In a new post to his blog Andi Gutmans mentions how the Zend Framework was "well represented" in this year's SourceForge Awards.

The Zend Framework team will be watching closely, since no fewer than two (!) new ZF-based projects have made it in to the finals: Magento and Tine 2.0.

Magento is a very popular eCommerce application that makes setting up an online shop quick and easy. It's well designed and has been nominates to several community spots like "Best Project for the Enterprise" and "Most Likely to Change the World".

Time 2.0 is focused on intranet collaboration and is a rewrite of the eGroupWare project (a collaboration suite allowing for instant access of any data from just about anywhere there's an internet connection).

You can cast your vote for these and other great community projects by logging in to SourceForge and selecting your favorites from the lists.

In response to another blogger's review of the php|architect "Guide to Programming with Magento", Michael Kimsal has posted some clarifications.

Starting off with "However, I'm not really the type of person to give accolades unless something is absolutely stellar. As such, this post will primarily be about the shortcomings of the book" I wasn't particularly surprised that there was more of a focus on negatives rather than positives.

Michael mentions three topics - the "first to market" point the reviewer makes about different versions of Magento between the book being authored and the release, some of the missing information the reviewer would've liked to see and the complexity of the example module that the reviewer complains is too hard to follow.

Michael Kimsal has posted about the release of a new book from php|architect publishing, PHP Architect's Guide to Programming with Magento. Coincidently, one of the authors is also his brother Mark Kimsal.

I'm really excited for him, as I know he put a lot of work over the past several months learning Magento and writing the book. The biggest challenege was dealing with the underlying architecture changes that the Magento team applied in various versions leading up to (and including after!) the 1.0 release.

It's hard to hit a moving target like that, but as Michael mentions, the book and its authors did a great job of it.

The book as been officially released and can be purchased on the php|architect website in either a Print+PDF ($34.99 CAD) or just PDF ($29.99 CAD).

On his blog today, Vinu Thomas spotlights one of the major up and comers in the PHP-based eCommerce software package offerings - Magento.

Magento is an ecommerce platform on PHP which is quite feature rich. This platform is based on the Zend Platform. You can take a look at a Magento store and the admin demo over at their demo section.

He mentions some of the features it has including analytics, catalog management, order management, payment integration with Paypal/Google Checkout/Authorize.net and some SEO optimizations.

You can find out more over on the project's website and download your own copy or peruse the forums to get to know the community around this popular app.

php|architect has announced the release of a new book - the Guide to Programming Magento, now up for preorder:

We're happy to announce the upcoming release of php|architect's Guide to Programming Magento, the first comprehensive guide for developers who want to learn more about the Magento e-commerce platform.

The book, by Mark Kimsal shows you how to install and successfully deploy a Magento installation on your website. The preorder is available right now for a 15% discount and the full PDF version will be released on May 15th, 2008 (print on May 31st). Check out the product page for more information and to reserve your copy today.

php|architect has recently announced a partnership they're worked up with Varien to provide training for the Magento eCommerce platform.

According to Roy Rubin, President of Varien, "MTA is a leader in PHP training programs and we are excited to have them working with us to provide Magento Partners and community members with Magento Training by php|architect".

Keep an eye out for the first of the courses to be offered for the popular platform - "Developing with Magento" starting April 22nd, 2008. It will be available through the php|architect website.