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Posts tagged: Zend Framework

Zend Framework Body Tag View Helper

By Steven Lloyd Watkin, Saturday 21st August 2010 11:13 pm

Photo from http://www.flickr.com/photos/daniello/

Summary

Here I discuss the creation of a view helper for modifying HTML tags, and more specifically body tags. The created view helper allows functionality similar to the head*/inlineScript view helpers already in the standard Zend Framework view helpers, but allows the programmatic modification of tag attributes. Definitely check out the demo page and the code on github.

Motivation

The standard Zend Framework view helpers are a great set of tools for streamlining mundane view tasks and allowing for the modification/addition of scripts and header blocks (generally held in the layout) from within the view without applying ugly hacks (i.e. the head*/inlineScript view helpers).

Upon occasion I have found need to make modifications to the <body> tag, for example adding an onload, class, or style attribute etc. I also required to be able to perform this from within other view helpers. Take this following contrived example…

On website X, certain pages include standard dojo forms. These dojo forms are held within view helpers for convenience. Generally it has been decided not to include the dojo CSS classes in the body tag and only add them when necessary. There maybe several view helpers on the page that need to add their own attributes to the body tag. (I said it was contrived)

The code is available in my GIT repository @ github and the demo page.
Continue reading 'Zend Framework Body Tag View Helper'»

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PHP, Web Programming, Zend Framework, Zend_Registry, Zend_View_Helper | Body, framework, helper, html, PHP, view, view helper, zend, Zend Framework, Zend_Registry, Zend_View_Helper, Zend_View_Helper_Placeholder_Container_Standalone

Quick Start Symfony DI (Dependency Injection) Tutorial

Comments (4)

By Steven Lloyd Watkin, Saturday 14th August 2010 2:21 pm

What is Dependency Injection (DI)?

Dependency injection is a technique that allows for loosely coupled objects within a software application. Generally if an object requires access to the functionality of another it would be instantiated internally leading to tightly coupled systems. By implementing dependency injection we inject the required objects ready for use (sometimes also referred to inversion of control – IOC). Take the following example:

<?php
class DecisionMaker {
    public function makeDecision(array $parameters) {
        // Need the database adapter
        $dp = new DecisionParameters();
        $parameterScore = $dp->getScore($parameters);
        /* ... Some more decision logic ... */
        return ($parameterScore > 50);
    }
}

This piece of code is said to be tightly coupled to the DecisionParameters object. Rewriting the above in a loosely coupled fashion we’d have something like….

<?php
class DecisionMaker {
    private $_dp;
    public function __construct($dp) {
        $this->_dp = $dp;
    }
    public function makeDecision(array $parameters) {
        $parameterScore = $this->_dp->getScore($parameters);
        /* ... Some more decision logic ... */
        return ($parameterScore > 50);
    }
}

Whilst gaining the benefits of loosely coupled code we are adding complexity such that each time an object is instantiated we also have to instantiate its dependencies and pass these in too. For example, this:

$choice = new DecisionMaker();
echo $choice->makeDecision(array('effort' => 'low', 'return' => 'high'));

now becomes:

$dp = new DecisionParameters();
$choice = new DecisionMaker($dp);
echo $choice->makeDecision(array('effort' => 'low', 'return' => 'high'));

This situation becomes more painful as the number of dependencies for a class is increased, and what if the dependencies themselves have dependencies? This can quite quickly become an object administration nightmare! Enter dependency injection containers (or frameworks)…
Continue reading 'Quick Start Symfony DI (Dependency Injection) Tutorial'»

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Articles, Dependency Injection Container, PHP, Symfony, Zend Framework, Zend_Cache | cache, container, dependency injection, di, framework, ini, inversion of control, IOC, library, PHP, symfony, xml, yaml, zend, Zend Framework, Zend_Cache

Naked Zend_Layout and Zend_View

Comments (1)

By Steven Lloyd Watkin, Tuesday 10th August 2010 11:47 pm

In this article I look at using Zend_Layout and Zend_View along with a simple front controller to show how it is possible to start separating business logic and presentation within your application. All code is available on github:
Naked Zend_Layout and Zend_View on GitHub.

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Articles, PHP, Web Programming, Zend Framework, Zend_Layout, Zend_View | application, framework, helper, PHP, view helper, zend, Zend Framework, zend_layout, zend_view

Zend Framework Per Module Layout Settings – Follow Up

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By Steven Lloyd Watkin, Tuesday 16th February 2010 8:48 pm

As a follow up to my previous post on per module based layout settings for Zend Framework, I’ve updated the code to require less configuration then before (not that it required more that a few lines in your application configuration!).
Continue reading 'Zend Framework Per Module Layout Settings – Follow Up'»

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Articles, Computing, PHP, Web Programming, Zend Framework | action, controller, framework, helper, layout, module, PHP, zend, Zend Framework

Creating URL in Zend Customer View Helper

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By Steven Lloyd Watkin, Thursday 28th January 2010 11:01 pm

This may seem simple, but I was banging my head trying to create a URL in a custom view helper in Zend Framework. I have routing setup which gets the module from the sub-domain in use so I couldn’t use a simple hardcoded URL.

