I read some unhappy comment to the fact php want to put the Unicode settings into the php.ini, but if this change will make PHP faster  I would prefer in this way, expecially if unicode will be always set to on.
Is there a reason to put unicode support off in this world? (for example I haven’t still understood why wxPython continues to releases both ansi and unicode builds…)
Finally register globals‘ PHP3 BC to go!
Namespaces. Maybe they will add namespace.. I really hope so! This is indeed one of the most awaited features for me! (read about a discussion on namespaces)
Support for delegates.

My big hope is also to see a “real” strict type language, but this is only my though.
Backward Compatibility. Well this could cause a flame for many developers but if they really want to make a solid new product from scratch probably they dont have to take care about BC.

Read more about the PHP6 Novermber meeting and all the proposals.
Download the PHP6 snapshot

Today I see that friends of Ed has published a new version of this book covering ActionScript 2.0, PHP 5 and MySQL 4.1.
Taking a look at the sample PDF chapter available it seems quite well done, clear and simple to read (ok, that is 2nd chapter and it talks of very basic things already…), but i noticed that it also threats of things/problems which often occured if you use php and flash everyday.. for example escape characters, magic_quotes_gpc etc..
I think i will going to get a copy of the book, it’s always useful take my mind under exercise…

To use charset handling in the new CVS version, you will need to call the setCharsetHandler function from your gateway.php file, like this:

$gateway->setCharsetHandler("iconv", "latin1", "latin1");

Detail for setCharsetHandler method: setCharsetHandler(string mode, string phpCharset, string sqlCharset) The mode can be: 1. none (don’t do anything) 2. iconv (uses the iconv libray for reencoding) 3. mbstring (uses the mbstring library for reencoding) 4. recode (uses the recode library for reencoding) 5. utf8_decode (uses the XML function utf8_decode and encode for reencoding – ISO-8859-1 only) I haven’t tested it already, but I’m sure this is a great step toward a solution of the charset problem!

http://www.amfphp.org/wiki/doku.php?id=charset_issue

• Apache 1.3.31
• PHP 5.0.0
• MySQL 4.0.18
• PhpMyAdmin 2.5.7
• sqlitemanager

I’ve immediately installed it 😉
Once installed you’ll see a new tray icon with some options for your installed services.
I sugges it if you are thinking to install PHP5 on your local machine (i have also a separate apache/php4/mysql3 framework on my machine too, in this way i can always switch trought the two version of PHP/MySQL)

* The Zend Engine II with a new object model and dozens of new features.
* XML support has been completely redone in PHP 5, all extensions are now focused around the excellent libxml2 library (http://www.xmlsoft.org/).
* A new SimpleXML extension for easily accessing and manipulating XML as PHP objects. It can also interface with the DOM extension and vice-versa.
* A brand new built-in SOAP extension for interoperability with Web Services.
* A new MySQL extension named MySQLi for developers using MySQL 4.1 and later. This new extension includes an object-oriented interface in addition to a traditional interface; as well as support for many of MySQL’s new features, such as prepared statements.
* SQLite has been bundled with PHP. For more information on SQLite, please visit their website.
* Streams have been greatly improved, including the ability to access low-level socket operations on streams.
* And lots more…

http://www.php.net

Here the source file

<?php
// include the PEAR package
require “File/File_SWF.php”;
$flash = new SWF(“source.swf”);
if($flash->is_valid()){
$stat = $flash->stat(); // this give all the info
// and also..
$fps = $flash->getFrameRate();
$size = $flash->getMovieSize();
$bg = $flash->getBackgroundColor();
$prot = $flash->getProtected();
$compr = $flash->getCompression();
$version = $flash->getVersion();

// they can be changed…
$flash->setFrameRate(60);
$flash->setProtected(1);
$flash->setBackgroundColor(51,51,204);
$flash->setCompression(1);

// and write a new file…
$flash->write(“./new_one.swf”,1);
}
?>

/**** MovieClip Loader listener ****/
loaderListener = {
	onLoadStart : function(){
		trace('load started!');
		trace(" ----------------------------------- ")
	},
	onLoadProgress : function(target, bLoaded, bTotal){
		trace(bLoaded + "/" + bTotal)
	},
	onLoadComplete : function(target){
		trace(" ----------------------------------- ")
		trace("complete: " + target.getBytesTotal());
		trace(" ----------------------------------- ")
	}
}

// I just add the rand variable to prevent caching...
movie_path = "http://local/ob_start.php?file=C:/DSCF0182.JPG&rand=" + new Date().getTime()
var mcLoader = new MovieClipLoader()
mcLoader.loadClip(movie_path, loader)
mcLoader.addListener( loaderListener )

Now, if your PHP code is written in this way (just a image copy and resize using the GD 2.x library):

<?php
// Get the required image from GET
$image = $_GET['file'];$size = getimagesize($image);
// create an empty image and copy the original
$dst_img = imagecreatetruecolor($size[0]/4, $size[1]/4);
$src_img = imagecreatefromjpeg($image);
// resize image
imagecopyresized($dst_img, $src_img, 0, 0, 0, 0, $size[0]/4, $size[1]/4, $size[0], $size[1]);
// start output content
header("Content-type: image/jpeg");
// display the image
imagejpeg($dst_img, "", 80);
?>

You will be noticed that the bytesTotal variable in flash is always ‘0’!
This could be a problem if you want to use any kind of graphic preloader for this such of things…
However with some little more code it’s always possible to get in flash (and not only from flash) the exact content bytes lenght.
Try now this:

<?php
// Turn on output buffering
ob_start();
// Get the required image from GET
$image = $_GET['file'];
$size = getimagesize($image);
// create an empty image and copy the original
$dst_img = imagecreatetruecolor($size[0]/4, $size[1]/4);
$src_img = imagecreatefromjpeg($image);
// resize image
imagecopyresized($dst_img, $src_img, 0, 0, 0, 0, $size[0]/4, $size[1]/4, $size[0], $size[1]);
// start output content
header("Content-type: image/jpeg");
// display the image
imagejpeg($dst_img, "", 80);
// send the content lenght to output
header("Content-Length: ". ob_get_length());
// flush the output
ob_end_flush();
?>

Here a little example i made using this class:

<?
// include the php module
include('lib.xml.inc.php');
// load an external xml source
$test = new XML('test.xml');

// make a simple parsing, in AS style ;)
$childs = $test->firstChild->childNodes;
for($a = 0; $a < count($childs); $a++){	
echo "nodeName " . $childs[$a]->nodeName . "<br />";	
echo "nodeValue " . $childs[$a]->firstChild->nodeValue . "<br />";
}
?>

as you can see, we’re already familiar with firstChild, nodeName, nodeValue… etc..
I always hate the PHP SAX parser, and always always prefer a dom xml parser, much more simple to create and to read.