Binary Me

It has been several months since me and a good friend poured our brains in seriously studying Zend Framework (framework.zend.com) and we are very excited about it now.

This happened after we have develop some applications using pure (luck) PHP and sprinkles of JavaScript. Our previous projects was always a challenge, as the project grows our codes become unwieldy. Although the project was relatively successful and our clients are happy about it, adding new features or modules into the system is not a request we would gladly embrace. The incremental amount our clients are willing to pay is not too enticing considering that digging back the source codes and making modifications might create unwanted side-effects which will lend to problems or instability. We would rather leave the code untouched and keep the client contended of what they have now. I am not saying that PHP (codes) is not clean. The reality is sometimes programmers (including me) gets tired and lazy and given strict deadlines will write lousy codes without regard to quality or coding standards just to finish the task at hand. We usually promise to go back and rewrite the codes a few weeks alter but programmers time flies quickly and our memories is not in gigabytes. Or sometimes we are bombarded with new and more interesting projects. Or … okay we got lazy again or we simply forget.

All these changed when we came across Zend Framework. ZF is simply a PHP development Framework. It follows the MVC (Model, View and Controller)  programming paradigm. In this style of development the application is seen as comprised of three isolated representation of the application; 1. Model – this represents the data objects and how it is structured, 2. View – this is how the information will be displayed or rendered 3. Controller – this controls the logic of the applications this is where the business rules are usually implemented. This is also where the how the data (model) will be manipulated before it will be passed to the viewer. At first the concept seems strange but as you understand the logic behind this implementation you will begin to see the beauty and love it.

It is composed of several will written PHP classes and interfaces (API) to different web services available in the Internet today, including your favorites like YouTube, Facebook, Google Maps and many more. As a development framework, it encourages coding and design standard by imposing upon the programmer to follow a well defined application structure. With the availability of related development environment like Zend Studio, our tasks not become more enjoyable. This is specially true when developing a project as a team. One programmer can now easily check others work and make it feel like strolling in the mall as opposed adventure is the jungle.

So what now? What would this mean to our clients? Well, they still have to pay large sums of money for the web business applications they dream of:). Seriously they can expect enterprise grade, internet connected and web aware applications. One example would be map enabled applications which will give you directions of your nearest warehouse, or a dynamic map showing your territorials sales.

The possibilities are endless, but since my time now is limited I will talked about this later.