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Laminas Project

Laminas Project
Formerly Zend Framework

Overview

What is Laminas Project?

Zend Framework was a PHP framework developed by Zend Technologies and acquired by Rogue Wave Software. The Laminas Project is the community managed Open Source Continuation of Zend Framework managed by the Linux Foundation. Transition initiated after Rogue Wave was…

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Recent Reviews

TrustRadius Insights

Zend Framework is a crucial component of eBaum's World, powering their main site and ensuring its seamless operation. Many companies have …
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Product Details

What is Laminas Project?

Laminas Project Technical Details

Operating SystemsUnspecified
Mobile ApplicationNo
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Reviews and Ratings

(15)

Community Insights

TrustRadius Insights are summaries of user sentiment data from TrustRadius reviews and, when necessary, 3rd-party data sources. Have feedback on this content? Let us know!

Zend Framework is a crucial component of eBaum's World, powering their main site and ensuring its seamless operation. Many companies have relied on Zend Framework, particularly version 1.x, for their projects, benefiting from its extensive documentation and the ease of hiring and training developers experienced with the framework. Its popularity has made it a default choice for PHP-based projects, as it is widely used by major PHP frameworks.

Although some developers may find Zend Framework more complex compared to other frameworks, alternative frameworks like Symfony and Laravel have leveraged Zend classes to provide a more accessible and extended experience. Additionally, Zend Framework has proven successful in long-running MVC applications and is highly recommended for small to medium-sized projects that prioritize efficiency. It also serves as a versatile vendor library, offering utility classes for tasks such as PDF management and cryptographic implementation. Another notable use case is the development of websites that consume APIs using Zend Framework. Lastly, organizations rely on the Zend PHP Engine as a robust framework for debugging PHP environments and monitoring various functionalities in LAMP stack setups.

Excellent interface for working with databases: Several users have praised the interface of Zend Framework 2, stating that it is excellent for managing databases. They appreciate the built-in safeguards that prevent bad data from being injected into the databases, reducing the risk of corruption or data loss.

Flexible and customizable view: Many reviewers have found Zend Framework 2 to be highly flexible when it comes to customizing the view. They mention that it is easy to modify the view according to their specific requirements, especially when dealing with ajax requests. This flexibility allows them to render content exactly as desired.

Widely used and supported by leading enterprises: Some users have highlighted that Zend Framework 2 is widely adopted by major software enterprises. They value its long-term support, which they believe surpasses that of any other framework. The reputation and widespread usage of the framework instill confidence in its reliability and stability.

Inconsistent Route Loading: Some users have reported experiencing issues with the order in which routes are loaded, leading to inconsistencies across different servers. They suggest that Zend should address this issue to ensure a consistent loading and parsing of routes.

Complex Database Functionality: Several reviewers have expressed dissatisfaction with the database functionality of Zend, particularly when it comes to specifying a specific index. They had to create their own workaround as there was no built-in function available for this purpose.

Steep Learning Curve: Many users have found Zend Framework 2 to be overly complex, especially for small projects. They feel that compared to other frameworks, there is a steep learning curve involved in understanding and working with its code.

Based on user reviews, users highly recommend using Zend Framework on a large scale, as they believe it is one of the best and secure frameworks of PHP. Another common recommendation is to pair Zend Studio with Zend Server for a solid PHP development environment. Many users suggest using Zend Framework for web design, as they find it completely object-oriented and following the MVC paradigm. These recommendations highlight the growing potential and community-driven plugins of Zend Framework, its popularity among leading software enterprises, and its powerful routing system in Zend Framework 2. However, some users note that it may require additional configuration and can be challenging to correct. Additionally, it may not be suitable for situations where speed is crucial. Nevertheless, many users appreciate the compatibility of Zend products and how they have saved them time compared to previous applications.

Attribute Ratings

Reviews

(1-6 of 6)
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Leonel Quinteros | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Zend Framework is used in two systems at my former company. One system has been designed and implemented as a Zend Framework MVC application with version 1.x. It has been live and running for over 10 years, and it still runs Zend Framework version 1.x as is still supported and working well. The other system uses Zend Framework as a vendor library, to consume several utility classes as PDF management or some cryptographic implementation.
  • Long term support not matched by any other framework.
  • Well designed architecture, very natural for any PHP developer.
  • "Enterprise" spirit, it's OOP patterns will be very familiar to any Java, C# or C++ developer.
  • Good support, services and ecosystem offered by the Zend company
  • For some reason it has never been too popular.
  • Quick prototyping may not be super fast and easy like with other RAD frameworks available.
  • It doesn't exist anymore! It has transitioned into a community-driven project called Laminas.
Zend Framework is great, and one of the best, to be used as an external library to benefit from its multiple classes for everything without having to create the entire application on top of the framework. That makes it super easy to plug into any existing PHP project and start using it. It offers two different ways to architect new applications, which may suit most developers around. One is based on the MVC pattern, and the other is based in composition and middleware, which has a more functional approach that's becoming more popular.

