PHP Video: Why Zend instead of other PHP Frameworks?

June 14, 2009

php video

Hi,

In response to my a recent podcast where I recommended that PHP programmers learn the Zend Framework, I was asked why I choose Zend, rather than other PHP frameworks.

The video:

Some notes:

Just in case you can’t stand listening me bather about this in my videocast, here are the bullet points:

  • Choose an MVC framework.
  • Choose a framework that is flexible.
  • Choose a framework that has a strong community backing it.

The details to the above points are of course found in the videocast.

HD videos are still a work in progress:

I know the new video presentations need some polish – they are a work in progress. So I appreciate your patience with me as I work out my kinks.

Anyway, I hope you find them useful.

Stefan Mischook

www.killerphp.com

5 Responses

  1. mary Author June 15, 2009 at 12:09 pm

    Excellent discussion Stefan. I’ve been debating this for a while since I’m getting really serious with PHP now and I know I need to get into a framework. I’ve pretty much decided on Zend, now I just need to find good resources to get me going.

    thanks again for these excellent videos, both the tutorials and the talks are very enlightening!! keep them coming!

    mary

  2. Grayson Koonce Author June 15, 2009 at 4:59 pm

    You make an excellent point. I think an overlooked fact is that Zend’s Controller & View components are actually very light and make Zend as an MVC a very thin an flexible web architecture.

  3. WebTechMan Author June 15, 2009 at 7:41 pm

    Stefan,

    Thanks for the great case information about Zend Framework!
    I have used many frameworks throughout my career as a professional developer.
    Zend is my framework of choice, mostly based on many of the reasons you stated here. I believe there is another very important point.

    I see the trend of our Government using more open source technologies as we move forward with Government 2.0. I have spent a lot of time working in the Government Sector and adoption of open source has been a challenge because of requirements for certified developers. That coupled with the stakeholder fear of using web technologies that had little or no industry partnerships let Microsoft and a few other corporations dominate the government market.

    Zend is playing a major role in changing the mind set about open source technologies with its leading industry partnerships, training & certification programs, and its ease of use.

    I believe that future PHP developers without the knowledge of Zend will suffer great struggles in major industry sectors.

    I am also amazed with the “Zend Tool” and how it can automagically create your base structure with one line of code. I am working on a step by step tutorial for this that will be posted on my blog soon.

    What is your twitter name? Let’s stay in touch at http://twitter.com/WebTechMan

    Looking forward to the future,
    Dan

  4. john Author June 18, 2009 at 8:50 pm

    The “you don’t have to use the entire framework” line doesn’t make sense. What he’s really trying to say is ZF is a loose component framework. It’s not even necessarily an MVC framework. You can do MVC is you want. It has that option. But really ZF is just a library of components that you can pick and choose from to plug into your apps. There’s no standard convention to follow like Rails or most other MVC frameworks. Most people prefer the conventional rules behind these other frameworks as it streamlines development and standardizes the process for a team. It’s “convention over configuration”. ZF is not that.

  5. Simon Author June 22, 2009 at 4:15 pm

    Nicely presented

    Interestingly enough, I came to a different conclusion on my framework choice using the exact same points you outlined. (I chose CodeIgniter).

    1) “All or Nothing”. I always want it all. When moving to an MVC framework I was looking for a way to do projects where a default structure was set and all the little things like XSS protection and database driven sessions were taken care of. Sure, modularity is neat, but it didn’t factor into my decision since I’ll never do another project without CI, no matter how big or small.

    2) “Who’s Behind it” (or Absolute power corrupts absolutely). I didn’t start developing with ASP or .NET or C# precisely because of who’s behind it. I like having a central body that focuses on functionality while others deal with implementation. (think Linux distros) This is why I feel Zend should stop offering a “framework” and focus solely on the library.

    – Simon

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