Here is a list of the talks I have given that are older, either at user groups or conferences. The newest ones are at the top. If you've attended one of my talks or have gone through the slides and have any questions, feel free to e-mail me.
Single Page Apps with Drupal 7
Given on October 21st, 2015 at ZendCon 2015
It's no denying that rich Javascript applications (sometimes called One Page Applications) are a big thing, but what if you want to leverage Drupal on the backend, or have an existing site? Tools like Angular.JS and EmberJS are great when you have an API, but Drupal 7 doesn't really have an API layer. I'll explore the parts of a one page application and how to integrate it into either an existing or a new Drupal site, and the pitfalls that one must watch out for.
Into the ZF2 Service Manager
Given on October 20th, 2015 at Zendcon 2015
One of the most prolific parts of Zend Framework 2 is the Service Manager. Its many nooks and crannies dictate much of what happens inside our Zend Framework 2 applications and is incredibly powerful. Let's look into exactly what the Service Manager allows us to do and how we can take advantage of it for cleaner, and faster, code.
Getting Started with Aura
Given on June 18th, 2015 at NomadPHP
PHP has come a long way since it's inception. What started out as an ecosystem of functions passed around on the internet eventually turned into a land of frameworks. These first frameworks were saddled with the problem of size, where if you wanted to use part of Zend Framework 1, for example, in your app, you pulled in the entire thing. Those days are gone now and frameworks are increasingly decoupled, but none so much as the Aura project. We'll dive into what Aura is and how we can use it as standalone libraries as well as for full stack development.
Dockerize All The Things!
Given on February 7th, 2015 at SunshinePHP 2015
Thanks to tools like vagrant, puppet/chef, and Platform as a Service services like Heroku, developers are extremely used to being able to spin up a development environment that is the same every time. What if we could go a step further and make sure our development environment is not only using the same software, but 100% configured and set up like production. Docker will let us do that, and so much more. We'll look at what Docker is, why you should look into using it, and all of the features that developers can take advantage of.
Static Sites with Sculpin
Given on November 21st, 2014 at NomadPHP
We can build anything we want with PHP, be it a small little blog for ourselves to a giant world-spanning social media network. There are times though that we do not need all of the dynamic goodness that PHP brings and we just need a site that sits there. Sculpin is a static site generator that leverages the power of PHP and Twig to allow developers to quickly generate flat HTML sites, but completely automate the process of stitching all of that HTML together. We'll quickly run through getting started with Sculpin and the power that it provides.
Single Page Apps in Drupal
Given on November 12th, 2014 at php[world] 2014
It's no denying that rich Javascript applications (sometimes called One Page Applications) are a big thing, but what if you want to leverage Drupal on the backend, or have an existing site? Tools like Angular.JS and EmberJS are great when you have an API, but Drupal 7 doesn't really have an API layer. I'll explore the parts of a one page application and how to integrate it into either an existing or a new Drupal site, and the pitfalls that one must watch out for.
Modernize Your Drupal Development
Given on November 11th, 2014 at php[world] 2014
Drupal is a great system that allows you to just throw the core up on a shared host and start working. You can build modules and throw them up, and stuff works! But what happens on your long term projects, or projects where you have multiple people? How do you use version control in such a system? Or manage releases? Or updates? Drupal has many different tools to help with things like this, but it takes some foreknowledge and setup to get things working smoothly. Let's get our Drupal sites out of "production only" work and into proper development lifecycles.
Complex Sites with Silex
Given on October 29th, 2014 at Zendcon 2014
Everyone knows that Silex is a great microframework for APIs and small sites, but what do you do when you want to build a large site, or your little tiny site has grown up? Silex has many different ways to let you build larger, complex websites that might still be too small for Symfony, but have outgrown the single page app it once was. We'll look at what Silex offers us, and different ways we can structure our site.
Don't Trust Your Users
Given on October 28th, 2014 at Zendcon 2014
Some of the most common vulnerabilities in web applications are caused by applications not properly inspecting the data that users send in. PHP has an entire suite of tools to help inspected, filter, and sanitize data that comes from the user and other outside parties. Using built-in methods and extra tools you can protect your app from harmful data and users.
Licensing and You
Given on September 23rd, 2014 at NomadPHP - September 2014
No matter how much work developers do in the open source world, they are confronted by a myriad of different licenses for things they want to use. GPL, MIT, BSD, Apache… these are just a few of the different licenses PHP devs deal with. What is the difference, and if you release your own code, which should you use? In 10 minutes we’ll give a high level overview of licensing, how it works, what to watch for, and the proper ways to use other people’s code.
Don't Trust Your Users
Given on February 8th, 2014 at SunshinePHP 2014
Some of the most common vulnerabilities in web applications are caused by applications not properly inspecting the data that users send in. PHP has an entire suite of tools to help inspected, filter, and sanitize data that comes from the user and other outside parties. Using built-in methods and extra tools you can protect your app from harmful data and users.
Enterprise Development on a Shoestring Budget
Given on September 9th, 2013 at Zendcon 2013
No matter what language you use, developing code is the same ñec, code, deploy, maintain. The "Big Boys" have teams to manage each task, but what happens when you don't? I.ll go over some different methods for maintaining internal and external programs that are cheap, open source, and make your life easier. PHP has a plethora of tools for us to use to effectively code and maintain our projects; and the best part is that they are generally inexpensive or even free. The trick is finding and using these tools effectively in a workflow that the developer can use.
