Getting Started with Zend Framework

Getting Started with Zend Framework Matthew Weier O'Phinney Software Architect Zend Framework

Just Another PHP Hacker Who's this guy?

Matthew Weier O'Phinney Contributor to Zend Framework since pre-0.1.0; used ZF internally at Zend. Component lead on MVC since August 2006. Full-time Zend Framework developer since December 2007. Software Architect since April 2008.

What we'll cover Bird's-eye view of Zend Framework How to start integrating Zend Framework in your applications MVC overview Quick Start to developing applications using Zend Framework's MVC

What is Zend Framework? It's just another PHP framework

No, what is Zend Framework? It's a glue library.

No, really, what is Zend Framework? PHP 5 library for web development productivity Open source New BSD license is business-friendly Free for development and distribution CLA process assures that the code is free of legal issues Class library – fully OOP Documentation – in many languages Quality & testing – fully unit tested >80% code coverage required; >90% encouraged

Zend Framework Philosophy Simplicity and Extensibility Easy solutions for the 80% most commonly-used functionality for web applications Extensibility enables easy customization, to solve the remaining 20% No complex XML configuration files Good object-oriented and agile practices Use-at-will architecture, but also: Full stack framework Designed for extensibility Frequent testing Frequent interaction with user community

Zend Framework quality process Say what you’re going to do Proposal process Do it Write object oriented components Unit test your component We encourage test-driven development (TDD)‏ Document how it works Verify it matches what you said Open-source development and community review Frequent and thorough testing with PHPUnit Code coverage reports with PHPUnit Review by internal Zend team for compliance

Two approaches Start using individual components in your existing applications Gradual migration path Add new functionality to your application as you need it Replace existing functionality with well-tested components Start using the Zend Framework MVC layer Develop new applications Have ZF intercept new functionality in your site Create well-tested and testable applications in Zend Framework

Model-View-Controller Model : Business logic and abstraction View : Presentation layer Controller : Decide which Models and Views to utilize, based on request

Front Controller Intercept all requests Map requests to Action Controllers Dispatch requested Action Controller and return response

Benefits of MVC Separate your code into discrete realms of responsibility Business logic Presentation logic Route decisioning Predictable location of code on the server Typically utilizes OOP => easier to test and re-use Easier to maintain long term

Setup the Project Structure First things first: create your directory structure

Get Zend Framework From http://framework.zend.com/download/latest

Get Zend Framework Extract the archive tar xzf ZendFramework-1.6.1.tar.gz Unzip ZendFramework-1.6.1.zip Or use a GUI frontend Copy or symlink the library/Zend directory you extracted into your library directory:

Create a Virtual Host Simplest version:

Create your .htaccess file php.ini directives: date.timezone: many apps rely on this short_open_tags: view scripts are easier to write with this on error_reporting: default error reporting level – E_ALL|E_STRICT for development display_errors: turn on for development

Create your .htaccess file RewriteRules: any request to a file that does not exist should go to our Zend Framework bootstrap:

Create your bootstrap files index.php: Indicate we need bootstrapping for our application Load our bootstrap file, and handle any errors Dispatch our front controller

Create your bootstrap files application/bootstrap.php: Setup application constants Web bootstrap related setup include_path Setup autoloading Front controller setup Add a controller directory Set some application parameters

Create a controller All controllers extend Zend_Controller_Action Naming conventions Controllers end with 'Controller': IndexController, GuestbookController Action methods end with 'Action': signAction(), displayAction(), listAction()‏ Controllers should be in the application/controllers/ directory, and named after the class, with a “.php” suffix: application/controllers/IndexController.php application/controllers/GuestbookController.php All “conventions” are configurable!

But... there's no code there... By default, a view is rendered; you don't need to do anything to enable this. The view rendered is <controllername>/<action>.phtml The view script path resolution is configurable!

