As the Zend Developer Zone points out, there's a new article from Erwin Early (of the i5 community) that's a shot introduction to what the Zend Framework is and some of what it entails.

The customer interest in PHP has been high and I receive numerous questions at customer events on its usage of PHP on IBM i. Many people also ask about Zend Framework. What is Zend Framework? Can I use it on i5/OS? How can I integrate the advanced functionality that Zend Framework provides?

To answer some of these questions he gives an overview of the framework - some of the components that make it up, how to place it so that Zend Core can find it, some resources about the framework and an example os its use to make a PDF with Zend_Pdf.

Havard Eide is asking for your help in a new entry to his blog. He's looking for ways to speed up his development in Eclipse, specifically in the debugging.

There is one thing I do need over everything else: remote debugging. Having used Zend Studio for 3 years now it hasn't been the best editor ( I'd rather prefer PHPEclipse/PDT ) but the remote debugging facility is superb [...] Eclipse it has all the tools you need to develop with but the debugging is slow, way too slow!

He's looking for anyone out there that might be able to help him speed up the debugging on his Leopard-installed version of Eclipse ("So slow actually that I had to install Zend Studio 5.5 for whenever I have to debug a file...")

John Coggeshall has blogged about a method he's worked up for compiling extensions into the Zend Core software.

While Core does ship with a large list of extensions (which are all QA'd and supported by Zend) there are times when you would like to include non-official extensions from PECL for various reasons.

He breaks it down into a few simple steps - download, "phpize" the extension, compile it and add the extension to the php.ini. He details the second step of the process (the phpize) because of some of the differences there are between doing it for a normal PHP install and a Zend Core install.

He also provides directions for an exception to the rule - compiling a PDO driver for your ZC install. You'll have to trick the Zend Core installation into using the right files, though. Full instructions are included.

The Zend Developer Zone has posted the latest episode of their PHP Abstract series highlighting developers from all over the web. This time, though, it's a little different. This episode is an interview with Aviv Katz of Zend.

Today, we are going to do something a little different. While I was at ZendCon 07, I had the opportunity to sit down with fellow Zender, Aviv Katz. Aviv is the product manager of Zend Core and Zend Network. [...] Zend is a very distributed company, the downside of that however, is that a lot of us don't see each other during the course of a year. So when I was offered the opportunity to talk to Aviv I naturally jumped at it.

Cal also warns listeners ahead of time that it's more about a certain product than it is about Aviv.

The usual three methods of listening are there - right on the page, through a direct download and via the podcast's feed in your favorite aggregator.

With recent announcements from Zend, there's talk all over about what they're doing and who they're doing it with. Here's just a few examples from Zend's own news feed:

• IBM Adds Zend to Value Pak, Ships ESX Server Storage Support - a summary look at the Value Pack bundle of software for the i5/OS V5R4 operating system
• Zend Puts Out New Release of Commercial-Grade PHP - the latest release of ZendCore
• Microsoft adds PHP to InfoCard support list - the addition of InfoCard support in a collaboration with Microsoft (a big push in their Hotmail email offering and other Live online services)
• Oracle beefs up PHP driver - the updates that Oracle has made to the OCI8 driver for PHP

As mentioned in this post on the Zend Developer Zone, the Zend/IBM collaboration group have released a Web 2.0 Starter Toolkit:

It offers a great start to reducing the coding yet helps you produce cool applications using Ajax, ATOM feeds and REST Web Services. It is a great on-ramp to get you working with Zend Core and IBM DB2 Express-C and Rich Internet Applications (RIA). This toolkit will also work with Zend Core for IBM, check out the FAQ. This is an excellent use case for DB2 pureXML.

It makes things simple like making ATOM feeds from a data in a pureXML database, making web services as simple as a point and click operation and check out the usage of your database via an Ajaxed interface.

Check out the project's website for more information. Currently, the project requires Windows (either XP or Server 2003).

According to a new article on InfoWorld today, Zend and IBM are working together to extend the reach of their combined technologies even further by focusing on more functionality around IBM's DB2 database.

Featured in the arrangement are enhanced IBM DB2 Express-C capabilities in IBM Zend Core for IBM, which is Zend's PHP offering. DB2 Express-C is IBM's hybrid relational-XML data server for accessing enterprise capabilities such as data replication, clustering and offsite disaster recovery.

Also included is new support for DB2 Connect technology to access i5/PS and z/OS DB2 data servers. DB2 Connect technology makes it easy to build PHP applications that leverage DB2 hosted on IBM System z and System i servers.

The article also mentions how users can use existing System i Linux partitions, System i BladeCenter and System x servers to take advantage of this new functionality. Zend will be providing the support for this new product (a "single support solution").

AS per this announcement on the Zend Developer Zone, Zend has released the latest version of their Zend Core product updating it for PHP 5.2.3.

The Zend Core team has just released PHP 5.2.3 as an automatic update, so you should be able to upgrade your Zend Core environment with the latest PHP - in one easy step. (Zend Core 2.0.3 Windows packages are also available).

Updates in the latest release include improved Windows performance and reliability, a bundled Zend Framework and universal database support. You can download the latest version from the Zend Core page on the Zend website.

Alison Holloway has a new note on her blog today about the release of the latest version of the Zend Core for Oracle - version 2.0.

Zend have just released a new version of Zend Core for Oracle. This is a prebuilt and tested stack of Apache, PHP and Oracle Instant Client. If you haven't used it before, you will like the easy setup. I promise. [...] Zend Core for Oracle release 2.0 includes PHP 5.2.1, the refactored OCI8 driver, Oracle Instant Client, and an optional Apache HTTP Server 2.2.2.

This new version is supported on OSes like Oracle Enterprise Linux, X86 running Windows XP/2003/Vista and Sun Solaris Sparc 8, 9 10 just to name a few. She also mentions the Underground PHP and Oracle Manual [pdf] as a reference to help you get things running if you're stuck.

On the Zend Developer Zone, Cal Evans has posted the release announcements for two new updates for two versions of the Zend Core product - an update for Oracle (2.0.1) and for IBM (2.0.1).

Zend Core is a Zend certified and supported version of the open source PHP. It uniquely delivers a seamless out-of-the box experience by bundling all the necessary drivers and third party libraries to work with different databases.

Zend Core is the leading production quality PHP 5 stack that provides the certified, enhanced capabilities with support and PHP maintenance that serious professionals need for PHP development and production.

Updates for each of the releases can be found here:

• Zend Core for Oracle
• Zend Core for IBM