Continue reading 'Creating URL in Zend Customer View Helper'»

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Articles, PHP, Web Programming, Zend Framework | custom, framework, front controller, helper, PHP, Router, view, zend, Zend Framework, Zend_View_Helper_Abstract

Dynamically add pages to Zend_Navigation container at runtime

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By Steven Lloyd Watkin, Thursday 7th January 2010 10:50 pm

In a continuation on my last post about Zend_Navigation, Route requests for sitemap.xml to custom controller/action, this post is about dymnamically adding pages to a Zend_Navigation container at runtime/script execution.

Its all well and good specifying your pages in a ini or xml file but at some point you’re going to have changing pages in your site that you want as part of a menu, sitemap, or to be included in your breadcrumb trail. Therefore what we need to do is add pages to our Zend_Navigation container at runtime. Examples for this would be in adding news items, blog posts, or page comments, etc.

Continue reading 'Dynamically add pages to Zend_Navigation container at runtime'»

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PHP, Web Programming, Zend Framework | add, bootstrap, container, dynamically, Navigation, pages, PHP, sub-page, view, zend, Zend Framework, Zend_Navigation

Route requests for sitemap.xml to custom controller/action

Comments (2)

By Steven Lloyd Watkin, Wednesday 6th January 2010 12:13 am

In order to direct requests for /sitemap.xml to a custom controller and action in your Zend Framework application simply add the following in your application.ini or alternative config file (e.g. I use navigation.ini):

resources.router.routes.sitemap.route                = "sitemap.xml"
resources.router.routes.sitemap.defaults.controller  = index
resources.router.routes.sitemap.defaults.action      = sitemap

Example code for outputting can be seen by creating an action in the appropriate controller (e.g. my sitemap lies in the index controller, sitemap action):

<php
class IndexController
    extends Zend_Controller_Action
{
    /**
     * Renders a sitemap based on Zend_Navigation setup
     */
    public function sitemapAction()
    {
    	echo $this->view->navigation()->sitemap();
    	$this->view->layout()->disableLayout();
    	$this->_helper->viewRenderer->setNoRender(true);
    }
}

Sitemaps can quickly and easily be generated using Zend_Navigation, a great quick tutorial (and generally very useful for Zend Framework tutorials) is Zend Casts – Dynamically creating a menu a sitemap and breadcrumbs.

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Articles, PHP, Web Programming, Zend Framework | framework, ini, PHP, Router, Routes, zend, Zend Framework, Zend_Navigation, Zend_Router

Zend Framework Per-Module based settings

Comments (2)

By Steven Lloyd Watkin, Friday 1st January 2010 10:40 pm

I’ve created a followup to this post which requires less configuration, please see Module Based Layout – Zend Framework.

When using the zend framework with modules, its obvious that if you’re running various (sub-)sites off the same application you don’t necessarily want the same layout scripts for each part. I decided to go with the following site structure:

/Application
    /controllers
        ...
    /models
    /modules
        /default
            /controllers
            /layout
                /scripts
            /views
                /scripts
        /anotherModule
            ...
    /scripts

The problem was setting up the layout scripts on a per-module basis. The answer came through using an Action Helper. Setting up the layouts on a per-module basis involves three steps:

Application.ini (or similar configuration setup):

admin.resources.layout.layoutPath = APPLICATION_PATH "/modules/admin/layouts/scripts"
default.resources.layout.layoutPath = APPLICATION_PATH "/modules/default/layouts/scripts"
member.resources.layout.layoutPath = APPLICATION_PATH "/modules/member/layouts/scripts"
affiliate.resources.layout.layoutPath = APPLICATION_PATH "/modules/affiliate/layouts/scripts"

Create your Action Helper:

<?php
/**
 * Sets the layout path on a per-module basis
 *
 * @author Lloyd Watkin <lloyd@evilprofessor.co.uk>
 * @since  2010-01-01
 */
class Pro_Controller_Action_Helper_SetLayoutPath
    extends Zend_Controller_Action_Helper_Abstract
{
    /**
     * Sets layout path based on module
     */
    public function preDispatch()
    {
    	$module = $this->getRequest()->getModuleName();

	    if ($bootstrap = $this->getActionController()
	                       ->getInvokeArg('bootstrap')) {

	        $config = $bootstrap->getOptions();

	        if (isset($config[$module]['resources']['layout']['layoutPath'])) {
	            $layoutPath =
	                 $config[$module]['resources']['layout']['layoutPath'];
	            $this->getActionController()
	                 ->getHelper('layout')
	                 ->setLayoutPath($layoutPath);
	        }
    	}
    }
}

And lastly boostrap the action helper:

...
    /**
     * Sets up layout scripts on a per-module basis
     */
    protected function _initLayoutHelper()
	{
	    $this->bootstrap('frontController');
	    $layout = Zend_Controller_Action_HelperBroker::addHelper(
	        new Pro_Controller_Action_Helper_SetLayoutPath());
	}
...

