I am a newbie of Zend Framework.
I downloaded the Zend Framework and then followed the official quickstart tutorial to build a very simple registration form. But after that, I find very hard to learn different elements of Zend Framework.
Many tutorials mention frontController and registerAutoload() in the bootstrap file. However, it seems that I can't see it again in the code in version 1.8 (both in the official quickstart tutorial and Getting Started with Zend Framework 1.8). Many tutorials contain the old version of code and it seems very different in v1.8.
I start with writing registration form with password confirmation. I read the official document and find the custom validator for password confirmation. It just puts the class there and doesn't mention how I can use it. I don't know where I should put this file and I can't find any hints in Google. The "class not found" error always makes me sick (I've tried addPrefixElement, set_include_path but they don't work).
User registration, email activation, login, access control are very common tasks. But I don't even find a piece of sample code in v1.8 that I can run in my machine. I am very frustrated about Zend Framework.
Does anyone give me some advices?
I have also just started learning the zend framework. I also find alot of old tutorials that make learning confusing and hard,
but there are some resources that I find help in learning the zend framework:
http://www.zendcasts.com/ - they have tutorials on ZF1.8 already, like Bootstrapping using Zend_Application, etc.
Some useful blogs that might help:
http://weierophinney.net/matthew/
http://www.thomasweidner.com/flatpress/index.php
http://smartycode.com/zf/
http://codeutopia.net/blog/
Forums to ask your questions:
http://www.nabble.com/Zend-Framework-Community-f16154.html - alot of ZF developers seem to be here to answer your questions :) much more than the official Zend Forums below ...
http://forums.zend.com/viewforum.php?f=69
As to class not found, I think you didn't autoload?
http://framework.zend.com/manual/en/zend.loader.autoloader-resource.html
Parts of Zend Framework have changed slightly in the 1.8 release but everything should be backwards compatible so all code example written using the 1.* release series should still work with little or no modification. The main areas that are different are
Zend Loader (related to register_autoload) which now has several improvements related to performance and some slight differences in its API (with a PHP warning if you use the old way). I wouldn't worry about this too much as a beginner - just follow the tutorial or continue to use include/require statements until you become annoyed with adding them all the time!
Zend Application which basically allows you to create your set-up and initialisation code with less fuss. Again, you don't have to use it and you can happily write a manual bootstrap class to get you used to how the framework is put together.
With regards to getting started I would highly recommend getting your head around the Zend Controller component, particularly the front controller part and this diagram.
For authentication look at Zend Auth, for e-mail see Zend Mail, for access control see Zend Acl and for forms and validation see Zend Form, Zend Validate and Zend Filter. The form and validation components will explain about paths and adding your own custom validators and form elements.
The other area of importance is Zend Db which allows you to persist your data to a database. There is also Zend View which represents the view layer in the MVC stack. In my opinion these are the key components of a basic ZF application. From there you can explore the other components as and when you need them.
Don't forget that the Zend Framework is specifically designed to be loosely coupled and it is very easy to use a different component from another project for a particular task. Sometimes it is necessary to write your own components too. If there is a component you would prefer to use over the Zend component then go ahead and do so.
Honestly, the documentation is very good although it is hard to navigate for beginners. Once you get your head around the core components everything will become a lot clearer.
Also try following this tutorial. It will help explain a lot of the basics.
I recommend these video tutorials pu up by a guy called Alex, he keeps them up to date and releases new ones all the time,they are all relevant to ZF 1.8 and 1.9.
He has even a detailed video tutorial covering ACL, login forms etc. (my first steps with Zend were easier thanks to him!)
http://alex-tech-adventures.com/development/zend-framework.html?start=15
- his site is a bit comfusing but worth the time in figuring it out :)
Cheers
Roman
Some tips:
Here is a nice diagram of the Dispatch process
http://nethands.de/download/zenddispatch_en.pdf
It is much easier to understand ZF if you are experienced in OOP / OOP Design Patterns
When I first stumbled across ZF I had little knowledge of OOP. ZF prompted me to learn OOP which was a very good thing.
Distinguish between the 'magic' of ZF and the actual ZF Architecture
Although I have a good understanding of ZF Classes I still get confused when ZF adds its 'magic' to the mix.
When I say 'magic' I am referring to things like
the default objects loaded and used if none specified, and
url-controllername-filepath-filename inflections / naming conventions.
config settings-to-class-instantiation mappings
ZF is a bit like a crack-dealer in the sense that the 'Getting Started Tutorials' get you hooked straight away. They perform so much magic that it makes you think
.oO(Wow - how simple was that! This framework is cool!)
