Entries by Christian

Thursday June 12th, 7pm
580 St Kilda Road Melbourne

Databases & PHP - Tristan Penman - 7:00 - 7:45 pm

Tristan Penman will be presenting a guided tour through the database facilities in PHP, including the PEAR MDB2 library. Not only will Tristan be showing you what happens when the library works, but what happens when it doesn't - he will show how to avoid some of the issues that he has experienced while using MDB2 for a pet project involving databases and AJAX GUIs.

Tristan's computing background involves programming in numerous languages, with a preference for C and C++ (although he also has a soft spot for x86 assembly language). He organises the MySQL User Group, and often throws industry buzzwords together to see what ideas he can come up with. When not programming, you may find Tristan contemplating how strange it is to write about oneself in the third person.


Self Healing Databases: Managing Schema Updates In The Field - Jon Oxer - 8:00 - 8:45 pm

Database schema update management is a problem that is overlooked by many web application developers initially, but once you have a number of deployments in the field it rapidly becomes a major headache to propagate schema changes in synch with your PHP, Python, or Perl application code.

Internet Vision Technologies has developed a technique for "self-healing databases" for the SiteBuilder web application suite, allowing updates to occur automatically in the field whenever new versions of the application are pushed out. This technique has been used successfully on a number of large scale deployments such as the Siemens intranet which runs on MySQL and uses over 2500 tables. The talk covers the overall methodology with specific examples from the SiteBuilder codebase.


Socialising & Networking 9:00pm onward

Pizza, softdrink, tea, coffee and comfy swivel chairs will be provided with compliments of our major sponsor, Hitw

Something I should have mentioned earlier. The Call For Papers for this year's Open Source Developers' Conference is open. Be quick, as you only have until the end of the month to get your submissions in.

It's been a pretty good week for Australian golfers around the globe, however it could have easily been better. Matthew Googin just missed out on his first win after leading for the first three rounds of the Memorial Tournament. He finished behind Kenny Perry who I believe has won the tournament three times now. Over on the LPGA Karrie Webb lost to Seon Hwa Lee in a play off after three putting from 25 feet. However Aussie Scott Strange pulled through first his first win on the European tour, taking out The Celtic Manor Wales Open. Having started the day with a three shot advantage, birdies at four of the first six holes put him on easy street and he did not drop a shot all day, eventually carding a final round 64 – not as good as his course record opening 63 – but nevertheless good enough for a 22 under par total of 262 and a four shot victory.

My vote for the most stupid invention of the year.
A seat belt alarm canceler.

Thursday May 8th, 7pm
580 St Kilda Road Melbourne


CodeSniffer. You need it. You want it. Be there. - Avi Miller - 7:00 - 7:45 pm

PHP_CodeSniffer is a PHP5 script that tokenises and "sniffs" PHP and JavsScript code to detect violations of a defined set of coding standards. It is an essential development tool that ensures that your code remains clean and consistent. It can even help prevent some common semantic errors made by developers.

This talk will show you how to use PHP_CodeSniffer to ensure your PHP and JavaScript adheres to your chosen coding standard. We will also look at how to create a new "sniff" that will check a particular coding standard requirement.

Avi is the MySource Matrix Product Evangelist for Squiz. As Product Evangelist, he is contractually obliged to deeply love MySource Matrix, a state greatly enhanced by strict adherence to coding standards (great plug!). Additional daily duties include pre-sales consulting, business analysis, information architecture, hand-holding, nappy changing and other professional tasks.


MySQL Stored Procedures - Ben Balbo - 8:00 - 8:45 pm

A recent addition in MySQL 5, stored procedures allow us to automate or program our way out of many tasks directly on the server rather than having to write external scripts to do complex manipulation of data. Stored procedures can also be used to simplify data validation or enforce access control. In this talk, Ben will use a few simple stored procedures and views to demonstrate their power and usefulness, not to mention the benefits that can be reaped when the database needs refactoring.

Socialising & Networking 9:00pm onward

Pizza, softdrink, tea, coffee and comfy swivel chairs will be provided with compliments of our major sponsor, Hitwise.