Interesting PHP Libraries
Doing some research into certain PHP libraries for integration into a redesign for PT.
phpGACL - a general ACL class implementation for php. Looks pretty comprehensive, written on top of ADOdb for PHP, includes generalized access request objects and a couple others. This could be useful for implementing a generalized scheme for the different classes of users in my application, which in the POC was hard coded. Would definitely allow for more flexibility and simplify the code quite a bit.
Smarty PHP Template library. I never noticed this before, but its support for variable modifiers looks pretty neat. ADOdb for PHP supports a lot of interesting features for getting data into the db in a format it supports through quoting and formatting methods, so this would be getting some of the output formatting code out of the application stuff and placing it separately in the presentation.
The venerable ADOdb for PHP has been one of my favorite libraries. It really helped me migrate my application from MySQL to postgresql fairly quickly, although it would have been faster if I had paid attention to this article: Tips on Writing Portable SQL Code.
Interesting followup links:
Mambo Server - a CMS written to use phpGACL.
How to evaluate a CMS by James Robertson. Some good common sense insight into evaluating content management systems.
“You must ensure that vendor demonstrations are more than just a sales pitch. To be of value, they must demonstrate how the product will meet your business’ needs.
“The best way to achieve this is to develop scenarios. These describe common or important tasks that will be performed using the CMS.
“By presenting these in a “narrative” form, considerable scope can be covered in a relatively brief description.
“Provide these to vendors at least a week before the presentations, and require strict adherence. This allows direct comparison between the vendors’ products.