I have deleted all user accounts with zero posts so that we may start fresh. So, if you haven’t posted or comments on uphpu.org previously, you’ll need to create a new account.

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While it is definitely not a requirement that the meetings be held at the place of employment of the current president, that tradition will continue for the foreseeable future, as he new meeting location is my place of employment. We’re the one with the big green stripe on the front window and door. Note that you can get to us via southbound State Street at 350 S onto Exchange Place, or via westbound 400 South at about 30 E, onto Cactus Street. Many of you may be familiar with XMission, and we’re right across the back alley from them. Also important to note is that parking on the street at meters is free after 6pm, and parking in the garage across the street will cost $5 for the evening, and we will be unable to validate. We will continue to meet at seven o’clock on the evening of the third Thursday of each month.

There is an Applebee’s at the Gateway, a short free Trax ride away from our meeting location, so I anticipate we’ll head over there en masse after the presentation for the after-party. They also validate an hour of parking I think if anyone wanted to drive over there rather than come back to get a car.

If we find that the downtown location is for whatever reason undesirable, we can switch things up. Since I live in Draper, I would be happy to do the after party at the Draper Applebee’s if people would prefer, but I suspect our friends from the North might not like driving down there just for a different Applebee’s, but I could be wrong.

5 Things I wish they had told me before I started programming in PHP is a raucous romp through PHP, covering not only mistakes that programmers make, but skills they need to make sure they master.

1. Learn a framework. I don’t care if you didn’t write it, you’re not (insert demigod programmer here) so quit thinking you’ve got it figured out. Frameworks exist for a reason and that reason it to give you the tools you need to do your job. If you are a carpenter, you don’t go out and build your own circular saw before you start a project, you use one already built. We will review the 5 most popular PHP frameworks.
2. Learn that PHP is not (insert the language you last worked in). More importantly, we don’t want it to be either. PHP is what it is, the best solution for web project. The faster you learn that, the faster you will get things done. PHP is unique and proud of it.
3. Learn where to get help. Help sites for PHP abound on the web. Anyone with a copy of WordPress can start sharing the things that they’ve learned. Unfortunately, not all sites are created equally. If you are new to PHP, look to sites like phpdeveloper.org and DevZone as pointers to other good content. If you are an old hand, here are a few sites you may not know about that will help you get going.
4. Learn your stack. LAMP, WAMP, SAMP MAMP, or WIMP know the stack you are using inside and out. We’ll cover the basics you have to know, from setting up a virtual domain, directory structure stratigies to url re-writing and logging. We will look at a few offerings including Zend Server.
5. Get Involved! Getting involved in the community is not somethng you do because you are bored on a friday night. it’s something you do because you want to know more than the guy sitting in the cube next to you. You can either spend every night reading and memorizing the PHP manual, or you can get involved in the community and start talking with the people white the language. Theya re out there, they don’t usually bite and they will help you as long as you don’t expect them to do your job for you. The next time you boss asks you about the new Date() features in PHP 5.3, you can reply “Let me ask Derick real quick.”

For the past 8 years Cal has worked with PHP and MySQL on Linux OSX, and when necessary, Windows. He has built a variety of projects ranging in size from simple web pages to multi-million dollar web applications. When not banging his head on his monitor, attempting a blood sacrifice to get a particular piece of code working, he enjoys building and managing development teams using his widely imitated but never patented management style of “management by wandering around”. These days, when not working with PHP, Cal can be found working on a variety of projects, most of which require a higher security clearance than you have so they can’t be listed here. Cal is currently based in Nashville TN where he is currently gainfully unemployed and seeking a job in IT so he doesn’t have to go out and get a real job. Cal is happily married to wife 1.25, the lovely and talented Kathy. Together they have 2 wonderful kids who were both smart enough not to pursue a job in IT.

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New Meeting Structure

We will be splitting our PHP meetings into 2 parts. First part is basic skills / best practices training. This is for you new guys who want to learn, but don’t know where to start. This section is called PHP fundamentals and will be hosted by Justin Carmony. He and I are working on some printed materials and are ramping this up as we speak. We also have several very senior and tenured members who are VERY friendly to questions. The second portion of our meeting will be a more advanced topic that will be of benefit to intermediate / advanced members, but will still be of great benefit to those who are new.

Still Social!

For those interested in the social aspect of our meeting, we still have the famous UPHPU Afterhours party.

Resources

As far as learning resources, Ray Hunter and I are working on having books available at our meetings. While we will have some fun / zany way of handing out the books, there is an understood condition of receiving the book. You MUST write a review of the book and post it online. If you don’t want to write a review, don’t take the book. I will be breaking arms on this!

Online Resources

I know that our recordings have been sporadic. i’m working on allocating more time to this.

9780470543535
Beginning PHP 5.3 (ebook)

9780470413968
Beginning PHP 5.3

9780470391143
Beginning PHP 6, Apache, MySQL 6 Web Development

9780470471395
Beginning PHP 6, Apache, MySQL 6 Web Development (ebook)

9780470396087
Flash and PHP Bible (ebook)

9780470258248
Flash and PHP Bible

9780470287279
PHP & MySQL Web Development All-in-One Desk Reference For Dummies (ebook)

9780470167779
PHP & MySQL Web Development All-in-One Desk Reference For Dummies

9780470048399
PHP & MySQL: Your visual blueprintTM for creating dynamic, database-driven Web sites

9780764583322
PHP 5: Your visual blueprintTM for creating open source, server-side content

9780470527580
PHP and MySQL For Dummies, 4th Edition

9780470192429
PHP and MySQL: Create – Modify – Reuse

9780470382981
PHP and MySQL: Create – Modify – Reuse (ebook)

9780470567470
Professional PHP Design Patterns (ebook)

9780470496701
Professional PHP Design Patterns

9780470100929
Professional Search Engine Optimization with PHP: A Developer’s Guide to SEO

9780470168905
Professional Search Engine Optimization with PHP: A Developer’s Guide to SEO (ebook)

We are also running a tech book drive to assist those who are just starting to learn web programming! You and I both know you’re not using those HTML books anymore! bring them in and let somebody else benefit from something collecting dust on your shelf! Bring in what you can, HTML, JavaScript, etc, I promise it’ll go to good use.

Visit the Google Group home page for more information. Join the group and then add the address “utahphp@googlegroups.com” to your Google Contacts list. You can then add the group address to new waves and everyone will have access to it.

Note that Wave will bark that that user does not have a valid Wave account when you try to add it. Ignore that and simply strike the return key and the address will be added to your contact list.