Introduction

Speediness (execution) is one of the principles for RawDev. In order to both improve the execution time of your code as well as getting a better feel for how your coding impacts performance the RTimer object is a useful tool. The RTimer object is very simple and useful for simple situations. Examples of more advanced tools are xdebug profiler data and apache "ab" which tests performance under load.

How it works

The RTimer tool works just like a stopwatch. You can start the timer and take lap times. Lap times can be associated with labels. You can display an overview of all lap times and the total time. All methods are static so that time measurements can be taken anywhere without the use of global variables.

Example

<?php

require_once("rawdev/RawDev.php");
require_once(RAWDEV_LIB.'/Util/Timer.php'); 

RTimer::start(); # starts the timer

usleep(123);

RTimer::lap('sleep'); # records a lap time with label 'sleep'

RTimer::display(); # displays the lap times

?>

Results

php ~/rawdev/samples/Util/timer.php 
          sleep: 0.000248sec
          Total: 0.000248sec

Conclusion

I personally use this library all the time. It helps me become a better programmer by understanding which statements take longer then others. The timer is extremely easy to use but does not take performance testing under heavy load into account. Other tools such as the xdebug profiler are useful as well but they take more time to setup.

Finally, executing timer functions take time themselves (< ~.0001sec) so you want to (a) just be aware of that, (b) execute a piece of code multiple times (e.g. 100 times) to get a more accurate picture.

Links

• RTimer API Documentation

Introduction

Synopsis

<?php
RResource::construct('ApacheLog', './access_log')->setFilter("request_method=''")->copy()->sort('remote_host')->display(); 
?>

Three Paragraph RawDev Model Theory

• Traversable: A first record, next record, and last record are defined. Examples are: Apache log, csv file, and MySql table. Note t
• Array Accessible: There are one or more primary/unique keys through which a specific recordcan be retrieved (*). Examples are: Wikipedia words, Alexa domain statistics, and Oracle Table.
• Both: Any relational database table such as PostgreSQL, SQLite, MS SQL Server offers both Traversable as well as Array Accessible access.

The Apache Log plugin

class RApacheLog extends RQuerySupportResource {

  var $fileName;
  var $format;

  var $titles;
  var $handle;

  function __construct($fileName, $format="%h %l %u %t \"%r\" %>s %b", $timeZone='America/New_York') {
    $this->fileName = $fileName;
    $this->format = $format;
    $this->titles= RApacheLogParser::getTitles($format);
    date_default_timezone_set($timeZone);
  }

  function fetch() {
    if ($line = trim(fgets($this->handle))) return RApacheLogParser::parseLine($this->titles, $line);
  }

  function open() {
    if (!($this->handle = fopen($this->fileName, "r"))) throw new RException('model_csv_cannot_open', 'Cannot open file [%s].');
  }

  function close() {
    fclose($this->handle);
  }

}

The Example

require_once('rawdev/RawDev.php');
require_once(RAWDEV_LIB.'/Model/Model.php');
require_once(RAWDEV_LIB.'/Model/plugins/apache/ApacheLog.php'); 

$apache = new RApacheLog(dirname(__FILE__).'/access_log'); # creates the apache resource
$apache->setFilter("request_method=''"); # sets the filter to suspicious requests

$memory = $apache->copy(); # copies the filtered resource to memory (default resource)
$memory->sort('remote_host'); # sorts the results by IP address
$memory->display(); # displays the results

?>

Conclusions

Introduction

The layers in the RawDev model (the data aspect)

Relational Data

SELECT b.url, b.title, p.latest_post, a.ranking
FROM mysql:blog b, rss:posts p, alexa:ranking a
WHERE b.url=p.url and b.domain=a.domain

Access Controls

Storing a form with a nested data structure becomes a piece of cake in the RawDev Object Interface.

When do I have access to this?

