Asynchronous processing should be well known concept for all developers. Although idea is commonly known, you will not find many tasks implementations in PHP. Padraic Brady wants to change it.
Before we run off and implement some examples, we first need a task! Once it’s identified, we then need to separate it from the application so it can be processed as an independent unit of work. To add to this, we should also make sure it’s reusable, essentially returning to our Object Oriented basics.
Padraic already publish two parts of his tutorial: Asynchronous Benefits, Task Identification and Implementation Methods
and Making Zend Framework Applications CLI Accessible and is working on third part. He not only presents and explains his approach but also gives solid theoretical knowledge of the topic.
If you have already developed any application using Zend Framework, you should be familiar with modules concept, part of MVC pattern. More experienced developers should notice Zend Framework’s modules lacking an important feature: self containment.
A Module is, in theory, a reusable collection of controllers, views and other classes which is packaged in its own directory for simpler copying or seperate treatment in a version control system like git or subversion. (…) Zend Framework modules do live in a module directory, using Zend_Application and some conventions their classes are autoloaded on demand and they are not required to contain controllers and views. (…) Modules currently don’t have on-access configuration unless we impose it through various means.
So are Zend Framework modules real modules or not, or at least can they be used as self-contained, reusable packages of software? Padraic Brady shows what with some effort it is possible. Read on his blog how to build Self-Contained Reusable Zend Framework Modules With Standardised Configurators.
Few days ago Padraic Brady has released new chapter of his book, Zend Framework: Surviving The Deep End.
The new chapter explores setting up the example blog application’s web design using Zend_View and Zend_Layout. I also spend some time exploring HTML 5, the future standards update for HTML. I decided to employ HTML 5 mainly because it’s rather fun and interesting to get it working today and learn more about where it may impact web applications and web design in the future. The web design itself makes use of the Yahoo! User Interface Library’s CSS components.
For those who did not hear about the book. Surviving The Deep End is free book about developing web applications in Zend Framework. The difference between manual and the book is that the book shows how to bind different components of Zend Framework together effectively into an application. If you have read the manual and still don’t know how to start working with Zend Framework, this book was written for you.
