The Zend Developer Zone has pointed out a new webinar brought to you by Adobe (with Zend's own Kevin Schroeder) about building mobile applications by combining the Zend Framework and the Adobe AIR technology for devices.

Using Zend Framework 1.11 on the server and Adobe AIR for devices on the client, web developers will soon be able to deploy mobile applications across a wide range of smartphone and tablet devices.

The webinar will show off the features of the Zend Framework particularly handy for mobile developers and how the Zend_Amf component can be used to hook it into the AIR frontend to create multi-platform applications. If you'd like to check it out, it's free but you'll need to register. It's happening on January 26th from 9am-10am Pacific time (US).

In a new article to the PHP Zone (part of the DZone.com site) today Mihai Corlan has written up an introduction to the architecture of the interactions that happen between PHP and Flex applications.

When I did my first web project using Flex, boy oh boy, it was quite a switch! The clean separation between the client and the server, (the business logic on the client side in addition to business logic on the server side), client-side technology that is compiled instead of interpreted, two languages on the client, all these required a different mind-set from traditional web development. [...] I want to share with you some of the things that are specific to Flex in relation to PHP. And I want to show you how common tasks for building HTML/PHP applications are done with Flex and PHP.

He talks about the SOA architecture model that the Flex/PHP interaction follows (connecting to services) and illustrates a basic Flex client to PHP server request/response pattern for a simple application. He even includes a sample illustration of an AIR application's interaction with a backend PHP server.

PHPBuilder.com has posted the second part of their series on creating a sample application - a time tracking app - with PHP and Adobe Air.

Welcome back. In part 1 of this series, you created some PHP remote services and the Clocked! widget application. Part 2 covers PHP administration and completion of the timer widget.

They're developing a Flex-based application (rather than the HTML/Javascript combo that can also be used with Air) so they'll be doing their work in Flex Builder. They set up a few placeholder functions like getClients, getProjects and getProjectsResult as well as support for the ticket and timer objects. Add in a few interface items like dropdowns for client and project selection and a start/stop button and you have the basic app laid out. The PHP interface to all of this Flex code comes in the next article of the series.

On PHPBuilder.com today there's a new tutorial by Richard Bates that will walk you through the creation of a simple time tracking application that combines the Adobe Air and PHP technologies to make a simple desktop client.

The scenario calls for a lightweight, cross-platform desktop application that does its job and stays out of the users' way. It also needs a powerful management interface that can be accessed from anywhere. To address both needs, you first create a desktop application for AIR that leverages PHP back-end services for persistent storage and extra horsepower. Then, you create a simple and quick PHP/Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) browser-based interface for management and output applications.

The Air client is really just a frontend to the PHP backend located on the server (so there's no need to install PHP locally too). The system is based around a few objects - the Client, a Project, a time-tracking Ticket and an Invoice for the time spent. To make things simpler, he uses an instance of the Zend Framework to do most of the heavy lifting on the backend.

The rest of this article sets up the backend scripts - creating the service interface and making some of the initial methods (like getClients and logIn). The next part in the series will get into the actual Air application.

Mihai Corlan has put together a list (ever growing) of AIR applications that use a PHP backend:

I want to maintain a list with RIA applications created using Flex and PHP (could be web apps or desktop apps). While this list is unlikely to be a complete list, I hope there will be enough applications to serve as a reference point or to inspire any PHP programmer.

On the list already are apps like Shifd, Flex.org, Kizoa and a Stock Fetcher. Keep checking back on the list for more great AIR/Flex and PHP apps as they're added to the list.

The Flex and Air blog has posted about a tool that can be used to jump-start your Zend_Amf powered application - CRUDdy Buddy.

CRUDdy Buddy is an AIR application I created to generate the code necessary to get started on a Zend_Amf project. It creates all of the PHP necessary, along with ActionScript classes and <mx:RemoteObject> tags you can paste into your Flex or AIR application.

They have a video on Vimeo showing it in action. You'll need the Adobe AIR runtime to be able to use it, but that's a simple and quick install. There are versions for both Mac (using Mac-specific fonts) and Windows/Linux (using Arial). You can download a PDF of the documentation here.

Matthew Weier O'Phinney and Lee Brimelow will be giving a free webinar tomorrow (Wednesday, Oct 22nd) covering the Zend_Amf component of the Zend Framework.

They'll go over the Zend Framework and the Zend AMF module that allows PHP developers to connect Flex applications to Zend Framework powered applications using AMF. You have to register for the e-seminar to attend.

You can find out more about using Flex and the Zend Framework together in this section of the Adobe website.

On the Zend Developer Zone Cal Evans points out some of the upcoming Flex tour dates to local groups all around the United States and Canada.

The Adobe technical evangelism team will be hitting the road in October talking about our recent announcement with Zend. PHP developers who are interested in learning about Flex and Zend should join Kevin Hoyt, Danny Dura, Ryan Stewart and Christophe Coenraets as they show developers how to get started with Adobe Flex, Adobe AIR and Zend.

Check out this list of locations to find one near you to attend. They run from the first of October through the first part of November.

Andi Gutmans has pointed out an effort that Adobe has proposed that would go a long way towards adding AMF support to the Zend Framework.

This ZF component will allow for client-side applications built with Flex and Adobe AIR to communicate easily and efficiently with PHP on the server-side. Leading the design of the component for Adobe is Wade Arnold. Wade already has a track record of bringing the Adobe RIA technologies to PHP as a result of all of his work on AMFPHP.

Andi sees this as a next logical step to helping the framework become more "Enterprise oriented" and to compliment the recent Dojo integration. The plan is to release it with the 1.7 version of the framework, but the actual timing may vary due to the approval process.

On the Zend Developer Zone today there's a new tutorial (by Jack Herrington) talking about working with Adobe AIR and Javascript to make a desktop application for uploading images (or any other files) to a remote server.

To solve the upload problem, most of the big services have dedicated upload applications that run on all the different platforms. But it takes a lot of work to develop them, especially when they have to run on both Macintosh and Windows. Or is it so tough? As it turns out, Adobe AIR technology makes it possible to write applications for any platform using just HTML and JavaScript. It also offers access to cool desktop features, notably drag and drop.

The tutorial shows how to make the application with the HTML/Javascript version of an AIR app (as opposed to Flex) that lets you drag and drop files into it to be uploaded. They make the basic file upload form first as a foundation then extend it to make it accept the remote request (via POST) from the AIR application to handle the uploads. Javascript code and screenshots are included.