Zend Framework

Hello.

In the past few days, I've learned pretty much about the Zend Framework, so I thought I'd share my impressions about it.

I've heard several times about Zend in the past (Zend is pretty much the reason why PHP is so popular and a damn good web language), but I've never had the ambition to try to learn it. Now that I've started working, I had to learn how to use it. I'm still at the beginning, but I know the basics and from what I've seen, it's pretty great!

So then what is Zend Framework (ZF)? Zend Framework is basically a collection of scripts written in PHP (actually classes), which give you the ability to write less, more efficient and better code than using normal PHP, plus, they have very useful tools. ZF should not be mistaken with Zend Server, which is a server application which is optimized to be used with ZF.

Is it free? Yes! When I saw the Zend main site, I didn't see anything about it being free, but I asked some friends and they told me that the Framework is free, but the server is not (although they have the free community edition if I'm not mistaken).

So what tools does it provide? Well just a few are: form input validation, multiple DB connection tools, credit card validation, some kind of a session management system, an authentication system and these are only a few I've worked with.

So my conclusion is: it's a good tool, but don't use it if you don't need it. It's best to use it for medium-large sites.