After nearly two months of using OS X, I think I have finally found my groove when it comes to doing my job. That is, writing code for websites, mainly in PHP.

For many years prior to using a Mac for PHP development, I had been using Windows or Linux and Zend Studio 5.x. When I was looking several months back for the Mac version download for my Zend Studio license, I was presented, instead, with a free upgrade to version 6. Wow, that was nice Zend! Unfortunately, the version I paid for (the “perpetual” license) was no longer there to download. But hey! I got the brand-new version. That’s great right? Wrong! Zend decided to drink the Eclipse Kool Aid and completely changed an IDE that I had grown accustomed to (I guess it’s only fair to point out that Zend Studio 5.x was so old at this point that it was getting increasingly more difficult to install on more modern operating systems and newer java platforms.) In spite of the seemingly “over-bloat” of Zend Studio 6.0, I decided to give it a try. I must say that everything just felt wrong. Now I’m sure there are many PHP developers out there that have been using Eclipse for years and can’t live without it, but I just couldn’t seem to make it work my voodoo. I didn’t have the patience to get my Eclipse PHD, so I went looking elsewhere. That led me to a surprising alternative: Netbeans. Although very similar to Eclipse, an IDE with modules/plug-ins for multiple computer language support, Netbeans (entirely free) impressed me right on the spot. I know Zend Studio has all the same features more or less, but the way Netbeans is put together just seemed more natural to me (things I wanted to do actually worked.) Let it suffice to say that I have been using Netbeans since then and I haven’t looked back!

Setting up Debugging with Xdebug and Firefox

In order to leverage the new-found versatility or MAMP, I needed a good debugger. I had had a pretty decent debugger with Zend Studio 5.x and that would be an essential requirement for netbeans. One of the cool features of Zend Studio was the integration of the Zend Toolbar with the debugger. Fortunately, this can be done with netbeans also, but you have to get a firefox plugin called Xdebug Helper. When you get it, note that it has one configuration option you need to set: Xdebug.idekey needs to be set to netbeans-xdebug.

Xdebug Helper for Firefox

Since I was using MAMP, I needed to install the xdebug extension for PHP. I actually downloaded the source and built the extension (used Xcode tools to phpize the source and build it and then just copied it to the appropriate MAMP folder.) I wish I had taken the time to record the steps involved, but instead I’ll just refer you to the easy way. Now we just need a little change in our php.ini file and we are good to go:

Note: As of MAMP version 1.8.4, there is an xdebug extension that comes with MAMP (just be sure to disable Zend Optimizer since they don’t seem to play well together.)

; Xdebug config for Mac OS X and NetBeans IDE
zend_extension=/Applications/MAMP/bin/php5/lib/php/extensions/no-debug-non-zts-20050922/xdebug.so
xdebug.remote_enable=1
xdebug.remote_handler=dbgp
xdebug.remote_mode=req
xdebug.remote_host=127.0.0.1
xdebug.remote_port=9000

Xdebug in php.ini

Now, all we have to do in order to debug is evoke the debugger in netbeans. I do this by clicking on the debug project button in the netbeans toolbar:

netbeans debug button

Netbeans will open up your development website according to the URL you submitted when creating the project (make sure firefox is your default browser and that you have set the default page in your project.) Often, just clicking the button will automatically activate the Xdebug Helper addon for me. But if you want to make sure that netbeans debugs the URL in your browser, be sure the click the X in your firefox footer bar so that it changes color from gray to green.

Xdebug Helper Toogle Icon

Netbeans will open your startup page to something like:

index.php?XDEBUG_SESSION_START=netbeans-xdebug

If you are using a PHP framework like Codeigniter, the URL can be a little annoying at first. I have found that I only need to press the continue button to let the start page run it’s path and then just close that tab. From that point I just leave the debugger running and toggle the Xdebug Helper “X” icon when I need to debug any page that I am working on. Couldn’t be easier!

Screencast Tutorials

Part 1: Prerequites for Xdebug and PHP on a Mac

Part 2: Setting up XDebug Helper

Part 3: Setting up an virtualhost apache environment in MAMP for codeigniter

Part 4: Starting to use XDebug in Netbeans

Part 5: Debugging with Netbeans and XDebug

Part 6: Wrapping up by showing a few features of debugging with xdebug in Netbeans

I made the Switch

I’ve jumped in! I’ve slipped on the proverbial black turtleneck. Yes, I’m a switcher!