Introduction

Unit Test

Overview

Example 1

<?php

require_once('rawdev/RawDev.php');
require_once(RAWDEV_LIB.'/Test/Unit/Test.php');

function sum() {
  $params = func_get_args();
  if (count($params) < 2) throw new RException('math_too_few_params', 'Two or more parameters please.');    
  $sum = 0;   
  foreach($params as $param) $sum += $param;    
  return $sum; 
}

# test 1 
$t = RUnitTest::construct('sum')->title('Two Params')->in(1, 2)->out(3)->test();
print $t->icon;

# test 2
$t = RUnitTest::construct('sum')->title('One Params')->in(1)->exception('math_too_few_params')->test();
print "$t->icon\n";

?>

Example 2

<?php

require_once('rawdev/RawDev.php');
require_once(RAWDEV_LIB.'/Test/Unit/Test.php');

class Car {

var $miles = 0;

function drive($miles) {
if ($miles <= 0) throw new RException('car_illegal_miles', 'Miles should be more than zero.'); $this->miles += $miles;
}

}

$c = new Car();
$f = array($c, 'drive');

$t = RUnitTest::construct($f)->title('Simple Drive')->in(10)->out()->test();
$t->assert(10, $c->miles);
print "$t->icon\n";

?>

Component Test

Example

<?php

require_once('rawdev/RawDev.php');
require_once(RAWDEV_LIB.'/Test/Unit/Component.php');

# class from the previous example
class Car {

var $miles = 0;

function drive($miles) {
  if ($miles <= 0) throw new RException('car_illegal_miles', 'Miles should be more than zero.');
 
  $this->miles += $miles;
}

}

# this shows what your test harnass will look like
class TCarDrive extends RComponentUnitTest {

  var $car;
  var $f;

function setup() {
  $this->car = new Car();
  $this->f = array($this->car, 'drive');
}

#Drive10 will show up as the title of the unit test!
function testDrive10() {
  $t = $this->unit($this->f)->in(10)->out()->test();
  $t->assert(10, $this->car->miles);
}

#Negative: test for an exception
function testNegative() {
  $t = $this->unit($this->f)->in(-1)->exception('car_illegal_miles')->test();
}

}

#run the harnass, in real life this is done throug: bin/runit.php
$c = new TCarDrive('function');
$c->test();
$c->display();


?>

Component Test location

[RAWDEV_HOME]/tests/Util.php : indicates a component test for module Util.
[RAWDEV_HOME]/tests/Util/Car.php : indicates a component test for class Car (part of the Util module)
[RAWDEV_HOME]/tests/Util/Car/drive.php : indicates a component test for function drive of class Car (part of the Util module)

Module and Class Components

Dependencies

Unit Test binary

[RAWDEV_HOME]/bin/runit.php is the binary that runs all unit tests it accepts zero or one argument which is the path of the component to be tested. 

Examples:

run all unit tests:
[RAWDEV_HOME]/bin/runit.php 

run all unit tests for module Util:
[RAWDEV_HOME]/bin/runit.php Util

run all unit tests for class Car:
[RAWDEV_HOME]/bin/runit.php Util/Car 

run all unit tests for function drive:
[RAWDEV_HOME]/bin/runit.php Util/Car/drive

run one unit test named drive10
[RAWDEV_HOME]/bin/runit.php Util/Car/drive/testDrive10

Test Output

php runit.php Util

Util 
    Dumper 
        display .....
        dump ..
        formatScalar .......
        maxLength ..
        page ....
    Match 
        __construct .
        _match ...
        matchObject ...
        matchScalar .....
        matchArray .......
    Stdin ..
    Util 
        max .X.
        min ...
        nvl .......
        preg ................
        writeFile ..

..........................................X.......
......................

