Atlanta PHP User Group

When: Thursday, March 4, 2010—7pm-9pm
Where: Plaza Level Conference Room at Colony Square, Midtown Atlanta

Getting started with Zend_Cache

Presented by Joey Rivera

This presentation will explain what caching means, why it’s important to use, and demonstrate a few different examples. Zend_Cache will be used as a stand alone module, meaning the examples are not implementing the Zend Framework, so users not familiar with the framework can still follow along. The examples will cover different usages such as how to cache a variable, a recordset from a database query, and an entire page.

Location

Our meeting will take place in the Plaza Level Conference Room at Colony Square in Midtown Atlanta. Click here for directions.

When: Thursday, February 4, 2010—7pm-9pm
Where: Plaza Level Conference Room at Colony Square, Midtown Atlanta

“It’s Magick”

Presented by Robert Swarthout, Senior Technical Yahoo!

So you’re developing your web app and the need to manipulate images or generate a CAPTCHA has arisen. PHP has support for the GD, ImageMagick, and GraphicsMagick libraries, but each has its own specialty. Which one is best for your situation? This presentation demonstrates some use cases for each, as well as when it might not be the best choice. Unless your web app never touches an image, there will be something to learn for everyone.

Location

Our meeting will take place in the Plaza Level Conference Room at Colony Square in Midtown Atlanta. Click here for directions.

WEATHER CANCELLATION: We’ve decided to call off this meeting, due to the forecast for sleet/snow in most of north Georgia and the inevitable traffic insanity this will cause. We will definitely have Joey present his talk on an alternate date to be determined. We apologize for any inconvenience.

Getting started with Zend_Cache

Presented by Joey Rivera

This presentation will explain what caching means, why it’s important to use, and demonstrate a few different examples. Zend_Cache will be used as a stand alone module, meaning the examples are not implementing the Zend Framework, so users not familiar with the framework can still follow along. The examples will cover different usages such as how to cache a variable, a recordset from a database query, and an entire page.

Location

Our meeting will take place in the Plaza Level Conference Room at Colony Square in Midtown Atlanta. Click here for directions.

On January 8th and 9th, Atlanta will host its first ever WordCamp!

WordCamps worldwide connect a community of bloggers, designers, coders, marketers, and enthusiasts of WordPress, coming together to share knowledge, and meet others around the Southeast and the rest of the country. Atlanta’s first ever event will connect users experienced and new with opportunities to come together and lean something new, whether it’s in the hallway after a session or via emails with a new connection. We will mix a Genius Bar (for help at any point of the camp) with traditional and more unconference like sessions. With the help of great sponsors and members of the community, the Atlanta WordPress community will have a springboard via shared knowledge for new ideas.

For more details and to register: http://atlantawordcamp.com/

When: Thursday, December 10, 2009—7pm-9pm
Where: Plaza Level Conference Room at Colony Square, Midtown Atlanta

Please take note that we will NOT be meeting on our usual first Thursday of the month in December. Instead, we are meeting on the SECOND Thursday (December 10th).

Quick Wins: Performance Tuning + 3rd Party Patches for MySQL (Morgan Tocker)

Presented by Morgan Tocker, world-renowned MySQL Expert at Percona, Inc.

Morgan Tocker is Director of Training at Percona where he provides world famous scaling advice to Web 2.0 and Fortune 100 clients. He is a regular presenter on PHP and MySQL, having spoken at conferences such as PHP Quebec, the MySQL Conference, PHP-Tek, PHP-works and International PHP Conference.

Prior to Percona, Morgan worked at MySQL AB (acquired by Sun Microsystems) as a Support Engineer and Technical Instructor teaching courses in Database Administration, High Availability and Performance Tuning.

PLEASE NOTE: YOU MUST RSVP TO ATTEND THIS EVENT. SPACE IS LIMITED.

Get a Free Pass to Morgan’s MySQL Workshop!

In addition to our meeting, Morgan will be in Atlanta to lead an intensive workshop that covers tuning MySQL when using the InnoDB and XtraDB storage engines. Sign up for the workshop before November 26 and receive a free copy of High Performance MySQL. Sign up to attend Performance Optimization for MySQL with InnoDB and XtraDB.

Percona has graciously provided a free pass to the Performance Optimization for MySQL with InnoDB and XtraDB workshop. We’re raffling off this pass to a single winner, and the time is short (contest ends November 24 at 11:59 PM EST), so register to win the workshop pass today! Go to http://contests.atlantaphp.org/ for details and to register to win the free pass.

Location

Our meeting will take place in the Plaza Level Conference Room at Colony Square in Midtown Atlanta. Click here for directions.

When: Thursday, November 5, 2009—7pm-9pm
Where: Plaza Level Conference Room at Colony Square, Midtown Atlanta

Presentation: The Hidden Gems in HTTP (Ben Ramsey)

200, 404, 302. Is it a lock combination? A phone number? No, they’re HTTP status codes! As we develop Web applications, we encounter these status codes and others, and often we make decisions about which ones to return without giving much thought to their meaning or context. It’s time to take a deeper look at HTTP. Knowing the methods, headers, and status codes, what they mean, and how to use them can help you develop richer Internet applications. Join Ben Ramsey as he takes you on a journey through RFC 2616 to discover some of the gems of HTTP.

