PHP Benelux an overview

The Magma Digital team were out in force again; with Jeremy, Priscilla, Adrian and Jenny all joining the other PHP North West (PHPNW) community representatives on a plane to Brussels Charleroi (CRL). The flight had seven PHP Benelux delegates or speakers on it and included  Rowan Merewood, and Sebastian Marek who were also speakers at the conference.

The feedback about the conference in the Magma office was that the event was well organised by some lovely people, with great socials and some really interesting talks.  The Magma team enjoyed their visit to Belgium and the conference gave them some real food for thought and insight into the future direction of PHP.

So what did Jeremy say?

Jeremy’s talk, ‘An introduction to Phing the PHP build system’ provided developers with an insight into the Phing build system for PHP. The talk explained how and why developers might use the tool and positioned it in relation to other tools such as: PHPUnit, PHP Code Sniffer, PHP Mess Detector etc. Judging by the comments on Joind in, his presentation was well received, with comments stating that the talk contained ‘information that was useful and that they had learned a lot’. If you have attended Jeremy’s talk and have not yet commented, please do as all feedback is greatly appreciated to help us improve.

Zend Framework 2 Tutorial

While Jeremy made some final preparations to his talk  Adrian attended the tutorial led by Matthew Weier O’Phinny on Zend Framework 2 talk. In his talk, Matthew explored the upcoming version of Zend Framework 2. One of the most interesting topics covered within this talk, was ZF2′s adoption of what Matthew termed “Aspect Oriented Programming”. By using the new EventManager system, we can connect disparate modules in a very elegant way. Matthew let slip that he was planning to back-port the EventManager to the current stable branch of Zend Framework which should hopefully ease ZF1 developers into a new, almost javascript-like event-driven development.

Adrian of Magma Digital commented that, “Matthew’s discussion on Dependancy Injection was particularly valuable as before this tutorial, DI seemed be a solution to a problem I didn’t have. Suddenly, everything clicked into place and I finally appreciated the power of DI over a more text-book approach such as the factory pattern.”

The Socials

The post-conference socials were as important as the talks but in different ways. The socials enable delegates to get to network, get to know each other, discuss approaches and confer on business and community issues. The Friday night social consisted of bowling and a tasting session with some Belgian “delicacies”: fries, special meats and sauces (plus vegetarian options). In addition to these tasty morsels, there were two Xbox Kinects available for delegates and speakers to play games such as Tennis.

Then finally on the Saturday night social where after the conference had finished, an official closing party was held outdoors. The “Orchestra winter BBQ at The Club House” was a great idea and the hot soup and bar-be-que food went down a storm. The BBQ was held in a dedicated Pétanque area so anyone who wanted to could play Boules. Team Magma are always up for a challenge and jumped in and had a go at Boules (on reflection we will leave it to the pro’s!).

At busy conferences there is little time to get out and explore. Priscilla did manage to make one short trip out, when she found a patisserie and chocolate shop. She was tempted to buy but fortunately for the bank account, the suitcases would not accommodate too much. Thanks goes to the organisers for their generous speakers gifts of Belgian beers and chocolates. Priscilla; you will have just have to take a bigger suitcase next time!

Goodbyes

We must say a huge thank you to the organisers of the conference for hosting such a fantastic conference. We really appreciated their hospitality and giving lifts to all those who flew in on our Manchester flight from a fairly distant airport!

Now that all of Magma are back at their desks post conference all we hear talk of is PHP North West 2012 and PHP Benelux 2013. The buzz has already begun!

Front Photo Courtesy of:  Josh Holmes - http://www.flickr.com/photos/joshholmes/6779913695/

mysql < dump.sql

Use:

pv dump.sql | mysql

You will be presented with a nice progress bar, with ETA and throughput as shown below:

192MB 0:02:58 [2.23MB/s] [====================>    ] 80% ETA 0:01:09

It’s worth pointing out that this ETA won’t always be 100% accurate for the likes of MySQL. PV only knows how much data has been pushed through the pipe, not how long it will take to process it. Fortunately, the contents of mysqldump should be fairly straight forward to process and there shouldn’t really be any sub-select festooned UPDATE statements.

Outside of MySQL, There are many applications for this little tool assuming you can squeeze it into processes that can have their input or output piped; gzip for instance. Of course, sometimes one might be tempted to use pv for the sake of it. Don’t try and pv something through scp, just use rsync -e ssh --progress.

We’re always interested to hear how people use novel tools, so please let us know how you’ve used pv.

The company has grown significantly since it was established in 1999, with the recent addition of  a new Web developer, Ben Nuttall who we welcome to our team.

