All --

I've been trying to find a solid Zend Framework Skeleton Site / Demo / Example that shows some or all of the following:

. Module based architecture
. Config with INI for staging / production sections
. Example ACL using a database
. Solid 404 and ErrorController Examples

I'm just a bit confounded that there is so much activity around the Zend Framework, and no real "starter kits" for people to base their education on the framework from.

I've seen a ton of tutorials (some or many of them outdated) on all the various ways you can use various modules.

I'm not criticizing the community, but just asking for help at this point - am I totally missing a good code resource for a skeleton site showing off the potential of the various modules for the ZF?

Nero

You mentioned that you have seen many tutorials, so maybe you know about these, but Akra's Devnotes has the most extensive tutorial I have seen yet.

Akra’s DevNotes Tutorial: Getting Started with the Zend Framework

I don't think it takes v1.5 into account, however, which is fine its just v1.5 has a lot of cool features I am excited about (Zend_Layout, Zend_Form, more View_Helpers etc). If you download the framework please download v1.5.

I found that tutorial to be way exhausting though for a first attempt, and I found myself typing in code that I didn't quite understand. I wanted something more minimal so I could see what code was the absolute minimum necessary to get this thing up and running. I found the Video page on the Zend Framework web site to be very helpful. It makes all this stuff seem straighforward and encourages you to forge ahead on your own into uncharted territory. All you really need is a tutorial telling you how to set up the initial site, and the rest is all fun (or frustrating) experimentation.

Zend Framework: Documentation

Watch those videos you will be running a demo site in no time.

I really believe in the people behind this framework and I stand by it. This is a framework for developers. Just give it a chance.

Even Zend sees the need for such a starting point and just ran a contest for people to submit a tutorial just like the one you mentioned. Hopefully something useful will come from it.

We also found this book useful in getting up and running: php|architect's Guide to Programming with Zend Framework

Its a little out of date, what with 1.5's slew of new features, but it was helpful to us in getting our heads around Zends model and controller implementation and some other modules.

I must say that ZF is worth the learning curve. The more I use it, the more I like it.
Now, if I could just convince my developers of the same...

I've been using it now since ZendCon 07 and I found Akra's notes by chance. It really gets to grips with the basic structure of the framework and provides a great starting point.

When you start to look for more complex functionality I've found a combination of the Reference Docs and the API docs the approach that suits me best. It took a while for me to get used to the way the reference docs are written, but I think through use of the framework and reading the docs it starts to make alot of sense.

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Take all defeat and loss upon yourself

I totally agree.

I also use the CakePHP framework, and while it can get you up and running fast, Zend_Framework gives you the most power and flexibility, if you are willing to push thru the learning curve.

Between the Docs and the API, there are only a few holes in which I can't find info (mostly in Advanced useage). But these forums and the mailing list seem to be able fill in the rest.

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- xentek

Yeah, as the OP, I was a little worried that after a couple days of looking around for a starter "skeleton" site that I just really was missing something that was obvious to everyone.

I too watched the Zend Framework video demonstrations, and was probably like a 1,000 other developers out there typing along code as I watched the video. I though it was silly that the videos weren't accompanied by a small tar.gz of the basic site to get you started, and many of the tutorials, even the php|architect had no associated code download along with it!

There are probably five or six very worthwhile "getting started with Zend Framework" yet none of them that I've found come with anything resembling a solid skeleton site to get you started.

Would be very nice to include a sample fully featured basic website along with the ZF download that showed all of the functions of the ZF in an actual use-case scenario. Even with the bootstrap file, I've seen probably a dozen different ones that I admire, but no "best of" that is a solid comprehensive effort.

Anyway, thanks for taking the time to answer the question...

Nerolabs

I was just asking about demo apps, and this tutorial does go into some of the stuff I was wasnting more clarity on. Thanks for sharing!

Hey just curious, what would everybody like to see in such a "demo site?" Thinking I might just tar up one of my own. Any specific list of functionality?

Also, I think the main problem with this is that right now an individual implementation of the Zend Framework is very much left up to interpretation. It's built with flexibility in mind, so it can do a lot of things in almost every way you could imagine. There are lots of different levels of granularity within some of the largest modules, and how deep you go just depends on what you're trying to accomplish. There is no one "right" implementation. There are multiple ways to tackle any given problem, and which method to implement largely depends on the parameters of the given project.

I totally agree. For these reasons, I am not very into the idea of the Zend library including a demo site. There are just too many ways to do things, and making a bootstrap file your own way is part of the whole learning process. are we not programmers??? lol