Setting up Zend Framework from A to Z Step 1

The main problem with Zend Framework that there is no centralized documentation how to actually set up the framework to use with web applications. There is documentation for the different components and a primitive introduction on the recommended file structure and how to set up the front controller. So my aim is to write a generalized framework setup tutorial. Still learning the framework, I will write down each step to set up a web application.

Step 1:

I’m guessing you already downloaded Zend Framework from their website. Installing it is straightforward, although there are different methods/preferences. I prefer to use a centralized location where the framework is available to all of my projects and not to copy the scripts in each project directory. This makes updating the framework very easy.

When you download the archive file you find a library directory in it. That’s what we’re interrested in,the rest are unit tests, demos, etc.

Simply choose a directory outside your projects directory. For ex. my projects directory is server/www/ also my php and apache folders are in server/php/ and server/apache/. So logically I chose server/frameworks/ for my frameworks directory (I use other frameworks too). I created server/frameworks/zend/ and copy it the library directory, it looks like: server/frameworks/zend/library/ the path to the actual script files is server/frameworks/zend/library/Zend/ which you can find in the library folder.

Next I edited my PHP include_path in the php.ini file. I added this path “Server/frameworks/zend/library; …”

OK. The framework is set up. Now we have to create a project.

Step 2

Let’s say the project is called my_project. I like to set up a virtual directory for each project I create. So I edited httpd.conf file in my apache/conf folder.

This is a basic setup for the general projects folder:

NameVirtualHost *:80
<VirtualHost *:80>
ServerName 127.0.0.1
ServerAlias localhost
DocumentRoot “Server/www”
</VirtualHost>

And this is for the my_project (assuming the directory is server/www/my_project)

<VirtualHost *:80>
ServerName my_project
DocumentRoot “Server/www/my_project/public”
DirectoryIndex index.php
<Directory “Server/www/my_project/public”>
AllowOverride All
Allow from All
</Directory>
</VirtualHost>

Note that my_project/public is the only directory available from the Internet. This I will write in detail in the next post.

Note. I use windows xp as my main development OS. So i have to insert a new route in c:\windows\system32\drivers\etc\hosts file. I inserted a new line: 127.0.0.1 my_project

So when I type in the browser’s address bar http://my_project then it routes to server/www/my_project/ folder and from there (because of the apache DocumentRoot set up earlier) to public folder.

I will be continuing this post very very soon. Until then enjoy.