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The purpose of a collection is to store objects in an organized manner with specific access rules. We are going to build a collection class using the Standard PHP Library (SPL). Our final product will be capable of iterating, counting and access to objects via array. If you are not familiar with SPL you can find some additional information on the PHP SPL manual site. Unfortunately the manual is somewhat lacking. Here is a more detailed list of SPL classes.

We will call our class “Collection” (original, I know). This class will eventually implement the SPL classes: ArrayAccess, Countable and Iterator. If you are unfamiliar with SPL your first reaction may be that you don’t have any of these classes in your project. The beauty of SPL is that the classes are built into PHP (compiled by default). Once you implement a class you are exposed to a series of abstract function which you must implement. Once implemented the result is the ability to manipulate objects and create functionality you wouldn’t normally be able to code.

First we are going to do a quick introduction to the interfaces we will be using. After that we will jump right into code and examples. Please keep in mind that the collection class we are going to build is more about demonstrating the capabilities of these particular SPL interfaces then actual practical use, although you could easily turn this into a useful class.

ArrayAccess
ArrayAccess is an interface that lets you override array access of objects. Basically it lets you use an object as an array and use keys to access values stored within the class.

Abstract Functions

offsetExists($offset)

offsetGet($offset)

offsetSet($offset, $value)

offsetUnset($offset)

Countable
Countable lets you hook into the global count function and override it. We are going to use it to count the number of objects in our collection.

Abstract Functions

count()

Iterator
Iterator allows you to iterator over an object. In our example you will be able to directly loop over a collection and return the objects that are stored.

Abstract Functions

current()

key()

next()

rewind()

valid()

Implementation

The first thing we need to do is define our class. It should look something like this:

<?php

class collection {

    

}

?>

Next we will define a constructor and a private variable called $object that will store the objects we pass into this collection. The constructor will be one way to populate the collection.

class collection {

    private $objects = Array();

    

    public function __construct($objects) {

        if(!empty($objects)) {

            $this->objects = $objects;

        }

    }

}

At this point our class doesn’t do much but take an array of objects and store then in the class. Next we will implement the SPL classes we discussed earlier.

Implement ArrayAccess

class collection implements ArrayAccess {

    private $objects = Array();

    

    public function __construct($objects) { ... }

    

    /** ABSTRACT SPL ArrayAcess **/

    public final function offsetExists($offset) {

        if(isset($this->objects[$offset])){

            return true;

        } else {

            return false;

        }

    }

    

    public final function offsetGet($offset) {

        return $this->objects[$offset];

    }

    

    public final function offsetSet($offset, $value) {

        if($offset) {

            $this->objects[$offset] = $value;

        } else {

            $this->objects[] = $value;

        }

    }

    

    public final function offsetUnset($offset) {

        unset($this->objects[$offset]);

    }

    // End ArrayAccess Abstraction

}

Implement Countable
Countable is really simple to implement and only requires one function. There is an interesting note in the code comment that you should make note of.

class collection implements ArrayAccess, Countable {

    private $objects = Array();



    public function __construct($objects) { ... }



    /** ABSTRACT SPL ArrayAcess **/

    ...

    // End ArrayAccess Abstraction

    

    

    /** ABSTRACT SPL Countable **/

    public function count() {

        // Note from PHP manual: If var is not an array or an object with 

        // implemented Countable interface, 1 will be returned.

        

        // Not sure why it returns one, but we need to make sure our 

        // count is right and returns zero when there are no objects

        if(empty($this->objects)) {}

            return 0;

        } else {

            return count($this->objects);

        }

    }

    // End Countable Abstraction

Implement Iterator

class collection implements ArrayAccess, Countable, Iterator {

    private $objects = Array();

    

    public function __construct($objects) { ... }

    

    /** ABSTRACT SPL ArrayAcess **/

    ...

    // End ArrayAccess Abstraction



    

    /** ABSTRACT SPL Countable **/

    ...

    // End Countable Abstraction

    

    

    /** ABSTRACT SPL Iterator **/

    public function current() {

        return current($this->objects);

    }



    public function key() {

        return key($this->objects);

    }

    

    public function next() {

        return next($this->objects);

    }

    

    

    public function rewind() {

        if(empty($this->objects)) {

            return false;

        }

            

        return reset($this->objects);

    }

    

    

    public function valid() {

        if(empty($this->objects)) {

            return false;

        } else if(current($this->objects) === false) {

            return false;

        } else {

            return true;

        }

    }

    // END Iterator Abstraction

}

Final Collection

Our completed class isnt all that complicated. But its extremely powerful if used the right way. Hopefully you were able to follow along and understand what we have built. The final code is posted below as well as a test case in the next section. I recommend running the test to really see what the class is capable of doing.

