Announcing support for PHP and other languages on Windows Azure

The Azure Services Platform team is delivering on its commitment to providing an interoperable, comprehensive and flexible cloud platform.

Windows Azure

At MIX09, the Windows Azure team is updating its CTP to include feature updates which will allow developers to take advantage of:

• FastCGI: allows developers to deploy and run web applications written with 3rd party programming languages such as PHP. This provides developers using non-Microsoft languages the ability to take advantage of scalability on Windows Azure. (Read more here: Using 3rd Party Programming Languages via FastCGI)
• .NET Full Trust: provides developers with a level of flexibility in Windows Azure that removes limitations on .NET Libraries which require full trust (including .NET Services) .NET Full Trust, via spawning process and p/invoke, also allows developers to utilize existing investments in native code or legacy components that they will now be able to invoke on Windows Azure. (Read more here: .NET Full Trust)
• Geolocation: provides developers with the ability to specify a location for their applications and data to build responsive services with lower network latency as well as the capability to meet location-based regulatory and legal requirements. This feature will be available a few weeks after MIX 2009. (Read more here: Geo Location Enables Developers To Choose Data Centers and Group Applications & Storage)

A new version of the developer SDK and Tools for Visual Studio will be available for download to enable developers to take advantage of the new features. The SDK update will include:

• Managed Full Trust support (including Native Code support via P/Invoke and spawning native code processes)
• Support for FastCGI applications.
• Support for rewrite rules via the URL Rewrite Module. Creates URLs so developers can lead users to shorter, search engine friendly, and easier to remember URLs.
• Support for SQL Server as the data store for Development Storage – move from SQL Express to full SQL Server for backend developer store.

In addition to supporting the latest Windows Azure SDK, the Tools for Visual Studio will offer:

• Native debugging of roles called via PInvoke running on the Development Fabric
• FastCGI starter template
• Chained install of both the Tools and SDK (one install)
• Update notification for newer releases

To summarize, this is what Windows Azure entails as of today:

Computation Services

• Ability to run Microsoft ASP.NET Web applications or .NET code in the cloud
• Service hosting environment that includes Internet Information Services (IIS) 7.0 and Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5 SP1
• Security supported by flexible Code Access Security policies
• Small runtime API that supports logging and local scratch storage
• Web portal that helps you deploy, scale, and upgrade your services quickly and easily
• FastCGI, a protocol for interfacing applications to web servers, which will allow customers to deploy and run web applications written with non-Microsoft programming languages such as PHP (Developers will be responsible for including the relevant runtime libraries for these languages when deploying applications.)
• .NET Full Trust to allow usage of additional .NET features such as Windows Communication Foundation (WCF).
• From Full Trust .NET, developers can call into unmanaged DLLs

Simple data storage services

• Blobs, tables, and queues hosted in the cloud, close to your computation
• Authenticated access and triple replication to help keep your data safe
• Easy access to data with simple REST interfaces, available remotely and from the data center

Development Tools

• Complete offline development environment, including computation and storage services
• Complete command-line SDK tools and samples
• Visual Studio add-in that enables local debugging
• New SDK Download: a new version of the Windows Azure SDK will be available for download at a time to coincide with the MIX09 conference, which will enable developers to take advantage of the new features offered by Windows Azure, as well as an update to the Visual Studio add-ins.

The SDK and the Tools for VS addin is now available for download at http://www.microsoft.com/azure/sdk.mspx.

SQL Data Services

You may recall seeing this when Azure was first announced:

The SQL Data Services (SDS) team (the 3rd block above Windows Azure in the image above) publicly shared the evolving capabilities in SDS to provide customers with the ability to utilize a RDBMS data model in a cloud-based environment supporting Transact-SQL (T-SQL) over TDS (Tabular Data Stream) protocol (read more here: What’s Next for SQL Data Services…) SQL Data Services is on track to deliver a public CTP mid-calendar year 2009 and be commercially available in the second half of calendar year 2009. At MIX, the SDS team has announced the evolution of SDS capabilities to provide traditional relational database service with T-SQL compatibility over protocols that support data access APIs such as ADO.NET, ODBC and OLE DB.

The PHP Easy Start Guide

Lately, there have been several people asking "What is the best way to learn PHP?", and while we don't mind helping you, it is starting to become a little repetitive.

