Example Zend Framework Blog Application Tutorial: Parts 1-8

[Pádraic Brady]

It's rare I publicise anything here, so I'm going to use up a few brownie points of goodwill and do so ;).

As a few of you know, I've been working on a lengthy series of blog entries tracking the process of building a blog application with the Zend Framework. Part 8 has just been published. Feedback from the community is more than welcome and I hope the series is fulfilling its role of putting component-specific knowledge into the context of an actual real world application.

I have undertaken to use the finished application as my replacement blog for the current Serendipty installation.

The entire series can be read at http://blog.astrumfutura.com. I'll warn you in advance I spared no words. Individual parts range past the 3000 word mark.

The approach taken doesn't spend a huge amount of time immersed in API details - it's assumed you know where to find the manual should the need arise, and how to read it ;).

Best regards,
Paddy

[wllm]

No goodwill points deducted, Paddy. :) If anyone has something that they feel the larger community will find of value- and I don't think there is any doubt in this regard towards Paddy's tutorial series- then feel free to post links here.

,Wil

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Pádraic Brady [mailto:padraic.brady@...]
> Sent: Tuesday, May 13, 2008 8:04 AM
> To: fw-general@...
> Subject: [fw-general] Example Zend Framework Blog Application Tutorial:
> Parts 1-8
>
>
> It's rare I publicise anything here, so I'm going to use up a few
> brownie
> points of goodwill and do so ;).
>
> As a few of you know, I've been working on a lengthy series of blog
> entries
> tracking the process of building a blog application with the Zend
> Framework.
> Part 8 has just been published. Feedback from the community is more
> than
> welcome and I hope the series is fulfilling its role of putting
> component-specific knowledge into the context of an actual real world
> application.
>
> I have undertaken to use the finished application as my replacement
> blog for
> the current Serendipty installation.
>
> The entire series can be read at  http://blog.astrumfutura.com
> http://blog.astrumfutura.com . I'll warn you in advance I spared no
> words.
> Individual parts range past the 3000 word mark.
>
> The approach taken doesn't spend a huge amount of time immersed in API
> details - it's assumed you know where to find the manual should the
> need
> arise, and how to read it ;).
>
> Best regards,
> Paddy
>
> -----
> Pádraic Brady
>
> http://blog.astrumfutura.com
> http://www.patternsforphp.com
> OpenID Europe Foundation - Irish Representative
> --
> View this message in context: http://www.nabble.com/Example-Zend-
> Framework-Blog-Application-Tutorial%3A-Parts-1-8-
> tp17210745p17210745.html
> Sent from the Zend Framework mailing list archive at Nabble.com.

[Rob Allen-3]

On 13 May 2008, at 17:04, Wil Sinclair wrote:

> No goodwill points deducted, Paddy. :) If anyone has something that  
> they feel the larger community will find of value- and I don't think  
> there is any doubt in this regard towards Paddy's tutorial series-  
> then feel free to post links here.
>
> ,Wil


I agree - it's an excellent tutorial series. It could do with a start  
page that lists all the parts though :)

Regards,

Rob...

[Pádraic Brady]

Quite right - working on something for that.

Another improvement would be keeping it online ;). My current hosting provider have decided my blog creates far too much trouble for the server it's hosted on and have promptly disabled it. A quick analysis shows traffic to the blog has been spiking for the last week at levels up to 10 times normal. I tried a few things like bypass caching, and patching so Headers allow better caching, but no such luck. The minute it's back online, it's swarmed to death. The server capacity simply isn't sufficient - full stop.

I seriously underestimated how popular this series would be.

I'm working towards a much improved VPS solution so I can get everything back online on a high capacity server. Unfortunately since it's my personal blog, and personal apps, I really won't have time to do all that before the weekend.

Rob Allen-3 wrote:

On 13 May 2008, at 17:04, Wil Sinclair wrote:

> No goodwill points deducted, Paddy. :) If anyone has something that  
> they feel the larger community will find of value- and I don't think  
> there is any doubt in this regard towards Paddy's tutorial series-  
> then feel free to post links here.
>
> ,Wil


I agree - it's an excellent tutorial series. It could do with a start  
page that lists all the parts though :)

Regards,

Rob...

[Federico Cargnelutti-3]

I heard that Zend has now bigger and more powerful servers and that they are giving aways free hosting to distinctive members of its community ;)

If that's not true, check out Bytemark, it gives you a Linux VM (Debian or Ubuntu).

http://www.bytemark.co.uk/

On Thu, May 15, 2008 at 9:29 AM, Pádraic Brady <padraic.brady@...> wrote:

Quite right - working on something for that.

