Zend is one of the most popular PHP frameworks for web development with an open-source MVC framework. This competency of the framework significantly helps developers in the rapid development of modern web applications. The framework is a collection of professional PHP packages with over 570 million installations. Utilizing a vast spectrum of language features, it provides 100% object-oriented codes.
PHP framework has a lot of coupled components; thus, it is also known as a component library. The Zend framework of PHP relies on several components to deliver the purpose. First, the framework uses the composer as a package dependency manager; moving ahead, PHPUnit is used to test all the packages, along with Travis CI as a Continuous Integration service.
Zend Framework Development: Stats
Let’s better understand the usefulness of Zend Framework across various industries.
- The framework is being used by more than 27,000 different IT companies in their operations.
- Companies mainly use the framework with around 50 employees with a revenue of 1M-10M.
- At the same time, 33% of the Zend Framework Customers are from the US only. 9% comes from China, 8% from India, 6% from the UK, and 6% from France.
- 46% of Zend Framework customers are small-sized corporations, 37% are medium-sized, and 15% are large-sized organizations.
- Information Technology and Services (19%), Computer Software (10%), and Internet (7%) are the industry-wise customer segment of the Zend framework.
Source- https://enlyft.com/tech/products/zend-framework
Top Features of Zend Framework
There are many features that make Zend a valuable framework for PHP developers. Here we have listed some of the core competencies and features that the Zend framework offers developers to streamline the app development process.
| Pure object-oriented web application framework | First, the PHP- Zend Framework is the open-source framework used to create the object-oriented web application using PHP 5. The object orientation competency of the framework allows to create the extensible classes and objects and thus promotes the best practices for building web 2.0 Web services and applications. |
| Advanced MVC implementation | The Advanced MVC (Model, View, Controller) feature of the framework makes it even more robust and relevant. It allows the framework to separate the different layers of web application: Model, View, and Controller. These classifications significantly help create clean and well-structured code, which helps to boost performance. |
| Support multi databases, including PostgreSQL, SQLite, etc. | One of the core features of the Zend framework is that it supports multiple databases, which include PostgreSQL, MYSQL, and Oracle. The multi databases allow the porting without performing the code change. |
| Simple cloud API | The simple cloud API integration is one of the best features of Zend Framework as it allows PHP developers to build a portable cloud application. |
| Session management | PHP-Zend Framework comprises six session components that ensure overall session management. These are-1. Zend\Session\Container– the main API to write and read the session information 2. Zend\Session\SessionManager– used to manage the entire lifecycle of a session. 3. Zend\Session\Storage- used to specify the storage of session data4. Zend\Session\SaveHandler– used to store and retrieve the session data5. Zend\Session\Validator– used to protect the session from hijacking 6. Zend\Session\Config\SessionConfig– used to configure the way a session must behave. |
| Data Encryption | The data encryption feature of the framework makes it one of the most secure. |
| Flexible URI Routing | Zend framework supports flexible URI routing that helps take apart uncommon URIs and URLs to make them easily understandable. |
| Zend provides RESTful API development support | The RESTful API development support in the Zend framework helps significantly structure the application’s creating, reading, updating, and deleting process. |
| Code is reusable and easier to maintain. | One of the biggest flexes of using the Zend framework is that the code is reusable and easier to maintain. |
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What Makes Zend the Right Choice for Your Project?
There is a range of frameworks you can use for the development of web applications; however, there are still various reasons to go for the PHP- Zend framework for your development process. Let’s have a glance at some of them-
1. Flexibility for the developer to choose their own model
Zend framework provides complete flexibility to the developer in implementing the model according to their own needs. The framework believes that the best results can be achieved only when the developer works with the model per personal preferences and choices. In simpler terms, the framework doesn’t have its model architecture implementation as it focuses merely on the developer’s choice.
2. Provides Easy Integration
The Zend framework has decoupled nature, allowing developers to easily integrate different libraries per their preferences. This feature of Zend Framework facilitates the Zend web application to a great extent.
3. Provides test-driven development
The framework provides a test-driven development approach that allows the developer to write the test cases even before writing the code. It helps to ensure that the developer considers all the use cases in the first place. At the same time, the Zend framework allows the test library and the model functions and is not limited to the controllers. So, the setup, once created, can also be reused.
4. Allows you to do multiple things.
Zend framework delivers the best experience because it allows doing multiple things at one time. For instance, one can go from user authentication to controlling access, from resources to creating the forms and reading the RSS feed simultaneously. Moreover, the framework also consists the several demos to make it easier for developers to learn the different components.
5. The Goodness of object-oriented
In Zend framework, everything is considered an object. So the code can be reused in the future. However, it is also true that the object-orientation setup makes the coding a little complicated.
6. Community and Documentation
The Zend framework is undoubtedly complicated to learn, and for the same, there is also a community that keeps on augmenting the knowledge pool. The reference guide, which comes with the framework, explains the components and their respective use to the developers. At the same time, there are also a lot of other resources which talk very well about the use of frameworks.
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What Makes Zend a Better Framework?
Like some of the rare development frameworks, there are some goals that the Zend framework focuses on. The goals are-
1. Flexibility
As a complete framework for web application development, the system carries everything needed to develop the product. So, it provides complete flexibility to the developers to pick anything of need according to respective products or needs and use them in the development project.
2. Simple and Productive
The PHP-Zend Framework is comparatively simple and productive. As the code can be used multiple times, it saves the developers a lot of time and effort, making the development process straightforward. As the framework supports multiple things at once, it is a feature to multiply the developer’s productivity.
3. Compatibility
One of the biggest goals of the framework is compatibility, as it supports multiple languages for development and coding. At the same time, the Zend framework supports multi databases, including PostgreSQL, SQLite, etc. Thus, the framework is compatible with users compared to several other frameworks.
4. Extensibility
With Zend Framework, programmers can extend the framework as per their preferences or need. So, it enhances the extensibility of the framework significantly.
5. Portability
The framework is highly portable as it supports multiple environments for web application development.
Wrapping up
Zend framework is an object-oriented framework that helps in web application development. The framework is compatible with several languages and databases, making it the preferred choice of developers and programmers for robust web app development. The framework is being used by thousands of IT companies worldwide for its features like object orientation, MVC implementation, cloud API, session management, flexible URI routing, and much more. A framework’s goals and core competencies, such as simplicity, productivity, compatibility, flexibility, portability, etc., help it emerge as the best choice for web app development.