As always, the Magma team are enjoying the journey of discovery that occurs in our industry and are equally as excited about future developments. Jeremy, Priscilla, Adrian and Jenny will be attending PHP Benelux 2012 this weekend as we continue to look at some of the new techniques and technologies that will help our industry continue to grow.

Photo courtesy of http://www.flickr.com/photos/havucnmycaml/2595724011/

As many of you may already know, Magma Digital strongly believes in supporting the web community and promoting best practice within our wider industry. That’s why we are pleased our Managing Director, Jeremy Coates, has been selected as one of the speakers for PHP Benelux 2012 which takes place next week. The conference helps developers from around the world discover the latest techniques and innovations in PHP and internet developement.

The second Monday of every month, Magma Digital hosts a Coding Dojo run by Jeremy Coates and Gemma Cameron.

This month, as last, the focus was TDD (test driven development) using Ruby (a programming language), performing the Checkout Kata with a Randori format for the first part of the evening. A Randori is where a programming pair will each get five minutes driving the keyboard and navigating. The code is then projected onto a screen so the audience are able to contribute and participate.

The second part of the evening saw the group split off into pairs to begin the kata again from scratch, only this time it would be performed without the audiences participation. Approaching 20 developers came together to hone their skills by performing coding katas.

What are katas?

Katas are taken from the Japanese martial art practice of detailed choreographed patterns of movements practised either solo or in pairs. These katas are exercised at Dojos (training places) with the idea that the skills learned in the katas become second nature during a fight situation. By using coding katas, the new skills that are learnt during Codejo will become second nature when needed in a real life, coding, situation.

No need to be a coding pro

No previous knowledge of Ruby was required and we had a mix of abilities in the room. Many knew absolutely nothing about Ruby whilst some others really knew their stuff. The idea is that we learn from each other and enhance the learning experience for everyone. Those who knew their stuff became teachers and those who didn’t know the topic area well learned new skills.

The aftermath

After a couple of hours improving and teaching our coding skills, interspersed with coffee, everyone headed over to the Forum bar for a Retrospective on the kata. The Retrospective review proved to be a very important part of the whole learning experience and created much discussion and debate.

From this review, some of the ideas for the future months include:

• TDD from hell
• TDD as if you mean it.
• Refactoring
• Start with a skeleton and build up tests as you go.

So does Preston Codejo sound like something you might be interested in?

Codejo is all about developers learning together and from each other. It’s an opportunity for everyone to improve their skills.

Come and join us – It’s FREE

Please visit the Codejo website for more details.

Next Kata:

13th February, 7pm (doors open at 6.30pm)

Where:

Magma Digital Ltd
Derby House
12 Winckley Square
Preston
Lancashire
PR1 3JJ

However this year, all is not lost!

We may have a ray of yellow sunshine to brighten any Winter blues, why? – because we’re hiring!

Now we know that we won’t be the perfect fit for all; but we thought we would write a few words about us, so that if you are thinking about a change of job, you can find out a bit more about us.

So why are we hiring and why three developers all at once?

Well, after another very successful year, Magma Digital is increasingly busy with new and existing projects. We have a growth strategy underpinning our increase in work, and the evidence is there to see, the strategy is working. So being really frank, we need more pairs of hands.

But not just any hands!

The Magma team are passionate and enthusiastic about all things PHP. We are looking for developers who enjoy a challenge, love getting stuck into code but equally thrive from being creative and learning new things. We encourage all of our developers to attend conferences, seminars and related networking and learning events. We have even made continual professional development a part of each developers annual appraisal – we believe in it that much!

We take professional development very seriously at Magma and all of our developers sit the Zend Certification Engineer exam to maintain our high quality standards. We also include technical staff in client facing meetings and decision-making so there is plenty of opportunity to develop in technical and non-technical areas which is great for your personal development.

Team Culture

How do you know if you would be happy here at Magma?

Hmmm, hard for us to answer, but we will tell you how we work and then you will know if that sounds like you, or how you would like to be at work.

We believe in sharing skills, knowledge and opportunities around the team. Each member is given appropriate chances to lead projects, to stretch their skills both technical and non-technical. Developers can experience working alone, coding in pairs and exploring issues as a whole team. We use agile methodology and Scrum for scheduling and production. Being a small team “everyone gets a chance to play” but we are also big enough, that there is opportunity to work end-to-end on specific projects so you get the experience and satisfaction of seeing things through.

The office is open plan and based right in the heart of the City of Preston, (5 minute walk from the train station). We have 2 Labrador dogs in the office who are very well behaved and love developers (mainly for breakfast) joke! The Magma team are diverse in age and background – we have staff who have NHS and Industry management backgrounds, working alongside technical and design staff. We embrace the best of everyone’s experience and skills and welcome  our teams ideas and suggestions as part of bringing a first class experience to our customers.