Then as soon as you start to try to do your own thing - the magic starts to get really confusing.
So - my tactic is to remove as much ZF magic as possible. If you have the option to specify a class to use, or a router to use, then specify it. Don't let Zend do it for you.
Then when something weird is happening you can find the bugs more easily.
Also, if you specify the locations of classes/ paths as (opposed to letting ZF magically inflect paths and find scripts), then you do not have to worry about questions of 'where to put this? , where to put that?' - you just put things where you want them to be and explicitly point ZF to them.
As you get more familiar with ZF you might then want to let it take over and do some magic for you. Only then can you really understand why that magic is convenient.
As Tim Wardle said in another answer - favour require statements over zend loader until you really need it.
If you are a PHP design house that churns out 10 website projects a week, then ZF Magic can be really useful. If you are designing your first ZF app - then 'reducing complexity' is a more important design goal than 're-usability'.
Browse the code
It might seem obvious but one of the best ways to learn about the ZF is to look at the code.
Again the ZF magic can get in the way - I often want to look at a method's arguments to discover what i need to pass in only to discover that it expects an ambiguous 'options array' (not exactly helpful). After a while, though, you start to notice the conventions used in how an 'option key' marries up to a getter/setter method. So, keep looking at the code and familiarising yourself with the 'ZF way'.
I 'ope that 'elps.
The Front Range PHP Users Group website has some presentations on Zend Framework which may be of use.
I have so much sympathy with you Billy. I am a newbie and the confusion between the old way and the new way is almost just too much to handle. Also see here for someone who points out some of the main differences:
http://crossfunctional.wordpress.com/2009/05/
All documentation, particularly Zend's documentation is absolutely horrible. It all assumes that you "know" where to put the snippets they are referring to and how they work together. If I already knew those things, I wouldn't need the documentation. No full example applications with authentication etc. that you can download and modify. I'm seriously regretting putting any time into trying to learning this framework. All examples that I can find are apparently for older versions. I followed one for authentication on youtube that was designed for 1.8 to the letter. It fails to work in 1.9.x. Can't get it to work for the life of me. Completely frustrated with Zend Framework!
Zend Framework has shifted from being a relatively accessible and simple system to a more complex entity. It has gone through a number of rapid developments over the past couple of years which have left a lot of older documentation around.
We have projects that are stuck on Version 1.7.x because the differences between that and the latest version are too great which makes the dev and testing time too expensive.
I like Zend Framework because it has so much depth to it but it is definitely a two edged sword for beginners.
I'd certainly recommend making use of the expertise of other users and search out some simple framework examples. ZF is highly adaptable but you need to try and work from the simplest case possible for your needs.
I think Matthew Weier o'Phinney, (search for 'Phly, boy, phly') is one of the more approachable members of the dev team and has loads of examples and ideas on his website.
Good luck!
Related
We have narrow down our search between Silex and Slim PHP frameworks for routing our REST APIs on our Apache/PHP/MySQL Server.
Both seem to have good reviews. Silex has probably a bigger community because it came from Symfony. But the documentation seems to be better in Slim.
What do you guys suggests? Any real world experience from production environments?
Sathish
I had the same choice to make, and I choose Silex, here is why :
Silex seems to have a bigger community than Slim, maybe it's just my point of view
It's based on Symfony components, so with a bit of reflection, you can use tips and workarounds which work for Symfony and apply them to Silex.
As it's based on Symfony it has a better integration with other bundle (for example Twig, which is for me necessary)
This Symfony base also garanty that it will be more "Long Term Support" that Slim, which is independent.
To conclude, the main argument is that is based on Symfony which has many advantage.
The Symfony Debug tools are the best thing on earth !!
Now I have two sites made with Twig and I'm really happy !
You can also see that, it's a technical comparison of these both frameworks :
https://michalzuber.wordpress.com/2015/04/02/silex-vs-slim-php-microframework-comparison/
Slim 3 is very light weight and well suited to APIs.
You can optionally inject a container (Pimple by default but any Container-Interop will work) when constructing your Slim app. The Silex app extends Pimple so is a container.
Require slim/twig-view if you need Twig.
Slim's Request and Response support PSR-7 HTTP message implementation.
On January 12th 2018, Fabien Potencier, main author of this micro-framework, wrote that Sensiolabs stops supporting Silex.
https://symfony.com/blog/the-end-of-silex
Quote from Silex official site:
Silex is in maintenance mode. Ends of life is set to June 2018. Use Symfony 4 instead. Read more on Symfony's blog.