Another improvement would be keeping it online ;). My current hosting
provider have decided my blog creates far too much trouble for the server
it's hosted on and have promptly disabled it. A quick analysis shows traffic
to the blog has been spiking for the last week at levels up to 10 times
normal. I tried a few things like bypass caching, and patching so Headers
allow better caching, but no such luck. The minute it's back online, it's
swarmed to death. The server capacity simply isn't sufficient - full stop.

I seriously underestimated how popular this series would be.

I'm working towards a much improved VPS solution so I can get everything
back online on a high capacity server. Unfortunately since it's my personal
blog, and personal apps, I really won't have time to do all that before the
weekend.

Rob Allen-3 wrote:
>
>
> On 13 May 2008, at 17:04, Wil Sinclair wrote:
>
>> No goodwill points deducted, Paddy. :) If anyone has something that
>> they feel the larger community will find of value- and I don't think
>> there is any doubt in this regard towards Paddy's tutorial series-
>> then feel free to post links here.
>>
>> ,Wil
>
>
> I agree - it's an excellent tutorial series. It could do with a start
> page that lists all the parts though :)
>
> Regards,
>
> Rob...
>
>

-----
Pádraic Brady

http://blog.astrumfutura.com
http://www.patternsforphp.com
OpenID Europe Foundation - Irish Representative
--

View this message in context: http://www.nabble.com/Example-Zend-Framework-Blog-Application-Tutorial%3A-Parts-1-8-tp17210745p17248339.html

Sent from the Zend Framework mailing list archive at Nabble.com.

[Pádraic Brady]

Slicehost.com look like a good candidate. Minimal upfront management. Just some expandable VPS instances and lots of Ubuntu to select from. I'll probably throw up something using apt to get started and customise from there. Their frontend is written in Ruby though ;).

Paddy

Federico Cargnelutti-3 wrote:

I heard that Zend has now bigger and more powerful servers and that they are
giving aways free hosting to distinctive members of its community ;)

If that's not true, check out Bytemark, it gives you a Linux VM (Debian or
Ubuntu).

http://www.bytemark.co.uk/


On Thu, May 15, 2008 at 9:29 AM, Pádraic Brady <[e-mail]>
wrote:

>
> Quite right - working on something for that.
>
> Another improvement would be keeping it online ;). My current hosting
> provider have decided my blog creates far too much trouble for the server
> it's hosted on and have promptly disabled it. A quick analysis shows
> traffic
> to the blog has been spiking for the last week at levels up to 10 times
> normal. I tried a few things like bypass caching, and patching so Headers
> allow better caching, but no such luck. The minute it's back online, it's
> swarmed to death. The server capacity simply isn't sufficient - full stop.
>
> I seriously underestimated how popular this series would be.
>
> I'm working towards a much improved VPS solution so I can get everything
> back online on a high capacity server. Unfortunately since it's my personal
> blog, and personal apps, I really won't have time to do all that before the
> weekend.
>
>
> Rob Allen-3 wrote:
> >
> >
> > On 13 May 2008, at 17:04, Wil Sinclair wrote:
> >
> >> No goodwill points deducted, Paddy. :) If anyone has something that
> >> they feel the larger community will find of value- and I don't think
> >> there is any doubt in this regard towards Paddy's tutorial series-
> >> then feel free to post links here.
> >>
> >> ,Wil
> >
> >
> > I agree - it's an excellent tutorial series. It could do with a start
> > page that lists all the parts though :)
> >
> > Regards,
> >
> > Rob...
> >
> >
>
>
> -----
> Pádraic Brady
>
> http://blog.astrumfutura.com
> http://www.patternsforphp.com
> OpenID Europe Foundation - Irish Representative
> --
> View this message in context:
> http://www.nabble.com/Example-Zend-Framework-Blog-Application-Tutorial%3A-Parts-1-8-tp17210745p17248339.html
> Sent from the Zend Framework mailing list archive at Nabble.com.
>
>

[bradley.holt]

Paddy,

You may want to check out Mosso as well. If you don't want to pay for a full account, I can set you up with one under our resell account. You can contact me off-list if you're interested.