First thing first, PHP is NOT easy to master, however it is easy to learn. The difference is that in NO way will you be making an online game in PHP as soon as you start learning it. Games are incredibly complex, and take a lot of time, work, and determination to finish. I have Started about five games, and only one of them is up and still being worked on.

Before everything else, if you really want to learn PHP, you will learn it by doing. Fist off, you will need some type of hosting.

1.1 Free Hosting

As there is plenty of free hosting out there, That may be the way to go, and it has several advantages and disadvantages.

Advantages:

• It's Free
• It's accessible from the Web, meaning people can help you, see error pages that occur, Etc.
• No need to use up Disk Space on your computer for something such as WAMP (detailed later on)

Disadvantages

:

• Most of the sites usually have great restrictions (IE: possible advertising, irremovable footers, HUGE limits on BandWidth)
• If the server encounters a problem, don't expect a letter to them to do anything. They offer it to you free, and therefore don't "need" to keep it up for you.

Links:
Freehostia
Geocities
Listings

1.2 Dedicated Server

Advantages

• Servers usually have 99.9% uptime guaranteed (meaning they will reimburse you if they're down too long)
• PHP and MySQL are usually included in the package
• If something happens, chances are they are already at work fixing it for you

Disadvantages

• Costs to host (though generally cheap)

 

1.3 Local Machine Server

Yes, it IS possible to install Apache, PHP, and MySQL onto your PC, regardless of if it is Linux, Windows, or other.

Advantages:

• You can control all of the options of PHP, MySQL, AND Apache, involving things such as Mod-Rewrite
• No external provider to deal with
• 100% uptime when you need it, All you need to do is turn it on, and it works if you installed it correctly
• Free

Disadvantages:

• Uses internal Disk Space (not a lot, but enough to mention)
• Large operations may take a while to work with, as it is limited by your CPU and RAM (though generally not a BIG disadvantage, it does occur sometimes on very intense calculations)

Links:
WAMP
XAMPP

1.4 PHPDock

PHPDock is generally overlooked, as I don't think many people know about it. It enables you to build a PHP website, and deploy it with NO internet connection required.

Advantages:

• Used on your general machine
• Can create Desktop Applications in PHP

Disadvantages:

• Expensive ($149)
• Usually only works well with NuSphere PHPED
• You're forced to use Internet Explorer to view them

Links:
NuSphere PHPDock

Learning PHP is a delicate process. What you learn, and the way you learn it, influences how you code. That is why it is crucial that you learn it correctly. My suggestion is to go with W3Schools AND Tizag (yes, I said read both).

2.1 W3Schools

W3Schools is where I learned PHP. I still use it when i forget a function or need to look it up. It has a plain basic interface, nothing special, but the knowledge it contains is very helpful, and will lead you towards the right path to programming.

Link:
W3Schools

2.2 Tizag

Tizag is one of the favorites here at DIC, and provides very in-depth, easy to understand tutorials. Their no-frills website has several things about PHP that will help you in the long run.

Link:
Tizag

2.3 Others

There are several PHP learning sites out there. Zend is the company that offers the Send PHP Certification, something you may become interested in getting if your job requires it. LearnPHP.org Has several tutorials that I don't even think DIC has. They go in-depth to several CMS (Content Management Systems), something you may find useful. About.com is another good site for learning, and offers some well written tutorials.

Ok, so now that you have something that can run PHP, and you have begun learning it, the next step is programming it.

3.1 Integrated Development Environment

Advantages:

• Shows errors in the code along with readable error codes
• Installs PHP onto your machine
• Applications can be tested by hitting a "run" command
• Usually show complete error messages on the run tab (IE: Error and Line on which the error occured)

Disadvantages:

• Expensive. NuSphere PHPED costs $495.00 for the professional version, and if you're just starting, you might not want to spend any money at all.

Links:
NuSphere PHPED
PHP Designer
PHP Edit

3.2 Notepad

Yes, Notepad can make PHP Files! All you need to do is save it as .php.

