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So, this all started as I read about the Zend_Controller_RewriteRouter class. While building my own framework, routing was a particularly sticky issue to iron out, so I wanted to see how Zend handled the whole issue. And they did in a fine way, apparently somewhat borrowed from Ruby On Rails

In the previous article I introduced a method to describe routing information within a configuration file built specially for the Zend_Config object. The example code I gave was done in XML, but itÂ’s worth reiterating that the same can be done with an INI file or a file containing a PHP array. Now IÂ’d like to extend the Zend_Controller_Front class to automate the retrieval and use of the configuration settings we capture in our Zend_Config object. WeÂ’ll use the Zend_Config object to create and build out a Zend_Controller_RewriteRouter object. Once weÂ’re done, weÂ’ll simply set it to our front controller like normal (almost), and dispatch our HTTP request.

As Davey Shafik noted recently, he and I have been working together on some web services for the Zend Framework. In doing so, I've become very familiar with PHP 5's Reflection API, and am coming to love it.

Recently I put together a reusable Ajax form validation component that I'd like to share. It is a JavaScript object that collects the values of all of the elements in a form, sends it for processing to the server, and displays any errors. If there are no errors it submits the form.

I decided to put together an Akismet class using the Zend Framework (resulting in this being PHP 5 only). For those of you who don't know, Akismet is a web service that you can send comments to and they'll let you know whether or not they think it's spam.

I've been experimenting with various pieces of the Zend Framework to get a better idea of how they work. I decided to put together a simple project using a few of them. What I wanted to do was create a class that allows the user to get stock quotes (and other stock information) from Yahoo! Finance, modeled after the Zend_Service_* classes.

I've put together a database admin application using the database functionality provided by the Zend Framework. Basically, it's a generic set of classes that allows people to quickly add, edit, delete, and view data in a database table. The nice thing is that this uses the Zend_DB_Table classes, so it should presumably work with just about any database supported by the Zend Framework. I've tried this on mySQL and sqlite, and it worked just fine on both. There are some limitations of course. Right now this will only work on tables that have auto-increment primary keys. I don't quite know how this would work with databases that don't have auto-increment such as Oracle - maybe this could have support for defining the sequence that should be used when inserting data. This is a PHP5 only class due to it's reliance on the Zend Framework.

I, for one, am eagerly awaiting the Zend Framework. When it was first announced, I feared that it was going to be a framework highly geared towards enterprise development with tie-ins to a bunch of other Zend tools like the Zend Platform or either of the Zend Core things (Oracle or DB2/Cloudscape). What IÂ’ve heard since has relieved a bunch of that fear, and given me some hope about its development and the future of PHP. Their main goal, as many have now reported, is that of extreme simplicity. Unfortunately for those developing any software product, making it extremely simple is not an extremely simple thing - itÂ’s normally an extremely difficult thing. Trying to create an application that will be easy to install, easy to deploy, and easy to use is a very difficult thing. Especially when you have to do it quickly, you have a lot of people ready to pounce on you when you make mistakes, and the thing youÂ’re trying to make extremely simple isnÂ’t a trivial problem.

I like Zend FrameworkÂ’s Zend_Filter class. ItÂ’s basically a set of methods for validating untrusted data. Although the two arguably most important features isEmail() and isUri() (the latter can be worked around with Zend_Uri) are still missing, the whole thing looks promising already.

Part of what I love about the Zend Framework is the ease at which a person can create views for static content.