First, the guy who gave it 2 stars doesn't understand that the whole point of the Zend Framework is that you don't have to abide by a strict set of rules. It's a glue framework.

The author uses some custom abstract classes for interacting with the database and handling forms. He doesn't explain how they work but the whole point of OOP is encapsulation. Your using those classes (extending them) but you don't necessarily understand how they work completely. I mean do you understand how everything in the Zend Framework works? NO and thats the point of using a frame work because you extend from it. All his custom code has been unit tested as well too.

I understand that Zend Framework has classes for interacting with the database and form processing and eventually will look into them.

That being said, I have had the time to work through this book ( I'm half way into it) and the authors writing style is great and very consise. There are a few typos (errata) which can be found on the Apress web site to fix as you go along. People have posted solutions to a minor few bugs because of newer code being used like Prototype as well.

You will learn a great deal from this book. I have a background in front end web development and some Jquery. I studied Java, Ruby so I had some knowledge of OOP and most recently before I started this book I studied a lot of procedural PHP. That helped before diving in OOP PHP and the Zend Framework.

So, I guess I'm trying to say that this book is very approachable and satisfying because you are building something that you can use as a library of code for your own projects.

Although, you should prepare yourself with knowedge of OOP PHP, maybe do a Zend Framework Tutotial which can be found at the official site. Also, having some knowledge of a Javascript library and CSS as well as investigating what Smarty templates are would be beneficial if you are totally new to how modern web applications are built.

Definitely by this book. You want be disappointed!!!
Rating: 5 / 5

When I set out to read this book, I was not looking to learn much in terms of PHP, but was looking for some new web design practices that have come about with the dawn of Web 2.0, and I must say that I was not disappointed. I would highly recommend this book to anyone looking to further their knowledge of Web 2.0 designs and practices. But beware, the book does assume that you have knowledge of PHP and dives straight into the Zend Framework to illustrate the usefulness of dynamically generated web content.
Rating: 4 / 5

PHP has been around over 10 years and is still the most popular web programming language around (yes, way more than ASP.NET). Although ASP.NET has the advantage of more "bells and whistles" built-in to its .NET framework on server controls, that doesnt mean you can't create beautiful, sharp and cool looking web applications in PHP.

This book written by Quentin Zervaas really explains how to use mutliple technologies (Zend Framework, Smarty Template Engine, PHP, MySQL, and JavaScript libraries). The author steps you through creating a pretty cool blogging web application.

There are lots of different technologies used throughout this book but hte author explains them expertly and never allows the reader to get lost. He always goes through the reasoning process of why he is doing something a certain way as well as explaining the alterntives as well.

The book is geared for the intermediate to advanced PHP developer, only because of the many technologies he is using and the Zend Framework really requires a person who already understands PHP fairly well.

The JavaScript libraries used for the "cool Web 2.0 effects" are prototype and scriptaculous. Those are used for the Ajax interactivity with the MySQL database data as well as the code created with the Zend Framework.

I really like the authors example because it steps you through from beginning to end of a real-world web application. It gives you the knowledge of what is really involved in creating a useable application like a blog. And as a user of WordPress (also PHP-based) it helped me understand what would be involved in trying to duplicate a similar web application.

When you are done reading this book, your resume will definitely be much improved since all of the technolgoies covered in this book are highly sought after skills in the workplace.

I highly recommend this book.
Rating: 5 / 5

Hasta el momento no tengo quejas sobre este libro, y creo que no la tendré, aunque tengo que mencionar, que deberian explicar que el libro hace uso de Zend Framework y que sin el seria dificil aplicar Web 2.0 basandonos en el libro.

CodeIgniter es mi framework para desarrollo, pero ahora que el libro me introduce hacia Zend Framework creo que tengo mas posibilidades, si eres alguien que desea aprender Zend Framework, introducirte en el mundo del web 2.0, creo que este es el libro perfecto.
Rating: 5 / 5