On the Adobe Developer Connection site Richard Bates has recently posted a tutorial covering the integration of PHP and Flex as developed in Zend Studio/Flex Builder.
Tight integration between Flex and a server-side language means that your users will have an intuitive, engaging user experience with all the functionality they need. For developers, tight integration between PHP and the Flex development environments can provide big benefits by ensuring a smoother workflow for coding, debugging, and managing a project. You can make the most of such a unified environment by using Adobe Flex Builder and Zend Studio for Eclipse together.
He starts with the basics - installing everything and getting it all up and running, then making a sample "Hello World" application on both the PHP (backend) and the Flex (frontend) sides. Included in the tutorial is a look at sending XML out to the Flex application from PHP.
Alessandro Crugnola has posted an update on the future of the AMFPHP project (an interface between Adobe's Flex products and PHP) and how it relates to the work being done on the Zend Framework's Zend_Amf component.
But after the partnership between Zend and Adobe things started to change and amfphp started to move forward to the Zend Framework... and in fact many developers were afraid about the real future of amfphp.
But, as Wade said, the amfphp core will remain separated from the framework implementation ( a framework which I will never use however ), in order to have a shared core and 2 different branches for the implementation.
He notes, though, that he might be being a bit skeptical, but doesn't see things working out in their favor and that Zend_Amf will "win out" over the AMFPHP project and get the larger share of the backing from the larger companies.
Andi Gutmans has posted an update on the status of the Zend_Amf component of the Zend Framework to his blog today, including links to some examples and updates from other developers.
Some of the resources he links to include several examples written up by Kevin Hoyt showing how to get started with the component, the webinar from Matthew Weier o'Phinney and Lee Brimlow as well as a manual page for it over on RIAFox.com.
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 Evanspoints 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.
According to some statistics gathered by the Gartner Research group, PHP is trending more towards being found in the enterprise:
A recent Gartner Research study found that 10 percent of the PHP community are corporate IT developers, and predicted that during the next five years, that number will grow to 40 percent. That's good news for PHP developers looking for corporate gigs--and very good news for PHP tools maker Zend Technologies, which cited the Gartner finding at the Zend/PHP Conference last week as evidence of widespread, more strategic adoption of PHP in enterprises.
Much of this has to do with Zend's products and their placement in more enterprise settings as well as the collaborations they've created with several key big-name players like Adobe, IBM and Dojo (as a part of the Zend Framework). There's also a mention of some of Microsoft's initiatives in the PHP community including work on the FastCGI component and a SQL Server driver for PHP.
Zend made several announcements in the opening keynote of this year's Zend/PHP Conference & Expo
including collaborations with Adobe, IBM and the Dojo project to further PHP's place in the online
development community.
These announcements pertained to partnerships with these other companies on projects like bringing
out-of-the-box Ajax functionality to the Zend Framework with Dojo and updates to the Zend Core and
Zend Studio software. Also announced was the release of a new certification specifically for the Zend
Framework - "Zend Certified Engineer for Zend Framework".
One of the major announcements, though, was Zend's efforts with Adobe to help make the connection
between their powerful Flex environment and what PHP has to offer. The key to the integration lies in
the AMFPHP (Action Message Format) tool that acts as a layer letting Flex and PHP talk. Zend and Adobe
will also be, from this point on, creating links between the Zend Studio software and the Adobe Flex
Builder software to help developers to help make the integration that much simpler.
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.