X: Util/Util/max:Array                     : Value [9] does not match expected value [10] for item []. in Match.php (115)
   Match.php            96
   Match.php            57
   Test.php             179

. : OK
X : FAIL (output does not match expected)
E : EXCEPTION (unexpected exception occured)
? : NO_EXCEPTION (expected exception did not occur)

Summary

Links

Introduction

Although RawDev offers debugging tools, it can be useful to use an IDE with a debugger. I will show you how to setup PHP debugging using open source software for both command line and web page debugging. This is just a quick guide to get you going, it should take you about an hour or so.

 This example uses eclipse as the IDE and XDebug as the PHP module, note that this is not the only software available. You need root access and already have apache and php installed. The instructions are for Mac OS X / Unix but should be very similar for Windows users.

Steps

* Setup XDebug

  * Install XDebug

  * Alter php.ini

* Install Eclipse

* Hello World example

  * Create Hello World example

  * Debug as PHP Script (command line)

  * Debug as PHP Web Page

Setup XDebug

Install XDebug (easiest)

> pecl install xdebug

Install XDebug (unix / alternate)

> cd /usr/local/src
> wget http://xdebug.org/files/xdebug-2.0.5.tgz
> tar xvfz xdebug-2.0.5
> cd xdebug-2.0.5
> phpize
> ./configure --enable-xdebug
> make
> # mkdir /usr/local/php/modules # if it doesn't exist
> cp modules/xdebug.so /usr/local/php/modules/

Alter php.ini

Add the following lines to the php.ini :

# under the extensions ...
zend_extension="/usr/local/php/modules/xdebug.so"

# somewhere at the bottom ...
[xdebug]
xdebug.remote_enable=1

Test XDebug

* restart apache

* create a script (info.php) in your web_root folder.

* check the script and make sure XDebug is enabled see the screenshot at the bottom of document.

Install Eclipse

* download Eclipse for PHP Developers from: http://www.eclipse.org/downloads/download.php

* install it

Hello World example

Create example

* run eclipse

* >File>New>Project>PHP>PHP Project

* Use default path: "~/Documents/workspace/Hello"

* Project Name "Hello" [Next] [Finish] [Yes]

* >File>New>PHP File

* Name : index.php [Finish]

Debug as PHP Script (command line)

* >settings>PHP>PHP Executables>Add

* Name: "php" ;

   Path: "/usr/local/php/bin/php" ;

   php.ini: "/usr/local/php.ini" ;

   PHP Debugger: "XDebug"

   [OK]

* right click (in index.php source window)

* select debug as PHP Script

Debug as PHP Web Page

* Make sure the project path is visible in the webroot

* one way: create a symbolic link to project directory and

                   project directory is visible for all (e.g. chmod 755)

* test this in a browser

* >settings>PHP>PHP Servers>Add (make default)

* Name: "php" ;

    Path: "/usr/local/php/bin/php" ;

    php.ini: "/usr/local/php.ini" ;

    PHP Debugger: "XDebug"  ;

    [OK]

* right click (in index.php source window)

* select debug as PHP Web Page

Conclusions

Obviously these are instructions just to get you started. The other debugging module is "Zend Debugger" and other PHP IDE's are available (e.g. Komodo [commercial]).

Links

* http://xdebug.org

* http://eclipse.org

phpinfo screenshot:

Introduction

<?php

if (preg_match($expression, $subject, $matches)) {
  $iCareAbout = $matches[1];
}
?>

<?php

if (preg_match($expression, $subject, $matches)) {
  $iCareAbout = $matches[1];
  preg_replace($expression, $replace, $subject, 1);
}
?>

<?php

$iCareAbout = RUtil::preg($expression, $subject); # case 1
$iCareAbout = RUtil::preg($expression, $subject, $replace); # case 2

?>

API

static mixed function preg($regex, $subject, $replace, $all, $alwaysArray)

Example

<?php

require_once('rawdev/RawDev.php');
require_once(RAWDEV_LIB.'/Util/Util.php');

$str = "[USA] Gold, [Netherlands] Silver, [Canada] Bronze";