About a month ago I decided that my large, hot lead-brick-of-a-laptop, otherwise known as my HP Pavilion ZD8000, was getting a bit “long in the tooth.” On a hot July day, in my air-conditioned home office, it decided to to test my patience by overheating and shutting off without warning in approximately 10 minute intervals. My only thought, “Time to ship this sucker away!” Fortunately, my “brick” belonged to my employer. So, I asked for a new laptop; and I asked for a MacBook Pro!

This all started several years back when my office was in a building with my fellow employees and not in my house. You see, that office was chuck-full of Windows, but I decided I wanted to use Ubuntu exclusively at work. At that time, I wore two hats (and still do to a certain degree.) I moonlighted as a network admin while I wrote web code for most of the day. The vast majority of my code was PHP so Windows wasn’t all so necessary (yes, I had to reboot into XP once in a while to crank out a .NET app or two.)
I got to where I could pretty much do everything I needed with Ubuntu Linux. It was great for running a LAMP stack and many of my net admin tasks were done at the console. It was a great fit for me. I used it exclusively for several years, and then I moved.

I started telecommuting in late 2007. I turned in my Dell for a shiny new brick. It came with Windows on it. I promptly dual booted Ubuntu into it and it became a permanent fixture in my home office. Immediately, I had issues with my USB headphones and sound in Ubuntu. Since my Skype account became my work PBX extension, I found myself selling out and moving back to Windows to avoid the headaches associated with intermittent sound issues in Linux. In fact, I just started using my brick as a LAMP server (Ubuntu Desktop) and developing in Windows from my very own desktop pc. That was about the time I realized that a Mac might be a good compromise for me. Now that I’ve used it for few weeks, I couldn’t be happier with the combination. Thanks to helpful utilities like MAMP, I have a full LAMP-equivalent *nix stack on my Mac with all the niceties of a proprietary GUI. Finally, I could roll two computers into one for development and administration duties.

Over the next few months, I’ll be writing about my setup for PHP development on my MacBook Pro and why I chose the setup that I did. I’ll be including tweaks, etc. that I have implemented to customize my experience. (Let’s be honest, my record would indicate this Mac writing will not happen for awhile so, please, don’t hold your breath. Sorry.)

Impressions

The first day I booted my new, shiny MacBook Pro (actually, it was used and a couple of years old. but “new and shiny” nonetheless ), I felt like I had lost several million brain cells and devolved into a Neanderthal. Apparently, Apple had decided that they invented the personal computer and, as years went by, to stubbornly hold onto their “crazy” keyboard configuration. To make me feel even more like a newbie, a certain suspicion that I had carried around for many years proved untrue. Ubuntu currently chooses gnome for it’s default GUI interface. Since gnome shares many similarities with Windows, I must admit, using Ubuntu had not prepared me for using a Mac as I assumed. I stumbled for a few days getting it set up just right to work for me. Finally, After a week or two of rewiring my brain to use the Alt key instead of the Ctrl key (I needed to use my PC keyboard because Apple keyboards seem to suck,) I finally felt “OS ambidextrous” enough to forge on.

One of the surprising things about Mac was how closed it felt compared to Linux or even Windows (As I get more familiar with the ins-and-outs of OSX, that perception  diminishes somewhat.) For example, it seems that all the option settings for Mac applications were, “I’m an idiot, just do it your way” and…well, that’s it. Apple does tend to make their software “blunt and to the point” (much like an Apple boardroom meeting I’m sure.) I do appreciate the rock-steady stability of OSX.

The hardware is just beautiful. It’s silent, cold, and light. It really is art and elegance. I do “dig it.” I have not started worshipping  it yet however.

Mapple People

I have gotten many compliments from several Mac users of my acquaintance and also in online communities. To my new status as a “switcher”, I typically get something like, “Welcome to the fresh, clean Apple air outside of the putrid, stinky torture-chamber-of-a-deep-dark-dungeon called Windows that you languished in all your life!.” … Wait a minute??? I still use Windows 7 (love it)  from time to time and there are still some things about OSX that drive me nuts! I must say, I do not want to be counted among the turtle-neck wearing fan-boys that have a hissy fit the instance Apple is criticized in any way, shape, or form (tune into MacBreak Weekly for examples.) The Mac culture is sort of weird (and I’ve thought so for years.) The “true believers” seem to be a throwback of the fringe-clad culture of the 60s. Apple has indeed encouraged it. I personally feel there are better things to get zealous about than whether or not you have a half-eaten piece of fruit icon opposite your screen. I’ll just take OSX as a  very nice *nix-based OS that I can use comfortably for network administration and development. Thank you very much!

