This entry focuses on how to identify slow parts of your scripts using the PHP/Xdebug profiling feature along with KCacheGrind for profile data visualisation. Xdebug is a PHP extension used for debugging scripts, supporting stack and function traces and information and memory allocation profilling. KCacheGrind is a profile data visualisation tool, allowing for easy browsing of […]
This entry describes the Symfony2 directory structure; providing a broad understanding of how a project is structured, and laying the ground for file system level security and customization. Below are diagrams for each main folder, along with a description of its components (based on: http://symfony.com/doc/current/quick_tour/the_architecture.html): app/ folder: AppKernel.php – Main configuration entry point. Provides registerContainerConfiguration and registerBundles. […]
In the previous entries, found here and here, I wrote about how to enable browser to server communication, using Node.Js and Socket.Io and how to emit events and return responses. In this entry I will describe how to route those events among different connected browsers, and how to create a basic chat application using Sencha […]
Below is a list of packages required for Symfony2 running on FreeBSD 10. pkg install php56 pkg install mod_php56-5.6.3 pkg install php56-session-5.6.3 pkg install php56-ctype-5.6.3 pkg install php56-dom-5.6.3 pkg install php56-hash-5.6.3 pkg install php56-mysql-5.6.3 pkg install php56-simplexml-5.6.3 pkg install php56-json-5.6.3 pkg install php56-xml-5.6.3 pkg install php56-hash-5.6.3 pkg install php56-pdo_mysql-5.6.3 pkg install php56-tokenizer-5.6.3 Replace 56 with […]
Classic AJAX requests are limited to the same domain. JSON with padding allows us to make requests to different domains. Below is an example of how to create a jsonP class, and handle requests using PHP. JSON with padding works by making a JavaScript script request, using a SCRIPT tag and a callback function. The back […]
This post marks the start of a series of Symfony2 focused entries, describing how to install Symfony2 and prepare the environment for a new project. Relying on the “Installing and Configuring Symfony” chapter of the Symfony Book, this entry provides details about choosing the right version, and an introduction to composer; followed by step by […]
Prior to creating Jenkins jobs and Capistrano recipes you should prepare NodeJS dependencies and scripts. This article does not provide in-depth details about NodeJS. The assumptions are that nodeunit is used for unit testing, forever for process management, and ExpressJS for creating a web server. Step 1: Create a package.json file: NodeJS dependencies and utility […]
This entry explains how to install and set-up automated tests, using PHPUnit, Selenium and Xvfb on CentOS Linux. PHPUnit is a unit testing framework. Selenium is a testing framework for web applications, which can record and playback tests, relying on browsers to perform these tasks. Most servers do not have an instance of the X […]
PHP 7 introduces scalar type definitions: your function parameters can be of a given type, and function return type declarations ensuring your function will return results of a given data type. This can increase your code quality by enforcing a specific behaviour of your code, almost similar to how a strongly typed language does. However, […]
Below is a quick overview of each CodeIgniter folder, starting from the repository root. application/ – stores the CI core extensions, libraries, configuration, cache, controllers, views, helpers, hooks, languages, logs, models and third_party extensions application/cache/ – stores the application cache application/config/ – stores the autoload, main configuration, database, constants, doctypes, foreign characters, hooks, migration, memcache, […]