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PHP, Web Programming, Zend Framework | framework, layoutPath, module, PHP, zend, Zend Framework

Doctrine: DATETIME default NOW()

Comments (4)

By Steven Lloyd Watkin, Wednesday 30th December 2009 6:30 pm

I’ve been struggling with setting up a database schema for a new Zend Framework project. I’m ~~using~~ trying to use Doctrine ORM for my database models. I need to set up the schema so that it allowed me to set a default date and time for a `datetime` column, e.g. when adding a new message I get the current timestamp. After much searching and experimenting I found the solution so I’m sharing it.

In your schema YAML file simply do the following:

Message:
  actAs:
    Timestampable:
      created:
        name: created_at
        type: timestamp
        format: Y-m-d H:i:s
      updated:
        name: last_updated
        type: timestamp
        format: Y-m-d H:i:s
  columns:
    id:
      type: integer
      primary: true
      autoincrement: true
    name: string(255)
    email: string(300)
    message: string(2000)

If on the other hand you don’t want an `updated_at` column you can use the following:

Message:
  actAs:
    Timestampable:
      created:
        name: created_at
        type: timestamp
        format: Y-m-d H:i:s
      updated:
        disabled: true
  columns:
    id:
      type: integer
      primary: true
      autoincrement: true
    name: string(255)
    email: string(300)
    message: string(2000)

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Doctrine, PHP, Web Programming, Zend Framework | Doctrine, mySQL, orm, PHP, schema, yaml, Zend Framework

Office Grid Computing using Virtual environments – Part 5

Comments (3)

By Steven Lloyd Watkin, Friday 4th December 2009 11:03 pm

Introduction

I work in a company where we run many batch jobs processing millions of records of data each day and I’ve been thinking recently about all the machines that sit around each and every day doing nothing for several hours. Wouldn’t it be good if we could use those machines to bolster the processing power of our systems? In this set of articles I’m going to look at the potential benefits of employing an office grid using virtualised environments.

In Part 4 we looked at using tools to ensure that we’re running the latest version of the code and data sources so that obtained results are always up-to-date with the latest business information and logic.

Pre-Deployment

Before deploying your grid system if there’s one thing you do and one thing alone it’s benchmark your current system! No matter what you tell colleagues about how much extra work your system is going to do unless you have numbers to back this up your guarantees are nothing. So,

how many records can you process currently? Per Day? Per Hour?
How long does it typically take to turn around a job?
How much more capacity do you have?

There’s also additional questions:

If your processing server (or one of your processing servers) goes down how will this affect your capabilities, will you be crippled?
What advantages do you hope/expect to get from a grid system?
Are your office machines capable of running the jobs?
Are your (or can you jobs be converted) to wrok in this style of running?

The last major point is to take your time on any major change like this. Update your processing code to work using the new methodology, benchmark again. Possibly set up your processing server to run a virtual machine, after all your processing server will just be another worker (just a very powerful one relatively). Allow the new process to settle.

Deployment

My suggestion would be to pop into the office one weekend perform all the installations and setup. Do this just before a fortnight’s holiday and leave so other poor chap to deal with the consequences… maybe not…

Deployment for a system like this needs to be slow. Despite it being relatively simple to set up this system will affect your entire office infrastructure (well the digital one). Firstly, roll out to a couple of machines at a time, monitor network traffic, how the worker hosts perform on a day-to-day basis. You may need to alter your job configuration in response to your findings.

Once the system has settled with a few machines (lets say 10% of all office machines, i.e. 5) keep monitoring network traffic and host machine performance.Â Next benchmark again, you should now be processing 33% more jobs than your first benchmarks. Check this is so, or that you’re at least in this ballpark. If not, investigate what is going on before moving on. Repeat this cycle until you happily have all office machines running without killing individual machine performance or grinding your network to a standstill.

At all times keep benchmarking, even after all deployments are made. Check how new code updates affect speed of your system, check all workers are reporting in and processing jobs. Slowly (very slowly) increment your job configuration to get the best from your workers and network.

Stop!

What if you want to stop your workers from running at some time? They are all out there running, regenerating, and trying their best to process data like hungry insects. The answer may seem obvious but its worth adding just in case its overlooked. Simply edit your processing script with an exit(0) or die() or some other statement to kill your processing job. An important reason why we always try to update to the latest processing script before any run!

