Every company starts with a single website or web application, but as a company's online presence grows, many different applications and sites are deployed. With a traditional approach of treating each of these applications as separate solutions, a number of problems occur:

• Inconsistencies in common functionality
• High maintenance costs
• Long time-to-market

Service APIs can help you reuse a set of common functionality, which is implemented only once into the service layer. They can also help integrate third party applications in a consistent and robust way, and work around possible performance limitations.

This new white paper, written by Ivo Jansch, explains the steps required to successfully migrate to a service API, from functional analysis all the way to documentation. It gives examples of common problems in the media and travel industries which can be solved with a service layer solution.

Download a PDF copy now (free, but we ask you to leave your contact details)

e-skills UK recently published their latest ICT Inquiry carried out during the first quarter of 2009. Based on more than 2,000 telephone interviews with individuals in ICT management roles across the UK, the survey makes an interesting read of the concerns and needs of IT managers with regards to staff training. (The site requires registration, which is free.)

Concerns over flexibility, value and content

The biggest concern (a major issue for 53% of respondents) was understanding exactly what training was needed among the ICT staff, followed by finding good value training (a major concern for 31% of respondents). Many respondents also found it difficult to find training that can be delivered flexibly (25% of respondents).

The PHP TestFest is a gathering by PHP enthusiasts that get together to write automated test cases for PHP. These test cases help prevent future incompatibilities and bugs in PHP. The event has grown global over the course of the years, with user groups everywhere in the world participating.

We just spent two fantastic days at the Future of Web Apps conference in London. There were so many PHPers around, most of whom we'd never met before, and it was so cool to hear about your current projects - there seems to be so much going on at the moment, despite the economic downturn! When we weren't playing with Microsoft Surface or riding the Sun "surfboard", we heard the founder of Digg bashing PHP - or at least announcing that they are moving some of their software into Python. The rumour says this is because of a need to use real threading and some other features that PHP cannot provide at the moment, and in that case - for those components - it's the right decision (it's as important to know when to use PHP, as it is when not to).

Following the success of our two PHP seminars in London, we have decided to make it a tour and to visit other parts of the UK and Ireland as well. Next up are Leeds and Dublin - come and meet us in your city! Find out more about our events below.

Early-Bird Offer: Sign up for any of our events by 15th August, and receive a free copy of the new php|architect book on Enterprise PHP Development, written by our CTO Ivo Jansch!