Zend Framework video tutorials at killerphp.com

These are just the first of many planned video tutorials on the Zend web application framework for PHP.

These particular videos require a little more background knowledge from the viewer, in terms of overall php development experience.

Source: http://www.killerphp.com/zend-framework/videos/

1. Setting Up an MVC Structure with the Zend Framework - Part 1
2. Setting Up an MVC Structure with the Zend Framework - Part 2
3. Setting Up Zend Development - Part 1
4. Setting Up Zend Development - Part 2
5. Zend Controller and Zend View

Zend Framework: partial() and render()

partial() will render a view script, and render() will render a view script. So… which one do I have to use?

All depends on the variable scope.

Render()

The render() function will render the given view script within the variable scope of the script is was called from.

$this->render('controllername/actionname');

Partial()

partial() will also render the given view script, but you can define a special variable scope: you can pass all requested parameters in an array.

$this->partial('controllername/actionname', array('var1' => 'value 1', 'var2' => 'value 2'));

If you want to render a script from another module, for example( if ypu are in a frontend module, and for some reason you want to render a view from background cms module )

$this->partial('controllername/actionname', 'cms_module_name', array('var1' => 'value 1', 'var2' => 'value 2'));

3 Jquery plugins To Deal With Image Cropping

Jcrop

• Attaches simply to any image in your HTML page
• Supports aspect ratio locking
• Callbacks for selection done, or while moving
• Keyboard support for nudging selection
• Support for CSS styling
• Advanced API including animation support

Jcrop has tested well on the following browsers:

• Firefox 3
• Safari 3
• Opera 9.5
• Google Chrome Beta
• Internet Explorer 6+

 Requirements: jQuery

GoogleCode : http://code.google.com/p/jcrop/
GitHub : https://github.com/tapmodo/Jcrop 

jQuery PhotoShoot Plugin 1.0

 

The jQuery PhotoShoot plugin gives you the ability to convert any div on your web page into a photo shooting effect, complete with a view finder. You can check out the demonstration above, or a nice tutorial on how to use it here.

The plug-in depends on version 1.3.2 of jQuery, but will work fine with newer versions as well.

Demo : http://demo.tutorialzine.com/2010/02/photo-shoot-css-jquery/demo.html
Official site : http://tutorialzine.com/2010/02/jquery-photoshoot-plugin/
Download link : demo.tutorialzine.com/2010/02/photo-shoot-css-jquery/photoShoot-1.0.zip

imgAreaSelect

 

imgAreaSelect is a jQuery plugin for selecting a rectangular area of an image. It allows web developers to easily implement image cropping functionality, as well as other user interface features, such as photo notes (like those on Flickr).

Plugin features:

• Highly configurable
• Customizable with CSS styling
• Handles scaled images
• Keyboard support for moving and resizing the selection
• Supports callback functions
• Provides API functions for easier integration with other application components
• Lightweight — the packed version is less than 8KB

The plugin works in all major browsers, including Firefox 2+, Opera 9.5+, Google Chrome, Safari 3+, and Internet Explorer 6+.

Official site  : http://odyniec.net/projects/imgareaselect/
Examples : http://odyniec.net/projects/imgareaselect/examples.html
Download link : odyniec.net/projects/imgareaselect/jquery.imgareaselect-0.9.8.zip

 

Firebug and Logging

Having a fancy JavaScript debugger is great, but sometimes the fastest way to find bugs is just to dump as much information to the console as you can. Firebug gives you a set of powerful logging functions that you can call from your own web pages.

Url: http://getfirebug.com/logging

How to print_r() Zend_Session_Namespace?

$session = new Zend_Session_Namespace('default');       

foreach ($session as $index => $value) {  

        echo "session->$index = '$value';<br />";

}

Zend db examine SQL query -- Profiler

You can use Zend_db_profiler to capture and examine the sql queries or statements that Zend db adapter forms and executes. example:

$db->getProfiler()->setEnabled(true);
$db->update($data, array('id = ?' => $Posts->id));
print $db->getProfiler()->getLastQueryProfile()->getQuery();
print_r($db->getProfiler()->getLastQueryProfile()->getQueryParams());
$db->getProfiler()->setEnabled(false);

it's important to set the profiler's enabled property to false (last line) after using it as it uses up resources and slows down database transactions.


source: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1009639/zend-db-framework-examine-query-for-an-update

Simple Zend Router example

The default routing setup for Zend is ':module/:controller/:action/*'

The following example will create a route that will only be triggered if the first directory after the public directory (normally used to specify the controller) contains an underscore.

Create a new ini file named route.ini and save it where you save your ini files:

routes.popular.route = :catid/:articleid
routes.popular.defaults.controller = index
routes.popular.defaults.action = category
routes.popular.defaults.catid = 52
routes.popular.defaults.articleid = 1
 
routes.popular.reqs.catid = \w+_\d+

Now add a method to your bootstrap class:

public function _initRouter()
{ 
 $frontController = Zend_Controller_Front::getInstance();
 $config = new Zend_Config_Ini(APPLICATION_PATH . '/configs/route.ini');
 $router = $frontController->getRouter();
 $router->addConfig($config,'routes');     
}

Done.

Url's that contain fit the defined regex pattern (\w+_\d+) will be handled by the categoryAction in the indexControler.
Other url's will be handled normally by the defaut routing system.

Access view inside custom view helper

To access the view instance from your homemade view helper you just need to create a setView method and view property. This will be automatically called upon instantiation, setting the view variable to point at the view instance.

Example:

class Zend_View_Helper_Navigate {
 
 public $view;
 
     function setView($view){
 
         $this->view = $view;
     }
 
 
 function navigate(){
  //more helper code
 }
}

Change layout file

To choose another layout file inside your controller all you need to do is call the layout helper like so:

$this->_helper->layout->setLayout('second');

Now the layout file is second.phtml

Zend image captcha

This is just a quick example of Zend Framework Captcha image component in a form.

This is the action inside the controller :

function captchatestAction(){
  if (isset($_POST['cid'])){ 
   $capId = trim($_POST['cid']);
   $capSession = new Zend_Session_Namespace('Zend_Form_Captcha_'.$capId);
   if ($_POST['captcha'] == $capSession->word)
   {
    //success 
    $this->view->human = 1;
     return;  // end action execution here
   }
  } 
 
  $captcha = new Zend_Captcha_Image();
  $captcha->setImgDir(APPLICATION_PATH . '/../public/img/captcha/');
  $captcha->setImgUrl($this->view->baseUrl('/img/captcha/'));
  $captcha->setFont(APPLICATION_PATH . '/../public/css/Arial.ttf');
  $captcha->setWordlen(5);
  $captcha->setFontSize(28);
  $captcha->setLineNoiseLevel(3);
  $captcha->setWidth(90);
  $captcha->setHeight(64);
  $captcha->generate();
  $this->view->captcha = $captcha;
} 

This is the view code (captchatest.phtml) :

<?php
if (isset($this->captcha)){ 
?><form method = "post" action = "<?= $this->baseUrl() ?>/index/captchatest/">
 <input id="captcha" type="text" name="captcha" />
  <?php echo $this->captcha->render($this, null) ?>
 <input type="hidden" name="cid" value="<?php echo $this->captcha->getId() ?>" >
</form>
 
<?php 
}
if (isset($this->human)){ 
 echo  'human';
}?>