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Zend Framework 1.6RC

July 25th, 2008 | by: Chris Woodford

If you don’t frequent the zend framework website you might not have realized that they already have a release candidate for version 1.6 of the zend framework. What’s interesting about version 1.6 (other than the additions to my new friend Zend_Form) is that it comes bundled with the Dojo javascript framework. On the surface this seems like a good idea: a php framework and a rich integration with a javascript framework. Your basic all-in-one package. Looking deeper, I feel like this has the business equivalent to “code smell” to it. Why did Zend select Dojo out of all the javascript frameworks out there? The community doesn’t seem to think Dojo is the right way to go. All the blogs I’ve been reading seem to be really pushing jQuery. But then again programmers (yes, myself included) are a fickle sort and tend to always jump on whatever bandwagon seems to have the most hype. So now Zend has taken it upon themselves to make it easier for programmers already using the Zend Framework to start using Dojo. Did Dojo start loosing the popular vote and figure their best bet for the future is attempting to piggy back on the Zend Framework’s hype? The relationship between the Zend Framework and Dojo is clearly beneficial to both parties and the integration of the two will only become easier and more seemless over time. I suspect it will get to the point where the ease of using Dojo far out weighs the hassle at attempting to use another javascript framework. I figure the result can go one of two ways, developers using ZF will either: convert to using Dojo or come together and extend the Zend Framework to have a rich integration with other javascript frameworks.

In a perfect world, business wouldn’t determine the choice of programming language or tools that we use. As part of an open source community, we have the tools required to make our own decisions and to branch off when business begins to constrict our choices.

What do you think?

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3 Responses to “Zend Framework 1.6RC”

Wil Sinclair said:

July 25th, 2008 at 6:52 pm

Well, I hope I can shed a bit more light on our decision process. First off, Zend tries to take our users desires in to account for all of our decisions. Ultimately, however, Zend has to decide where it will contribute just like any other contributor. We decided to contribute Dojo support for 4 basic reasons:

1) Their licensing and CLA policy is *very* similar to our and was one of the very few that would allow us to redistribute their libs in any of our distributions.
2) We wanted to work with a JavaScript toolkit project, as opposed to simply consuming it. The Dojo Foundation has been an excellent partner that we’d been working with for months before announcing our decision.
3) We evaluated the most popular JS toolkits and concluded that Dojo best reflected the philosophy and MO of ZF.
4) While not the favorite of all ZF users, Dojo is one of the more popular frameworks in our community.

But I really must emphasize that this relationship is hardly exclusive on both sides. We hope that our community will step up with support for many JS toolkits such as JQuery, extJS, etc., and Matthew has mentioned that he designed the Dojo integration components such that they would serve well as a blueprint for other integrations.
Bottom line, Zend doesn’t have a lot of resources to throw at ZF. We have to pick and choose where we put our own efforts. In the AJAX world we had to pick one horse, and after a lengthy evaluation we picked Dojo. We hope that you see as much value in Dojo as we do, but we also hope that in time you have the option of choosing another if Dojo’s not the right toolkit for you.

In any case, I hope you enjoy ZF 1.6 and keep the feedback coming!
,Wil

Chris Woodford said:

July 29th, 2008 at 3:23 pm

Wil,

Thanks for you comment! Your explanation has cleared it up for me and allayed my fears.

I can definitely see what you’re saying with points 2) – 4). Point 1) is a slight shocker, in that I’m surprised that other frameworks would limit their redistribution. Maybe in the end the true influence of business is found in licensing and CLA policies. I don’t really see why would so-called open source libraries limit their potential redistribution. The politics of business and programming will always baffle (and annoy) me.

On the whole I do think it is a good idea that ZF is moving forward and offering integration with javascript libraries. (I just tend to be of the disposition to get all worked up when I suspect that business is interfering with open source . The ZF/Dojo collaboration is likely only to make each product stronger. However, I do hope the community will take Matthew’s blueprint as an example and roll with it.

So far I’m loving the 1.6RC. ZF continues to get better and better with each release. Keep up the great work!

-chris

Lasse said:

August 13th, 2008 at 1:56 pm

I don’t agree with your assessment. I think that Dojo is an excellent Framework to work with and I’m happy to see it integrated with the Zend Framework.