Zend Framework in Action [Paperback]

Rob Allen (Author), Nick Lo (Author), Steven Brown (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 4, 2009

From rather humble beginnings as the Personal Home Page scripting language, PHP has found its way into almost every server, corporation, and dev shop in the world. On an average day, somewhere between 500,000 and 2 million coders do something in PHP. Even when you use a well-understood language like PHP, building a modern web application requires tools that decrease development time and cost while improving code quality. Frameworks such as Ruby-on-Rails and Django have been getting a lot of attention as a result.

For PHP coders, the Zend Framework offers that same promise without the need to move away from PHP. This powerful collection of components can be used in part or as a whole to speed up the development process. Zend Framework has the backing of Zend Technologies; the driving force behind the PHP programming language in which it is written. The first production release of the Zend Framework became available in July of 2007.

Zend Framework in Action is a comprehensive tutorial that shows how to use the Zend Framework to create web-based applications and web services. This book takes you on an over-the-shoulder tour of the components of the Zend Framework as you build a high quality, real-world web application. This book is organized around the techniques you'll use every day as a web developer "data handling, forms, authentication, and so forth. As you follow the running example, you'll learn to build interactive Ajax-driven features into your application without sacrificing nuts-and-bolts considerations like security and performance.

This book is aimed at the competent PHP developer who wants to master framework-driven web development. Zend Framework in Action goes beyond the docs but still provides quick access to the most common topics encountered in the development of web applications.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Rob Allen is a full-time PHP developer and contributor to the Zend Framework, developing the Zend_Config component. He has also written a popular getting-started tutorial available from www.akrabat.com. Rob is the Technical Director of Big Room Internet.

Product Details

• Paperback: 425 pages
• Publisher: Manning Publications; 1 edition (January 4, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1933988320
• ISBN-13: 978-1933988320
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 7.4 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (22 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #701,694 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #20 in Books > Computers & Technology > Databases > Specific Databases
  • #49 in Books > Computers & Technology > Databases > Database Design

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars I should have waited for the second edition, January 9, 2009

By 

W. Stohn "Axman" (Memphis, TN) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Zend Framework in Action (Paperback)

Overall I found this book to be helpful in understanding the inner workings of the Zend Framework. The low score I gave this book is attributed to the several errors in the code examples. It seems this book was rushed to publication and nobody verified that the code examples worked.

If you are like me and like to build the code as you read each chapter then this book is NOT for you. I could never get the code to work as written in the book. I would advise that you download the companion code from the publisher's website. The code from the site seems to have been tweaked after the publication of the book and does run correctly. Problem is it does not match the code in the book therefore you have to investigate why the book says one way while the code shows it another way. Very frustrating the say the least!

I can only recommend this book if the publisher decides to release a second edition with these errors fixed.

Regards.

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Great resource, rushed editing, December 25, 2008

By 

Paul C. Allsopp (In the desert) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Zend Framework in Action (Paperback)

As anyone who pre-ordered this book knows, it was way off its release schedule. That may explain the numerous errors in the book.
I am only on day 2 of the book and so far I have found at least 5 errors. These are not misprints but clear technical errors. The errors are in differing areas too, so not like the author simply misunderstood something, which leads me to believe this book, while already late, was rushed out of the door.
The book comes with online source code, and my advice would be to get it. If you follow the source in the book you will get errors both from the database code and the PHP code. In chapter 3, for example, the author lays out a database table schema which clearly states that certain fields cannot be NULL and have no default value, and then goes on to state INSERT statements that miss these fields out...thus generating an error. Another example is where on one page the application library folder is called just that in an image, but then i the PHP code it is referred to as "lib", again creating an error when the code is ran.

On the plus side the detail is very good. The first couple of chapters lay out the "why"s and "where"s of Zend Framework, and the real world example that the book builds on gives you a much more usable path of learning than someone simply telling you the details of the framework itself. Definitely a preferred approach for me!

I would like to rate the book higher but having to wait for almost an extra month to get it and then penciling in the errata certainly does not build confidence in it.

Paul Allsopp
Webtop-Designs

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An excellent start, could use more polish, March 13, 2009

By 

R. Gormley (Seattle, WA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Zend Framework in Action (Paperback)

I find myself in agreement with most of the other reviewers. I had pre-ordered the book and watched its development through numerous e-book releases.

The extent to which it covers the fundamental but not as often explained concepts so important to the Framework (Helpers, etc) is impressive, and it covers a lot of ground. I had many 'a-ha' moments.

However, I also had a fair amount of frustration with the code examples in the book (the code on the web site ZIP file does seem to be absent these errors) - many syntax errors, and such. I also found it a little frustrating when the code examples were broken down so finely, into a couple of lines at a time, and often crossing multiple files (but without mentioning this).

However, the book is excellent and a great resource, and I'd be keen to see how a 2nd Edition looked.