Douglas Clifton has taken some time to look at a group of the web application frameworks out there (not just PHP - Pearl, Python and Ruby too) and offer up some opinions on them. This new post is the result.
It just wouldn't be fair after my last post to ignore the tried-and-true server-side Web application frameworks. I am certainly familiar with all of them, though I haven't necessarily used every one in a production environment.
It's light weight, fast, and stays out of your way. There are any number of class modules to choose from, and you can discard what you don't need to lighten the load even more.
InfoWorld recently posted a review from their "Test Center" that looks at the latest version of Acquia's Drupal (v1.0).
As we've seen time and again, in an increasing number of enterprise software categories, open source has become a promising alternative to commercial software. But there's no free ride. Support from developers is often problematic, and you need to find products with a large enough following so that programmers have an incentive to build add-on modules. [...] Yet if you take support out of the equation, Drupal emerges as the better solution for many enterprise Web projects.
They point out some of the good (the power and flexibility of the CMS) versus some of the bad (the need for developers/admins with specific knowledge of the system) with a heavier lean towards the good. Other "goodies" they include are the robust installer, pre-integrated modules, like the Content Construction Kit and Mollom, and the ticket system built into the application for help with CMS-related issues (from Acquia).
Smashing Magazine has put together a new post that provides a "Drupal Developers Toolbox" with links to resources all over the web.
After publishing the recent WordPress Developer's Toolbox, there were several Drupal developers calling out for equal coverage. In this post you will find a thorough collection of all kinds of resources that will aid designers and developers working with Drupal-powered websites. This collection is intended to simplify your tasks and save you time when working with Drupal.
They've broken it out into some of the basic components you might need, modules, a few sites offering some design inspiration, themes, tutorials and more.
On the SitePoint PHP blog, David Petersonshares some of the comments and thoughts that Rasmus Lerdorf (creator of PHP) had recently on a good range of topics (including frameworks).
This is the fist time I have heard Rasmus Lerdorf speak and it was entertaining to say the least. Refreshing would another way to describe it, I enjoy hearing real opinions and not holding back - Rasmus doesn't hold back.
He talked about frameworks (and why they're not the best thing for the job), how you can make PHP fast (or can you?) and some mention of the semantic web and Drupal.
In response to some of the claims made by CNet about the security of PHP, Ken Guest has made a few comments on his blog hoping to correct a few wrongs.
What are featuring in IBM's top ten of vulnerable that makes the report insinuate that the PHP language is a security risk are Jooma, Wordpress and Drupal. How PHP would feature in a list of "vendors" is beside the point.
He illustrates with an allegory that it's not the tool's fault if it's used improperly. Pointing out software like WordPress and Drupal is not the same as pointing out issues with the language that powers them (no matter how trendy it is). The burden is on the developers to use the power the language offers to create more secure, flexible, stable applications. Does PHP have its share of problems? Sure, but get it right next time CNet - don't blame the tool if the builder's not up to spec.
Ivo Jansch mentions an interesting comparison that CNet made on security and levels of vulnerability in a new blog post today. Their article mentions PHP right along side Apple and Microsoft in their list of "most vulnerable software".
This article once again demonstrates the cluelessness that some people have regarding what PHP is. First of all, PHP is not a vendor, so "Apple, Microsoft & PHP" does not make much sense. Furthermore, the only reason PHP even is mentioned in this context is that Joomla, Drupal and Wordpress appear in the list. So PHP, a programming language, gets blamed for the security flaws that are in these packages.
By their logic (applications written in a language on the list means the language is more insecure), they should have marked C as a more insecure language given the ratio of PHP to C software.
On the Developer Tutorials site today, there's a new look at working with the Drupal e-Commerce module in your Drupal installation.
What if you [also] want to support collaborative editing of content, community forums, and other capabilities that could help increase traffic to your site, but are usually only found in content management systems (CMSs)? Is it possible to combine the best of both worlds - shopping carts and CMSs? Fortunately, the answer is yes, if you choose a world-class CMS such as Drupal as a foundation for your site.
They walk you through how to get the module installed, how to configure it to match with your site's layout and flow and how to hook the purchase process into PayPal to make purchasing a few simple user clicks away.
The PHPClasses.org website has posted a new book review about the Packt Publishing offering "Drupal: Creating Blogs, Forums, Portals and Community Websites" (book by David Mercer, review by Zoltan Hunt).
This Packt book takes the reader through installing the Drupal software, configuring and theming, adding content and deploying a Web site. It is aimed at the end user who is looking to setup and customize Drupal's themes, but not actually write their own modules, which would be a topic for book on its own.
The review talks about some of the origins of the content management system, the contents of the book (use cases, introductions to the functionality, etc) and how to manage your site.
