Menu
A preamble: I've been using PHP for over 8 year every now and then, but never used a framework, only wrote scripts and addons. Mostly I used code generators like CodeCharge Studio or custom code for intranet apps. Since I am ok with design patterns, Zend framework doesn't look too hard for me to learn.
Starting with ZF: I've a read the QuickStart manual and wonder what can advance me to being fast with basic Zend web app development. As I understand there are repetitious tasks that take a lot of time.
Questions: For instance, for almost every site I develop there must be User Registration process and I don't want to reinvent the wheel and spend a week for Login/Profile forms.
1) Do you, Zend developers, use some kind of prototypes you've written to roll out a basic site quickly?
2) Or are there some site source codes to be built upon already available?
3) Is there some app generator or minor tool for pages with grids, records etc?
P.S. I stopped learning EJB over 6 years ago because I didn't have anyone to ask similar questions. TIA!
681
1) Do ZF developers use some kind of prototypes to roll out a basic site quickly?
The Zend Framework is a little too young yet for components in this area, however there is an unofficial PEAR channel. As of March '09 the thought leaders still seem to be debating the best ways to organize everything. I personally am most excited about the domain-driven initiatives as they will be the most robust.
2) Are there some site source codes to be built upon already available?
The best sources right now are the blogs, sites, and repositories of ZF thought leaders. Here's some links to get you started:
Brian here in the comments notes Rob Allen's tutorial. It was the first to really go beyond the basics and is the foundation for his book Zend Framework In Action.
Padraic Brady's blog application tutorial and svn repository has been one of the most complete examples showing how a lot of the components fit together. It's being migrated to an online book called Survive The Deep End but will take some time as he mentions in his blog that he's extremely busy.
Matthew Weier O'Phinney has done a few interesting setups which you can read about and clone from his github repository. The 'bugapp' branch especially in that repo has some interesting techniques. He's been working locally lately so the latest updates are in his blog.
Damien Mathieu has been working on a DRY framework based on best practices.
3) Is there some app generator or minor tool for pages with grids, records etc?
There is a scaffolding-generator as a part of Zend_Tool slated for release in ZF v1.8. It's currently in the incubator, I tried it last week and it works, but there are not many components generated in its current state.
Last week I finally took the time to gather sources together (which includes the Stack Overflow ZF questions feed). I've put them under a Zend Framework tag in Google Reader and will be refining the feed sources over time. In case you'd rather manage them yourself, here is the current OPML.
Best of luck! -Matt
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<opml version="1.0">
<head>
<title>expertseries | Zend Framework | Google Reader</title>
</head>
<body>
<outline title="Zend Framework" text="Zend Framework">
<outline text="A.J. Brown" title="A.J. Brown" type="rss"
xmlUrl="http://feeds.feedburner.com/ajbrowns_blog" htmlUrl="http://ajbrown.org/blog"/>
<outline text="Armando Padilla" title="Armando Padilla"
type="rss" xmlUrl="http://www.armando.ws/?feed=rss2" htmlUrl="http://www.armando.ws"/>
<outline text="Benjamin Eberlei" title="Benjamin Eberlei"
type="rss"
xmlUrl="http://www.whitewashing.de/about/rss/all" htmlUrl="http://www.whitewashing.de"/>
<outline text="Bradley Holt" title="Bradley Holt" type="rss"
xmlUrl="http://bradley-holt.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default" htmlUrl="http://bradley-holt.blogspot.com/"/>