Advantages:

• Free
• Already installed on your system (for Windows Users. For Mac and other users, there should be a similar program)

Disadvantages:

• No error handling
• No Debugging
• Manually have to indent/align your code
• No highlighting or code Folding

3.3 Notepad++

Notepad++ is a completely Free PHP Editor. It offer code highlighting and folding, as well as editors for several languages.

Advantages:

• Free
• Small Size
• has a VERY large list of Plugins to increase functionality

Disadvantages:

• There are a few bugs, but they're few and far between

 

DIC Has several things that you should read if you want to learn php.

4.1 The giant PHP List of Common Problems
I created The giant PHP List of Common Problems to help people with their problems. Most that occur are simple issues, such as wrong Logic, and problems with things such as Headers and Sessions.

Link:
The giant PHP List of Common Problems

4.2 PHP Tutorials
DIC Has several tutorials in their tutorial section built specifically to help you understand PHP. They have basic ones (such as simple login scripts) to more advanced ones (like building a complete CMS).

Link:
PHP Tutorials

4.3 How to get better help on DIC
"How to get better help on DIC" is a guide written by Akozlik. It details common problems that occur when posting on DIC, and how to request the help that you actually need. Many people don't clearly state what it is they need help with, and we shouldn't be expected to read through your entire code looking for errors that we don't know exist.

Link:
How to get better help on DIC

4.4 The PHP Forum
If you need help, don't be afraid to ask! We're here to help you, so long as you help us help you. No cryptic messages, your best English (though we understand not everyone speaks perfect English, and many have it as a second language), and Provide your Code.

DIC Is here to help you help yourself, not to hand everything to you.

Link:
PHP Forum

 

10+ extremely useful PHP classes

via:  http://www.catswhocode.com/blog/10-extremely-useful-php-classes

PHP PSD Reader

A few weeks ago, I wrote an article about this PHP which allow you to display any Adobe PSD file on screen. Very usefull to create preview of PSDs designed for clients, for example.
Download

Browser detect

One of the most common (and boring) problem for front-end developers is definitely cross-browser compatibility. This PHP class will detect almost all browsers and simplify your cross-browser work.
Download

Akismet

Remember those days without spam? If your website gets spammed in any ways, Akismet can probably help you. When a new comment, trackback, or pingback comes to your site it is submitted to the Akismet web service which runs hundreds of tests on the comment and returns a thumbs up or thumbs down.
Download

ADOdb

The large majority of websites and web apps are using databases to store all kinds of data. ADOdb is a database abstraction library for PHP, supporting MySQL, PostgreSQL, Interbase, Firebird, Oracle, MS SQL and more. ADOdb is quite easy to learn and have lots of nice features as such as extensive portability support, speed and BSD licencing.
Download

HTML Purifier

As it name tells, HTML Purifier is a PHP class created to help you writing a better code. HTML Purifier can remove malicious code and make sure your code is standard-compliant. A great tool for all developers.
Download

Google charts API

Charts are very useful and highly asked by clients, but they can be a lot of work. I remember some years ago when a friend of mine had to create charts using Photoshop every week for one of his clients. Well, this time is gone for good.
With the Google charts API, a simple chart can be created and displayed on screen using as little as 4 lines of code.
Download

pChart

pChart is another chart class, and it is as good as Google charts API. Data can be easily retrieved from SQL queries, CSV files, or manually provided.
Download

PHP Excel

Excel documents are highly popular in the corporate world. Considering that fact, there's a strong chance that one of your clients asks for you to create excel files in PHP someday.
Happilly, the PHP Excel engine allow you to easily create and manipulate lots of different files, as such as Excel 2007, Open XML, or PDF.
Download

Country from IP

Some websites are able to detect your location and automatically display information related with your language. How do they do that? Quite simple, they use your IP adress to find your location. The Country from IP class is easy to use and will allow you to get the country a specific IP is from.
Download

Cache Manager

If you're working on a high traffic site, there's not doubt you'll need to cache files in order to improve performance. This will be very easy an simple to do, using this very handy class. A defifinitive must-have, in my opinion.
Download

WPGet

As I know many of you have a WordPress blog, I just can't finish this article without a great tool for our favorite blogging engine.
WPGet is a PHP class which allow you to easily get infos from a WordPress 2.X database. In other words, it allows you to get posts, comments, etc from a WordPress blog, on a non-WordPress site. Great, isn't it?
Download