Framework is aimed at developers who do not want to have to dig through all the source code to get their job
done and so the Zend Framework puts documentation on an equal footing with the code. This means that the
core team will not allow new code into the framework unless it has accompanying documentation.
There are two types of documentation supplied with the framework: API and end-user. The API
documentation is created using PHPDocumenter and is automatically generated using special “docblock”
comments in the source code. These comments are typically found just above every class, function and
member variable declaration. The key advantage of using docblocks is that IDEs such as PHPIDE in Eclipse or
Zend’s Studio are able to supply auto-completion tool tips whilst coding and so improve developer
productivity.
The Zend Framework also supplies a full manual as part of the download and also available online at
http://framework.zend.com/manual. The manual provides details on all components of the framework and
shows what functionality is available. Examples are provided to help you get started in using the component in
an application. More importantly, in the case of the more complicated components (such as Zend_Controller),
the theory of operation is also covered, so that you can understand why the component works the way it does.
The documentation provided with the framework does not explain how to fit all the components together
to make a complete application. As a result, a number of tutorials have sprung up on the web by community
members to help developers get started on the framework. These have been collated on a web page on the
framework’s wiki at http://framework.zend.com/wiki/x/q. The tutorials, whilst a useful starting point, do not
tend to go depth with each component or show how it works within a non-trivial application, which is why this
book exists.
THE NEPALI MOVIE !