<outline text="Cal Evans" title="Cal Evans" type="rss"
xmlUrl="http://blog.calevans.com/feed/" htmlUrl="http://blog.calevans.com"/>
<outline text="Chris Hope" title="Chris Hope" type="rss"
xmlUrl="http://feedproxy.google.com/ElectricToolboxBlog" htmlUrl="http://www.electrictoolbox.com"/>
<outline text="Codecaine.co.za" title="Codecaine.co.za"
type="rss" xmlUrl="http://www.codecaine.co.za/rss/" htmlUrl="http://www.codecaine.co.za/"/>
<outline text="Douglas Brown" title="Douglas Brown"
type="rss" xmlUrl="http://www.brownphp.com/feed/" htmlUrl="http://www.brownphp.com"/>
<outline text="Federico Cargnelutti"
title="Federico Cargnelutti" type="rss"
xmlUrl="http://blog.fedecarg.com/feed/" htmlUrl="http://blog.fedecarg.com"/>
<outline text="Jani Hartikainen" title="Jani Hartikainen"
type="rss" xmlUrl="http://codeutopia.net/blog/feed/" htmlUrl="http://codeutopia.net/blog"/>
<outline text="Juozas Kaziukėnas" title="Juozas Kaziukėnas"
type="rss" xmlUrl="http://dev.juokaz.com/feed/rdf" htmlUrl="http://dev.juokaz.com"/>
<outline text="Matthew Turland" title="Matthew Turland"
type="rss" xmlUrl="http://ishouldbecoding.com/atom/1" htmlUrl="http://ishouldbecoding.com/"/>
<outline text="Matthew Weier O'Phinney"
title="Matthew Weier O'Phinney" type="rss"
xmlUrl="http://weierophinney.net/matthew/feeds/index.rss2" htmlUrl="http://weierophinney.net/matthew/"/>
<outline text="Michelangelo van Dam"
title="Michelangelo van Dam" type="rss"
xmlUrl="http://www.dragonbe.com/feeds/posts/default" htmlUrl="http://www.dragonbe.com/"/>
<outline text="Mike Rötgers" title="Mike Rötgers" type="rss"
xmlUrl="http://www.roetgers.org/feed/" htmlUrl="http://www.roetgers.org"/>
<outline text="Nick Lo" title="Nick Lo" type="rss"
xmlUrl="http://www.ingredients.com.au/nick/feed/" htmlUrl="http://www.ingredients.com.au/nick"/>
<outline text="Pádraic Brady" title="Pádraic Brady"
type="rss"
xmlUrl="http://blog.astrumfutura.com/feeds/index.rss2" htmlUrl="http://blog.astrumfutura.com/"/>
<outline text="Raphael Stolt" title="Raphael Stolt"
type="rss"
xmlUrl="http://raphaelstolt.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default" htmlUrl="http://raphaelstolt.blogspot.com/"/>
<outline text="Rob Allen" title="Rob Allen" type="rss"
xmlUrl="http://akrabat.com/feed/" htmlUrl="http://akrabat.com"/>
<outline text="Robert Basic" title="Robert Basic" type="rss"
xmlUrl="http://feeds2.feedburner.com/robertbasic/blog/" htmlUrl="http://robertbasic.com/blog"/>
<outline text="Stack Overflow ZF" title="Stack Overflow ZF"
type="rss"
xmlUrl="http://stackoverflow.com/feeds/tag/zend-framework" htmlUrl="http://stackoverflow.com/questions/tagged/zend-framework"/>
<outline text="Thomas Weidner" title="Thomas Weidner"
type="rss"
xmlUrl="http://www.thomasweidner.com/flatpress/feed/rss2/" htmlUrl="http://www.thomasweidner.com/flatpress/"/>
<outline text="Tom Graham" title="Tom Graham" type="rss"
xmlUrl="http://www.noginn.com/feed/" htmlUrl="http://www.noginn.com"/>
<outline text="Zend Dev Zone" title="Zend Dev Zone"
type="rss"
xmlUrl="http://feeds.feedburner.com/ZendDeveloperZone" htmlUrl="http://devzone.zend.com/"/>
</outline>
</body>
</opml>
Akra's DevNotes has a great tutorial that creates a sample application:
http://akrabat.com/zend-framework-tutorial/
This is where I started working with the ZF.
3
If you're already acquainted with MVC and design patterns, then why not look into tools to helps you code faster?
Although I generally like free tools, I must say using Zend Studio IDE (based on Eclipse) helps going faster (30-day free trial).
The main points (apart from the debugger/profiler):
and -last but not least-
Just make sure to have a computer with a whole lot of memory!
2
If you love us? You can donate to us via Paypal or buy me a coffee so we can maintain and grow! Thank you!
Donate Us With