Slim is better if you want to create apis as its light and fast. Hence slim provides you the DI and routes it is much more flexible to use your own libraries or plugins from laravel or symfony or any third party.
For example you can use sentinel from laravel for auth
TL;DR Choose Slim 4. "At its core, Slim is a dispatcher that receives an HTTP request, invokes an appropriate callback routine, and returns an HTTP response. That’s it.". That should be it.
Late to the party but nonetheless here's my 2 cents(!) on the topic especially for future-googlers about this topic (even though Silex has reached end of life); I'd go for Slim. Which I already did on my previous 2 projects and it never let me down. Before the "here's why" part I'd like to share my background in a nutshell; I've worked with CakePHP and Laravel (especially >=5.4, <5.8) (and also with Lumen) years and years ago, right before I introduced myself with Node.js. Since then almost all my work runs on Node.js in the cloud. Now there's Golang on the table... but that's another story. Due to the requirements (or I should say constraints) of the aforementioned 2 projects, I have to write PHP. Since all those years past with Node.js I suddenly realized that I've forgotten about PHP almost completely. But there were 2 things I remember crystal clear; I've suffered. A lot. Because of those frameworks.
Don't get me wrong former is the eldest one and the latter is the hipster of the pack, I respect them, their authors and their community. Everything has a reason to exist. But one is behemoth and the other one is magical (both not in a good way - I mean did you ever try to debug the Laravel with those facades and static methods and stuff?). OK I hear you, they are frameworks and they should do things for you (have you heard of Hollywood Principle), not everything for you. What this does mean to me is that they always whispering to your ear "our way or highway" (sometimes even yells). "Surely you can do this (say push a job to a queue, query your database, send email, etc.) but first do this, and then that" (maybe couple of more steps but this is not that bad). The bad thing about this is (not accusing anyone) I don't know what do they mean to the framework. They must do something meaningful, obviously though, I don't know what it is. Should I know? Yes, of course. I'm writing this application with that framework for God sake, I should know what it does. Version X was easy to grasp, but what about version Y, Z, T... Have you seen the version dropdown on the Laravel's documentation site? I took those steps because I've been told so. Again that's OK, fair is fair, those steps makes me achieve something far greater. But gradually I'm in their (respective authors') control. After that, even small change takes lots of searches on SO, GitHub issues, Google... Sometimes ends up with a success and most of the times don't. Either way the war against the framework must be declared.
In my point of view this is not how an open-source framework should be. I am vendor locked-in in some sense. Maybe I want to adhere PSR (not that because I'm an advisor recommendation freak, because PHP-FIG is a well-known group with standards almost for every aspect of the language - this is important; for the language, not for any framework). Let me ask you something; do you use Composer? If so why? Because it's standard (I'm not sure if it is)? Because everyone uses it? Because the needed package of yours recommends this way of installing? Actually the answer doesn't all that matter, at the end of the day you use it. And you can use it practically for every PHP framework/project. The Composer requires you to have PHP installed on the system at bare-minimum and coincidentally it's the only requirement. This is freedom, and I want that. I want to pick and choose a router or a container for my taste. Today this package, later something else.
Slim gave me that freedom, especially on version 4. It's community is small, it's foreseeable; it does so much less than the other, full-blown frameworks. Actually it's a micro-framework (although I wrote an MVC application and REST API server with it). Other packages' communities are what matters right now. You need a container, composer require php-di/php-di. Now think about it's community, since "your" application (hence the framework) is a part of it. You have a problem? Ask for help specifically for that package. Maybe someone using another framework (or someone using no framework at all - if there's any left nowadays) might help you with your problem. So you've gone framework-agnostic thanks to your setup. Don't you like PHP DI, well find yourself another PSR-11 compliant package. Same applies for almost every part of Slim - except the router (Nikic's FastRouter should ring a bell), although it's already a foundation for other routers I see so far.
Before I finish I should say that too, Lumen and Silex has big brothers. I've been through a handful of frustration moments with Lumen; when I say "I can't do [fill here with a not-so-common problem] with Lumen version X.Y" they say "Use Laravel instead, it is really easy to upgrade". It should be for God sake! They share the same blood. I wasn't ask for that. If I were like to use Laravel I would choose it in the beginning and not use the Lumen in the first place. There were some reasons I did choose Lumen, like there were some reasons the author write it too (which I don't know why, but still...). Lumen should be a lighter weight, micro-framework alternative to Laravel, not a stepping stone.