We have a library of technical and business management books. Each team member can suggest books to buy and we buy them. We learn together and put time into developing together and individually.

So where are we going?

Magma is an agency with two distinct branches that cross over in the middle. One branch of the business is clearly ‘Software Consultancy’ incorporating – software development and website design and development. The other branch of the business is ‘Business Consultancy’ – managing business change, helping  businesses to  plan, management consultancy and process improvement.

Magma excel in both branches, but the real magic happens when the two branches come together and our clients benefit from input from both branches – software/web and business consultancy simultaneously. In this last year, we have seen so many of our clients drive forward through this joint approach and we plan to grow and develop this model in 2012.

So there you have it, a little bit more about us as an organisation and a team.

Check out our career opportunities page for the job description, to see if you or someone you know, might be interested in working with us.

To keep up to date on the latest at Magma Digital, follow us on Twitter

Know your Core

You will hear us go on about having a ”firm foundation’. Well, in a nutshell this firm foundation is in part made up from your core (and no, I don’t mean your mid-riff!)

The ‘core’ of your business is most likely something you have: researched, mulled over, tussled with, dropped in frustration, picked up again, partly dropped again, picked up once more and then finally refined down into what essentially then became the essence of your business idea. The core of your business, most succinctly put, is ‘the simple yet powerful essence of an idea’, according to Dan and Chip Heath (2008, Made to Stick, London, Arrow Books).

Other commentators remark that; “The core of your business should be built around things that won’t change. Things that people are going to want today and ten years from now.” Fried J & Hansson Heinemeier D (2010, REWORK, London, Vermilion).

A tall order in today’s ever changing and ‘faddish’ business world! You may well be thinking?

It is nonetheless, the core that forms and directs your firm foundation and becomes the trusted ally of a business owner. For all its ‘boring’ characteristics of stability and commitment, there is no getting away from that fact that this is exactly what is needed and what your business can invest in. The fun, creative, ‘try it and see if it works’ stuff comes next and sits on top of your core and firm foundation and the exciting bit has the potential to be as short-term, flamboyant and as ‘out-there’ as you dare to go, so long as you remember some will work and some wont.

The gift however, is knowing you can always come back to the core and foundation for re-grouping.

Having a Firm Foundation

We’ve found that taking forward your business core, ‘your essential business idea’  is best done with the support of a firm foundation. No-one would expect any business to have everything sorted and hunky dory on day one, life and business are just not like that! It’s something we and you know doubt, will visit and revisit from time to time.

The firm foundation gives you a platform from which to jump off and be as creative and flexible as you like, knowing that you  have that grounding to come back to, so that you remain true to the core of what your business is about. Even if the core changes which it may well do.

Dan & Chip Heath describe the core and its ability to provide perspective to a business owner well, in this story about Southwest Airline, a company which set as its core the idea that they would be ‘THE low-fare airline’. A simple idea where everything else, all other business decisions stemmed from and were directed by this core. This commitment to this core idea went so far as that even when customers requested an improvement to the food, the deciding factor on whether to improve the food came down to would it help achieve the core business idea?

Stick to the Knitting

A friend once told me “stick to the knitting” stay with what you have set out to achieve and excel at. I did not take this to mean don’t try new ways of doings things,  I took this to be a lesson in, stop trying to be all things to all people! Understand your business core, create a firm foundation with your business model, your processes and resources and once this is in place – start trying out new ways to achieve your core business idea.

Interestingly in sport and fitness, we hear the same message over and over. I love to run, and my running coaches have always told me that the best way to improve my running is to have a strong core! Why? because your core holds the body and the limbs together as you run, and if your core is weak and you don’t focus on it, you will lose running form.

Line up the Ducks!                          

When we talk about business models, many folks eyes glaze over or they think it is irrelevant to them. After-all aren’t business models, strategies, mission statements and processes the language of big organisations right?

Well we think not, we are an SME ourselves and we have found incredible value in sitting down and working out the purpose behind our core idea and developing our business model, then aligning our processes and resources, through something we like to call “lining up the ducks” and we believe that you will find it valuable too! (do you like the ducks?…. courtesy of my nephews bath-time!!)

So, the Tone is in your Fingers

So to summarise so far:

• know your core
• create a firm foundation
• sticking to knitting and
• line up the ducks

What’s next?

Well there is always a BUT!

Fried and Hansson’s use a phrase ”the tone is in your fingers’ which refers to a story they tell where they discuss the fact that no matter what models you use, the result will be different if the implementer is different. They give as an example, the guitarist Eddie Van Halen. Eddie could pick up any guitar and play it and it would sound like him playing, you could pick up the same guitar and use the same techniques and equipment and you still wont sound exactly like him, why? Because the tone is in his fingers! It’s his fingers that play the tune and set the tone.

