Let's kickstart this blogpost by defining what an iterator actually is. According to wikipedia, an iterator is:

"an object which allows a programmer to traverse through all the elements of a collection, regardless of its specific implementation."

A collection can pretty much be anything. The most obvious sources would be arrays, but other than that, iterations can be done over database resultsets, strings, datetime intervals, directories, file content and XML listings, to name a few. The real benefit of using a standard iterator implementation, is that every implemented iterator does its job obeying a standard interface. Whether said collection is a database resultset or a directory structure; it can be iterated using the same method names. And that's neat, because it will save us developers a trip to the manual on many occasions (... yeah it does... just admit it... ).

Saturday the 12th of April a delegation of 8 Ibuildings employees attended the 3rd PFCongrez event in Maarssen, NL. This yearly event is initiated by an association surrounding the popular Dutch website PHPFreakz.nl. As always, conferences like these provide an excellent opportunity to put some faces with the names you got to know over resource websites or IRC.

A comfortable train trip brought us to Utrecht, from where we got on the bus to the location where the conference was held. Some introducing and handshaking later we sat down on some not-too-comfortable chairs, anxiously awaiting the line-up for the day.

At Ibuildings we highly value the principle of 'using the right tool for the job'. Of course: our own business framework ATK and our CMS WDE get our special attention, but we don't want to close our eyes for other open source frameworks or content management systems that are out there. Each of them excel at their own special field of expertise and it's just that what makes them suitable for the job at hand (or not).

Introduction
As a former active member of the community website phpfreakz.nl I still tend to pay this site a visit every once in a while. Phpfreakz.nl is a Dutch forumsite which concentrates on webdevelopment and, obviously, PHP in particular. The majority of phpfreakz's user base exists of novices and hobbyists, supported and pushed into the right directions by helpful advanced members or even professionals. Activities around phpfreakz.nl are growing lately and this year the board even organized their first congress on which Ibuildings held a presentation as well.