It may not be the best tool for a simple app or a quick prototype, but it has improved on that side lately. Tooling can also improve, there are other frameworks that have developed their tooling ecosystem to increase developer productivity.
Score 7 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Zend PHP Engine is used by my organization as the backbone framework to debug our PHP environments. We utilize its API functions to monitor API calls, XHR requests, MYSQL calls & other various functionality in our LAMP stack environment.
  • The Zend Framework excels at productivity. It's lightweight, loosely-coupled enough to provide 90% of the functionality that everyone needs out of the door, but also customizeable enough to meet the remaining 10% should your business need it.
  • Because the Zend Framework is functionality focused (also supported by the actual PHP developers) - it is light enough to hit the ground running with. Having no configuration files to get rolling is also a huge plus.
  • The documentation of the Zend Framework is reliable, updated & succint. I have not encountered an issue that I could not easily troubleshoot from looking at the documentation.
  • Zend PHP Engine could improve by creating a more intuitive workflow for beginners. Though it is not super hard to grasp - most developers have a learning curve for understanding & fully utilizing the framework.
  • Zend PHP Engine could also improve by fixing their stability issues. Every now and then the MYSQL service calls will drop, stop being monitored or die alltogether. Any PHP developer worth his salt would point to the fact that PHP SQL queries also have this issue inherent in them - but I hope that just as much as they improved the MYSQLi queries - that they could eventually solve the issue with the stability.
  • Zend PHP Engine could also improve by having the initial out of the box installation be more intuitive. The process of installing and configuring the framework can be a bit complex at times - and I have had to walk through it with even the most senior developers at my company.
Zend PHP Engine is well suited for small/medium sized projects that require heavy PHP development. It is especially potent in developing API's & debugging your entire web application from inception to scale. Zend PHP engine is obviously less well suited for scenarios where you need more advanced dynamic monitoring & development for web-apps at huge scale.
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
The Zend PHP framework in my opinion is the default framework for any PHP based project. It's supported by the core contributors of PHP and you will find that most of the major PHP frameworks rely on Zend classes.

Many developers won't choose to use Zend because compared to other frameworks it might be complicated, so you have a learning curve issue.

If you get to see some Symfony or Laravel classes, you will see that many of those extend Zend core classes. The reason why those other frameworks encapsulate Zend classes is because those are well built but are not so easy to use and you might add some value by extending them.

I have developed custom backend APIs by entirely using Zend, which makes those faster than using other more complex frameworks. For small or medium sized projects I would strongly suggest using Zend.
  • The performance is superior compared to other frameworks.
  • It's supported by the contributions of the core classes of PHP.
  • Extensive updated documentation.
  • The code isn't that easy to understand.
  • The learning curve compared to other frameworks is bigger.
I would say you can use Zend with any project of any size but in a personal experience I would recommend it more for small or medium sized projects. Since the code you will be writing with Zend has more verbosity than the one you can write with other frameworks, that might be a problem to maintain larger projects.
Lauren Merka | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We use Zend Framework as the engine for our main site. I am the only one that manages it, but eBaum's World wouldn't run without it!
  • Excellent interface for databases. I trust that no bad data will accidentally be injected causing the databases to become corrupt or drop.
  • The routing is really great. We have a lot of custom routing and it makes it very easy to add or adjust routes and ensure they're getting where they need to go.
  • Zend provides so much flexibility in the controllers for dealing with the view. It's so easy to customize the view to render just how you want it. Especially when dealing with a request that may or may not be ajax.
  • My most recent gripe with Zend was when it turned out that the order the routes are loaded differ from server to server. I know this is a PHP issue but it would be great if Zend stepped into ensure the routes were loaded and parsed in the same order no matter where it's running.
  • I wish template variables were automatically included in nested templates. It's annoying having to pass the variables once in the controller and then again within the template when loading in a new piece.
  • The database functionality could use a bit of expansion. We had to write our own workaround when needing to specify a specific index. There's no built in function to handle this and we didn't want to have to resort to hand writing queries that require a specific index that the DB might not default to.
Zend is well suited when you have a large, complicated site that will also need its own custom CMS. Zend doesn't get in the way and it's really easy to build exactly what you want, in a way that's consistent. It is not appropriate for a situation where you need something really fast. It definitely requires some leg work and configuration to get it up and running.
Takahiro Horie | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
I've used Zend Framework at several different companies. Most companies I've worked for are still using Zend Framework 1.x, and usually in migration to either a different framework or Zend Framework 2.x. I have been looking at Zend Framework 3.x but have not used it in production software yet. This review is primarily for Zend Framework 2. If you're a company thinking about using Zend Framework, you should definitely focus on using Zend Framework 2 and not the much, much older Zend Framework 1 anymore. Zend Framework solves the problem of bootstrapping and sharing knowledge because there is already well-written documentation around the Zend Framework software library. If you try to build a proprietary framework from scratch, you'll be spending a lot of money and writing a lot of unnecessary documentation. Training and hiring is simpler - as you can find people who have experience with Zend Framework.
  • Zend Framework 2 provides a lot of best-practice tools, design patterns, and libraries for large-scale software projects.
  • Zend Framework 2 uses an event-based model, a dependency injection model, and proper use of PHP5+ namespaces.
  • Zend Framework 2 is used by a lot of large, leading software enterprises.
  • Zend Framework 2 is overly complex for small projects.
  • Zend Framework 2 documentation sometimes overlooks small details, which means you will need to delve into the code directly.
  • Zend Framework 2 bug fixes on GitHub usually take quite a long time to get patched.
Zend Framework is well suited for large (or potentially large) software projects. It has the tools and structures for organizing and maintaining millions of lines of code by providing different scaffolding and service management capabilities. Obviously, it works well in environments that prefer a traditional PHP-based MVC stack as that is how it's designed. For smaller or less experienced teams, it might be faster to build something using a simpler framework such as Laravel or Symfony because the learning curve is a bit less steep. The routing system of Zend Framework is incredibly powerful but also very hard to get right, for example. Overall, however, being skilled with Zend Framework 2 will be very advantageous.
March 22, 2016

Zend Framework Review

Score 6 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Zend Framework is being used for the development of websites consuming an API.
  • It has a decent service container
  • Very configurable to make the framework do what you want
  • The routing configuration is very painful to use. Seems like it was thrown together.
  • The framework is very heavy, and sometimes confusing with how abstracted everything is.
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