Re: [GENERAL] interesting PHP/MySQL thread - Mailing list pgsql-advocacy

Hi Justin

I'm writing to let you know that my availability to work on some new
documentation has moved somewhat, from now to the middle of August.

I have made contact with Connie (conversation noted at the end of this
mail) and it appears that work could usefully be done on providing
better examples and noting bugs on PHP postgres functions in the PHP
documentation.

I am happy to do this, and it might be the best way for me to contribute
to the Postgres advocacy initiative, particularly as I have little
experience of using MySQL and can hardly comment authoritatively on the
differences between the systems.

Another alternative is that I could write a newbie's gentle introduction
to using pl/pgsql. With Josh's initial encouragement I have recently
delivered a very successful project using Postgres functions.
Development speed was greatly assisted by providing consistent database
interfaces while the operations behind those interfaces could change.
The system uses a combination of php and postgres, so I could hit some
advocacy targets by describing the integration here!

I'd be grateful to know if one or other of these pieces of work are
desired/needed. Knowing who would review my work would also be useful.

Kind regards
Rory

On 25/06/03, Justin Clift (justin@postgresql.org) wrote:
> Do you want to whip up an initial "improved" set of info to include in
> the PHP docs as you're mentioning?
>
> At least one of the PostgreSQL Community members (Conni) has write
> access to the  official PHP Docs repository and has volunteered to
> commit improvements like this for us.

> Rory Campbell-Lange wrote:
> >I'm a Postgres and PHP newbie. I'm having a great deal of success with
> >my latest development effort having moved most of the logic from a
> >perl/php logic 'core' to postgres using plpgsql functions. (Thanks for
> >all that help, Josh).
> >
> >I have a few comments to make on the idea of introducing people, PHP
> >developers especially, to postgresql. I'm not commenting here on how
> >easy it is to use PHP with postgres (it was transparent for me using
> >Debian) or whether or not to advocate the use of advanced features to
> >general users. Rather, it appears to me, that the PHP/Postgres
> >documentation and feature set should be improved.
> >
> >1)  PHP Documentation
> >
> >    The postgresql "write up" in the PHP html documentation doesn't give
> >    a very good picture of the capabilities of postgres. While the PHP
> >    docs aren't obviously a good place to write up the benefits of
> >    plpgsql functions, some mention should be made to help differentiate
> >    between the capabilities of MySQL and Postgres.
...
> >2)  PHP<->Postgres bugs
> >
> >    Apart from the PGSQL_FATAL_ERROR problem above, it would be good to
> >    find a more simple, PHP-like, approach to catch exceptions and the
> >    like....

Conversation with Connie:

Date: Tue, 1 Jul 2003 08:12:32 +0100
From: Rory Campbell-Lange <rory@campbell-lange.net>
To: Cornelia Boenigk <c@cornelia-boenigk.de>
Subject: Re: PostgreSQL - PHP manual

Thanks for your mail.
I hope to put together some suggestions at the end of July. I would be
very grateful if you would have a look at them to see if there is
anything useful there.

All the best!
Rory

On 30/06/03, Cornelia Boenigk (c@cornelia-boenigk.de) wrote:
> > Are you a contributor to the PostgreSQL/PHP
> > documentation?
> Something like that ;-)
> I am a member of the translation team but have write access to the
> whole repository.
>
> > My comments come from my
> > perspective of trying to explain clearly the advantages of Postgres,
> > while retaining the technical nature of the documentation.
> I share your ideas ;-)
> However if you are going to read the php-manual I think the decision
> which database to use is done.
>
> > What sort of hint? ;)
> e.g. for the description of the predefined constants.
>
> > I would be very happy if any of this
> > work would benefit the PHP documentation.
> Well there are a lot of really poorly documented functions. To improve
> the manual it is fine to get some examples or experiences from users.
> Or even bugs ;-)

--
Rory Campbell-Lange
<rory@campbell-lange.net>
<www.campbell-lange.net>