Pro Zend Framework Techniques: Build a Full CMS Project [Paperback]

Like many, I bought this book as it is one of the few non-beginner Zend Framework books that comes from a trusted publisher. What I expected was a great next step in advancing my Zend Framework knowledge. What I got was a rushed, almost useless run through of how this particular author created his CMS.

The author spends multiple chapters on the same exact CRUD (create, read, update, delete) functionality in each controller. Very little additional information is given when new features are added.

All in all, the biggest complaint, and the reason this is rated 2 stars as opposed to 4, is you simply can not follow the code in the book. I did a quick run through of my notes after finishing the book and came to the conclusion that 1 in 4 code samples contains at least 1 critical error. From misspellings, to incorrect class names, to missing syntax, to functions that don't exist; You will be spending hours upon hours just trying to figure out why your script isn't working! And to top it off, the publisher has not yet added a single errata (I personally have submitted at least 20).

Another complaint is the sample code is not broken up into chapters, but instead provides only the final product. This is somewhat useless when working through the book systematically. I worry that this added layer of complication and frustration may drive many away from using Zend Framework as a person could easily mistake problems in the sample code with problems of the framework.

To wrap it up, this book was a rushed, weakly thought out attempt at covering the beast that is Zend Framework. I highly recommend you look elsewhere.

I agree with most of the points in Travis Butler's review . I encountered several obvious editing errors in code samples and wasted a lot of time tracking them down. I finally wrote to Apress' editorial staff who admitted "It is possible that some code may have been added or changed at the last minute, bypassing our normal technical review process." This is a shame because I had begun to prefer Apress over Packt books because of a perceived emphasis on higher quality from Apress.

The other issue, as Travis points out, is repetition. After building a few CRUD actions there really isn't any need to to show more basic CRUD code samples later in the book. Instead, discussing subjects covered or alternate approaches in a bit more detail would have been more valuable for readers.

If you need to build your first CMS and are looking for a good example of how to do so with the Zend Framework, I'd recommend this book despite the editing errors. If you're a seasoned developer, I'd look elsewhere.

I enjoyed this book even with the amount of errors I found in the code.

That said, I learned a lot in this book and had a lot of fun with it. For the most part if you have some experience with php and the Zend Framework you should be able to figure out the errors and fix them.

I'll briefly cover what I think is the heart of the book.

This book uses direct inheritance as it is simple and easy to implement versus lets say composition. For example, by using direct inheritance, if you have a Page Model, then you would directly extend from the data source gateway class.

eg. class Model_Page extends Zend_Db_Table_Abstract

The disadvantages of this are it is hard to run unit test without a database connection. Breaks OO inheritance principle (if your concerned about that) and is tightly coupled with Zend_Db_Table.

The author notes that there are a number of different opinions regarding the structure of an MVC application. He states that the approach he describes is a fat controller approach.

But after building the application it seems to me he is using a Fat Model skinny Controller for the business logic in the application stack. The methods and queries are done in the Model not the Controller.

Doing this allows for code reuse anywhere in the application, readability is enhanced and maintainability is easier as the Controller is easier to maintain with fewer lines of code and less logic contained in it.

What I really like about the application you build, is the authors use of an abstract data structure. Abstract data structures look at content in a contrastive way. In an abstract system content is content. To implement this approach he uses the node pattern which consists of two components: pages which are the main containers and the content nodes which are the actual blocks of content. A page can have any number of content nodes.

So what the pattern means is that any page can have any number of content nodes. The same database tables can work for a page, a blog, a cms, or any type of page. Also, pages can contain other pages.

The Model_Page and Model_ContentNode classes you build handle the low-level database management and this is where the direct inheritance takes place from Zend_Db_Table_Abstract.

The Page and ContentNode model classes provide an abstraction layer between the application and the underlying database structure. But this has added difficulty because you create a flexible data structure and this has made managing the data more complicated than it would be if you had a fixed table tailored for each content type. Like in a traditional CMS database.

The way around this involves creating another layer of abstraction on top of the models called "content item objects".

These objects extend a base abstract class called CMS_Content_Item_Abstract that handles all the interaction with the Page and ContentNode models. This in turn gives you a real object oriented data access.

So, now that I have this base content item class, I can create new forms of content for my CMS project very easily, without altering the underlying model or database. You can than create a concrete class that extends the abstract class and add public properties for each of your data.

I liked this approach and would be interested to hear what other people think.

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