(of course the real reason I posted was to show these two hilarious videos on mac culture.)

The latter video is even more hilarious if you’ve seen this original 1984 Apple ad.

Welcome to the new Brettic.us!

Besides changing my domain name, I decided to use a new blogging engine to boot. Drupal, while great, is just so much more than I needed. When I got looking into upgrading my drupal installation, it was apparent that Wordpress would be much easier to update (and if time ever permits, to extend.) Besides, the Wordpress administration layout is much better streamlined. Really, I just needed a blog with the ability to upload a page or two. Wordpress does this in a manner that is both simple and elegant.

Perhaps, I will even be inspired to blog about something worthwhile a little more often now with all this newly found ease!

Geeks and Gladiators

2000 years ago, it was Christians. When the Christians became the status quo, it was Jews and Muslims. Since reading recent blogs and after hanging out in a few chat rooms with the “techno-elite”, I’m thinking  the newest group to be “thrown to the lions” are PHP developers.

Why do you ask? Well, just the other day I was hanging out in an obscure chatroom on irc. The channel was the geographically-nearest enthusiast channel for Ubuntu (and I am an Ubuntu enthusiast.) As I was trying to drum up some conversation (mostly because I was bored) I mentioned that I was a PHP developer to stunning silence. Okay?

The next night I log on again, after all, these are supposed to be people that are promoting Ubuntu and usually that encompasses the ability to be friendly and non-condescending. (Please, don’t get me wrong, I feel that, typically, the Ubuntu community is probably the best community for helping everyone fit in.) So, this time no chat is going on (as usual) and I sit idly by until I see some chatter (pretty standard and I was in a few other channels at the moment also.) One of the users (a very prolific and well-known contributor to Ubuntu in my relative geographic domain) was commenting that he had decided to use a certain application. However, he quipped, “Too bad it’s PHP.” Okay, that got my attention. There’s a conversation starter. I write, “Now I see why when I mentioned that I was a PHP developer, the room got really quiet.” Ha ha. I think I got a LOL or two. More silence. I then express how I’m always a little surprised that the django and rails crowd seem to feel some contempt for PHP. Longer silence. Finally, the other fellow posts something along the lines that PHP sucks. Mr. “Ubuntu Loyal” agrees with a two-worder meant more as a textual “high five.” I promptly agree that there is a lot of spaghetti code written by “newbies” in PHP, but that it’s not impossible to write good code using it. To that, I get a very condescending and elitist remark from the other fellow. It was along the lines of, “If you still use PHP, you are still a newbie.” What?! Well, that really ticked me off! I have over 9 years of Web development experience. This means, in my relatively short time in life, I have invested a large portion of my career devoted to writing web software. I consider myself a professional. Who does this elitist punk think he is calling me a “newbie!?” when I express my outrage, Ubuntu-man proceeds to tell me, very non-specifically, why PHP sucks. Basically, he tells me nothing new. He later back-pedals somewhat to convey that it’s the developers preference that really matters. I suppose I’m still a “newbie” by his estimation though. Anyway, I was a bit stunned by this irrational behavior. Was it warranted? Is PHP a truly awful language? Yes, and no.

PHP Complaints

PHP was originally envisioned as more of a templating engine. It began its humble roots in this manner just like many other world-changing web technologies. As more time went on, more feature requests were proposed, and more were implemented, until a “c-like” (block structured, procedural) language emerged. Now, I will take some liberty to make an assumption or two…

Because PHP grew as a collection of functions that are useful for Web development, higher-language programming syntax was not incorporated (Okay, assuming done. Moving on…) One of the chief complaints from the python and ruby-rousers is that PHP has no notion of name space (update. PHP 5.3 and 6.0 now have namespace syntax.) Name space is the practice of enveloping related functions and properties under a common container. The idea is that you can have a save() function in two entirely different name spaces because you can refer to each function with a name-space prefix first. For example, to save a database record, I could call a function named database.save(). That function would not be confused with the whale.save() function by the compiler because “database” and “whale” are different code containers. PHP haters complain that this forces PHP extension makers to create overly-long names and makes PHP less modular (because every single function is in scope.)

