I've been a Zend Framework user for a while. I've been using PHP long enough to appreciate the benefits of a good framework, and developed a number of sophisticated applications using ZF, to have grown a certain fondness for it. [...] That said, I actually don't feel like much of what I'm about to say is unfair, for one simple reason: I have tried to like ZF 2.0. [...] I got quite happy with ZF1, and indeed approached ZF2 with the idea that it would take a similar amount of effort to learn to like it. I have attempted to apply that effort. I have failed.

He goes on to talk about some of the things that he found that he doesn't like about this upcoming version of the framework, including:

• the lack of an interesting demo to show off what ZF2 can really do
• the almost "koolaid" approach ZF2 approaches dependency injection with
• some references to "Java mentality" that seems to be creeping into the framework

New in the PHP manual: a quickstart for the mysqlnd query cache plugin. PECL/mysqlnd_qc, the mysqlnd query cache plugin, is transparent and ease to use. But, how? Some pointers have been given in assorted presentations, here on my blog and in some, few examples from the manual. Fixed. You can now browse a quickstart to gain a quick overview.

The query cache plugin can replace the query caching MySQL does and can help with things like multiple storage options (memory, APC, Memcache, etc) and almost no changes to your application. There's also a method (mysqlnd_qc_get_query_trace_log) that comes with the plugin that gives you a "stack trace" of every query run through the MySQL interface.

New in the PHP manual: a mysqli quickstart. You are new to PHP but you know how to code, you know SQL, you know relational databases and MySQL? Then, I hope, this is for you. All you need is a quick overview on the concepts? The rest is in the reference section! Here you go.

It includes sections on:

• making connections
• executing statements
• stored procedures
• multiple statements

Being it was Christmas and all, I decided to give myself a present and sign up. I was very surprised by how easy it was to get up and running. I managed to build a simple "echo" service in about i.8 minutes, following roughly these steps.

It was as simple as "launching" a new custom application, waiting for it to become available, cloning the git repository and setting up a simple app. In his case , it's a basic Silex-based app that makes a simple site to greet users with a "Hello world" message. Throw in a basic .htaccess file and the app is all set to push.

OK, here are some tips and resources so you can start helping out and contributing to Zend Framework 2.0.

Things on the list include:

• a getting started page on the ZF wiki
• Fixing unit tests on the framework
• working on the port of ZendService
• Porting patches from ZF1 to ZF2
• Check out the quickstart on github to get the ball rolling

Feel free to fork it and send me pull requests. There's a load of things I'd like to do to/with it, including a default basic authentication and user mgt system, a basic forms generator, some menu stuff on the side, and some other small stuff. It's got Doctrine built-in, and ready to go with a sample book/author object set, although no sample *data* yet, nor any examples of how to use the code specifically. Maybe I'll add some of that soon.

The ZFKit brings helps you get started quickly by giving you an example of a site that combines Doctrine, PHPUnit and the Zend Framework into one "ready to go" bundle.

The new Facebook API has already spread over the application developers and if you're like me, you've already got your hands dirty to see how this new thing works. If you have tried to follow the documentation to authorize/get session in your canvas application, it is likely you have already hit roadblocks. Well, I am no savior but I have glued together a few clues and got it working for myself.

He walks you through the three simple steps: getting the new API, setting ip a correct configuration file and creating a sample "main page" for your application that echoes out a "Hello World" sort of message to each visitor.

Zend_Application works in conjunction with Zend_Application_Bootstrap, which, as you might guess from its name, is what really does the bulk of the work for bootstrapping your application. It allows you to utilize plugin bootstrap resources, or define local bootstrap resources as class methods. [...] Additionally, Zend_Application_Bootstrap provides for dependency tracking (i.e., if one resource depends on another, you can ensure that that other resource will be executed first), and acts as a repository for initialized resources.

Matthew gets right into the code, looking at how to create a simple bootstrap (for the "zf" command line tool to make the project) and the contents of the application.ini file. From there he looks at creating resources - bits of code that can be executed as a part of your bootstrapping process. His example shows the implementation of "_initCurrency" and "_initRegistry" methods.

Web services are software systems designed to support interoperable machine-to-machine interaction over a network. Nowadays if you want to connect external systems, you probably want or have to use web services. What I will discuss here is how to get your own SOAP web service up in minutes.

Bogdan looks at creating a simple controller with actions for displaying a WSDL file and for handling actions that might come in. Sample code is provided as well as example code.

We recently looked at front-end testing of web applications with Selenium. Today, we'll take another approach to testing your PHP applications: backend unit testing for your actual PHP code. As part of our posts on test driven development, here's a quick intro to using SimpleTest to test your PHP applications.

He introduces the SimpleTest software and shows what a sample test might look like for a simple math question (testing to see if the result of the addition is correct). He also points out a good tutorial on the SimpleTest website to help you get started.