Create a view script View scripts go in application/views/scripts/ View script resolution looks for a view script in a subdirectory named after the controller Controller name used is same as it appears on the url: “GuestbookController” appears on the URL as “guestbook” “GuestBookController” appears on the URL as “guest-book” Basically, MixedCased becomes dash-separated View script name is the action name as it appears on the url: “signAction()” appears on the URL as “sign” “myAccountAction()” appears on the URL as “my-account” Basically, camelCased becomes dash-separated

But... that's just HTML! View scripts use PHP as their templating language – PHP is a template language! Mix HTML and PHP Use alternate control structure annotations for readability Use short tags (heavily debated) for brevity

Create an ErrorController Application errors are trapped by the front controller by default When exceptions are detected, ErrorController::errorAction() is invoked Separate 404 (Not Found) errors from 500 (Application) errors to return proper response codes to the user Display errors in development, log them in production Alternately, do something else: Perform a search based on the originally requested URL Display a site map

Create a view script for the ErrorController We have a controller and action, so we need a view script Appears in error/error.phtml of the view scripts directory

But wait, these aren't complete HTML pages! You're right – they are your application views This leads into our next topic: layouts

Layouts – Design Patterns Two Step View Inject application views into a common view to return Usually associated with a Transform View – think XSLT Composite View Inject rendered views into a common view, OR Render additional views from a master view In a nutshell: build the site view, or layout, from lots of little building blocks, or application views

Layouts – Example Use Cases We want our application views to appear in this:

Zend_Layout Steps: Initialize layouts Perform view initialization (set doctype, etc)‏ Create a layout script

Zend_Layout: bootstrap changes

Configuring your Application Zend Framework is configuration-less But your application may need configuration Zend_Config... allows you to write configurations in several formats provides OOP access to your configuration provides configuration inheritance between sections Zend_Registry allows you to persist objects – including your configuration – for the duration of the request Put stuff in Take stuff out

Sample INI configuration skeleton

Configuration: bootstrap.php changes

What about the M? The Model? Patterns : Table Data Gateway Abstracts SQL access to a single database table and its rows Often used with Row Data Gateway, which abstracts access to a single table row Table Module Abstracts and restricts access to a table Defines entry points to the table Entry methods contain business logic Domain Model Abstracts entities and their relationships Not necessarily a 1:1 correspondence with tables

Setting up the Database Adapter Zend_Db::factory() will instantiate the requested adapter Pass our configuration to it Negates the need to modify code going from development to testing to production Set the adapter as the default adapter for our Table Data Gateway (Zend_Db_Table)‏

DB Adapter – Configuration and Bootstrap

Table Data Gateway: Zend_Db_Table Abstracts SQL for interacting with a database table Fetch Rowsets or individual Rows Override methods to enforce data integrity In our application Ensure we get a “created” timestamp on each row Prevent updates to existing rows

Model: Table Module Identify access methods: Save entries Fetch all entries Fetch individual entry Attach a data source Often a Table Data Gateway In our case, Model_DbTable_Guestbook

Table Module – Retrieve Table Data Gateway

Table Module – Access Methods

Using the Model in the Controller Controller needs to retrieve Model To start, let's fetch listings

Adding the Model to the Controller

Create a Form Zend_Form: Provides input filtering: Filter chains to sanitize data prior to validation Validation chains to ensure the data provided is valid Allows rendering form Follows decorator pattern Completely configurable Output in any format your application needs: HTML, PDF, XML, etc.

Create a form – Identify elements Guestbook form: Email address Comment Captcha to reduce spam entries Submit button

Create a form – Guestbook form

Create a form – Guestbook form (cont.)‏

Using the Form in the Controller Controller needs to fetch form object On landing page, display the form On POST requests, attempt to validate the form On successful submission, redirect

Adding the form to the controller

What we learned Recommended project structure How to get and install Zend Framework How to configure your Apache vhost How to setup your php.ini settings and RewriteRules What your bootstrap files are and what they should contain How to create Action Controllers and View Scripts How to create and initialize layouts How to use configuration and the registry How to create a model, including database access How to create a form

Where to go from here Zend Framework QuickStart Guide: http://framework.zend.com/docs/quickstart Zend Framework Manual http://framework.zend.com/manual/manual Zend Framework Wiki (proposals, tutorials, etc.) http://framework.zend.com/wiki Zend Developer Zone (tutorials, articles, announcements) http://devzone.zend.com/

Getting Started with Zend Framework

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