Another complaint is that variables are loosely typed (implicit.) That is to say, if I set a variable to “hello world”, PHP automatically assumes a string and converts that variable to a string type. if I set a variable to the numeral 1, PHP assumes I meant an integer…you get the idea. So what’s the problem? Well, without going overboard here, let’s say that my first variable is named $a (PHP variables begin with the dollar sign) and my second varible is named $b. When you write the expression: $a + $b, because one of the variables is of the string type: $a, PHP converts $a to an integer (0) and the result is just “1″. If I change $a to the literal number 2, PHP now makes an integer assumption and adds the two integers to make the result: 3. Critics of PHP complain that implicit typing creates more opportunities for bugs.

I’m just going to bunch together a few of the most common complaints that remain. PHP has no default caching mechanism. PHP uses anonymous arrays, PHP only has UNIX dates (1970-2038.) There are many other “band-wagon” and “brain-stormed” reasons. Many of which are deservedly so. Admittedly, It’s not a perfect language, but does it really hold you back so effectively as to engender contempt?

So yes, PHP has it’s limitations. Those of us who embrace PHP and use it on a daily basis are aware of PHP’s short-comings. But, just like any other language with “snags” (no programming language is perfect) we have learned to get around them to get the job done. I cannot say at this point that any of the issues complained about has created any significant roadblocks for me. In fact, a significant number of popular free open source web software out there is written in–you guessed it–PHP! If it’s so bad, why do these developers not switch to python or ruby? A few examples are drupal and wordpress (this blog is powered by drupal wordpress.) So, according to the “rail-heads” and “django-divas” we are led to believe that PHP programmers, such as the coders for drupal and wordpress are basically ignorant and coding with one brain-lobe tied behind their backs!

Irrational and unwarranted nonsense!

It’s almost to the point of paranoia. It reminds me of the Apple ads trying to convince you that everybody hates Vista. So, don’t use it or you’ll be sorry! As much as I would love a mac, I actually have Vista, and I like it! Developers with a few years of good PHP programming behind them actually like it as well!

Again, I promise that clean, easily-refactorable, and intuitive code can be, and is, written in PHP! For example, name space really isn’t the issue that the rhetoric suggests. I mean, really, how much harder is it to write mysql_connect() as opposed to mysql.connect()? (yes, it’d just be connect() if name space were declared but still not that big of an issue.) You can emulate name spaces by writing PHP’s code into your own objects which can be written very clear and concise just like any other high-level language. It all depends on the developer. Certainly not a “show stopper.” Furthermore, PHP 5 fixes a lot of the issues that have been criticized in the past. For example, I mentioned implicit types. PHP 5 supports type hinting. The difference is that you can choose to use it. If you have something simple you’re working on, you can choose not too. Some people actually consider implicit types as a convenience. I think it’s very convenient to be able to choose. In the several years I have been developing with PHP, rarely has implicit typing been an issue. Maybe the critics are just lazy programmers that need the compiler to babysit them. On that note, I recently read a post from a developer who stated that one of the many reason he hated PHP so bad was the lack of op caching. Even though it’s not built into the core of PHP, there is a free caching extension called APC. The manual gives you easy steps on how to install it. Again, you have the choice to use it or not. And speaking of extensions, the new PDO database abstraction extension is simply awesome!

I have heard a famous purveyor of a popular web framework rail on PHP citing that “his way” is more natural for web development. What he was really saying is that his framework that is built on another language is easier and faster than developing PHP. Unfortunately, he gives the impression that his preferred language is better for Web development than PHP. In reality, he is comparing a framework for rapid web development to a language. Not a fair comparison. While, I agree that the MVC model for web development works well, I think he is being disingenuous in his notion that his framework is the only way to accomplish this “natural way.”  For example, there are numerous PHP frameworks that allow you to use the MVC model of development (my favorite is codeigniter.)

No Language is perfect. Even so, PHP is a great choice for beginners and pros alike.

I do admit that, because PHP doesn’t enforce a model for development (you can write procedural or object oriented code), programmers with little experience can write pretty awful and almost impossible-to-maintain code. But hey, you can write crappy code in any language!