$str1 = $str; 
$str2 = $str; 
$str3 = $str; 
$str4 = $str; 

# find first country
$result1 = RUtil::preg("/\[(.*?)\]/", $str1);
# find and replace first country
$result2 = RUtil::preg("/\[(.*?)\]/", $str2, "\\1");
# find all countries
$result3 = RUtil::preg("/\[(.*?)\]/", $str3, NULL, true);
# find and replace all countries
$result4 = RUtil::preg("/\[(.*?)\]/", $str4, "\\1", true);

?>

Conclusion

Links

Introduction

Example

<?php

require_once("rawdev/RawDev.php");
require_once(RAWDEV_LIB.'/Util/Dumper.php'); 

class Test {

var $a='hi';
var $b = array(1, 2);

}

$complex = array(1, 'hi', array(99, 17), 'std' => new stdClass(), new Test(), array());

RDumper::dump($complex);

?>

Conclusion

Links

Future enhancements

Introduction

example

<?php

require_once("rawdev/RawDev.php");
require_once(RAWDEV_LIB.'/Util/Stdin.php'); 

# regular use
$input = RStdin::read('Please enter input: ');
print "$input";

# testing use
RStdin::$buffer[] = 'hello'; # for testing purposes the input buffer can be set
$input = RStdin::read('Please enter input: ');
print "$input";

?>

Conclusion

Links

Introduction

In RawDev, all PHP errors and exceptions can be handled centrally using the Error Reporting library. In addition, RawDev gives more options of error messages than the standard PHP error_reporting level. For example, by default strict errors such as illegal variable references are returned but strict errors such as undefined array offsets are not. RawDev finds that being more strict with variable (and object property) references leads to catching programming mistakes earlier in the development process. Most RawDev users will find this class extremely useful.

Example

In the example below, I trigger several PHP errors: invalid offset, illegal variable reference and illegal object property reference. As you can see, the invalid offset is ignored by default and both other errors are thrown as RExceptions (RawDev Exceptions). Any other RExceptions can be handled by a central handler as well.

<?php

require_once('rawdev/RawDev.php');

require_once(RAWDEV_LIB.'/Core/ErrorReporting.php');

RErrorReporting::singleton()-&gt;initialize();

$b = array();

if ($b[0]); # this will not trigger an error

$difficultVariable = 17;

try {

if ($difficultVaariable); # this triggers an error because the wrong variable is used.

}

catch (RException $e) {

print $e-&gt;getMessage()."\n";

}

class Test {

}

$a = new Test();

try {

if ($a-&gt;b); # this triggers an error because an invalid object variable is used.

}

catch (RException $e) {

print $e-&gt;getMessage()."\n";

}

?>;

Conclusion

This is just one of these classes that as a developer you will get attached to because it forces you to code a little tighter but avoids having to debug illegal variable and object property mistakes. The central error handling is a nice bonus.

Links

Error Reporting RawDev API Doc

Imagine a scenario:

I have survey results in a Google Doc that gives me a list of websites that my users like. I have a website like http://www.alexa.com/ that provides rankings of websites worldwide. I have a table of data on websites in Oracle.

Three data sources, three disparate data sets. But looking at it, we know that there are linkages there. Imagine an application framework that allowed you to query all three, simultaneously, and seamlessly present the data to your users in a convenient front-end.

Now imagine that framework is called RawDev.

This sort of project is exactly what RawDev is designed to do: bring together independent data and give it to an end-user in a seamless presentation. You set up the datastore once, and then build apps to use that data again and again. Integrate different types, different locations, even different storage engines of data and have one interface. View all these different data-sets as one data-set in your favorite database gui application. Oh, and RawDev will throw in powerful XML based access controls as well.

You can download a beta version of RawDev this summer after a life demo at the UI Conference at UPENN on July 21st and July 22nd. In the mean time you can get early bird access and follow the development process on this blog and http://rawdev.bokenkamp.com.