Demonstration System

In order to write this set of short articles I created a very small grid to demonstrate the technologies and methodologies. I read lots of articles, tutorials, and used various tools to setup and monitor what was going on. By no means have I gone out and saturated a whole office with traffic and nor have I had access to a regular staff members PC to see how host performance was affected.

My demonstration system was very humble indeed. I used my regular desktop set up as a job control server. On this I had installed mySQL server installed set up as a master in replication, PHP,Â and SVN linked through apache (for access via worker VM).

I then created a centOS worker machine on VirtualBox on a 6 year old windows XP laptop. I setup scheduled tasks as specified after copying the VM onto the machine and let it go.

The virtual machine was set up with PHP, subversion, and mySQL. I checked out a branch named ‘worker’ from my job control servers repository and made sure it could be updated using ‘svn update’. Next I setup mySQL as a slave and checked that data was replicating from mySQL on the job control server down to the worker VM. After all this I setup the bash script and the cron job.

My processing script basically went along the lines of this (very simple stuff):

Read in the name field
Counted the number of similar names in a table from the data source held on the VM
Counted the number of names as above but splitting the name by spaces (i.e. forename, middle, surname)
Repeated this process 1,000 times

Each job took approximately 20 minutes to run. At one point I opened several copies of the worker VM on the windows laptop and watched the jobs be checked off by each of the worker IP addresses. At this point I also confirmed that replication automatically restarted.

Leaving the laptop to idle resulted in a worker starting to process jobs from the job control server. When resuming laptop usage there was a delay of about 30-60 seconds, this is a fair amount of time and staff would need to be made aware that their machine may pause for a short while when returning to the machine. Newer machines may not have a pause of this long. The benefit of the amount of processing performed by these machines during idle periods would more that outweigh staff members having to wait a short period (say 1 minute) on arriving at their machines of a morning (I frequently wait longer that this for a Windows Defender update to take place) provided they were made aware of this (useful time to grab a morning coffee!).

Overall I feel confident that I have demonstrated the technologies that could be used to create such a system. I have shown that such a system does work on a (very) small scale and with some more experimenting could be scaled up utilise the resources of an office’s machines. If I don’t get to the point of doing this I would be very interested to know/see when someone else does.

Conclusions / Evaluation

The next obvious step would be to actually get a real world example and start to deploy a system such as this within an office environment and see what happens. Asking a business to commit to this without a trail blazing company to prove the technology and effectiveness may be a little difficult. Grid/Distributed computing is very popular is some circles and has some large applications (BIONC, SETI@Home, Folding@Home, etc). I did not, however, find a smaller scale and simple system like this in my searches that could be rolled out within an office environment.

I created a basically free system using mostly open source software and tools available in almost any office. The technologies were basically demonstrated and show to perform and work as expected. Hopefully I have show that with not much work and with a very simple setup you can deploy an office grid computing system that is powerful, cheap,Â and scalable all at the same time.

Once a system is up and running there is almost no end to the amount of customisation and improvements you can make. For example statistics / benchmarking can easily be added showing the worth of such a system every day. New machines can be added quickly and easily as and when they arrive with upgrades to existing hardware bolstering your processing power.

I hope you’ve enjoyed reading this series of articles and its given you food for thought on running an office grid system. The solution presented here won’t necessarily work in all situations but should be adaptable to allow you to get your data processing done using your own solution.

Please feel free to send me any comments, corrections, or improvements and I’ll do my best to keep this article updated to match.

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Articles, Computing, Grid Computing, Linux, PHP, Web Programming | apache, bash, batch, benchmark, database, deployment, grid, improve, Linux, mySQL, open source, PHP, replication, subversion, virtual, worker, Zend Framework, zned

The website of Steven Lloyd Watkin

Posts tagged: Zend Framework

Zend Framework Body Tag View Helper

Summary

Motivation

Quick Start Symfony DI (Dependency Injection) Tutorial

What is Dependency Injection (DI)?

Naked Zend_Layout and Zend_View

Continue reading 'Naked Zend_Layout and Zend_View'»

Zend Framework Per Module Layout Settings – Follow Up

Creating URL in Zend Customer View Helper

Dynamically add pages to Zend_Navigation container at runtime

Route requests for sitemap.xml to custom controller/action

Zend Framework Per-Module based settings

Doctrine: DATETIME default NOW()

Office Grid Computing using Virtual environments – Part 5

Introduction

Pre-Deployment

Deployment

Stop!

Demonstration System

Conclusions / Evaluation

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Posts tagged: Zend Framework

Summary

Motivation

What is Dependency Injection (DI)?

Introduction

Pre-Deployment

Deployment

Stop!

Demonstration System

Conclusions / Evaluation

Site Pages

Post Categories

Translator

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