Let’s face it. The Zend Framework, like most web frameworks, has set some lofty goals: high quality components, a complete system for developing web applications, and simplicity. You can read the entire list of goals on the Zend Framework roadmap page. While quality code and documentation are important for frameworks—or any open source application for that matter, a true measure of success is mass adoption. After all, what good is a framework if no one is using it? As the framework is still sub-1.0 and mainly for early adopters, there’s an easy way to determine whether the Zend Framework is right for your development efforts. So who is using the Zend Framework? […]

Last week I attended the Web Builder 2.0 Conference in snazzy Las Vegas, Nevada. This year, the name of the game was ajax, Ajax, and AJAX Our beloved PHP had a decent representation throughout the various sessions, but no more than during my own "PHP Powers Mashups" talk. At the conference I bumped into PHP security guru and buddy Chris Shiflett, and met some new folks like Cal Henderson from Flickr and Ask Bjørn Hansen. Normally, you'll find me working the Zend booth at this kind of conference, but this time I was free to attend sessions. I decided to post my notes on the most interesting things I saw at the conference, presented to you here list style. […]

I had the pleasure this morning to present a screencast titled "Web Services with PHP" that was announced several days ago here on the Devzone. We had a tremendous turnout--nearly 2000 registrants! Due to technical limitations with our streaming software, we could only allow the first 550 folks into the presentation. Because of the network load, this was a difficult presentation to pull off due to lag. Paging from slide-to-slide was very delayed, so showing the code-completion capabilities of Zend Studio was nearly impossible.  Despite the technical difficulties, several good questions were asked and feedback was very positive. In order for everyone to see the presentation, I re-recorded it this afternoon, and it's available for your viewing. This one is much smoother, and I expanded on some of the topics that I glanced over in the first one. So even if you viewed the first attempt, you'll probably get more out of the second.Oh yeah, congrats to Bill Rose from TX for winning a shiny new iPod Nano! Watch "Web Services with PHP" My personal thanks to Jen Walsh at Zend for all of her help with the presentation :) After the jump, we answer all the questions we received during the webcast. […]

Some enterprising Zend Framework contributors have hacked together a couple plugins for Mozilla Firefox and Internet Explorer. Ralf Eggert has created a sidebar to allow easy access to commonly used links, as well as a search module. From this idea, Richard Thomas was inspired to create a plugin to search the framework wiki and mailing list using Firefox's built-in search box. They both take two or less clicks to install, so what are you waiting for? […]

This morning some much-anticipated features were unveiled on the Zend Framework website. Powered by the open-source software Trac, the new site features include a Subversion repository browser, an issue tracker, a project timeline, and a search function. Previously, developers could access the source code and commit timeline through Subversion, but the new web-based interface provides a simple and attractive way to track progress on the Framework.  […]

Andi Gutmans of Zend announced today a new license for the Zend Framework. His post on the mailing list says the reasons for the change are to allow the Framework to be used in GPL projects, and to offer companies an OSI approved license to make compliance matters easier. The Contributor License Agreement has not been modified. The license can be found on the Zend Framework website.

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A couple of weeks ago, Google jumped into the online calendar space by launching Google Calendar (um, beta). The application is chock-full of Ajaxy goodness and plenty of features, but I'm here to talk about what you can do with your calendar data behind the scenes. Using some handy tools from the Swiss Army Knife that is the Zend Framework, I'll show you how to pull data from your Google Calendar into your site. Just for kicks, I'll also throw in a caching layer to keep things fast and reduce the network traffic between your server and Google. […]

Call them obscure, call them pointless, call them "newb mistakes." Whatever you call them, you've more than likely been tripped up at some point in your PHP coding journey by seemingly odd or illogical behaviors of the language. With PHP being a loosely-typed language, funny things are bound to happen. PHP is an easy language to pick up for the casual coder--things should "just work." But not everyone comes into PHP development with a strong programming background, so here are some charming examples of ways PHP can trip you up if you aren't careful. Put on your thinking caps--here comes the science! […]

Today the Zend Framework team has launched a shiny new website and tagged another minor version release of the framework. Since the last release in early March, the codebase features some module additions and several bug fixes, as well as updated documentation. The latest preview release is available for download from the framework website, or developers can access the Subversion repository directly for bleeding-edge checkouts. To stay on top of important changes in the framework, visit the framework website or follow changes to the NEWS.txt file in the Subversion repository for release notes. Up-to-the-minute commit notifications are also available. To subscribe, simply send an e-mail to fw-svn-subscribe@lists.zend.com. Zend is actively seeking contributions to the framework for various code modules. To get involved, visit the FAQ page on the framework website to learn more about the contribution process and requirements. Those wishing to be involved in the development process are highly encouraged to participate in the framework mailing list, as it is currently the preferred forum for collaboration. Send an e-mail to fw-general-subscribe@lists.zend.com to subscribe to the framework mailing list. Framework documentation translations have begun for French, German, Dutch, Chinese, and Japanese. Bug tracking is still being managed through the mailing list. Alternately, developers can submit bug reports to framework-feedback@zend.com. Full release notes after the jump. […]

Since HTTP uses a stateless request-response method to transfer web pages, all but the simplest web applications need a way to store data between requests. The best way to accomplish this in PHP is to use sessions. A session identifier is kept client-side in a cookie, and is matched up with data kept on the server, which is made available in scripts through the $_SESSION superglobal. By default, session data is stored on the filesystem in individual files. This works fine for most people, but when it comes to storing session data, PHP has several options available. This article will discuss some of the built-in options for session storage and also show you how to write your own session handler. […]