Version 1.1.6 of the Yii framework was released a few days ago. Along with bug fixes, 1.1.6 includes a couple of new features, most notably database migration and a new Query Builder. Database migration is a feature that comes from Ruby on Rails (well, that’s where I first heard of it) and it allows for better version control. Basically database migration allows you to associate database changes with versions, so that you can better sync updates to the PHP code and the underlying database. It’s a useful tool for projects being developed by a team or in stages.

The new Query Builder is an object-oriented way to create custom SQL statements. This isn’t really a new feature (in the sense of allowing you to do something you couldn’t do before) but lets you do something you might commonly do but in a different way. See the above link for a thorough discussion and demonstration.

Mémorandom, which is translating my popular “ Learning the Yii Framework” into French and publishing it online, has recently posted the translated versions of two more parts in the series. The fourth part is Defining Databases for the Yii Application. The fifth part is Creating Models, Views, and Controllers in Yii. My thanks again to Nico for the nice words on my series and for the work in translating it!

I’m not sure when, why, or how, but sometime in the past few months I came across the online writing of Joel Spolsky. Spolsky, among other things, worked for Microsoft and later went on to start his own software company. Spolsky has an active blog—averaging just over 2 posts per week for ten years!—with lots of stuff worth reading. Set aside an afternoon for reading some of what he has to say, and count on bookmarking key articles for later. Just three I’d recommend off the top of my head are:

• Things You Should Never Do, Part I
• Top Five (Wrong) Reasons You Don’t Have Testers
• The Absolute Minimum Every Software Developer Absolutely, Positively Must Know About Unicode and Character Sets (No Excuses!)

Nico, from Mémorandom, recently contacted me about translating my popular " Learning the Yii Framework" into French and publishing it on that site. I’m pleased to say that the first three parts of the series— Introduction to the Yii Framework, Getting Started with the Yii Framework, and Configuring Yii—have already been translated and are available online. This should hopefully help expand Yii’s international influence. My thanks to Nico for the nice words on my series and for the work in translating it!

I’ve recently (and finally) started using Markdown and MultiMarkdown, two excellent tools for writers. Markdown was created by John Gruber, in 2004. What it does is simple and brilliant: Markdown allows you to write using plain text, without a lot of markup or effort, and then export your writing as HTML. So instead of creating H tags, you can do just this:

# This is a Header 1

## This is a Header 2

To create emphasis, text is wrapped with one or two asterisks or underlines: Here is some *emphasis*. Here is more **emphasis**. You want to create a new paragraph? Just add a blank line. Simple! There are also ways to create lists, links, add images, and so forth.

You can learn the basics and the syntax at Gruber’s site, which also has an online tool, named Dingus, for converting Markdown text to HTML. What’s great about Markdown is there aren’t many rules to learn and you can write using it so easily. If you do a lot of writing that gets published online, like a blog, Markdown really lets you focus on the writing without spending too much time creating and balancing tags. Secondarily, text written using Markdown is easy to read, which means it’s also easier for the original writer to edit. If you work with a team of people on documents, there’s a lot to be said for Markdown as a format to use.