Choosing Slim has it's disadvantages too but I think it's about the perception. I want to know what's happening on my application given the circumstances. Isn't reasoning about actually that? Even if I'm going to this rocky road at least I know at the end my application will do exactly as I commanded, nothing more nothing less.
Thank you for your time and please excuse me for formatting.
The fact that Silex didn't support PSR-7 (at the time of writing this) a huge let down. It has so many good point already mentioned above. There is a plugin/extension that let you do that, however I don't see the point in adding this overhead when you are looking for a lightweight framework
At my office we currently use ZF1, and we're looking to use ZF2.
It takes us ages to put together simple websites because ZF just doesn't seem organised enough - it's almost a non-framework in my opinion.
Anyway, I was wondering if anyone's built a more 'standard' sort of framework on top, or skeleton application that is friendly to use and well documented - one that has all the kind of standard stuff you'd find in other more simple frameworks like CI/Cake/Symphony etc.
The reason I ask is because I don't think there's any way I can convince my boss that we should use something else, and also I think it would benefit the rest of the team hugely if the whole process could be simplified a bit.
Cheers,
John.
I wrote a blog post on this instead.. thought it might be more useful in that format :)
http://john-hunt.com/2013/03/08/php-frameworks-a-serious-issue/
I am in the process of migrating to a new PHP Framework. I have been involved in heavy development using the CodeIgniter Framework, but I am finding it a little too lightweight for my needs now.
I have boiled my choices down to either Zend Framework or Symfony. I know the learning curve for both is relatively high. However, I just wanted to get a rough idea of which will be worth getting stuck into (as I will be spending quite a lot of time getting familiar with the chosen framework).
If it helps narrow the answer down a little. I am not looking to build a simple blog or anything like that. I am in need for something that will support full-fledged development of e-commerce systems, customer relationship managers and content management systems.
Personally i have been working with ZF since it was in version 1.6, and i am pretty happy with it , I had seen very good improvement since 1.6 , but i think ZF missing some ideas :
1- ORM and later on very great implementation between ZF + Doctrine 1.2 has taken very popularity
and i honestly depend on ZF + Doctrine in many projects
and these days we can see great integration between ZF + Doctrine2
2- the symfony's bundle is completely forgotten in ZF
Do you think Zend framework misses the Symfony's Bundle principle ?
and i think its really indeed to see it soon (hopefully in ZF 2 )
3- i had many good points about symfony 1
- doctrine built in support
- bundle principle
- admin generators which can save a lot of time
- symfony plugins is very popular
- symfony documentation is really good
finally , i had took a deep look at symfony 1 but i am really taken by the buzz of symfony2 in the late of 2010 and till today its public preview http://symfony.com/download
and i am trying to spend some time learning it .
wish me luck :)
update
I don't want my answer to imply that ZF isn't good or symfony is better than ZF , ZF IMO very powerful library and being ZF developer === advanced + powerful PHP OOP programmer .
I had to make this choice about 1.5 years ago. I first looked at ZF and read up on it as much as possible, but at the end of the day I never really felt comfortable with it. It felt over-engineered, and I found myself getting lost in the code pretty often. I then checked out Symfony with Doctrine. I was able to come to grips with the code base much quicker than ZF. I've since used Symfony on 30+ projects, everything ranging from small sites to pretty large applications and I couldn't be happier. Their admin generator tools have cut down the time I spend building CMS's by a ridiculous amount, and I'm constantly adding my own additions so that future projects take even less time. On top of that, their routing framework, forms framework, and plugin architecture are very well built and very useful. (And Doctrine is a God-send, but you can use that with ZF as well, it's just nice that Symfony uses it by default and has some tighter integration with it.)
Luckily, both ZF and Symfony are highly extensible, so whichever you choose, you'll be better off than using CodeIgniter.
Personally I would rather invest my time in learning the Zend framework. I've played with symfony in the past, and it does have its merits, but I like the Zend framework better. For me Symfony (1.x) has that "things patched together with duct tape" feel around it. There's a lot of different plugins, with varying code quality. ZF tries to raise the bar and feels like a more professional, and well thought out framework (and on top of that ZF is very flexible). Symfony might be better suited for prototyping though because of the admin generator.
I haven't looked at Zend, but I did look at a couple of other frameworks before deciding on symfony.
For me it was the quality of the documentation - which for Symfony is excellent.
The thing with frameworks is that if you cannot use features because they are not well documented then they are not features at all.
It really boils down to your own requirements and how each feels - as you know the whole point of a framework is to work with it, if you are always adding extra code or exceptions then that framework is not right for you.
