System iNetwork

April 8, 2008

The Latest Zend Trend: Tightened i Integration

The trend for Zend is tightened i interoperability, per the company's announcements at COMMON and its release of Zend Framework 1.5.

The news in Nashville debuted as "Multi-year collaboration between IBM and Zend results in strong adoption of PHP for web application development on System i." Translation: Years of effort have led to downloads from thousands of i-focused clients.

Here are the highlights:

-- The open-source-based Zend Core 2.5.2 for the i, which includes an updated PHP engine, increased PHP script performance, and a Windows-based installation option.

-- The Zend Platform 3.6 production environment with its increased PHP application performance and Zend 5250 Bridge, an API for running interactive apps through a browser.

-- A fast-paced consulting engagement called JumpStart, designed to help an enterprise extend the reach of its i environment.

-- Zend Studio for Eclipse, a PHP IDE that will release in Q3 with all the components needed to support the lifecycle of PHP apps created on the i.

Earlier, Zend Technologies announced the availability of Version 1.5 of the open-source PHP Zend Framework. "Both Zend Core 2.5 and Zend Platform 3.6 support Zend Framework and have capabilities that make any Zend Framework application run better," reports Kent Mitchell, director of product marketing. "It is important to note, however, that Zend Framework is a general-purpose open-source framework for PHP that Zend supports, but it is not a commercial product from Zend. It is developed by a wide community with contributions from many companies and individuals."

Although Version 1.5 doesn't offer support for DB2 on the i, the folks at Zend say that's not a show stopper. "There is PHP support for DB2 for the i5 that already exists, so users will be able to access their data on the DB2/400 databases on the i5," Mitchell notes.

"Since Zend Framework 1.5 is a use-at-will architecture, developers can pick and choose what part they use," Mitchell continues. "Unlike some frameworks, you are not required to use Zend Framework’s DB access. So developers could use Zend Framework’s MVC to build modern web applications or the support for web services or whatever they need. Later, when the open-source community adds DB2 support for i5, people could replace what they are using for data access and have a totally portable application."

Given other benefits that developers would get from Zend Framework, Mitchell maintains that "there is probably no good reason not to adopt it [Version 1.5] today and use as much (or as little) as makes sense for their applications."

Andi Gutmans, CTO and co-founder of Zend Technologies, says that with the release of 1.5, "Zend continues to deliver on the promise of making PHP an accessible language for building modern web applications and web services of any scope, from startup Web 2.0 sites to major business critical enterprise web applications."

The company is also offering a new subscription support service that includes consulting time for inquiries related to methodology and a guaranteed per-incident response time for addressing issues related to Zend Framework project code.

Posted by vhamende at April 8, 2008 8:25 AM