Comments on: PHP Video: Why Zend instead of other PHP Frameworks?

By: Simon

Simon — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 20:15:01 +0000

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

By: john

john — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 00:50:15 +0000

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.

By: WebTechMan

WebTechMan — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 23:41:19 +0000

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

By: Grayson Koonce

Grayson Koonce — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 20:59:45 +0000

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.

By: mary

mary — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 16:09:16 +0000

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