I'm currently learning Zend Framework and now I am looking for a way to integrate it into an existing website. This website is coded in an extremely complex spaghetti way, and I am hoping that it will be easier to read by integrating it into Zend and slowly refactor it. How could i run legacy code and the zend framework + mod_rewrites side by side?
Greetings,
Bas
Since you don't give any information on how your current site is structured, there's absolutely no way to answer this question.
Some guidelines though : make sure you first tackle routing, you could probably solve this by including your current scripts in the relevant controller actions. After routing is ok, you can have a look at rewriting the interactions so you use ZF's Zend_Request/Response and afterwards start integrating other Zend Framework functionality (ie. Zend_Acl/Zend_Auth for user permissions and authentication).
BTW It might be a lot easier to start from scratch and do a clean rewrite, picking up pieces of existing code as you go...
Ruby on Rails has a screencast presentation they use to promote their framework that shows how to code a basic weblog system in 15 minutes with RoR. Does the Zend PHP Framework have a similar screencast/presentation/whatever demonstrating something similar? It doesn't have to be a blog specifically, but I would definitely like to find a presentation that shows some rapid application development using ZF.
Where I'm coming from: I have been programming on and off for years now. I started out with QBASIC waaaaay back in the day making little programs (text adventure games, screensavers, simple little things). I then moved to C++ but never really did anything too impressive with it. Since then (probably 5 years or so now) I have started to use C# for my desktop development and PHP for my web development. I've made some pretty cool tools here and there, but am certainly not a professional programmer by any stretch of the term as it has always simply been a hobby of mine.
Right now I have two major web applications that I will start work on shortly. (Like tomorrow, or later tonight ideally.. :) ) Both will be database-driven apps that will require user registration, the ability to manipulate data that is specific to their account (their posts, listings, user account details, etc), amongst other things.
Currently I am evaluating different frameworks to help me develop these web apps more quickly. I've been looking at, and have heard good things about Ruby on Rails. Hulu and YellowPages.com using it is an obvious endorsement - Of course, I have heard about the scalability issues that it potentially has; but that shouldn't be an issue with what I am working on. I don't expect millions of users per day for either project.
I am also seriously looking at the Zend Framework for my needs because I already have some experience with PHP. Ideally I would like to find a ZF screencast that shows an app being written quickly so that I have a roughly equal comparison between the two options I am exploring and can see first-hand how things get done in both.
That said - I am not opposed to considering frameworks other than RoR or ZF. The only research I've done on the subject has been over the past couple of days so I am quite certain that there are other excellent options out there that I've not even looked at - or heard of. Of course, it'd be awesome if there is a rapid app dev presentation that I can watch for whatever else is suggested.
So - Suggestions? Links to good screencasts that show rapid application development in other frameworks? Are there other PHP frameworks that I should be considering? (Ones that are easy to deploy would be ideal, so I don't have to purchase a dedicated server that I have full control over. I'd like to keep my hosting costs down assuming that it's reasonable)
Thanks in advance!
-Sootah
You can checkout ZendCasts.com
However, when deciding between ZF and RoR, you should be aware that they are very different from each other. RoR is a full stack with integrated ORM built on AR and a rather rigid structure. It's powerful and there is lots of magic inside and I'd say it's RAD capabilities are above ZF due to rake being more powerful than Zend_Tool
ZF, on the other hand, is first and foremost a loosely coupled component library with a use-at-will architecture for maximum flexibility. You can use it's components together, but you don't have to. While it does feature convention over configuration, ZF doesn't take you by the hand too much. It expects you know how to walk. Also ZF has no full fledged ORM and no AR, but you can very much integrate Doctrine or Propel or whatever library you like to use.
You often hear folks new to ZF complain about it is hard to get into it, simply because they expect ZF to work like RoR or Symfony or Cake, e.g. a full stack framework
EDIT:
Cake aims to be a port of RoR to PHP. It is built around ActiveRecord. Like CI < v2, it is backwards compatible with PHP4, which means it doesn't fully utilize the OOP capabilities you get in PHP5. I'd say both are easier to get in than ZF though.
This is a common question on SO.
I posted some valuable links in my response to this post
If you Google for such tutorials, look for Zend Application or Zend Tool, not ZF.
The difference between the other frameworks and Zend Framework is that Zend Framework is rather a general purpose framework, not application framework (not only for MVC, HTTP). E.g. Google uses ZF to provide access to their services.
You may easily use Symfony or CodeIgnitier with Zend Framework together.
BTW, To be precise, tutorials you ask are not blogs, but just a simple CRUD controllers. You may use Wordpress to create blog in 15 minutes, (then customize it) but not a PHP Framework.