I’ve been meaning to post about this for a while, but in case you haven’t caught this yet, Adobe has created a resource called BrowserLab. First, there’s a Web-based version, which only requires an Adobe account to log in and use. After you’ve done that, enter a URL and you can view how that Web page looks in various browsers. Right now, only browsers on Windows XP (Firefox 2, 3, and 3.5; IE 6, 7, and 8; Chrome 3) and Mac OS X (Safari 3 and 4; Firefox 2, 3, and 3.5) are supported, but it’s a wonderful start. For anyone needing to see how their site renders on other browsers, including operating systems they may not have, this is a wonderful tool. There’s also a way to compare how a page renders on multiple browsers at one time, so that you can get that pixel perfect look. If you’re using Dreamweaver CS4, there’s even a BrowserLab extension, so you can have the same functionality without leaving your Web development tool.

I’ve been writing quite a bit about the Yii framework for PHP lately and thought a listing of useful resources would be in order. Yii is still a relatively new framework, so there’s not a lot out there, but people are taking an interest in the framework and making a point to share what they learn, which is always a good sign. To start, there’s the stuff at Yii’s site:

• The Definitive Guide to Yii, which is a descriptive overview of most of Yii’s features. This is a very accessible way to get into Yii.
• The Yii Cookbook, with lots of useful little recipes. Great for learning how to expand your application.
• The Blog Tutorial, which walks through the creation of a blog using Yii. Easy to follow, but not applicable to everything you’ll do.
• Yii Framework Class Reference, which details every class in the framework. This is the ultimate source for using the framework from a syntax perspective, but isn’t as easy to read and apply to your own code.
• The Yii Forum, for help and seeing what other people are doing.

All of the above are obviously linked on Yii’s own documentation page. That page also lists a Yii Cheat Sheet, plus some screen- and podcasts.

for more on this).

(Note: In October 2010, I’ve updated this entire series to reflect changes in Yii since this series was written, and to take into account feedback provided through the comments. Some outdated material will be crossed out, but left in to reflect how things have changed since the series was begun in June 2009.)

This is the seventh post in my series on Yii, my favorite PHP framework. In this post, I walk through some basic View edits you’ll make to the code auto-generated by the Yii framework. For some of the code, I’ll be using the employees-departments example I’ve been developing throughout these posts. You may want to reread earlier posts to get a handle on those.

(Note: In October 2010, I’ve updated this entire series to reflect changes in Yii since this series was written, and to take into account feedback provided through the comments. Some outdated material will be crossed out, but left in to reflect how things have changed since the series was begun in June 2009.)

, I show how to use Yii’s Gii tool to create Models, Views, and Controllers in your Yii application. In this post, I walk through some of the basic edits you’ll likely make to a Model after it’s been created by Yii’s Gii tool. In doing so, you’ll also get a general introduction to the Yii Model as a whole. For some of the code, I’ll be using the employees-departments example I’ve been developing throughout these posts. You may want to reread earlier posts to get a handle on those.

(Note: In October 2010, I’ve updated this entire series to reflect changes in Yii since this series was written, and to take into account feedback provided through the comments. Some outdated material will be crossed out, but left in to reflect how things have changed since the series was begun in June 2009.)

, I explain the database design to be used by the sample application that this and the subsequent posts discuss. In this post, I show how to use Yii’s Gii tool to create Models, Views, and Controllers in your Yii application. This post does assume you have an existing application to work with, most likely by following the steps in my previous posts.

(Note: In October 2010, I’ve updated this entire series to reflect changes in Yii since this series was written, and to take into account feedback provided through the comments. Some outdated material will be crossed out, but left in to reflect how things have changed since the series was begun in June 2009. This post had the heaviest revisions, as the command-line tools were replaced by the Web-based Gii.)