The Reference Guide
The manual has gained a completely new chapter intended to make getting started easier for beginners. The chapter offers practical tips for working with basic components such as the view and session, or on authentication. Everything is backed up by small code examples. Thanks are due to the entire Zend Framework team here. Combined with the Quick Start Tutorial, the chapter is suitable for familiarizing new employees with the new framework, for example.
Another great thing is that manuals for previous versions are now available to choose from as well. This minimizes confusion when you have to work on an older project. A quick look at the old manual can work wonders here.
As part of this, the DocBook renderer was also switched to PhD. xsltproc is no longer needed. The DocBook engine can be installed entirely through PEAR. The switch also sped up rendering, since individual parts of the manual can now be compiled separately.
Components
Zend_Barcode, by Mickael Perraud
Zend_Barcode has joined the framework as a completely new component. Several barcode formats are available. Renderer classes allow a barcode to be generated in different formats. Currently, the barcode can be generated as an image or in a PDF.
Zend_Cache_Backend_Static, by Pádraic Brady
As always, a new cache backend has been added. The static cache is primarily intended to turn generated pages into static pages. This is especially interesting for applications such as a CMS. The cache is initialized with a path to a public directory. After that, a change to the .htaccess file allows a page to be served entirely from the cache. Unfortunately, the new cache backend is not currently described in the manual.
Zend_Cache_Manager, by Pádraic Brady
The cache manager standardizes access to different cache instances in the application. In addition, bootstrapping now makes it possible to create multiple caches in one go through configuration. Another advantage is that cache instances are now only created when they are actually accessed. This improves performance.
Zend_Exception, by Marc Bennewitz
All classes derived from Zend_Exception can now receive a previous exception. This functionality was introduced in PHP 5.3 and is also emulated for PHP 5.2 through Zend_Exception.
Zend_Feed_Pubsubhubbub, by Pádraic Brady
Support for the Pubsub protocol for real-time processing of XML feeds.
Zend_Feed_Writer, by Pádraic Brady
After the reader, there is now also a writer. The writer can generate news feeds. The new component replaces the Zend_Feed_Builder component.
Zend_Filter_Boolean, by Thomas Weidner
As the name suggests, the class filters "boolean" values.
Zend_Filter_Compress/Decompress, by Thomas Weidner
The filters are intended for compressing and decompressing data. The following methods are available: bz2, gz, lzf, rar, tar, zip. Each method requires the corresponding libraries in PHP. Warning! Not all adapters support the same input data. Not all adapters can process "strings," "files" or "directories."
Zend_Filter_Null, by Thomas Weidner
The null filter is primarily designed to convert certain empty inputs, such as an empty string, into NULL. This is important when form data is to be written directly into a database table and the corresponding column expects NULL.
Zend_Log::factory(), by Mark van der Velden and Martin Roest
A simple factory method for creating log adapters.
Zend_Log_Writer_ZendMonitor, by Matthew Weier O'Phinney
A new log adapter for logging directly to a Zend Server. Zend Server displays the log information in real time.
Zend_Markup, by Pieter Kokx
The completely new component consists of a parser and a renderer. The goal is to process text with a particular syntax, such as wiki code, for example. The renderer is intended to make this possible in the other direction too. BBCode is currently supported.
Zend_Oauth, by Pádraic Brady
The OAuth standard is primarily used to authenticate applications to one another. An example of OAuth in use is an application that connects to Twitter and exchanges data. The new component had been in the incubator for some time and should therefore be stable. OAuth is a classic Web 2.0 component whose use will probably become even more important in future. Hopefully the component will be maintained better than Zend_OpenId, for example, which is no longer up to date with the state of the art.
Zend_Serializer, by Marc Bennewitz
The serializer allows PHP types to be stored and restored. The serialization format can be controlled through adapters. For example, an adapter is available that allows a PHP object to be exported over AMF so that Flash can import the object.
Zend_Service_DeveloperGarden, by Marco Kais
DeveloperGarden is a platform provided by Deutsche Telekom with services from the telecommunications world. Through DeveloperGarden, SMS messages can be sent using the T-Online SMS gateway, for example. Establishing voice calls is also possible through the web service.
Zend_Service_LiveDocx, by Jonathan Marron
Support for the Microsoft LiveDocs platform.
Zend_Service_WindowsAzure, by Maarten Balliauw
Access to Microsoft's Azure cloud platform.
- Zend_Validate_Barcode
- Zend_Validate_Callback
- Zend_Validate_CreditCard,
- Zend_Validate_PostCode (by Thomas Weidner)
A whole list of new validators comes from Thomas Weidner. The components are the logical consequence of other components. The credit card validator is probably the first offshoot of the new cooperation between Varien (the company behind the Magento shop) and Zend.
Zend_Pdf
Here, the speed of reading PDF documents has been increased by up to 40%.
Conclusion
Overall, the new Zend Framework makes a very good impression (as almost always). In the meantime, work is proceeding feverishly on the concept for version 2.0, which will also support namespaces and require >= PHP 5.3. It remains to be seen whether there will be a ZF 1.11.0.