This is an expanded version of a talk Ben gave at CodeWorks 2009, so be sure to come early. We’ll be starting promptly at 7:00 PM so we don’t run out of time.

Location

Our meeting will take place in the Plaza Level Conference Room at Colony Square in Midtown Atlanta. Click here for directions.

Please note: our October meeting WILL NOT occur on the regularly scheduled date of Thursday, October 1. Instead, we will be holding it on Monday, September 28 to coincide with CodeWorks Atlanta. We hope you’ll join us for this special event.

Microsoft and Atlanta PHP invite you to join us for a special Meet the CodeWorks Speakers Happy Hour on Monday, September 28th at 6:00pm. Please come mix and mingle with the speakers and thought leaders of the PHP community!

Here’s a list of some of the speakers who will be attending:

Andrei Zmievski
Ben Ramsey
Brian Moon
Cal Evans
Chris Shiflett
Derick Rethans
Ed Finkler
Elizabeth Naramore
Glen Gordon
Matthew Turland
Matthew Weier O’Phinney
Scott MacVicar
Sean Coates

and more…

The Happy Hour will take place at 6:00pm on Monday, September 28th at Gordon Biersch in midtown Atlanta. Gordon Biersch is easily accessible from Marta’s Midtown Station. So, if you’re staying at the Sheraton Gateway conference hotel, take the hotel shuttle to the airport and ride the train to Midtown Station. Gordon Biersch will be about a five block walk. See the link to directions below.

Many thanks to local Microsoft Developer Evangelist Glen Gordon for helping to make this event possible. Microsoft will be covering appetizers and entrées. Attendees are responsible for their own drinks.

Please RSVP at http://meetup.atlantaphp.org/calendar/11165442/ so we can get an accurate head-count for planning purposes.

We hope to see you there!

If you’ve not yet registered for the CodeWorks conference, register today at http://codeworks.mtacon.com/schedule/city/atlanta

Location on Bing Maps: http://tr.im/gordonbierschatl
Directions from Marta’s Midtown Station: http://tr.im/xP1y

When: Thursday, September 3, 2009—7pm-9pm
Where: Plaza Level Conference Room at Colony Square, Midtown Atlanta

NOTE: New location within Colony Square. Details at the link above.

Presentation: Command Line PHP (Jeff Jones)

In this session, Jeff Jones will teach us about PHP’s Command Line Interface (CLI), how to write interactive PHP command line scripts, and how to interface with other CLI scripts from within PHP. Time permitting, he may also cover CLI in the context of PHP frameworks.

Location

Our meeting will take place in the Plaza Level Conference Room at Colony Square in Midtown Atlanta. Click here for directions.

When: Thursday, August 6, 2009—7pm-9pm
Where: Columbus Room at Colony Square, Midtown Atlanta

NOTE: New location within Colony Square. Details at the link above.

Presentation: Patterns and Tools for Database Versioning, Migration, Data Loading and Test Data (Alan Pinstein)

Do you find yourself sweating a little every time you upgrade your production database? Is setting up a new server or developer workstation a time-consuming and painful process? Are you skipping tests because it’s just too much of a pain to get good test data into the database?

In this session, Alan will cover a variety of tools and techniques to manage and organize your projects to save time, reduce errors, and improve your productivity:

– Managing database versioning with MP (Migrations for PHP)
– Loading baseline data and test data with fixtures using Propel and Phocoa
– Integrate database management into your project management workflows using rake

After attending this session you should be able to make immediate changes to your project to improve productivity and increase code quality and reliability.

Location

Our meeting takes place in the Columbus Room at 100 Colony Square in Midtown Atlanta (at the corner of Peachtree and 14th Streets). Click here for directions.

Atlanta PHP is privileged to welcome CodeWorks to Atlanta!

CodeWorks 2009 is a series of two-day conferences for PHP developers and IT managers organized and run by the publishers of php|architect Magazine.

CodeWorks will travel to seven locations across the United States between September 22nd and October 5th included. Each two-day event includes a day of in-depth tutorials and a day of conference talks arranged across three different tracks, all presented by the best experts in the business.

CodeWorks will be stopping in Atlanta on September 28th and 29th for a day of in-depth tutorials (the 28th) and a day of conference talks (the 29th). If PHP is your work, your passion or your hobby, CodeWorks is a great way to learn and connect with the greatest community of professionals in the world. All members of Atlanta PHP are eligible for the discounted rate of $99 (for the conference only) or $199 (for the conference + tutorials), but to get this rate, you must register by July 15th!

Atlanta PHP CodeWorks Call for Proposals

In addition, Atlanta PHP will choose one local speaker (and one alternate) to speak at CodeWorks on September 29th. Both the speaker and the alternate will receive free registration to both days of CodeWorks in Atlanta, and the alternate will speak at the October 1st Atlanta PHP meeting.

The Atlanta PHP CodeWorks CfP is open to anyone. Please e-mail submissions to proposals at atlantaphp dot org. All submissions must be received by July 20th, 11:59:59 PM EDT. Proposals will be voted on by members of Atlanta PHP, and links to vote for proposals will be sent out through the announcements list following the close of the CfP.

If you’ve never written a talk proposal but you have an idea for a talk, please check out the descriptions of talks for php|tek. These descriptions are the exact text of the proposal that the speakers sent in, and they should give you a good idea of how to write a proposal. I hope you’ll submit!