<?php



class collection implements ArrayAccess, Countable, Iterator {

    private $objects = Array();

    

    public function __construct($objects) {

        if(!empty($objects)) {

            $this->objects = $objects;

        }

    }

    

    /** ABSTRACT SPL ArrayAcess **/

    public final function offsetExists($offset) {

        if(isset($this->objects[$offset])){

            return true;

        } else {

            return false;

        }

    }

    

    public final function offsetGet($offset) {

        return $this->objects[$offset];

    }

    

    public final function offsetSet($offset, $value) {

        if($offset) {

            $this->objects[$offset] = $value;

        } else {

            $this->objects[] = $value;

        }

    }

    

    public final function offsetUnset($offset) {

        unset($this->objects[$offset]);

    }

    // End ArrayAccess Abstraction



    

    /** ABSTRACT SPL Countable **/

    public function count() {

        // Note from PHP manual: If var is not an array or an object with 

        // implemented Countable interface, 1 will be returned.

        

        // Not sure why it returns one, but we need to make sure our 

        // count is right and returns zero when there are no objects

        if(empty($this->objects)) {

            return 0;

        } else {

            return count($this->objects);

        }

    }

    // End Countable Abstraction

    

    

    /** ABSTRACT SPL Iterator **/

    public function current() {

        return current($this->objects);

    }



    public function key() {

        return key($this->objects);

    }

    

    public function next() {

        return next($this->objects);

    }

    

    

    public function rewind() {

        if(empty($this->objects)) {

            return false;

        }

            

        return reset($this->objects);

    }

    

    

    public function valid() {

        if(empty($this->objects)) {

            return false;

        } else if(current($this->objects) === false) {

            return false;

        } else {

            return true;

        }

    }

    // END Iterator Abstraction

}

?>

Testing and Demonstration

Test Code

<?php



/** FOO CLASS USED TO POPULATE OUR TEST COLLECTION */

class Foo {

    public $value;

    

    public function __construct($value) {

        $this->value = $value;

    }

}





/** DEMONSTRATION **/

$objects = Array();

for($x = 0; $x < 5; $x ++) {

    $objects[] = new Foo($x);

}



$collection = new Collection($objects);



// offsetExists

if(isset($collection[3])) {

    echo "Offset 3 exists\n";

} else {

    echo "Offset 3 doesnt exist\n\n";

}



// offsetGet

echo "Value of offset 1: " . $collection[1]->value . "\n";



// offsetSet

$collection[3] = new Foo('A');

echo "Offset 3 has been changed, the object value is now: " . $collection[3]->value . "\n";



// offsetUnset

unset($collection[2]);

echo "Offset 2 has been removed. ";



if(isset($collection[2])) {

    echo "Offset 2 exists\n";

} else {

    echo "Offset 2 doesnt exist\n\n";

}





// Countable

echo "This collection has " . count($collection) . " objects\n\n";





// Iterating

echo "Looping through our collection:\n";

foreach($collection as $key => $object) {

    echo "Index " . $key . " = " . $object->value . "\n";

}



?>

Test Output

Offset 3 exists

Value of offset 1: 1

Offset 3 has been changed, the object value is now: A

Offset 2 has been removed. Offset 2 doesnt exist



This collection has 4 objects



Looping through our collection:

Index 0 = 0

Index 1 = 1

Index 3 = A

Index 4 = 4

1) My first point will represent my weakest. AT&T sucks. Period. The service is abysmal. I’ve heard numbers that say 30% of New York calls end in a drop. My NY experience has likely been around there, not to mention all the text/voicemail delays and straight up service outages. The point is AT&T cant handle its current subscribers, let alone continuous growth. In their defense, no one could have predicted that iPhone users would consume six times more data than typical mobile users and eat up all the bandwidth. This doesn’t only affect iPhone users, all AT&T subscribers suffer.

Apparently AT&T is spending $17 billion dollars this year to upgrade their infrastructure. This sounds impressive, except last year they spent something like $20 billion and every other year they spend a ton of money as well. So don’t be fooled by this large sum. Whats interesting is that AT&T is always playing catch up. Years ago when the GSM network was released, a ton of their subscribers jumped ship because of the poor service. It took them years before they get things sorted out. Now it’s happening all over again. If they don’t get their act together I think you will start seeing subscribers run to the exit signs. Keep in mind all second generation iPhone users are still under a two year contract till at least June. It will be interesting to see what happens as contracts start to expire and the market starts to offers iPhone alternatives.