PaaSing Your Code Around
Given on September 8th, 2013 at Zendcon 2013
PaaS (Platform as a Service) is hot topic in the PHP world, with many different providers vying to run your code. I'll look at what it takes to get your code to run on the common PaaS services, and compare and contrast them on their offerings and performance
Drupal Development Tips
Given on May 16th, 2013 at php[tek] 2013
Any PHP developer can develop modules for Drupal, but like any system newcomers, will have a learning curve that must be overcome before the system makes sense. With Drupal playing the role of both a CMS as well as a generic application framework, you have the power to build complex applications as well as small modularized code. We'll look at tools and practices to make Drupal development easier like the devel module, SimpleTest unit testing, and moving components back and forth with the Features module.
PHP and Node.js Together
Given on May 15th, 2013 at php[tek] 2013
PHP isn't the only server side language that PHP developers are familiar with. You can utilize your Javascript knowledge to build server-side Javascript code using Node.js. Node.js can help bring real-time interactive features to your website or run background tasks along side your existing PHP code. We'll go over a bit of Node.js and the server side bits and then how to integrate it into your application.
Drupal Development Tips
Given on March 3rd, 2013 at MidwestPHP 2013
Any PHP developer can develop modules for Drupal, but like any system newcomers, will have a learning curve that must be overcome before the system makes sense. With Drupal playing the role of both a CMS as well as a generic application framework, you have the power to build complex applications as well as small modularized code. We'll look at tools and practices to make Drupal development easier like the devel module, SimpleTest unit testing, and moving components back and forth with the Features module.
A Tale of Two Apps
Given on February 13th, 2013 at Zend Webinar
At one point in time, I was the technical lead on two different projects. One was an application we were purchasing from a vendor that was being written in Java (and had previously been written in .NET by another vendor, who then switched to Java, and then abandoned the project), and one was being built in-house with PHP on the IBM i. They were the same product for two different product lines that we offered, but time constraints forced us to build two products in tandem. In the end, the PHP application was completed and delivered to end-users in about 7 months from start to finish, while the former project languished. We'll compare the two projects in the tools and technologies that were used to integrated with the IBM i backend as well as programming.
A Tale of Two Apps
Given on October 23rd, 2012 at Zendcon 2012
At one point in time, I was the technical lead on two different projects. One was an application we were purchasing from a vendor that was being written in Java (and had previously been written in .NET by another vendor, who then switched to Java, and then abandoned the project), and one was being built in-house with PHP on the IBM i. They were the same product for two different product lines that we offered, but time constraints forced us to build two products in tandem. In the end, the PHP application was completed and delivered to end-users in about 7 months from start to finish, while the former project languished. We'll compare the two projects in the tools and technologies that were used to integrated with the IBM i backend as well as programming.
Zend Framework
Given on January 16th, 2012 at Northwest Ohio PHP User Group
A basic overview of Zend Framework 1, including the different components, how it runs, and how to build sample applications. It goes over the bootstrap cycle, the router, controllers, view system, and how to build a small application.
Getting Your ZCE Certification
Given on January 16th, 2012 at Northwest Ohio PHP User Group
This talk gives some basic information on what you need to know for the Zend Certified Engineer test.
Talking to the Database
Given on November 16th, 2011 at Northwest Ohio PHP User Group
A history of database connections in PHP, and the modern way to do it.
PHP Security
Given on September 20th, 2011 at Northwest Ohio PHP User Group
PHP has been given a bad wrap when it comes to security, even though most of the problem is with the developer, not the language itself. This talk goves over the OWASP Top 10 as it pertains to PHP, as well as looking at secure coding techniques.
PHP's Filter Module
Given on August 16th, 2011 at Northwest Ohio PHP User Group
Most attacks in PHP happen because the programmer building the application did not properly santize or filter input from users. We go over the Filter extension for PHP and how to use it.
PHP Templating Systems
Given on July 26th, 2011 at Northwest Ohio PHP User Group
PHP is a templating system, but what happens when you have to work with people that don’t know PHP, or you want to separate out PHP logic from presentation? Chris Tankersley will go over different template systems that are available, but from a framework perspective as well as stand alone.
CMS Shootout - Introduction to Drupal
Given on April 26th, 2011 at Northwest Ohio PHP User Group
NWO-PUG held a CMS shootout to go over the different CMS's. This is a basic introduction to Drupal and how it works.
Enterprise Workflows When You Aren't Enterprise
Given on March 15th, 2011 at Northwest Ohio PHP User Group
No matter what language you use, developing code is the same – spec, code, deploy, maintain. The Big Boys have teams to manage each task, but what happens when you don’t? We’ll go over some different methods for maintaining internal and external programs that are cheap, open source, and make your life easier.
Source Code Management Basics
Given on January 26th, 2011 at Northwest Ohio PHP User Group
A basic introduction to Source Code Management.
Intro To the SPL
Given on January 26th, 2011 at Northwest Ohio PHP User Group
The SPL was introduced with PHP 5. This talk goes over the various parts of the SPL (as it stood then) and when to use them.