On the Ibuildings blog today they've posted the most recent episode from their recordings at the Dutch PHP Conference (2012) with Enrico Zimual's talk A Quickstart on Zend Framework 2.

In this talk we will present a simple web application built with Zend Framework 2. We will show the new features of the framework, such as the new MVC layer, the Event Manager, the Dependency Injection and much more. The aim of this talk is how to start programming with the new architecture of ZF2. Moreover, we will show the differences with the version 1 of the framework and how to migrate applications from ZF1 to ZF2.

You can listen to this latest episode either via the in-page player, by downloading the mp3 or by subscribing to get this and future episodes.

Matthew Weier O'Phinney has put together a screencast showing you how to get up and running (a quickstart) with the latest release of Zend Framework 2.

One of the exciting features of the newly released Zend Framework 2 is the new module system. While ZF1 had modules, they were difficult to manage. [...] In Zend Framework 2, we've architected the MVC from the ground up to make modular applications as easy as possible. [...] To give you an example, in this tutorial, I'll show you how to install the Zend Framework 2 skeleton application, and we'll then install a module and see how easy it is to add it to the application and then configure it.

The screencast (also viewable over on Vimeo) talks you through all the steps in the process, but the code is also provided in the post along with screenshots of how the application should look at various steps.

In this most recent post to his blog Alex Hudson says a "fond goodbye" to using the Zend Framework for his applications after trying out some of the functionality that's in Zend Framework version 2:

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

In a new post to his blog Ulf Wendel has pointed out that the mysqlnd query cache plugin quickstart is posted on the docs.php.net site.

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

Josh Adell has posted a quick start guide to getting your application up and running on the PHPFog PHP platform as a service offering.

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.

For anyone looking to get started helping on the Zend Framework 2 project but not sure where to begin, Robert Basic has some recommendations of places to look.

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

Michael Kimsal has put together a Zend Framework starter kit currently posted over on github here.

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.

If you're looking for a stripped down, bare-bones look at how to get started with interfacing your PHP script with Facebook, take a look at this quick guide from Emran Hasan.

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.

Matthew Weier O'Phinney has a recent post to his blog giving a quick introduction to the Zend_Application component of the Zend Framework and how it can be used to create custom resources.

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.