Thanks,
Bradley

On Thu, May 15, 2008 at 11:07 AM, Pádraic Brady <padraic.brady@...> wrote:

Slicehost.com look like a good candidate. Minimal upfront management. Just
some expandable VPS instances and lots of Ubuntu to select from. I'll
probably throw up something using apt to get started and customise from
there. Their frontend is written in Ruby though ;).

Paddy

Federico Cargnelutti-3 wrote:
>
> I heard that Zend has now bigger and more powerful servers and that they
> are
> giving aways free hosting to distinctive members of its community ;)
>
> If that's not true, check out Bytemark, it gives you a Linux VM (Debian or
> Ubuntu).
>
> http://www.bytemark.co.uk/
>
>
> On Thu, May 15, 2008 at 9:29 AM, Pádraic Brady <padraic.brady@...>
> wrote:
>
>>
>> Quite right - working on something for that.
>>
>> Another improvement would be keeping it online ;). My current hosting
>> provider have decided my blog creates far too much trouble for the server
>> it's hosted on and have promptly disabled it. A quick analysis shows
>> traffic
>> to the blog has been spiking for the last week at levels up to 10 times
>> normal. I tried a few things like bypass caching, and patching so Headers
>> allow better caching, but no such luck. The minute it's back online, it's
>> swarmed to death. The server capacity simply isn't sufficient - full
>> stop.
>>
>> I seriously underestimated how popular this series would be.
>>
>> I'm working towards a much improved VPS solution so I can get everything
>> back online on a high capacity server. Unfortunately since it's my
>> personal
>> blog, and personal apps, I really won't have time to do all that before
>> the
>> weekend.
>>
>>
>> Rob Allen-3 wrote:
>> >
>> >
>> > On 13 May 2008, at 17:04, Wil Sinclair wrote:
>> >
>> >> No goodwill points deducted, Paddy. :) If anyone has something that
>> >> they feel the larger community will find of value- and I don't think
>> >> there is any doubt in this regard towards Paddy's tutorial series-
>> >> then feel free to post links here.
>> >>
>> >> ,Wil
>> >
>> >
>> > I agree - it's an excellent tutorial series. It could do with a start
>> > page that lists all the parts though :)
>> >
>> > Regards,
>> >
>> > Rob...
>> >
>> >
>>
>>
>> -----
>> Pádraic Brady
>>
>> http://blog.astrumfutura.com
>> http://www.patternsforphp.com
>> OpenID Europe Foundation - Irish Representative
>> --
>> View this message in context:
>> http://www.nabble.com/Example-Zend-Framework-Blog-Application-Tutorial%3A-Parts-1-8-tp17210745p17248339.html
>> Sent from the Zend Framework mailing list archive at Nabble.com.
>>
>>
>
>


-----
Pádraic Brady

http://blog.astrumfutura.com
http://www.patternsforphp.com
OpenID Europe Foundation - Irish Representative
--

View this message in context: http://www.nabble.com/Example-Zend-Framework-Blog-Application-Tutorial%3A-Parts-1-8-tp17210745p17255427.html

Sent from the Zend Framework mailing list archive at Nabble.com.

--
Bradley Holt
bradley.holt@...

[Jim Scherer]

Paddy,

I've been using Slicehost.com for a few weeks and I'd recommend it highly. I don't get a great deal of traffic, but it has been reliable and its very quick. Its an amazing deal for what they charge and you can bump your service up/down as you see fit. I'm just using the 256 MB slice and the visitors to my personal site are amazed at the difference. I was using Dreamhost and I liked the access they gave me, but at times the server was too slow for my liking. It does a wonderful job of serving up php/mysql and the Zend Framework.

If no one else had recommended you feel free to reference me:

https://manage.slicehost.com/customers/new?referrer=277638520

It takes a few hours to get setup but its worth it.

Jim




Slicehost.com look like a good candidate. Minimal upfront management. Just some expandable VPS instances and lots of Ubuntu to select from. I'll probably throw up something using apt to get started and customise from there. Their frontend is written in Ruby though ;).

