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Posts tagged Form
Zend + TinyMCE
Jun 15th
EDIT: Since This article has been written the original code has taken down from our Subversion repository. to download a copy click here
In the course of my trying to do various things with the Zend Framework I am constantly haveing to create rich text editor fields.
Now the guys at Zend Framework have done a bang up job of of getting things started and the Dojo and jQuery libraries that are part of it are spectacular.. except that they dont offer an advanced text editor. Which I think is a bit of a shame. So I decided that In order to make my job a whole lot easier I would create a plugin that I could reuse as and when I needed it.
Please do bear in mind that this is not a completely finished plugin so feel free to fix the bits I miss. If you want to see/use my original code you can find it over at http://subversion.zucchi.co.uk.
So far This helper has allowed me to call the TinyMCE editor form countless views and forms.
Sgt Zend
Jan 26th
I’m a really big enthusiast for the Zend Framework. In my opinion its got to be one of the simplest yet most versatile framework that I have come across in all my time as a programmer. Rarely have I seen a framework where I can get a whole MVC style site up and running in less than 30 Min’s (a very very basic site mind).
So what can the framework do?
Well its most useful and what i would call primary function is to enable you to build MVC style web applications, and it does this with ease.
Among the other libraries there are quite a few that can be use both in conjunction with the framework or as a stand alone component. The most useful of
these i find if the Zend_Db. A fully featured database abstraction layer allowing connection to a wide variety of data source such as DB2， MySQLi, Oracle and a fair few PDO connectors. Its a very clever piece of coding that allows standardised access to via a programmatic object orientated method.
Another of my personal favorites is the Zend_Form. It instantly takes the hassle out of writing forms by giving a php based method of generating a for dynamically. This coupled with the Zend_Config library give you a way to instantlybuild forms that are not embedded in HTML templates making it easy to manipulate them as you need. I’m woking on an interface that will hopfully give a point and click method of building forms and generating the appropriate config files that can then be fired straight into Zend_Form. If I ever manage to get around to finishing it I will post it here.
A couple of other components worth looking at are Zend_Auth and Zend_Acl , even though they are separate components I always tend to think of them in the same context. Mainly because I just thing its daft to create a secure loging with the Auth component and not include an ACL to manage the users. The Auth is extremely versatile, allowing you to connect to a number of diffferent platforms to validate your Authentication. I tend to use it mainly with a database connection through the Zend_Db connector, but it will connect justas easily with an LDAP or active directory as it will a hash file on the server.
The ACL is remarkably simple. usiing a very simple tree system for resources, roles and rights. It really is as simple as saying “Bob can read this page”. That said you can also make it extremely complex just by expanding out on it.
The framework also sports a very elegant caching system in the guise of Zend_Cache. With a large number of frontend and backend platforms available it can make light work of any site that may become a resource hog. This is a definate must for any web application that you build.
So thats my intro to the framework. If your interested in learning more I would strongly suggest heading over to the frameworks website (http://framework.zend.com) as it has an excellent reference guide that breaks down each and every conponent along with a very very concise quickstart guide that will tell you how to get a hello world example up and running in no time at all.
