Where do I start with Zend Framework?

Question

I have been coding my PHP applications in Notepad. I want to take it a step up and do it professional, and as far as I can tell using the Zend Framework is where to start. I have been reading the documentation and quick start and a few tutorials but I am still completely lost.

• Is Zend on your local machine or on the remote server?
• Is the "MVC" model different files? A file for the GUI, A File for the Functions used to get data and the database?
• Is there a tutorial that REALLY goes into detail about how you can accomplish things with Zend Framework, and how to get started?

The reason I am asking this is because the tutorials I have been reading still leave me confused and I am very anxious to start doing this professionally. I would like to utilize this new set of tools! Please help :)

Answer 1

• Is Zend on your local machine or on the remote server?

Zend is PHP code, therefore it runs on the webserver.

Answer 2

The quickstart tutorial is a great way to begin, maybe read it again? There's also this one:

http://www.cyberciti.biz/tips/zend-framework-php-tutorial.html

From the above link:

This tutorial is intended to give a very basic introduction to using the Zend Framework to write a very basic database driven application.

And here's a list of ZF tutorials for beginners:

Authentication Tutorial: http://akrabat.com/zend-auth-tutorial/

Source Files here

Database Tutorial: http://akrabat.com/zend-framework-tutorial/

Source Files here

Forms Tutorial: http://akrabat.com/2008/02/21/simple-zend_form-example/

Source Files here

File Upload Tutorial: http://akrabat.com/2008/04/07/simple...pload-example/

Source Files here

Layout Tutorial: http://akrabat.com/2007/12/11/simple...ayout-example/

Source Files here

I would make sure their not for much earlier versions of the ZF before diving in.

Answer 3

Professionally written PHP applications do not require a framework. Frameworks exist for people that have been doing some of the same repetitive tasks repetitively and desire to change their own workflow.

You should start by researching the "MVC design pattern" in general (as it applies to many things outside of PHP) and get deeper into the concepts of Professional PHP before starting with such a large framework as Zend Framework.

Use a framework because you know you need to, and not for any other reason.

Answer 4

This tutorial is definitely worth a look, as it walks you through the creation of a fully-functioning web application using ZF 1.8 (at time of writing). The author also updates it each time new versions of the ZF are released.

http://akrabat.com/zend-framework-tutorial/

Answer 5

Hey Chris,

We've all been there before!

Zend Framework is a pretty powerful MVC framework for PHP. There are scads of tutorials all over the net. The quickstart tutorial is good to get a general skeleton of an application, but I found Akrabat's Zend Framework tutorial to be a better real world example.

ZF is fantastic when you're at the point where you need to develop robust applications and need a whole suite of libraries to accompany this - ZF's library is huge and all the components play quite nicely with each other (although, you can rip them out individually and add them to any project). The downside to ZF is that because it is so flexible, there can be quite a bit of complexity in setting it up.

To be honest, if starting to get your feet wet with MVC applications, you might try something a little bit more straight forward. I find CodeIgniter to have a very short learning curve while maintaining the fundamentals of MVC design. CakePHP also walks you through the steps quite deliberately.

Answer 6

zendcasts.com is doing very good Zend Frameword casts. It's really a good place to start.

Answer 7

Start with the official webinars. Very easy to digest and a requirement for a beginner.

Answer 8

Hi! Someone have used Zend Framework on NetBeans 6.9? How do I that? Thanks!