Why is Zend Framework so popular?

Question

I'm not a troll and my goal isn't to start a flame war; neither do I mean to disrespect the authors of the Zend Framework: there is a lot of fine work in it. But... I have a job to get done and I'm having a hard time reconciling the popularity of ZF against the reality of building apps with it. I would really like to know from others why they use Zend Framework.

I am fairly new to the PHP world but I've done a lot of programming in many languages. After reading many tutorials and building a couple of apps in it, some core Zend Framework facilities feel like alpha code to me. For me the following fundamental weaknesses, among others, would seem too overwhelming to consider deploying apps with it - but over and over again ZF is suggested as one of the, if not the leading framework.

First let me say I find the much of ZF to be workable. Routing works pretty much as it should, the Layout facility is serviceable (though very different from templating systems such as JSP/ASP), as is the cache facility, etc. There seems to be a tendency in the community to stuff a lot of modeling (e.g. validation) and view logic (e.g. $this->headScript() - why should my controller have to care which js file my view requires?) into controllers but could be a matter of usage and not necessarily the framework's fault.

Now for a couple of really serious (IMO) weaknesses I've experienced in my short time with it. I shudder to imagine the other areas I will discover in the future if I continue to build with it.

1. Form Layout
Many people seem to be unhappy with the lack of control over form layout. How can you have a popular framework where constructing a simple form requires so much discussion? Question 1 and question 2.

2. Authentication/Authorization
No one really seems to understand how to simply perform routine authentication/authorization. People [including yours truly] struggle with implementing simple access control. Further, the approach seems to lean on serialization for persistence, rather than traditional database storage of users and permissions. A confusing example, a proposal to enhance the facility, a tutorial - part I, and part II. This is too much work guys!

Are my perceived weaknesses not real or somehow not a problem? Why or why not? Why did you choose Zend Framework (or not)? Are there other areas that you've found to be so painful that you want to dump ZF for a different approach? Thanks for your opinions.

Answer 1

There is no need to use Zend_Form or Decorators themselves. You can just use plain HTML Forms and then inside Controller=Actions use Zend_Filter_Input like this. So you have best of both Worlds.

public function indexAction()
    {
        $this->view->title = 'Search Results';

        $filters = array('q' => array('StringTrim' , 'StripTags'));
        $validators = array('q' => array('presence' => 'required'));

        $input = new Zend_Filter_Input($filters, $validators, $_GET);

        if ($input->isValid()) {
            $this->view->messages = '';
            $q = $input->getEscaped('q');
            $this->view->q = $q;

            // do search
            try {
                $index = News_Search_Lucene::open(
                    SearchIndexer::getIndexDirectory());

                $results = $index->find($q);
            } catch (Exception $e) {
                $results = array();
            }

            $this->view->results = $results;

        } else {
            $this->view->messages = $input->getMessages();
        }
    }

Answer 2

Wel, we are developers because we are supposed to be able to write "some" of our own code, arn't we? Frameworks not supposed to be wizards, just an added assistance.

Answer 3

Color me UNIMPRESSED with ZendFramework. Using Zend Framework is like welding a set of training wheels to your code. Anything you can do in Zend Framework is something you can do in raw PHP. (Remember ZF itself was written in raw PHP.) And you can usually do it with the same number of lines of code - written in a consistent style with the rest of your application. And, by using native PHP code, you're not locked into a niche tool that only a minority of PHP developers use. And you don't have to worry about compatibility with changes in ZF versions.

In my applications, I do all the same things that the ZF tools do, mostly by using simple PHP functions that have been around for years:

• validate form data
• cleanse form input
• handle files uploaded through forms
• manipulate and compare dates
• handle authentication
• send emails
• write to log files
• read from configuration files
• read external HTTP pages
• exchange in JSON and SOAP formats
• work with third-party APIs

I can't find much of anything in Zend Framework that is worth my time. And don't get me started on overbearing "scaffolding" frameworks like CodeCoffin, AppShackler, or Ruby in Chains.

Answer 4

I use ZF for a few reasons: The host of nifty classes, lazy loading of classes, stand-alone usage of classes, and clean clear source. The first time I used it I needed to build an ACL system - a very big complex one. Zend_Acl helped tremendously.

I think ZF needs to work on it's docs and db classes. The db classes problems have a lot to do with PHP itself. So maybe it's some thing Zend wants to look into.

The OP is new to PHP. I agree PHP has it's flaws such as the arbitrary naming of functions, but generally it does make sense for HTTP and doesn't hide reality from you.

Answer 5

I did not choose Zend Framework because at the time when I was evaluating PHP frameworks it was not a complete and integrated enough solution for building web apps. I chose symfony and since then I have never had a need to switch to anything else.

I'm not sure if it's the same nowadays, but I always thought of ZF as a component library rather than a framework. A framework has a somewhat more strict rules of doing things and often has better integrated support tools to help people do them. A component library is more loose in this regard. When the framework rules correspond to the requirements of most applications in the framework's domain, I myself clearly prefer this solution. This has been the case with symfony for me. I do use certain ZF components as needed, but never base my projects on ZF itself.

Answer 6

Simplicity to build medium size applications. Until ZF you had to build your own "framework" to do medium size applications. Now is much more simpler.

I don't think decoupling and simple elements that can be used independently is the key to success. Is a nice feature, but is not the regular use.

Support and community size are relevant in the balance with other frameworks.

In terms of speed they are NOT better then other frameworks.