Paddy

Federico Cargnelutti-3 wrote:

I heard that Zend has now bigger and more powerful servers and that they are
giving aways free hosting to distinctive members of its community ;)

If that's not true, check out Bytemark, it gives you a Linux VM (Debian or
Ubuntu).

http://www.bytemark.co.uk/


On Thu, May 15, 2008 at 9:29 AM, Pádraic Brady <[e-mail]>
wrote:

>
> Quite right - working on something for that.
>
> Another improvement would be keeping it online ;). My current hosting
> provider have decided my blog creates far too much trouble for the server
> it's hosted on and have promptly disabled it. A quick analysis shows
> traffic
> to the blog has been spiking for the last week at levels up to 10 times
> normal. I tried a few things like bypass caching, and patching so Headers
> allow better caching, but no such luck. The minute it's back online, it's
> swarmed to death. The server capacity simply isn't sufficient - full stop.
>
> I seriously underestimated how popular this series would be.
>
> I'm working towards a much improved VPS solution so I can get everything
> back online on a high capacity server. Unfortunately since it's my personal
> blog, and personal apps, I really won't have time to do all that before the
> weekend.
>
>
> Rob Allen-3 wrote:
> >
> >
> > On 13 May 2008, at 17:04, Wil Sinclair wrote:
> >
> >> No goodwill points deducted, Paddy. :) If anyone has something that
> >> they feel the larger community will find of value- and I don't think
> >> there is any doubt in this regard towards Paddy's tutorial series-
> >> then feel free to post links here.
> >>
> >> ,Wil
> >
> >
> > I agree - it's an excellent tutorial series. It could do with a start
> > page that lists all the parts though :)
> >
> > Regards,
> >
> > Rob...
> >
> >
>
>
> -----
> Pádraic Brady
>
> http://blog.astrumfutura.com
> http://www.patternsforphp.com
> OpenID Europe Foundation - Irish Representative
> --
> View this message in context:
> http://www.nabble.com/Example-Zend-Framework-Blog-Application-Tutorial%3A-Parts-1-8-tp17210745p17248339.html
> Sent from the Zend Framework mailing list archive at Nabble.com.
>
>

[Pádraic Brady]

I've decided on Slicehost - seems to have the most recommendations from developers I've heard from, and the pricing and features are incredible value. I prefer root access to CPanel and such anyway.

Dreamhost returned a response 26 hrs after my query - I wonder if their entire support staff fell asleep yesterday? ;)

As suspected, traffic spiked over the previous week bringing server load from 10 to over 125 at peak. They pretty much suggested their account would not be able to continue hosting the blog. Their alternative was their private server offering, but it's more expensive than VPS (managed with same limitations as their other accounts - no root access for example), and it's high time I prepared for the future anyway. Dreamhost has been excellent for my needs this far, but they are not capable of handling the traffic or resource utilisation I am planning for.

 

Pádraic Brady

http://blog.astrumfutura.com
http://www.patternsforphp.com
OpenID Europe Foundation

----- Original Message ----
From: Jim Scherer <jscherer26@...>
To: fw-general@...
Sent: Thursday, May 15, 2008 11:02:06 PM
Subject: Re: [fw-general] Example Zend Framework Blog Application Tutorial: Parts 1-8


Paddy,

I've been using Slicehost.com for a few weeks and I'd recommend it highly. I
don't get a great deal of traffic, but it has been reliable and its very
quick. Its an amazing deal for what they charge and you can bump your
service up/down as you see fit. I'm just using the 256 MB slice and the
visitors to my personal site are amazed at the difference. I was using
Dreamhost and I liked the access they gave me, but at times the server was
too slow for my liking. It does a wonderful job of serving up php/mysql and
the Zend Framework.

If no one else had recommended you feel free to reference me:

https://manage.slicehost.com/customers/new?referrer=277638520

It takes a few hours to get setup but its worth it.

Jim




Pádraic Brady wrote:

