A data structure, or abstract data type, is a model that’s defined by a collection of operations that can be performed on itself and is limited by the constraints on the effects of those operations. It creates a wall between what can be done to the underlying data and how it is to be done. In this article, you’ll learn about two important data structures which have their conceptual origins in everyday usage: the Stack and the Queue.

There are many ways to interact with external processes, for example web services, message queuing systems, sockets, temp files, etc. Given the requirements of how and what you need to work with, you might find yourself working with the proc_open() function. It spawns a new command like exec(), but with open file pointers which can be used to send and receive data to achieve interprocess communication (IPC). This article will show you how easy it is to use this powerful function.

The storage of a blob in a database is never a simple matter, and Microsoft’s Access database is no exception. Many programmers who need to migrate from legacy Access databases are stumped when confronted with the task of extracting files from OLE Object fields. In this series you’ll see how PHP can be used to extract objects from OLE types. This is part 2 and focuses on extracting PDFs and images.

The storage of a blob in a database is never a simple matter, and Microsoft’s Access database is no exception. Many programmers who need to migrate from legacy Access databases are stumped when confronted with the task of extracting files from OLE Object fields. In this series you’ll see how PHP can be used to extract objects from two OLE types: packages and Acrobat PDF documents. Part 1 focuses on OLE packages.

Openbiz Cubi is a robust PHP application framework giving developers the ability to create business applications with minimal effort. In part 2 of this series, you’ll dive a bit deeper into the core architecture of the framework and see how to build your own module.

Openbiz Cubi is a robust PHP application framework giving developers the ability to create business applications with minimal effort. In this two-part series you’ll learn the concepts and steps necessary to create your own business web applications with Cubi. This part looks at the challenges web developers face and how Cubi can help.

Deprecating features before they are done away or transformed gives users who depend on your code time to update their own code. By following the advice in this article, you will find it easier to keep your code fresh and your users won’t have any unhappy surprises.

Maven for PHP is a capable build automation tool for the PHP platform. Using Maven, the user only needs to provide the configuration for the project, while the configurable plugins do the work of compiling the project, running unit tests, generating API documentation and so on. Through this article you will gain familiarity with Maven for PHP, and how to install and use the PHP-Maven plugin from the command line and in Eclipse.

If your site allows users to upload photos, then image cropping/resizing functionality can certainly come in handy. Users might not have access to image programs like Photoshop, so by providing a cropping/resizing feature you can let them upload photos without them having to worry about the final size. See how you can create an image cropping tool with the help of the ImageMagick PHP extension.

Random values play an important role in many PHP applications, and many libraries and frameworks rely on them for generating tokens, salts, and as input for functions. This article gives you an overview of what random values are used for and why they’re important, and peeks under the hood of how they’re generated.