March 23rd, 2004

As New York PHP reaches the second year mark, we're pleased to have two exciting presentations.

After the meeting, you're invited to join us for food, drinks and wireless at the backroom of Abbey Tavern.

JSCookMenu: JavaScript Menu System
JSCookMenu is a powerful menu script, written in JavaScript by Heng Yuan, that can mimic complex menus found in popular GUI Applications. Simple and easy to use, Gert Hilhorst demonstrates how he's implemented it for a web based investment accounting application. With many menus and items, JSCookMenu has enabled Gert to deploy a user-friendly web application with a powerful AMP backend.

With fellow New York PHP Associate Felix Zaslavskiy, who assisted in debugging and development, Gert explores the combination of JavaScript and PHP.

PAXI: PHP 5 and XML in Production
This month we examine a cutting edge PHP 5 and XML production implementation. New York PHP Principal Chris Hendry introduces the challenges faced and the PHP Application XML Interface (PAXI) solution.

This component based system utilizes the strength of PHP5's SimpleXML and Hans Zaunere's pMime to establish a flexible architecture for working with a variety of web services, including SOAP-RPC. Instead of using the hefty PEAR framework, PAXI creates an extremely lightweight module-based structure for interfacing with web services in high traffic environments. Leveraging PHP's low-level socket and buffer functionality, PAXI parses, detects faults, and presents complex XML streams to a PHP 4 front end. PAXI is currently in production at CheapAirlines.com, among other high profile travel websites.

Join Chris, Hans and development team Dan Krook, Chris Snyder, and Adam Trachtenberg for an in-depth look at PHP 5 and XML in high traffic production environments.