Update An update at the top of a post?  Yeah, well, the thing is, I decided to terminate the sfEzModel project.  For one thing, I’ve started thinking Syfmony ain’t exactly the best PHP framework on the block.  Furthermore, I don’t think this particular solution deserves to be stuck inside a framework. It should be free: standalone, or dropped in a framework, whatever.  So I’ve replaced it with a different project: scottlib.

Named after my best friend, scottlib is intended to be a SQL abstraction tool that even a designer could easily incorporate into his wireframed project.  That’s a tall order to fill, but along the way I’ll be doing some cool stuff too, like emulating GORM, and making it easy to switch between MySQL and Amazon’s SimpleDB.  Hang around, it’s going to get cooler.

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I recently started our first Google Code project – sfEzModel: a PHP ORM library with annotation configuration, optimized for MySQL and designed for easy integration into Symfony Web applications.

“What?” you ask? ORM stands for Object-Relational Mapping and “is a programming technique for converting data between incompatible type systems in relational databases and object-oriented programming languages” (Wikipedia).  Basically, ORM is an attempt to make-easier the process of persisting (storing) object data – data that has an explicit form or type yet doesn’t readily lend itself to the scalar data types of an RDBMS like MySQL (or SQLite or SQL Server).  If you’re still in the dark, check out the Wikipedia article.

“Why?” you ask? Well, first and foremost: writing libraries is fun (for me).  Writing a component to be incorporated into larger applications is like making bricks: without finely made bricks, no building can withstand the test of time.  It’s an activity that lends a great sense of satisifaction, and I suspect that in this day and age it will grow some grassroots (read: free) marketing for our business. Collegeman.net should have its own showing of open source wares: concrete software to represent our capacity for development and a repayment for the many contributions by the open source community to our own efforts.

The most practical reason is that I don’t like what the community has to offer in the way of PHP ORM.  There are several features of the PHP programming language that lend much speed to the development process.  My goal is to embrace those features, generate less code, and create a sound framework upon which applications can be more rapidly constructed.  Initially we’re going to be committed to getting the framework up and running with MySQL and Symfony.   Future iterations will open the library up to inclusion within multiple frameworks and for persistence into multiple RDBMS platforms.

You can follow the development of this new library on our Google Code wiki at http://code.google.com/p/sfezmodel.  Presently we are planning our first alpha release for October 26th – my birthday!