PHP was designed to be a convenient language to learn and just knock stuff out (email forms, website authentication, etc.) And it performs this amazingly well!  Web applications are more frequently simple than not. I have never felt held back by what I could or could not perform using PHP. I can also note, from a perspective of enterprise, PHP scales up just fine. The large variety of Web applications available that are written in PHP is proof. It all comes down to how smartly they were built. Facebook works just fine folks! Yes, it’s true, compiled code will always outperform code compiled on-the-fly, but python and ruby aren’t compiled either (besides, compiled code makes web development a pain in the backside IMHO.)

So yes, PHP may not be a perfect and high-level language. But then again, you don’t need a nail gun to build a bird house, a hammer works just fine. Don’t believe the hype! PHP works amazingly well for what it was meant to do. I wear a badge of pride that I call myself a PHP developer, so should you. Stand up for yourself!

Well, it’s been several months/years/millennium since my last blog post. However, lately, there have been a number of cool tech gadgets that have been released and I need a place to spout off my geek enthusiasm.

I am really digging the simplicity of Google’s new browser called Chrome. In case you haven’t been following the “Internets” these days, Chrome is Google’s attempt at a “new approach to the web browser.” Okay, so you may ask, “why do we need yet another web browser?” I mean, we do have Microsoft’s Internet Explorer (version 7.0 isn’t too terrible.) We have the very good and versatile Mozilla Firefox (my personal pick for quite a few years.) Don’t forget the under-rated and less-used Opera or the beautiful and refined Apple Safari (mostly used by the minority, techo-ellitist gang we like to call mac users who equate luxuriant expense with quality.) Google is touting that Chrome is different because it’s built for running the newly-prevalent torrent of Web applications that are coming on stage in today’s Web 2.0 world. Of course, some of the best examples include many of Google’s offerings such as Gmail and Google Docs. Because of the heavy client-side processing nature of these new Web applications, Chrome has some innovations that attempt to make “cloud computing” somewhat more palatable. The first innovation is that each browser tab is a browser unto itself. This means (for you tech savy individuals out there) that each tab “window” has it’s own process. That means that if one of your tabs hangs, only that tab needs killing. In other words, one tab doesn’t take down the whole browser (I wish they had a linux version. Firefox is always hanging for me in Ubuntu!) The second innovation (Among others. See Google’s comic book explanation for more information.) is new javascript engine called V8 that is supposed to increase browser speed for client-side processing and handle memory better (think leaving firefox running all day.)

So, being the early adopter that I am, I immediately jumped on the bandwagon and downloaded a copy of Chrome. I am using it to write this blog post actually. I must say the minimalist nature of it is refreshing. I have a lot of browser real estate for one. I always cringe when I use someone’s computer with their 8 toolbars stacked up taking half the screen. It’s difficult to re-train my eyes to look somewhere near the lower middle of the screen just to see the Web page contents! Chrome has none of that (so far.) For example, there is no status bar at the bottom (although you get an unobtrusive pop-up near the bottom as you load a page which is then automatically hidden once the page is loaded.) If you need to do search, you just type your search in the address bar. Of course the search defaults to Google but you can select other search engines as your default. And, yes, it does appear to run client-side javascript at noticeably-superior speed.

So the question is, does it unseat Firefox? For me, not quite yet. As a developer, I still find 3rd-party extensions for Firefox extremely useful for debugging my work. Also, Chrome does have issues (despite Google’s bragging about their ability to test it on millions and billions of websites) with some well-known web sites such as facebook and hotmail. For me, the real test will be to see if I’m still using it once the novelty wears off.

Here’s a screencast video I made to demonstrate downloading the ie7 installer (the installer still does a WGA check but once you have the file, you can try and hack it.) I used firefox so I could pretend to be a browser running ie in windows to get past the first check. This is hard to see (I should have set my resolution higher.) By the way, I did not discover this. I heard it on a TWiT podcast and wanted to confirm this. So much for WGA checking.

Note: I should have increased my screen resolution. If you want to read what I did, follow the embedded youtube link.

