Create a productivity package with the Zend Framework V1.5 and Google Apps, Part 2: Getting started with Zend Framework V1.5

Level: Intermediate

John Mertic (jmertic@gmail.com), Software Engineer, SugarCRM

29 Jul 2008

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In this three-part "Create a productivity package with the Zend Framework V1.5 and Google Apps" tutorial series, you will build an example Web site using Zend Framework V1.5 to connect to several Google productivity applications. In Part 1, we put together the basic Web site using the Zend Framework, and we learned how to optimize the Web site for future maintenance. Here in Part 2, we look at using the Zend_Form and Zend_Gdata components of the Zend Framework to handle user authentication and registration, Ajax with the jQuery JavaScript library, and integration with Google Base.

In this tutorial

This tutorial is intended for PHP developers looking to take advantage of the many features of the Zend Framework and integrate with the various Google applications.

Any standard Web 2.0 application, such as the one we are building, implements user authentication, Ajax, advanced client-side scripting, and Web services integration. And with the powerful tools of the Zend Framework, along with JavaScript libraries like jQuery that aids with browser compatibility, we can build applications with ease.

In this tutorial, we'll extend the functionality of the base site for our application created in Part 1. You'll learn about the many features of the Zend_Form component, including the new Ajax features. We'll implement authentication, not necessarily as a tool for protecting securing private data but as a tool for allowing a user to personalize the site and save information for his own use. You'll also learn about using Google Base with the Zend_Gdata component, and we'll see how to use Zend_Gdata to grab data from Google Base and use it to populate our Web site.

Prerequisites

PHP programming knowledge is required to follow along. Some experience with Web application development, JavaScript, Ajax, and Web services is preferred, but not necessary.

System requirements

You'll need the following tools:

Web server

Any operating system and any Web server can be used. Feel free to use Apache V2.X or IBM's HTTP Server. Download from Apache.org or from IBM.

PHP

PHP V5.1.4 or later is required for this tutorial.

Zend Framework

V1.5 can be downloaded from Zend Technologies.

MySQL Community Server

V5.0 is available from MySQL.com.

jQuery

V1.2.5 is available from jQuery.com.

Formats

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