But after the partnership between Zend and Adobe things started to change and amfphp started to move forward to the Zend Framework... and in fact many developers were afraid about the real future of amfphp. But, as Wade said, the amfphp core will remain separated from the framework implementation ( a framework which I will never use however ), in order to have a shared core and 2 different branches for the implementation.

He notes, though, that he might be being a bit skeptical, but doesn't see things working out in their favor and that Zend_Amf will "win out" over the AMFPHP project and get the larger share of the backing from the larger companies.

At ZendCon this year we announced a partnership between Zend and Adobe. The goal of the partnership is to help make it easier for PHP developers to use Flex. Since then there has been a flurry of activity including blog posts and the introduction of Zend_Amf into the main trunk of Zend Framework.

Some of the resources he links to include several examples written up by Kevin Hoyt showing how to get started with the component, the webinar from Matthew Weier o'Phinney and Lee Brimlow as well as a manual page for it over on RIAFox.com.

CRUDdy Buddy is an AIR application I created to generate the code necessary to get started on a Zend_Amf project. It creates all of the PHP necessary, along with ActionScript classes and <mx:RemoteObject> tags you can paste into your Flex or AIR application.

They have a video on Vimeo showing it in action. You'll need the Adobe AIR runtime to be able to use it, but that's a simple and quick install. There are versions for both Mac (using Mac-specific fonts) and Windows/Linux (using Arial). You can download a PDF of the documentation here.

They'll go over the Zend Framework and the Zend AMF module that allows PHP developers to connect Flex applications to Zend Framework powered applications using AMF. You have to register for the e-seminar to attend.

You can find out more about using Flex and the Zend Framework together in this section of the Adobe website.

The Adobe technical evangelism team will be hitting the road in October talking about our recent announcement with Zend. PHP developers who are interested in learning about Flex and Zend should join Kevin Hoyt, Danny Dura, Ryan Stewart and Christophe Coenraets as they show developers how to get started with Adobe Flex, Adobe AIR and Zend.

Check out this list of locations to find one near you to attend. They run from the first of October through the first part of November.

A recent Gartner Research study found that 10 percent of the PHP community are corporate IT developers, and predicted that during the next five years, that number will grow to 40 percent. That's good news for PHP developers looking for corporate gigs--and very good news for PHP tools maker Zend Technologies, which cited the Gartner finding at the Zend/PHP Conference last week as evidence of widespread, more strategic adoption of PHP in enterprises.

Much of this has to do with Zend's products and their placement in more enterprise settings as well as the collaborations they've created with several key big-name players like Adobe, IBM and Dojo (as a part of the Zend Framework). There's also a mention of some of Microsoft's initiatives in the PHP community including work on the FastCGI component and a SQL Server driver for PHP.

These announcements pertained to partnerships with these other companies on projects like bringing out-of-the-box Ajax functionality to the Zend Framework with Dojo and updates to the Zend Core and Zend Studio software. Also announced was the release of a new certification specifically for the Zend Framework - "Zend Certified Engineer for Zend Framework".

One of the major announcements, though, was Zend's efforts with Adobe to help make the connection between their powerful Flex environment and what PHP has to offer. The key to the integration lies in the AMFPHP (Action Message Format) tool that acts as a layer letting Flex and PHP talk. Zend and Adobe will also be, from this point on, creating links between the Zend Studio software and the Adobe Flex Builder software to help developers to help make the integration that much simpler.

You can find out more about their efforts on the Zend Framework website and the Adobe Flex pages on Adobe's developer website.

This ZF component will allow for client-side applications built with Flex and Adobe AIR to communicate easily and efficiently with PHP on the server-side. Leading the design of the component for Adobe is Wade Arnold. Wade already has a track record of bringing the Adobe RIA technologies to PHP as a result of all of his work on AMFPHP.

Andi sees this as a next logical step to helping the framework become more "Enterprise oriented" and to compliment the recent Dojo integration. The plan is to release it with the 1.7 version of the framework, but the actual timing may vary due to the approval process.

To solve the upload problem, most of the big services have dedicated upload applications that run on all the different platforms. But it takes a lot of work to develop them, especially when they have to run on both Macintosh and Windows. Or is it so tough? As it turns out, Adobe AIR technology makes it possible to write applications for any platform using just HTML and JavaScript. It also offers access to cool desktop features, notably drag and drop.

The tutorial shows how to make the application with the HTML/Javascript version of an AIR app (as opposed to Flex) that lets you drag and drop files into it to be uploaded. They make the basic file upload form first as a foundation then extend it to make it accept the remote request (via POST) from the AIR application to handle the uploads. Javascript code and screenshots are included.

Whether you're an enterprise developer working in a large shop or setting up a blog for yourself, you've almost certainly been tasked with keeping your development code in sync with some type of stable release. Whether a project is big or small, you still need to ensure that the core code you work with remains consistent.

The tutorial walks you through the setup of a basic AIR application, how to pull the configuration XML into it and parsing it to use in the interface. The next step is the sync, grabbing your config and pushing it out to other multiple configs across your sites (via a REST service).