Zend Framework (ZF) is an open source, object-oriented web application framework implemented in PHP 5. Zend Framework was designed and created in early 2005, as Ruby on Rails and the Spring Framework were gaining popularity in the web development community.
Zend Framework was designed and created to improve program developers’ productivity. Zend Framework is the different one as other frameworks that require large configuration files to work, most aspects of a Zend Framework application can be defined at runtime using simple PHP commands. Instead of complex configuration files controlling every aspect of the application, PHP developers only configure the parts of aspect of the application and that can save time. The framework was written entirely in PHP 5 and it can run on any server that does not have a minimum of PHP 5.1.4 installed. Zend Framework provides PHP development platform, PHP programming and production tools for developers. Zend Framework is a very good extension to the strength and skill of PHP technology and is highly object-oriented and with the line of model view controller (MVC) paradigm, one can create a website in a very easy and convenient way.
Reasons to use Zend Framework
1- Extend Classes
Because Zend Framework is a fully object-oriented (OO) framework, so it utilizes lots of object-oriented concepts, for example, inheritance and interfaces. It allows developers to implement their own special variations of individual components without having to hack into the Zend Framework code-base itself. Developers create functionality that is unique to one project, but because of its object-oriented nature, and developers will be able to use this functionality in the next projects as well.
2- Object-Oriented (OO)
Everything represents as an object in Zend Framework. The advantage of Object-Oriented is the ability to make code reusable so that nobody needs to repeat the code. However, Object-Oriented has its own disadvantages, for example, sometime it makes things more complicated to code.
3- Use What You Need
Zend Framework is designed simply as a collection of classes so developers can just load the components they need, though normally, developers use Zend MVC (Model View Controller) components to create a fully-functional ZF project. Developers can take advantage of the components as individual libraries, instead of the framework as a whole.
4- Test-Driven Development
Test-driven development is a programming technique that requires a developer to write tests for the function he/she is supposed to code before writing code for the function itself. The developer must think of the possible use-case of the code, create a white list of input and output, makes it easier to refactor his code, make it easier to pass code from one person to another.
The Test-Driven Development Cycle
With Zend Framework, RayooTech (Beijing RayooTech Co., Ltd) developers focus on establishing more stable, reliable, flexible and web 2.0 based PHP websites and PHP web applications. (For more details, please contact at info@unisoftchina.com)