Zend Server User Guide > Concepts > Zend Framework

Zend Framework

Zend Server comes bundled with Zend Framework 2 packages (ZF2).

ZF2 is a high quality, open source framework for developing Web applications and Web services using PHP 5.3+. Built in the true PHP spirit, ZF2 delivers ease-of-use and powerful functionality. It provides solutions for building modern, robust and secure Web sites.

ZF2 uses 100% object-oriented code and utilizes most of the new features of PHP 5.3, namely namespaces, late static binding, lambda functions and closures.

The component structure of ZF2 is unique: each component is designed with few dependencies on other components. ZF2 follows the SOLID object oriented design principle. This loosely coupled architecture allows developers to use whichever components they want.

ZF2 supports Pyrus and Composer as installation and dependency tracking mechanisms for the framework as a whole and for each component, further enhancing this design. ZF2 uses PHPUnit to test code and Travis CI as a Continuous Integration service.

While they can be used separately, ZF2 components in the standard library form a powerful and extensible Web application framework when combined. Also, it offers a robust, high performance MVC implementation, a database abstraction that is simple to use, and a forms component that implements HTML5 form rendering, validation, and filtering so that developers can consolidate all of these operations using one easy-to-use, object oriented interface. Other components, such as 'Zend\Authentication and Zend\Permissions\Acl' provide user authentication and authorization against all common credential stores.

Still others, with the ZendService namespace, implement client libraries to simply access the most popular web services available. Whatever your application needs are, you are likely to find a ZF2 component that can be used to dramatically reduce development time with a thoroughly tested foundation

Zend Framework Resources

Say hello to the ZF2 elephant with your cursor to access all the developer resources and information:

	Read Also
	Working with Zend Framework