I mentioned in one of my previous posts, ZFDebug – Zend Framework Plugin, that I have really enjoyed developing my personal web projects with Zend Framework. I am still pretty new to it and am constantly learning new tips, tricks, and best practices. Scouring the web for as much information as I can possibly consume, I came across this free online book. Zend Framework: Surviving The Deep End is comprised of ten chapters with three appendices from introducing Zend Framework to installing Zend Framework to developing a blog application with Zend Framework. You can find a full book index on the website.

As I see it there are three main advantages to this book:

1. Both the book itself and the code snippets within the book are freely available online and licensed appropriately. The book content is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 Unported License and the code is licensed under a New BSD License. You can see the licensing information in Appendix C, part 2 - Licensing.
2. The content is well written, easy to understand, and well designed for beginners like myself. I don't have any first-hand reviews from advanced Zend Framework developers, but I have gone back to this book multiple times while working with Zend Framework on my own projects.
3. The book is open to user comments. This is a really neat idea. Not only are comments available, but you can comment on every paragraph of the book individually. There are a lot of comments out there already, many of which are quite helpful in reaffirming a statement made in the book or offering further information about the subject at hand.

If you are looking for some good help as you work with Zend Framework to develop your web projects like I was, I would recommend giving Zend Framework: Surviving The Deep End a chance. I have really enjoyed it.

I have spent a lot of time recently working with Zend Framework. As I get further into its features and capabilities, the more I enjoy developing websites and web applications with it. While researching ideas and options, I came across ZFDebug, a plugin that adds a debug bar to the bottom of your pages if you are in the "development" environment. The plugin is hosted on Google Code and is licensed under the New BSD License.

At current release (1.5) ZFDebug offers the following features:

• Cache: Information on Zend_Cache and APC.
• Database: Full listing of SQL queries and the time for each.
• Exception: Error handling of errors and exceptions.
• File: Number and size of files included with complete list.
• Html: Number of external stylesheets and javascripts. Link to validate with W3C.
• Memory: Peak memory usage, memory usage of action controller and support for custom memory measurements.
• Registry: Contents of Zend_Registry
• Time: Timing information of current request, time spent in action controller and custom timers. Also average, min and max time for requests.
• Variables: View variables, request info and contents of $COOKIE and $POST

(list from ZFDebug)

There is a new section on the Resources page for Frameworks. This section of the resources page lists popular PHP frameworks like Zend Framework, which is my personal favorite, and CakePHP. The six common PHP frameworks that were added are also listed below:

• Zend Framework
• CakePHP
• CodeIgniter
• Symfony
• Horde Application Framework
• eZ Components

Do you use a different framework from those listed above? Leave a comment about it and I'll get it added to the list.