Preface

A couple of years ago I was introduced to Zend Framework 1 by a friend of mine, and since then I have been a fan. Although the first framework was a real bulky framework with not much documentation, I feel that the second version of the framework improved greatly. The incredible toolshed full of features, makes this framework (personally) one of the best frameworks to work in.

But as we all probably know, because of its incredibly vast library of features the learning curve can appear very steep. That is why I felt the need to write about all the important parts of the framework, in bite-size pieces that don't overwhelm someone (you in this case) who wants to learn it.

What this book covers

Chapter 1, Zend Framework 2 Basics, talks about how we can set up a small application and run it. The dependency injection and configuration are also handled.

Chapter 2, Translating and Mail Handling, explains the importance of internationalization and localization, and the overall handling of sending and receiving of mails in our applications.

Chapter 3, Handling and Decorating Forms, demonstrates how forms are created. After that it talks about filtering, validation, and decoration of forms.

Chapter 4, Using View, covers one of the most important parts of the framework that will be discussed here, setting and rendering of the View.

Chapter 5, Configuring and Using Databases, gives out the configuration and explanation of databases that will give us an insight into how we can fully utilize them in our application.

Chapter 6, Modules, Models, and Services, mainly discusses how modules are built up, models can be hydrated, and services are defined.

Chapter 7, Handling Authentication, delves into the different ways of authenticating users and how we can create our own authentication method.

Chapter 8, Optimizing Performance, discusses the use of caching and the methods available to cache output, opcode, and how to use plugins.

Chapter 9, Catching Bugs, teaches us how to debug applications, handle exceptions, and log stuff.

Appendix, Setting up the Essentials, shows where we can find the documentation, how to set up a development environment, and shows how the composer works.

What you need for this book

To follow the book in the best possible way I would recommend using a Linux-based web server, as most of the recipes are more Linux oriented than Windows. If you are a Windows user you'll probably be better off installing a virtual machine with Linux on it, or installing a Zend Server community edition to make sure your machine is compatible for Zend Framework 2 development (you can also do this without Zend Server, but it is just more convenient).

Who this book is for

Zend Framework 2 Cookbook is for PHP developers who are fairly advanced in PHP programming. It will also be useful for developers who have a keen interest in expanding their knowledge outside the boundaries of simply scripting pages together. As unit testing and MVC will be discussed, it is beneficial for the reader to know what these technologies are, although experience with developing applications is not necessarily essential.

Conventions

In this book, you will find a number of styles of text that distinguish between different kinds of information. Here are some examples of these styles, and an explanation of their meaning.

Code words in text, database table names, folder names, filenames, file extensions, pathnames, dummy URLs, user input, and Twitter handles are shown as follows: "We can either get the flags from a message by using the getFlags() method, or by using the hasFlag() method."

A block of code is set as follows:

<?php
echo $this->dateFormat(
    // Format the current UNIX timestamp.
    time(),

    // Our date is to be a LONG date format.
    IntlDateFormatter::LONG,

    // We want to omit the time, defining this is 
    // optional as the default is NONE.
    IntlDateFormatter::NONE

);

When we wish to draw your attention to a particular part of a code block, the relevant lines or items are set in bold:

SampleModule/
  config/
    module.config.php
  language/
  src/
    SampleModule/
      Controller/
        IndexController.php
  view/
    samplemodule/
      index/
        index.phtml
  Module.php

Any command-line input or output is written as follows:

php composer.phar update

New terms and important words are shown in bold. Words that you see on the screen, in menus or dialog boxes for example, appear in the text like this: "After we have done all that we can, click on OK and you can choose a location to save our file."

Note

Warnings or important notes appear in a box like this.

Tip

Tips and tricks appear like this.

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