Zend Technologies released the roadmap for Zend Framework 3, the next generation of the company’s PHP-based application framework for Web and mobile applications.
Zend officials said Zend Framework 3 will be available in the third quarter of this year. Zend Framework 3 offers a new design that takes advantage of the PHP language evolution, new emerging technologies and techniques.
Zend Framework provides a template featuring many of the most common business and enterprise application features to help developers quickly create applications. Developers can work faster by leveraging this set of existing features without having to reinvent the wheel each time they create a new application. Zend Framework is used in some of the most popular PHP applications such as Magento, an open-source ecommerce application.
Zend focused the new version of its framework on simplicity, reusability and performance. Zend Framework 3 will offer a “use-at-will” architecture by delivering components for independent consumption by developers. In addition, the new framework design will make it easier for beginners to become proficient with the technology while still providing enterprise-grade features for more advanced developers.
“The PHP ecosystem is undergoing a ‘renaissance’ with a multitude of development processes, new technologies and coding practice changes in the last few years,” said Matthew Weier O’Phinney, Zend Framework Team Lead at Zend Technologies, in a statement. “The latest Zend Framework will change how developers work with PHP, providing them with a ‘use-at-will’ architecture option as well as a framework that aligns with ever-changing platforms and technologies. This ensures developers have the specific components they need to create the next-generation of high-performance PHP-based web and mobile applications for the enterprise.”
New features in Zend Framework 3 include a new modern middleware-based runtime as a lighter weight, high-performance alternative to enterprise MVC frameworks. The new release also delivers optimization for PHP 7, while still supporting PHP 5.5 and up. And Apigility, Zend’s API Builder, will be delivered on top of the new middleware stack for better performance and simplicity. In addition, in Zend Framework 3, the company has placed a strong emphasis on HTTP messages, leveraging the PHP Standard Recommendation 7 (PSR-7) specification.
“Using Zend Framework 2, we have been able to speed up the creation and maintenance of some of our best web PHP applications,” said Gregory Besson, CEO of AdFab Connect. “We relied on its robustness and its component-oriented architecture to deliver the international Website of DS, the new brand of PSA Peugeot Citroën. We are eager to try and adopt Zend Framework 3, which will bring the interoperability between PHP frameworks to the next level with PSR-7 and will highly improve performance with the early adoption of PHP7, to come end of this year.”
“We have been using Zend Framework 2 since the first week it launched,” said Elton Minetto, CEO of Coderockr. “The framework’s flexibility and robustness as well as Zend’s credibility provide great value and confidence to our clients. We are very excited about Zend Framework 3, mostly because of PSR-7 compatibility and middleware patterns.”