Welcome to the April edition of the Zend IBM i Newsletter! This is a monthly newsletter dedicated to PHP for the IBM i community.

ZEND IBM i PRODUCT NEWS AND UPDATES

Announcing Adobe Flash Builder 4.5 for PHP

On April 11th, Zend and Adobe announced a new product: Adobe Flash Builder 4.5 for PHP. While it's not specific to the IBM i platform, it makes it easier than ever to add rich, interactive interfaces to any PHP application. If you want to create mobile applications that run natively on iOS/Android/Blackberry and connect to your IBM i server running PHP, this is the tool for you!

Learn more about Flash Builder 4.5 for PHP »

UPCOMING EVENTS

TEC 2011: Toronto User Group for Power Systems
April 27-28, 2011 – Seneca@York University, Toronto, Ontario

After great success last year, TUG TEC 2011, the 18th annual conference, is on its way. Topics of focus include SQL, PHP, Web Dev and Modern RPG. Join John Valance who will be covering various topics of PHP on IBM i. Introduction to Web Development with PHP (lecture), Introduction to PHP on i (lab), PHP Database Application Architecture (lab), and PHP Beyond the Basics are some of the topics.

More information »

COMMON 2011 Annual Meeting and Expo
May 1-4, 2011 – Minneapolis, MN

Visit the Zend booth at COMMON 2011 and enter a drawing for a chance to win $1000 of Zend Online Training Units! PHP sessions at COMMON will include: Getting Started with PHP on IBM i, Introduction to OO-PHP Fundamentals, PHP Arrays for the RPG Programmer, PHP Toolkit Examples, Business Value of PHP on IBM i, PHP 101 Development, PHP Web Services on IBM i and more!

More information »

NiSUG - Common GB
May 12, 2011 2:45pm GMT - IBM Warwick, UK

IBM i installations are faced with a variety of business challenges and want to select the best technology to solve those challenges. Zend will be addressing the top three challenges that can be solved with PHP to modernize IBM i Applications with PHP. If you are in London, don’t miss the opportunity to attend this talk.

More information »

COMMON Europe
May 23, 2011 – Milan, Italy

Not able to attend COMMON 2011 in US? Well! You can join Zend at COMMON Europe 2011 – most important event for the IBM i Community. PHP sessions at COMMON Europe will include: Web-enabling your IBM i Applications with PHP, Solving the Top 3 Business Challenges to Modernize IBM i Application with PHP, Customer testimonials Santander Group - Zend Italia, PHP workshop and more.

More information »

UPCOMING TRAINING

IBM i Training Bundle

A-to-Zend for IBM i Programmers is a training package designed for IBM i/OS programmers who not only want to learn to tie existing RPG applications to PHP, but also want to acquire a solid foundation in PHP culminating in the PHP 5.3 certification. This training bundle includes: PHP I:Foundations for IBM i programmers »
PHP II: Higher Structures »
Test Prep: PHP 5.3 Certification (includes Exam Voucher) »

IBM i AND PHP: FASTER THAN A SPEEDING BULLET!

Following these simple suggestions, you can optimize your PHP on IBM i environment (assumes resource is already allocated correctly).

1. Make sure you have a valid Zend license - valid licenses enable optimizing some internal options.

2. Use dynamic FastCGI - Optimized method of accessing the Web.

3. Turn off all Zend Server code tracing, monitor, debug features – great tools when developing code, but adds overhead.

4. Turn off checking for changed PHP include files (production only) - use this when your code is in a state of flux, otherwise, turn it off.

Read More »