>
> Slicehost.com look like a good candidate. Minimal upfront management. Just
> some expandable VPS instances and lots of Ubuntu to select from. I'll
> probably throw up something using apt to get started and customise from
> there. Their frontend is written in Ruby though ;).
>
> Paddy
>
>
> Federico Cargnelutti-3 wrote:
>>
>> I heard that Zend has now bigger and more powerful servers and that they
>> are
>> giving aways free hosting to distinctive members of its community ;)
>>
>> If that's not true, check out Bytemark, it gives you a Linux VM (Debian
>> or
>> Ubuntu).
>>
>> http://www.bytemark.co.uk/
>>
>>
>> On Thu, May 15, 2008 at 9:29 AM, Pádraic Brady <padraic.brady@...>
>> wrote:
>>
>>>
>>> Quite right - working on something for that.
>>>
>>> Another improvement would be keeping it online ;). My current hosting
>>> provider have decided my blog creates far too much trouble for the
>>> server
>>> it's hosted on and have promptly disabled it. A quick analysis shows
>>> traffic
>>> to the blog has been spiking for the last week at levels up to 10 times
>>> normal. I tried a few things like bypass caching, and patching so
>>> Headers
>>> allow better caching, but no such luck. The minute it's back online,
>>> it's
>>> swarmed to death. The server capacity simply isn't sufficient - full
>>> stop.
>>>
>>> I seriously underestimated how popular this series would be.
>>>
>>> I'm working towards a much improved VPS solution so I can get everything
>>> back online on a high capacity server. Unfortunately since it's my
>>> personal
>>> blog, and personal apps, I really won't have time to do all that before
>>> the
>>> weekend.
>>>
>>>
>>> Rob Allen-3 wrote:
>>> >
>>> >
>>> > On 13 May 2008, at 17:04, Wil Sinclair wrote:
>>> >
>>> >> No goodwill points deducted, Paddy. :) If anyone has something that
>>> >> they feel the larger community will find of value- and I don't think
>>> >> there is any doubt in this regard towards Paddy's tutorial series-
>>> >> then feel free to post links here.
>>> >>
>>> >> ,Wil
>>> >
>>> >
>>> > I agree - it's an excellent tutorial series. It could do with a start
>>> > page that lists all the parts though :)
>>> >
>>> > Regards,
>>> >
>>> > Rob...
>>> >
>>> >
>>>
>>>
>>> -----
>>> Pádraic Brady
>>>
>>> http://blog.astrumfutura.com
>>> http://www.patternsforphp.com
>>> OpenID Europe Foundation - Irish Representative
>>> --
>>> View this message in context:
>>> http://www.nabble.com/Example-Zend-Framework-Blog-Application-Tutorial%3A-Parts-1-8-tp17210745p17248339.html
>>> Sent from the Zend Framework mailing list archive at Nabble.com.
>>>
>>>
>>
>>
>
>

--
View this message in context: http://www.nabble.com/Example-Zend-Framework-Blog-Application-Tutorial%3A-Parts-1-8-tp17210745p17263535.html
Sent from the Zend Framework mailing list archive at Nabble.com.

[Joseph Crawford]

Just what I was looking for and it's not online lol just my luck :)

On May 15, 2008, at 6:57 PM, Pádraic Brady wrote:

I've decided on Slicehost - seems to have the most recommendations from developers I've heard from, and the pricing and features are incredible value. I prefer root access to CPanel and such anyway.

Dreamhost returned a response 26 hrs after my query - I wonder if their entire support staff fell asleep yesterday? ;)

As suspected, traffic spiked over the previous week bringing server load from 10 to over 125 at peak. They pretty much suggested their account would not be able to continue hosting the blog. Their alternative was their private server offering, but it's more expensive than VPS (managed with same limitations as their other accounts - no root access for example), and it's high time I prepared for the future an

[Pádraic Brady]

Working on it ;). Unlike a client site, my personal ones are the lowest priority on work days. I know it's clearly annoying to have it offline for days but I can't afford to take the time to fix it right now when the weekend is mere hours away ;).

My request for a Slicehost VPS is being processed - maybe this evening depending on how long it takes to get the instance tailored. They don't install CPanel or anything so I'll probably end up installing lots of stuff as simple as tar ;). On the plus side, the usual sluggish response of my blog should be completely gone which is only to the good.

 

Pádraic Brady

http://blog.astrumfutura.com
http://www.patternsforphp.com
OpenID Europe Foundation Member-Subscriber

----- Original Message ----
From: Joseph Crawford <codebowl@...>
To: Pádraic Brady <padraic.brady@...>
Cc: Zend Framework General <fw-general@...>
Sent: Friday, May 16, 2008 1:42:41 AM
Subject: Re: [fw-general] Example Zend Framework Blog Application Tutorial: Parts 1-8

Just what I was looking for and it's not online lol just my luck :)

On May 15, 2008, at 6:57 PM, Pádraic Brady wrote:

I've decided on Slicehost - seems to have the most recommendations from developers I've heard from, and the pricing and features are incredible value. I prefer root access to CPanel and such anyway.

Dreamhost returned a response 26 hrs after my query - I wonder if their entire support staff fell asleep yesterday? ;)

As suspected, traffic spiked over the previous week bringing server load from 10 to over 125 at peak. They pretty much suggested their account would not be able to continue hosting the blog. Their alternative was their private server offering, but it's more expensive than VPS (managed with same limitations as their other accounts - no root access for example), and it's high time I prepared for the future an