2) Apple appears to not be learning from their mistakes. I’m talking about the PC wars from back in the 80’s. Long story short, Apple lost because they wanted to control everything. You are seeing the same thing happen with the iPhone. They don’t want to give up control and open up the platform. I’m not even talking open source. But developers and users don’t feel like they have control of their devices. Apple just doesn’t trust it’s users. Because of Apple and AT&T we may never see the full potential of the device because they hamper innovation so much. To be fair its not just AT&T, nothing is worse for innovation then mobile network providers.

There hasn’t yet been a back lash from the developer community yet. But you can clearly hear there frustration. The reason people are putting up with it is because there is no where else to go. Right now if you want to build mobile apps, you go where the people are. And the people are on the iPhone. Plus no other platform has an equal equivalent to the AppStore. But the AppStore isn’t what iTunes is to music, it can be reproduced and potentially successful.

3) Some predictions say Android will be the most popular mobile OS within 5 years. Most popular aside, I predict there will be more Android devices then iPhone devices within two years. Android took 5% of the smartphone market share 3 months after launch. As far as I’m concerned the g1 was Googles way of tasting the market. Now that there is interest, I foresee an outbreak of Android devices… There are over 15 announced and rumored Android devices coming out in the next 6 – 12 months.

I’m not predicting that any one handset will out perform the iPhone, although I’m super excited for the Motorola Droid. I am predicting that Android devices as a whole will eventually consume more market share then the iPhone. More devices + more carriers + more countries = more potential customers. If things continue as they are, I think Android is positioned to eventually rival Nokia as the default smartphone OS. Once developers realize theres is or will be more Android users. You will start to see significant more development and innovation for the Android OS. The only way I see the iPhone fighting for a contending spot is by dropping their bad habits. Learn from your mistakes and stop being an over protected parent that doesn’t trust its kids. And for gods sake get on some other networks, stat.

We’re searching for someone who has:

* Fluency in PHP 5 and the LAMP stack
* MySQL with performance tuning and scalability
* Strong understanding of Object Oriented Programming
* Hands on experience with MVC Frameworks
* Caching / Scaling (Memcached, APC, etc.)
* Thorough understanding of HTML, Javascript, CSS and XML
* An understanding of the issues surrounding large-volume websites and scalability
* A preoccupation with staying on top of industry trends and technologies

Bonus Points:

* Experience with SPL a major plus
* e-commerce, credit card authorizations, and billing feature experience
* Linux or Solaris
* jQuery or Prototype
* Content Delivery Networks
* Version Control Systems (we use Subversion)
* Experience building scalable frameworks

Responsibilities:

* Implement major new features and feature improvements
* Track and squash bugs
* Optimize code and queries for better performance
* Database Architecting
* Work hard and play hard!

This is an on site, full time position at our office in Union Square, New York City. Please email your resume and code samples to techjobs@connectedventures.com. Please no recruiters or development shops.

There is a much easier way… S3 allows you to set request headers on a per object basis. In order to force a file download dialog you just need to set the “Content-Disposition” header.

Here’s an example using the Undesigned Amazon S3 PHP class (highly recommended). This header should easily integrate into whatever system you are using to interact with the S3 API. If you need additional information take a look at the S3 documentation.

1) Remove all pre existing flash installations and files

2) Go to http://labs.adobe.com/downloads/flashplayer10.html and find the most up to date release. (http://download.macromedia.com/pub/labs/flashplayer10/libflashplayer-10.0.32.18.linux-x86_64.so.tar.gz)

3) Download and extract it

4) Move the plugin file

5) Restart Firefox and browse to “about:plugins” to confirm that it installed correctly.

A few fun findings

• 59% of developers are unlikely to port to competing commercial browsers, while less than half will consider porting to competing open-source browsers.
• 85% of extensions in the study were open source
• Most (66%) extensions have an intermediate degree of modularity with the browser; only one in three have
  high modularity.
• Major extension upgrades rarely trigger integration and browser stability problems.

Requirements:
* PHP
* MySQL
* Strong understanding of Object Oriented Programming
* MVC Frameworks
* Caching / Scaling (Memcached, APC)
* Subversion
* E-commerce
* Javascript, HTML/CSS, XML
* Linux or Solaris experience a plus

What’s it like to work here?
It’s confusing when you can’t tell the difference between “work” and “play;” “friends and co-workers;” “office” and “cool place to hang out.” Confusing is about as bad as it gets here at Connected Ventures, where Nerf-gun fights happen, ‘casual Friday’ starts Monday at 10 and ends Friday at 6, and “work” means collaborating with your buddy at the dual screen computer next to yours. Now, don’t assume, however, that it’s all just fun and games here: the CollegeHumor family labors diligently all the time, they just happen to enjoy their business more than most people.

We launched some major changes to PriceAdvance yesterday. We improved merchant coverage from 15 websites to over 150 (full list), added support for shipping price, stock availability and rebate offers. Download it for Firefox (or IE) and leave a review!