Zend Framework 1.8 Web Application Development
I recently read the book Zend Framework 1.8 Web Application Development by Keith Pope. Having done quite a lot of PHP work and having used Zend Framework, this book caught my attention. In general, I don't really like IT books that cover a technology, most of them tend to be a refactored version of the reference manual.
Not this book. It's actually nice and complementary to the reference manual provided by Zend: whereas the reference manual describes each component in great detail, this book takes a more high-level view of things, showing how the pieces of the puzzle fit together.
It does this by building a full application, from the ground up, step-by-step. Where needed, a detour past theory is not shied. So it's not all application: the author takes quite a lot of time to cover e.g. the ideas behind MVC.
I also liked the broad range of topics covered, including testing, something which is quite often overlooked for web applications.
In all, this is a good read. No earth-shattering must-have literature, but certainly useful. If you plan on building a lot of Zend Framework applications, this book will certainly help a lot. The only minor point is the somewhat confusing Model description. Other than that: good one.
Disclaimer: Packt Publishing was so kind to send me a review copy of this book. This would not stop me from declaring that it's utter shit, it just so happens to be that I liked the book. You can buy my time, not my opinion.
