July Slides
July was a month of talks and travel, including speaking at OSCON and user group talks to DCPHP and PDXPHP.
For those who saw the “Micro Optimize This!” talk, you can download the slides here.
Interfaces Make Testing Easier
I, along with others, have written on interfaces many times before but recently I had occasion to find a new thing about them that makes them really awesome. A few days ago I was tasked with implementing PHPUnit against a Zend Framework application. This application, like many others, makes use of Zend_Auth, and in doing so makes use of the Zend_Auth_Storage_Session class. The problem with unit testing is that sessions aren’t supported very well, and I ran into all kinds of challenges when I tried to use the existing functionality.
But it turns out that Zend Framework includes an interface, called Zend_Auth_Storage_Interface, which defines the methods that must exist in a storage object. The Zend_Auth_Storage_Session class implements this interface (as it’s required to do by the type hinting in the Zend_Auth::setStorage() method). This meant that I could mock a storage object, give my mocked object to the Zend_Auth::setStorage() method, and avoid all the issues surrounding sessions and unit testing. And what’s more, because the interface defined for me the methods that needed to be implemented, I could have confidence that my tests functioned properly.
Books
Write better object oriented PHP today.
Object oriented programming always leaves you with a headache. What if you could master it instead? Stop struggling with object oriented PHP. Mastering Object Oriented PHP is the answer!
Write clear, compelling PHP code that communicates intent.
Imagine if you could write clear, compelling code each and every time you sat down to work. You can do this. I'll show you how with The Ten Commandments of Clean Code.
Brandon Savage has been a software developer since 2003. Ever since discovering that he could use software to automate routine tasks, he's been hooked. Brandon is passionate about perfecting the art of software development.