Using business tools and models are extremely helpful but they are not what set the tone, you are!

A model is only as good as the one implementing it and a plan no matter how good it is, is only useful for the time that it is relevant. Be prepared to change your core and re-visit your firm foundation, times they are a changing!

Less is More

So whilst we would argue that business models, planning and lining up the ducks are actually very helpful and useful we acknowledge that they are only part of the story of setting up, running and growing a business. Models, tools and techniques can become restrictive and actually end up stunting growth if not used lightly, sparingly and with purpose. The expertise comes in knowing when the standard model does not apply and either modifying it or chucking it out.

Cutting out the good to only be left with the great!

A little of each Please

What is interesting is that I have read several business books recently where arguments have been put forward in support of both sides of the coin:some say use models and have clearly defined plans and goals and others say no, do not plan ahead it is futile and the best approach is one that is oblique and indirect.

We saw in the Southwest Airline story that a clear core and sticking to it worked for that company, they were clear about what they would and would not do and were successful following this mantra. Similarly in his book ‘Obliquity’ John Kay (2011, Obliquity, London, Profile Books Ltd) provides an equally compelling tale of how following a standard model actually proved highly counter-productive.

‘The National Park Service, US Department of the Interior’, learnt to leave some forest fires to burn out themselves rather than amassing a huge human operation to quash the fires. The reason for this oblique response was the discovery that when small fires are left alone they burn themselves out destroying the combustible undergrowth and thereby creating natural fire breaks preventing more fires.

I ‘m left thinking that maybe like when you have to choose between two puddings at Sunday lunch, the best response to give is, ‘a little of each please!’

Why not have a firm foundation and a core which are reasonably stable and long term but from which you can jump off  into an arena of creativity, abstractness, full of short-term and fly by the seat of your pants ideas?

Safe in the knowledge that when you need it, if you need it, there is a firm foundation to land back on to re-group?

Its not hedging your bets, its better than that – its having your cake and eating it!! (which for any of you who knows me well, will know that this is right up my street).

If you would like to talk more to one of the Magma Team,

Call: 0845 2416460

Email: info@magmadigital.co.uk

References:

Made To Stick – Dan and Chip Heath ISBN 978-0-099-50569-3

REWORK – Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson ISBN 978 -0-09-192978-7

Obliquity – John Kay ISBN 978-184668-289-6

Learn 6 ways to make your website more sticky!

• Travelling business men waking up in hotel baths full of ice, missing a kidney

• We use only 10% of our brains

You’ve heard them all before, the urban myths which circulate the folklore of the internet. These urban myths are used by authors Chip & Dan Heath in their book “Made to Stick” as examples of sticky ideas. Urban myths they say, have great trade marks of sticky (2008: Made to Stick, London, Arrow Books).

The book particularly discusses ‘sticky ideas’, but I reckon the same trade marks apply neatly over to ‘sticky web content’, as after-all, content is all born from an idea!

This is where we thank Chip and Dan for their 6 principles of sticky ideas.

Key 6 principles of Sticky:

1. simplicity
2. unexpectedness
3. concreteness
4. credibility
5. emotions
6. stories

1. latest news – keep updating the news on your website
2. competitions – give things away, everyone loves freebies and competitions
3. captivating stories – urban myths stick around, they promote themselves, we all love a good yarn
4. useful tips & problem solving solutions – a novel solution to a problem we all have is gold dust!
5. interactive games – draw out our competitive natures
6. position statements & information based content- knowledge is power

So why is this relevant?

If you have a website, here is the so what……

A great looking website is all well and good, but without web traffic it’s nothing!

At the risk of stating the obvious, your website needs visitors, but not just visitors, visitors who come back to your site over and over again. This is the definition of sticky content, content that attracts visitors to return to your website.

• The internet is a busy place and let’s me honest there’s lots of traffic out there; http://www.internetworldstats.com/stats.htm estimate that 2,095,006,005 people worldwide were users of the internet in March 2011
• 43.7 million people will use the internet in the UK by 2013, (according to eMarketer) ” http://www.newmediatrendwatch.com/markets-by-country/18-uk/148-usage-patterns-and-demographics

So with no shortage of web traffic for the foreseeable, the million dollar question is, is your content driving web traffic to your website or away?

We hope that some of the ideas and principles here can help you get more sticky!

Is it the responsibility of the makers of websites, the parents, or the education system? Or should we expect children to be web savvy enough to not put themselves in danger?” http://prestonsocial7.eventbrite.com/

7th ‘Preston Social’ Tuesday 25th October at ‘Forum’ Winckley Square – doors open 18.30

The topic of discussion will be: Social Media and Young People

The discussion will be led by: Duncan Hodgson who does work around promoting positive activities for young people.