Here's the scenario: you've wrote a PHP application that is designed to run on Linux, Apache, and MySQL Now you have a customer that wants to run it on Windows. Or using Oracle. Or they like Memcache instead of APC. How do you do it, without sacrificing performance, stability, simplicity, and your own sanity? And what development and testing practices should you use to make such a project a success?

1. Developing Easily Deployable PHP Applications John Mertic @2011 SugarCRM Inc. All rights reserved.

2. Who Am I? John Mertic Contact Info http://jmertic.wordpress.com Twitter: @jmertic jmertic@sugarcrm.com ( Sugar ) jmertic@php.net ( PHP ) I am the Community Manager for SugarCRM http://www.sugarcrm.com http://developers.sugarcrm.com Learn more about working with the SugarCRM platform during tomorrow’s session “SugarCRM: Your Next Business Application” 3/24/2011 @2011 SugarCRM Inc. All rights reserved. 2 Buy my book! http://amzn.to/enioPV

3. Why deployable apps still matter 3/24/2011 @2011 SugarCRM Inc. All rights reserved. 3 Source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/sarchi/220539933

4. What I’ll cover Writing portable code ( or at least trying to ) Enabling configuration and customization ( for users and developers ) Strategies for testing and QA Making your code perform (reasonably) well @2011 SugarCRM Inc. All rights reserved. 3/24/2011 4

5. Writing portable code 3/24/2011 @2011 SugarCRM Inc. All rights reserved. 5 Source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/25339258@N05/2389910825/

6. Define your support matrix Operating System Any Linux, UNIX, OS X Windows Web Server Apache 1.3, 2.0, 2.2 IIS 6/7 using FastCGI Database MySQL 5.x SQL Server 2005, 2008 Oracle 10g, 11g PHP 5.2.x, 5.3.x Support most common configurations options mbstring.func_overload error_reporting = E_ALL Require only the most mainline extensions, plus Mbstrings ( i18n support ) Imap ( mail support ) Specific database extension ( mysql, mysqli, oci8, mssql, sqlsrv ) 3/24/2011 @2011 SugarCRM Inc. All rights reserved. 6

7. Design code that works for these platforms Avoid writing code directly talking to the bare metal; Abstract like mad! Use a DB abstraction layer or ORM Make sure PHP features you are using are supported across support matrix or provide an alternate implementation. Detect what else the server has for you to use, have abstraction layer to talk to them. Example: User cache ( APC, Memcache, Wincache, etc) Assume very little about the underlying system Example: Treat file system as case-sensitive, and file writes are only in one area. 3/24/2011 @2011 SugarCRM Inc. All rights reserved. 7

8. Example of what we have to work around Fetching a record from a database Mysql - mysql_fetch_assoc() Mysqli - mysqli_fetch_assoc() Mssql - mssql_fetch_assoc() Oci8 - oci_fetch_array() Sqlsrv - sqlsrv_fetch_array() Problems we run into Each has different input parameters What gets returned if no rows available? Mysql– bool false Mysqli - null Mssql– bool false Oci8 – bool false Sqlsrv– null ( bool false if error ) 3/24/2011 @2011 SugarCRM Inc. All rights reserved. 8

9. Build and deploy! We build all 3 editions of SugarCRM from 1 codebase We add code tags around sections specific to a certain version. To test under each different edition, developers can run the build locally We also can tag in or out features on a per edition basis. 3/24/2011 @2011 SugarCRM Inc. All rights reserved. 9 Source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/eastcapital/4554220770/

10. Enabling configuration and customization 3/24/2011 @2011 SugarCRM Inc. All rights reserved. 10 Source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/miskypig/400004362/

11. Making it simple yet powerful for end users Expose configuration options thru multiple channels Remember, not everyone has source access Allow users to customize their UI interface easily Make what should be simple, simple 3/24/2011 @2011 SugarCRM Inc. All rights reserved. 11

12. Making it simple yet powerful for developers Create a safe place to make customizations Avoid painful upgrades Create an easy to use API Well defined and documented. Don’t break it! Create easy to use hooks for modifying / adding functionality Examples from SugarCRM include: Metadata driven views Logic Hooks Allow for internationalization and localization 3/24/2011 @2011 SugarCRM Inc. All rights reserved. 12

13. Strategies for testing and QA 3/24/2011 @2011 SugarCRM Inc. All rights reserved. 13 Source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/cglock/386033158/

14. Automated Testing Tools Jenkins (http://jenkins-ci.org/) – Extensible CI Server Running on every checkin PHP lint ( php –l ) – Syntax checking for PHP source files PHPUnit (http://www.phpunit.de/) – Unit testing framework Runs once a day SODA – functional testing framework that leverages Watir SodaMachine – GUI tool for building SODA tests JMeter (http://jakarta.apache.org/jmeter/) - tool for testing a website under high load MeterMaid – XML language to write JMeter tests in SugarMMM (MeterMaid Maker) - utility to automate writing MeterMaid tests for SugarCRM TidBit – tool to make huge datasets for testing Learn more about SugarCRM’sopen source tools at http://developers.sugarcrm.com/opensource 3/24/2011 @2011 SugarCRM Inc. All rights reserved. 14

15. Non-automated testing You need to actually have people use your app. We do all of the following: Code reviews Design reviews Partner and customer demos Community previews Earlier the feedback, the better 3/24/2011 @2011 SugarCRM Inc. All rights reserved. 15

16. Making your code perform well 3/24/2011 @2011 SugarCRM Inc. All rights reserved. 16 Source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/tech1987/501427718/

17. What we do to help performance Try to do the basic stuff Avoid writing slow code Caching where appropriate Combine, minify, and version JS / CSS / images Keep SQL queries as simple as possible Leave the rest to the Sys Admin Provide configuration options to turn off heavy features Enable the application to take advantage of it’s environment Example: Using APC, memcache, Zend_Cache, wincache with little to no configuration Provide best practices for various environments 3/24/2011 @2011 SugarCRM Inc. All rights reserved. 17

18. How we gauge performance Formal testing Use Jmeter (http://jakarta.apache.org/jmeter/) on a load test cluster to test raw response speed. Instance analysis Monitor web server logs to look for non-cached items Track slow queries Ad-hoc testing Profile PHP execution with XDebug Use Firebug to measure CSS / JS / image payload 3/24/2011 @2011 SugarCRM Inc. All rights reserved. 18

19. What are the lessons we have learned? Define what you will support and to what extent Write your code to be as flexible as possible Make customizing, configuring, and extending your application not painful for users or developers Test across your support matrix, using automation when it makes sense Focus more on best practices and general performance, let admins handle it from there. 3/24/2011 @2011 SugarCRM Inc. All rights reserved. 19 Source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/dlanod/126386070/

20. Questions? Slides available on SlideShare 3/24/2011 @2011 SugarCRM Inc. All rights reserved. 20