – it was a part of Netscape’s vision 10 years ago – times have significantly changed with 10x faster hardware and networks, making that original vision for the Web now a reality.
In this session delegates will learn how to:
- Overcome common hurdles and pitfalls of client-side only JavaScript development.
- Speed up development time by cutting out extra server-side code and processing scripts that are no longer necessary.
- Clean up your code base by reducing (or even eliminating) the number of languages needed to leverage to accomplish common tasks (i.e. Why bother with server-side PHP scripts to fetch database results when you can do it all in JavaScript on the server? Why mess with Curl to fetch content that your JavaScript code can grab in one line?)
I’ve been stuck in somewhat of a rut blogging / personal development-wise for the past months for many reasons, none of which are all that negative. While I have enjoyed my time working on such sites as Cellware and some other projects for the last 10 months, I feel like I’ve lost sight of a lot of things that are important to me in my life. To that end, it’s time for some changes…
I’ve accepted a position at Aptana, and will be working on some pretty cool stuff with some of the brightest people in the industry. Look for a lot of really interesting and exciting things to come as I spend more time with them. This position will require me to move across the country (Florida to California), and I’m looking forward to a change of scenery (and lifestyle).
What’s more relevant to most of my readers (thanks to everyone who visits), is what’s going to change with my content. I’ve decided to go over every article I’ve posted on here, and get rid of anything that I’m not happy with. This will take me some time, so please be patient as I work through everything. My goal is to have nothing but great content up, and none of the other half-assed or weak articles that are scattered throughout. I’ve also changed the look of the site and upgraded to the most recent version of Wordpress.
The thumbnailer project is still up, and I hope to be able to update it soon. If you came here looking for it, just check out the projects page, and you’ll find your way to what you need. I’ve also decided to wipe out all the comments I’ve received. As much as I love everyone’s feedback, it’s entirely too difficult to port these over from the old blog, so I’ve decided to start over.
I’m very happy to be able to get back to doing what I love… learning new things, working with developers that are like-minded with me, and writing stuff that (hopefully) ends up helping people out. I’ve said it a million times, I’ve only made it to where I am in large part because of everything I’ve learned from the community on the web, and I feel it’s important that I give back and help everyone out in whatever ways I can. Stay tuned, as I’m going to be updating a lot more often, and working on some really cool things!
Welcome to Gen X Design. The name’s a little corny, I know, but it’s one of those things I’ve used since I was a kid.
Anyway, I built this site for me (and some friends) to share their thoughts and ideas. I love all things web 2.0, shiny icons, and gradients. I live in the San Francisco Bay area, work for eMeter, and am sometimes available for contract work.
Mozilla announced a new feature for add-ons today: collections. It also looks like they’re getting the ball rolling with several useful collections, such as the Web Developer Collection. It includes all sorts of goodness like Firebug, ySlow, GreaseMonkey, ColorZilla, and many more. Well worth a quick visit.
FireFox Web Developer Collection
David Walsh has put together a really handy plugin for MooTools called ScrollSpy. What impressed me the most was the automatic display of a “Return to Top” link on your page once you’ve scrolled beyond a certain boundary. There are also a handful of other neat demos worth checking out. Sounds simple, but if you think about it, there are tons of great applications for this plugin.
http://davidwalsh.name/scrollspy
It’s been said a thousand times I’m sure, but picking the right JavaScript framework is a pain. There are all sorts of biased arguments for one vs. another, but there’s really nothing subjective out there… until now. Arguably, jQuery is probably the most popular JS framework out in the wild, but that doesn’t always mean it’s the best choice. What you choose should really depend on what you’re trying to do. Aaron Newton of Clientcide has put together a really impressive look at jQuery vs. MooTools, which doesn’t categorically say one is better than the other, but, rather, goes into detail about why one framework is better than the other based on your needs. Definitely worth a read:
www.jqueryvsmootools.com
ORM is certainly a very popular concept these days, but I haven’t really come across any PHP implementations that I found worth-while. Sure, big frameworks like CakePHP may have ORM functionality, but I’m not a fan of huge frameworks. I’ve also dabbled in my own implementations, but never got too far, as I’m not a fan of re-inventing the wheel. At any rate, I stumbled across Doctrine by accident (good ol’ RSS readers), and am impressed, mostly because it’s something that can be integrated into existing projects / frameworks.
www.doctrine-project.org
Ajaxload.info used to be the site of choice when it came to generating preloader images… unfortunately, I think it’s been bested. Preloaders.net allows you to generate not only the standard set of preloaders, but even 3D ones! You also get much more control (size, speed, etc.) and the quality of the final images is impressive. Definitely worth checking out.
www.preloaders.net
