Continuing his series looking at models in Zend Framework applications, Matthew Weier O'Phinney has posted this new tutorial focusing on model infrastructure - figuring out what your models are really for and how to write to that.

The Model is a complex subject. However, it is often boiled down to either a single model class or a full object relational mapping (ORM). [...] When you think in these terms, you start breaking your system into discrete pieces that you need to manipulate, as well as consider how each piece relates to the others. This type of exercise also helps you stop thinking of your model in terms of database tables; instead, your database becomes the container in which data is persisted from one use of your model to the next. Your model instead is an object that can do things with either incoming or stored data -- or even completely autonomously.

He notes that he is a fan of the domain model method and uses this method as he works through the different topics of building out your most useful model:

• asking "What are you modeling?"
• setting up the "gateway" into your domain model
• working with value objects/record sets

All of this along with plenty of code to illustrate his points...