The Zend Developer Zone has linked to a tutorial from Ruben Vermeersch about how to get the Zend Framework and the Doctrine ORM library working together.

This article will guide you through the steps needed to set up a project using both the Zend Framework and Doctrine. In a step-by-step way, we will set up a simple message board application.

He includes introductory things like the folder structure and an example of having Doctrine installed inside of it. Its all code from there on out - the bootstrap file, setting up a global handler, and how to integrate it all into their simple ZF application.

Lukas Smith got a chance to catch up with Rasmus Lerdorf (and others in #php.pecl) and "talk shop" about topics including handling large libraries and maxclients settings.

In this first post I will provide a link and some commentary on Rasmus's points regarding Doctrine (note I left independent chatter in the log in order to not have any chance of me filtering the content, but there is very little of that so I hope the discussion is still easy enough to follow).

On the Zend Developer Zone, jonwage has posted about an ORM (Object-Relational mapping) he came across that can help abstract out your interface with your backend database - Doctrine.

One of its key features is the ability to optionally write database queries in an OO (object oriented) SQL-dialect called DQL inspired by Hibernates HQL. This provides developers with a powerful alternative to SQL that maintains a maximum of flexibility without requiring needless code duplication.

The project's page gives the full details on the features it offers and has links to the latest downloads so you can try it out for yourself. There's even a blog you can subscribe to to keep up to date.