I am proud to announce that PHP with MySQL Beyond the Basics has been released on the lynda.com Online Training Library. It is the sequel to my previous video title, PHP with MySQL Essential Training. It’s almost 11 hours of video training; with the previous title, that makes a total of 21 hours of PHP training!

While the first training was an introduction to PHP and MySQL, in this title I focus on “intermediate PHP” and PHP’s object-oriented features. Objects make it easier to organize and maintain your code, make code modular and reusable, and (most importantly) add clarity by reducing complex interactions to simple behaviors. Once you understand the fundamentals of PHP, you’ll want to learn to harness the power Object-Oriented Programming provides.

PHP with MySQL Beyond the Basics is available online as streaming video to subscribers of the lynda.com Online Training Library ($25/month, $250/year, $375/year with exercise files included). It is will also be available as a CD-ROM soon both through lynda.com and Amazon.com.

Here’s the official description:

In PHP with MySQL Beyond the Basics, expert instructor Kevin Skoglund introduces powerful PHP programming techniques using object-oriented programming (OOP). Both novice and experienced PHP developers will benefit from the efficient, well-organized, reusable, and easy-to-understand code that OOP offers. Kevin shows how OOP techniques can streamline database queries, help manage sessions, and simplify user logins. While building a real-world web application, Kevin also includes practical advice on topics ranging from structuring code to logging user actions. Exercise files accompany the course.

If you are already using PHP but not objects or if you use objects but don’t understand them as well as you’d like, give this training a try and let me know what you think!

I promised myself that I would pick up blogging again. I miss it and I think (hope) that my workload will allow me the time again. To kick things off, here are two articles that are definitely worth reading.

• The first is for advanced users who need to think about database design issues.
  How FriendFeed Uses MySQL (spoiler: not as a relational database)
• The second is about the basic principals for social engagement in web applications.
  A List Apart: The Elements of Social Architecture

Sun Microsystems has purchased MySQL for $1 billion dollars. That sounds like a lot of money but. considering the popularity of MySQL, I think it was a bargain for Sun.

What does the purchase mean for developers? Nothing yet.

It’s as if your favorite restaurant just got a new head chef but the menu is the same. Some of the dishes may change slightly over time—you might not notice. Someday the chef may decide to make more radical changes, even revise the whole menu. Changes to the kitchen operations and to the food may improve the quality and service of the restaurant, or it could hurt it. But for the near future, you can still order your favorite dish, pretty much the way you’ve always had it.

I ran into an issue with MySQL the other day. After upgrading to a newer version on my development server (a Mac), my databases, user privileges and root password were missing. This isn’t the first time I’ve felt that sinking feeling as I frantically searched for the missing files, and since the fix is easy I thought I should write it up to save you the panic if you ever find yourself in the same situation.

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Google is one of the biggest users of MySQL and they have added many enhancements to get MySQL to meet their needs, including better database replication and tools to monitor a high volume of database instances.

Now, thanks to an agreement between Google and MySQL, some of those features are going to be put back into MySQL so that everyone can take advantage of them. These new features should start showing up around MySQL 6.1 in 2009 and are just part of the improvements on the roadmap to MySQL 7.0 recently laid out by the MySQL group.

Some of the other improvements scheduled on the MySQL roadmap are better enterprise-level security features, a new storage engine (Falcon), table and index partioning, and row-based replication. Most web developers won’t notice a difference, but power-users and database admins will welcome these high-level additions that put MySQL on par with Oracle and IBM solutions.

From ComputerWorld

Ulf Wendel at Internet Super Hero has explained what the mysqlnd driver for PHP is and why you might (or might not) need it. He also provides a nice history of the drivers and APIs that PHP uses to connect to MySQL.

In short, mysqlnd is a MySQL native driver for PHP that works like libmysql. It’s a replacement for libmysql but they can co-exist so that it doesn’t break existing applications. Primarily, mysqlnd offers improved speed, persistent connections, mysqli_fetch_all() and performance statistics calls.

In my opinion, if you are using ext/mysqli then you’ll want to check it out and see if the feature/performance trade-offs make sense for you. It’s primarily designed for advanced users who need to get every drop of performance out of PHP that they can. If you are using PDO/MySQL then you’ll want to avoid it because PDO isn’t supported yet. If you are using ext/mysql for general use (or don’t know what “ext/mysql”, “ext/mysqli” and “PDO/MySQL” are) then stick with what you’ve got—you’ll never notice the difference.

I’m happy to announce PHP with MySQL Essential Training has been released on the lynda.com Online Training Library. It’s almost 11 hours of video training on PHP. I start with the basics of the PHP language and work up to dynamic web pages with a MySQL backend by demonstrating how to build a content management system.

Some of the topics it covers include: installation, PHP language fundamentals (variables, arrays, loops, functions, etc.), blueprinting an application, building dynamic pages, structuring and interacting with databases, how to build, validate and process forms, and regulating user access with passwords. I also provide practical advice, give best practices examples, and demonstrate refactoring techniques to improve existing code.

PHP with MySQL Essential Training is available online as streaming video to subscribers of the lynda.com Online Training Library ($25/month, $250/year, $375/year with exercise files included). It is will also be available as a CD-ROM soon both through Lynda.com and Amazon.com.

I also recorded Ruby on Rails Essential Training for the lynda.com Online Training Library which is available online to lynda.com OTL subscribers and on CD-ROM, both through lynda.com and Amazon.com, for $99.95.

If you try any of them and find that they are helpful, be sure to let me know!

MySQL.com has put together 12 days of case studies and discussion on database scale-out. “Scale-out” describes the process of increasing web application speed and scale by adding multiple replicated database servers incrementally and only as-needed. As your hot new web app gains users, you scale it out from one database to three, or from four to 23. It’s the opposite of “scaling-up”, which involves upgrading all of your hardware and database licenses to add capacity. Growing companies can keep their existing investment; large companies can save millions.

The case studies have some interesting facts and figures but they don’t go into a lot of depth. But that also makes all 12 days a quick read! If nothing else, it should help anyone who’s trying to convince the higher-ups that MySQL is a viable, scalable choice by allowing them to do a little name dropping. “It will save us money” also tends to resonate with the folks in suits.

12 Scale-Out Case Studies and Discussion

• Day One: Booking.com
• Day Two: GumTree.com
• Day Three: Alcatel-Lucent
• Day Four: Zimbra
• Day Five: Wikipedia
• Day Six: Top Five Scale-Out Pitfalls to Avoid
• Day Seven: The Phone House
• Day Eight: Zappos.com
• Day Nine: RightNow Technologies
• Day Ten: iStockphoto.com
• Day Eleven: Skyblog
• Day Twelve: Zillow.com and mixi

InformationWeek has articles about two interesting MySQL surveys.

A survey at last month’s 2007 MySQL Conference & Expo revealed IT specialists’s MySQL wish-list: improved scalability (33%), easier maintenance (23%), increased availability (17%), more throughput (15%). And over 70% would rather have a simple out-of-the-box application rather than custom solutions.

A survey last winter by Evans Data of 517 companies revealed which databases their developers use (obviously, they could pick more than one): Microsoft SQL (61%), MySQL (40%), Microsoft Access (38%), Oracle 10g (22%), Oracle 9i (20%). MySQL’s share rose 8 points from 32% the previous year.

Mark your calendar: MySQL Conference & Expo has announced their 2008 conference will be April 23-26 in Santa Clara, California.