Zend Framework Beta 0.9.0 Released

Hi, this is Bill Karwin, Product Engineering Manager for the Zend Framework, the world-class library of components for developing web applications.

We're pleased to announce Zend Framework Beta Release 0.9.0.

Download it from http://framework.zend.com/

This is the first Beta Release of Zend Framework. This marks a new milestone for the Framework project, because with the status of Beta, we are establishing the feature set for Zend Framework 1.0, and we are adopting a commitment to backward-compatibility and interface stability

As we talk to people who are interested in using Zend Framework in their web projects, we consistently hear the desire for a stable API on which to base applications. Therefore a chief value of the Framework is to provide that kind of stability.

That does not mean the Framework is complete; on the contrary, we intend to add great new features as we move forward. But the features we do have today must commit to backward-compatibility so that applications that use the Framework are reliable, and benefit from the high quality of this class library.

Some of the highlights of this release include the following:

Components moved from incubator to core:

• Zend_Translate for localizing application messages.
• Zend_Auth database adapter.
• Zend_Db_Adapter using the native Mysqli extension.

Improved features and design:

• MVC support for output buffering and view integration.
• Zend_Db_Table relationships.
• Zend_Feed class for building RSS/Atom feeds.
• Zend_Mail features for handling messages in folders.
• Zend_Search_Lucene performance improvements, matching Java Lucene.
• Zend_Service_Audioscrobbler, Zend_Service_Delicious, Zend_Service_Simpy web service clients.
• Zend_Validate: improvements to validators for email address and hostnames.

A total of 110 issues (bugs, improvements, feature enhancements or new features) have been resolved in our issue tracker in this release.

The next milestone is Zend Framework Beta 1.0.0 Release Candidate 1. Our schedule for this is mid-April.

Please also visit the Zend Framework development wiki home page: http://framework.zend.com/wiki/display/ZFDEV/Home

Thanks again to all our contributors, coders, testers, and documentation translators.

Best regards,
Bill Karwin