Some folks who know me might say I have somewhat of an “addictive personality”. Not that I’m the “life of the party” or any other similar-meaning cliche. I really do tend to have my little vices. For instance, drinking Coke (the legal kind) is a habit I have tried to break for years…to no avail. Once upon a time, I ate a Whopper from Burger King every day for almost a year during college. The next year, I ate a Chicken Sandwich from Arby’s so frequently they started calling me “Chicken Man” at the drive up window. Yes, you guessed it, I have “what the doctors might call, ‘a little bit of a weight problem.’” (Crazily, I was somewhat slender during the college years. I guess I played enough hacky-sack to offset. Actually, I made my first Website in college. WARNING: Lame Content!)

Lately, my greatest guilty pleasure is the podcast. Which, in layman’s terms, is simply a privately-produced audio-cast, usually in the form of an mp3 file for download. A simpler explanation might be: a radio show on the Internet that you can download. I can’t seem to get enough of them. I am constantly checking TWIT for a new `Security Now`, `This Week in Tech`, `Mac Break` (I don’t even own a Mac), or `KFI Tech Guy` (surprisingly, my 2nd favorite to `Security Now`.) Thanks to my Woot script, I snagged an ultra-cheap SanDisk mp3 player. Couple that with my Walmart FM-modulator/SD-or-USB-Drive mp3 player and I’m now listening to PHP Architect on the morning drive instead of NPR. Instead of surfing for tech news at work, I’m listening to it while I work. Before I say this makes me more productive, I might mention the occasional podcast-inspired surfing tangent (Now if I could only get better inspired to finish my website.)

If you are a techie-nerd who likes to stay abreast of the latest-and-greatest that the wide world of geekdom can offer, you better check out podcasts (chances are you already have.)

Well folks, from the mouth of babes — my babe anyway, “It’s sterile & lacks character!” I guess you can’t please everyone all of the time.

What she doesn’t know is that I plan to skin it one of these days. That interprets to, of course, “I’ll start in two months, do half the job, and finish 3 months later when I’ve run out of Star Trek episodes to watch (from our newest season DVD collection) and I drank too much Coca-cola that day (or night.)

Personally, I thought this was a pretty slick out-of-the-box theme. What do you guys think?

One of my favorite geeky subjects is Internet Security. At my job, I have been dubbed “The Security Nazi” — Not very nice (and not that I’ve done any really anal security things to deserve it either

The fact of the matter is that there are few Internet users out there that know or care about Internet security. The result is alot of garbage to wade through for the rest of us — mostly spam from all the bot net zombies out there helping bot net masters make an unscrupulous living of sorts! Unfortunately, there are many smart and eager Internet criminals out there waiting like tarantulas to lure us into their Webs and suck us dry (or at least our PC resources and bandwidth.)

Thank heaven for Security Now!

Security Now! couples two of my favorite computer-world icons. Do you remember Call for Help on Tech TV? That’s right, it’s Leo Laporte himself, the purveyor of geekdom to the masses. I learned alot from that show before I started working professionally. My parents groaned each time I commandered the remote control to make sure I didn’t miss an essential episode (they all were.)

The next guy is none other than Steve Gibson, the security guru from Gibson Research Corporation. He’s the guy that brought the Internet world to attention about Spyware (in fact, he coined the phrase.) I’ve been going to this site for years. It’s were I learned the foundation of my Internet security knowledge. I had never even heard of a bot net before grc.com.

So they’ve both teamed up to talk about a different security topic each week. Of course I faithfully tune in! Now my wife groans when I bring the laptop to bed with my headphones to make sure I don’t miss any of those essential tips and insights. Some of the highlights have been: Gaining a better understanding of Internet cryptology methods, discovering Hamachi and iPig, and learning about new exploits to watch out for.

I highly recommend this show to Network admins and newbies alike.

Being the PHP aficionado I am, I tend sometimes to stay in my little PHP bubble (ASP made me distrust & dispise the Web scripting world.) Every now and then I come out and see something that is a breath of fresh air.

Ruby on Rails (or ROR) is yet another framework for Web applications. It’s not kludgy like Java and .NET though. What I mean (or meant) is that the learning curve is moderate as opposed to being quite daunting to plunge into like other frameworks for Web.

Ruby is a relatively new language on the block, but is gaining popularity in the development world for its simple and clean syntax and portability.

Ruby on Rails is easy to setup on windows so you can play with it yourself before committing to turn it up on your live site. O’Reilly OnLamp.com has an excellent tutorial to get you up and running with a web editable database in minutes!

I certainly plan on giving it a whirl within the next few months.