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PHP programmers use a variety of frameworks and libraries to develop their projects. Zend Framework is one of the most popular PHP language frameworks that offers many features to developers. Today we are going to review the framework and introduce its advantages and disadvantages to you, so stay tuned until the end of this article.

What is the Zend Framework?

PHP frameworks include a set of application classes for web application development, and it is one of the most popular language frameworks. This framework, now known as the Laminas project, is based on the MVC architecture and is open source to developers. With the help of this framework, programmers can develop modern web applications at a very high speed.

This framework also has several Loosely Coupled components, which is why it is also the Component Library. This framework provides developers with any PHP language stack and server for running applications.

Zend Studio software is also an IDE and provides many additional features such as MVC user interface and code-generation to the developers of this framework. The current version of this framework (Zend 3.0) includes new components such as JSON RPC server, XML to JSON converter, PSR-7 capability and PHP7 compatibility.

Zend 2 is also an open source framework used by developers to develop web services and applications in PHP 5.3. This version also uses 100% object-oriented code and supports many PHP 5.3 features such as namespaces, Lambda and Closure functions.

Zend 1 is one of the most popular PHP language frameworks with more than 15 million downloads, and Zend 2 is an evolution of Zend 1. In general, the servers of this framework are available to PHP project developers in both free and commercial versions.

The Importance of the Zend Framework for Developers

The ability to complete highly stable and transparent code with intellectual property rights has made this framework extremely popular among PHP programmers. This framework also supports encryption tools and password hashing techniques.

Reasons for the popularity of the Zend framework

The developers of this Framework consider the popularity of this framework as follows:

Flexibility in programming

Simplicity along with high efficiency

Compatibility with other tools

Scalability; The programmer can easily extend all classes of this framework.

Portable; Supports multiple development environments.

Zend applications

Well-known companies have developed the following web pages using the Zend framework:

McAfee website

IBM website

Magneto Store

Benefits of the this Framework

 It is a pure and 100% object-oriented framework.

This framework implements the MVC architecture in an advanced way.

 Zend framework can use multiple databases such as PostgreSQL and SQLite.

This framework is  with a very simple Cloud API.

Session management is into this framework.

Data encryption is another good feature of it that enhances its security.

URI routing in this framework is very flexible.

The framework also supports RESTful API development.

The ability to store and reuse code is easier than other frameworks.

This framework is with Loosely Coupled capability. Using this feature, developers can remove modules and components that are not in the application from the project.

This framework performs so well that the latest version (Zend 3.0) of this framework is 4 times faster than the previous generation.

PHPUnit library can be integrated with the framework so programmers can do the testing process easily.

Disadvantages of this framework

This framework has many libraries, classes, and components, so beginner programmers have a hard time learning it.

The framework plugins are very expensive compared to other PHP language frameworks.

The Zend framework has numerous online resources, and although it has the support of a large user community, developers are sometimes confused by the over-documentation.