Understanding the Zend Framework Basix

What is the Zend Framework, exactly? The Zend Framework:

• Is based on PHP
• Is object-oriented
• Uses the MVC paradigm
• Has open source contributors
• Has contributors who take responsibility for the fact that their code is not the intellectual property of someone else

It also aims to make your programming life easier, not just in general by instituting the MVC pattern, but also for specific things you tend to do all the time, like access databases or output to a PDF file.

Zend Framework components include:

Zend_Controller

This module provides the overall control for the application. It translates requests into specific actions and makes sure they get executed.

Zend_Db

This is based on PHP Data Objects (PDO) and provides access to databases in a generic way.

Zend_Feed

This makes it easy to consume RSS and Atom feeds.

Zend_Filter

This provides string-filtering functions, such as isEmail() and getAlpha().

Zend_InputFilter

To Zend_Filter, this is designed to work with arrays such as form inputs.

Zend_HttpClient

This enables you perform HTTP requests easily.

Zend_Json

This enables you to easily translate PHP objects into JavaScript Object Notation, and vice-versa.

Zend_Log

This provides general-purpose logging functionality.

Zend_Mail

This enables you to send text and multipart MIME email.

Zend_Mime

This is used by Zend_Mail to help decode MIME messages.

Zend_Pdf

This enables you to create new PDF documents, and load and edit existing PDF documents.

Zend_Search

This enables you to perform sophisticated searches on your own text. For example, you can build a search engine that returns results based on relevancy or other factors.

Zend_Service

Contains several submodules that provide easy access to many popular web service APIs, such as those provided by Amazon, Yahoo, Twitter, and Flicker.

Zend_View

This handles the view portion of the MVC pattern.

Zend_XmlRpc

This enables you to easily create an XML-RPC server and client.