Zendcasts Forum

I would think that the framework would speed up future projects considerably, thought the first project may take longer.  Most websites are going to have very similar components such as a registration piece, an auth and acl piece.  The structure that I have is to put these components inside modules.  When the basic skeleton website is working then just tar it up and that is the file that you use to start each project.  The Zend_Tool is useful in creating a first project, but after that I don't know why someone would be creating a project from scratch.  They should just untar their skeleton website and go from there.

I'd be interested in learning how the freelance biz is going and any suggestions for getting started in it.  Do you have many clients requesting that you use the framework?  I would think that it could be a selling point, as the standardization should make it easier for another programmer to continue work on the website if you ever become unavailable.

regards,
jim

I've only used Zend lightly for personal projects, so please take this with a grain of salt I am going to use it on a trial basis for my next few freelance projects, so hopefully then I will have greater insight.

I've used three major PHP based frameworks professionally over the last few years (working for a web development company on projects supporting tens of millions of users and working freelance on projects supporting hundreds of users). The conclusion I've come to when you're working freelance, is that what matters most is picking something that works with your style, something that is widely supported and something that you can stick to.

That being said, I think there are many instances where Zend has its advantages, due to its design. It does take more time to setup when compared to other frameworks, but I believe it can actually end up saving time in the long run (great extensibility, loose coupling, use at will, etc.). When you can quantify that quality to a client (especially bigger ones), you'll likely gain more of their confidence and trust.

Zend is also relatively young and has established a great baseline for future growth. I'm very interesting in seeing where it goes.

Well there is at least one other freelance ZF developer in Montreal! Me!
Since a majority of my projects are me working alone and offereing key in hand (clé en main Can I say that in English?) products clients do not care at all what framework (if any) I use. So for me ZF is easy to push and use. I dread having to go back to the old style of making webpages if one day I have too.
Beenig from a C++ background when I was first introduced to ZF I almost cried of happyness. Much more like what I used to do.
Anyways, when doing job interviews a couple of years back peoples would often ask about frameworks. So I guess there is some job in Montreal.

Hey I would love that! Just send me a email whenever you want to meet.

Hello there,
Well, I am freelancer from London UK, and yes even on this end of the world I use and heavily rely on excelent Zend framework. I use it on daily bases and could not live without it any more.
I have developed many systems such as CRM or CMS or company management systems with it and I am looking forward to each new release.

Hello :-)

I'm a freelancer too, a very small one, as a second job, just to satisfay a real passion for computing.
After about a year and a half of ZF learning, through official documentation and Zend casts, i've learned almost everything i need to build web sites, at my scale of course, no big project.

I find that ZF is a quite low level framework for an application, providing object you always have to use and then you often write the same kind of code particularly into the controllers, (when you handles request, forms, models) , what is particulary boring for me, providing no excitement at all.

I went to the solution of building my own "standard" application, module based, entirely depending on ZF library and on my own library (respecting ZF coding standards...) a kind of personnal layer, providing a concrete implementation for CRUD, Ajax, Login, Visitors stats, Admin, Acls, Developper (online development for test version of clients applications) and so forth... Everything is a module, some are needed by the application itself, some are "optionnal".

This requires to find a way to develop modules respecting a few personnal rules, but it really speed ud my delivery time, for all the businness coding.

A new demand ? i do the appropriate module, and it's done, and fully transposable on another client application.

I use ZF and Jquery, my basic controller handles most of current tasks automatically (ajax, edition, save, search), i've got plugins who handles login, stats (request storage), ZF loader configuration, module configuration,...
View helpers do a lot of work too, they are a really easy way to handle commons tasks into the view.

I also have personnal models and tables with a personnal logic to grab datas and manipulate it (like auto date conversion, SQL query building, datas returned format...), it's a real satisfaction to have all those pre builded tools.

Once you've got a lot of pre-build modules (picture galerie, videos, news, articles, lucene search, widgets (in columns into the layout) and other features) you just put them (copy/paste) in the client application, from you MAIN application (the one that is always in development), and it's done, i love it. For small clients, it's a dream for me, i have just to focus on the design, the logical part is already done, and it's really a pure pleasure to work that way.

There is so much to say about it !!!

I' really get exited by the way of developpment ZF make me going through. I just spend time on making better and better my basic application, witch contains all the modules i develop as the time goes.

Also, i'm not a big php expert, and ZF allows me to build satisfaying application, regarding on performance and easy to work on, even after a while, with a lack of knowledge in object model and at a larger range with php itself.

So, one more time, thanks god to have made ZF be existing, it's a new age for me in web developpment since i discovered it. And, one more time, thank you jon, for all those screencasts, they really helped me, not only with features or ZF parts coverage, but also on code design and datas handling.

For my two cents...

:-)
best regards,
sorry for a maybe too long text, but i promess, i tried to be "short".
Sorry too for english mistakes, i try to do my best however...

bye !!!!

ps: For entreprise (intranet ? ) web sites, who doesn't require a rich visual interface, but almost a easy to use app and friendly user interface , ZF applications based, coupled with local rules or standards on application scafolding/logic are a real pleasure to develop, the logic becomes the only point to focus on, i find, for a developper point of view, that this is the best conditions to work on a project.

Last edited by anton (2010-11-23 18:49:22)