Zend Framework 1.6 takes Web development to the next level
Zend Framework is probably the most popular Web framework right now, and this is why:
- It’s simple and easy to learn
- Offers extensive documentation
- Has a modular and flexible architecture
- Follows strict coding standards
- Provides extensive unit tests
- It’s supported by a large community of developers
- Has everything you need to build Web applications
Zend Framework 1.6 features
- SOAP (server/client)
- File Transfer Component
- Paginator Component
- Unit Testing Harness for Controllers
- ReCaptcha Service
Other features:
- Dojo Integration
- Tooling Project: Project Asset Management
- Tooling Project: Command Line Interface
- New Media View Helpers (Flash, Quicktime, Object, and Page)
- Text/Figlet Support
Zend Framework is becoming the perfect framework for building enterprise Web applications. Version 1.6 RC1 is now available:
Update
Tim Fountain responded to this post:
Zend’s view on component development for ZF has been that they wish to focus on areas where they feel they can offer value to the PHP community as a whole. For this reason they have delibrately avoided developing components for things already well served by existing open source PHP projects. This makes complete sense. But as a developer coming to ZF afresh, unless you already know about these projects, you’re going to see some pretty big holes in ZF as a platform on which to build your applications.
Read more: Zend Framework in the enterprise
how to create application with zend?
technology
July 23, 2008 at 9:52 am
@technology
there are two good tutorials here:
An Example Zend Framework Blog Application
Zend Framework Tutorial
James
July 23, 2008 at 10:43 am
As much as love ZF, I still think it has a way to go before it can be considered the ‘perfect’ framework for building enterprise applications.
Having spent a couple of months with it, areas in which it is particularly lacking (IMHO):
* ORM – table data gateway is fine for relatively simple stuff but can be a pain as you move beyond that
* Database migrations
* Application deployments
I know there are third party libraries/apps that can help out in each of these areas; but these are still big holes in ZF if you take it as a standalone platform and compare it to its competitors. I hope in future the framework will either improve in these areas or provide easier integration with the third party solutions.
Sorry to be negative, I know ZF is still relatively young in the framework scene (and it is improving at an impressive pace) but I feel it will be playing catchup for a while yet. Looking forward to 1.6 though!
Tim Fountain
July 23, 2008 at 6:11 pm
Zend Framework is complex and not easy to learn man. It uses PHP5 advanced OO features that only few developers understand. Its not a ready to go MVC framework (unless you are using their comercial IDE). Is powerful and well designed though but already found some important limitations.
knoopx
July 23, 2008 at 6:48 pm
Federico, I noticed you were working on Zend_Import, is this open/available?
Steve
July 23, 2008 at 11:47 pm
@Tim
Thanks for sharing your opinion. I’ve updated the post with your response.
@knoopx
What limitations did you find?
@Steve
Yes, I’m using it to import all my data feeds:
Zend_Import
Zend_Import_Adapter_Array
Zend_Import_Adapter_DbSelect
Zend_Import_DataSource_Abstract
Zend_Import_DataSource_Csv
Zend_Import_DataSource_Xml
Zend_Import_Exception
Zend_Import_Protocol_Abstract
Zend_Import_Protocol_Ftp
Zend_Import_Protocol_Http
Unfortunately this component is not open source, I was going to propose it a year ago, but Zend’s proposal system put me off.
Federico
July 24, 2008 at 9:38 am
@Federico
Well almost all limitations I found are related to the database classes (focused on MySql). Is the only thing I really dislike from Zend Framework. For me they all are alpha-state and over-bloated, so I just ignore them. Also other libraries seem to be powerful but they really are not (HTTPClient limitations caused me to rewrite major part of an application)
knoopx
July 24, 2008 at 1:04 pm
I’m one of those few developers that understand fz. In fact i’m using it for my tesis job. I believe this is the best thing cound happend in php world at the moment. In the future may be zend corp put the zend framework in c as part of the php distribution an then all php developers will be allowed to share and reuse really our work. If this happend in the future i will be coding real OO apps that run very fast. More faster than Django apps.
yeiniel
January 19, 2009 at 8:56 pm