I have to migrate an application from Zend Framework 1.12.0 to version 2. There seem to be no migration guides yet. I have already studied ZF2 coding conventions and I adopted dependency injection (Zend\Di) and PHP 5.3 namespaces. My goal is to refactor my ZF1 application into a ZF2 module.
Question: Is it possible to proceed step-by-step with an at least partly working application after every step and avoid huge refactoring steps? If yes, what are the steps?
Here's my idea of such a step-by-step migration, but I don't know if I end up with a working application after every step:
Start by setting up the ZF2 Skeleton Application
Set up a new module (MyApp) and reorganize the contents of my ZF1 application into the MyApp module folder structure. Then set up very basic configuration and bootstrapping and migrate the IndexController by extending it from the ZF2 AbstractActionController. The models (Zend_Db) and views (Zend_View) will be migrated later. The goal here is to have a working IndexController::indexAction which doesn't have many dependencies.
Set up more configuration and bootstrapping (Routing, Translate, Locale, Cache, Db, Acl, ViewHelpers, ...). I'd like to set up the ZF1 versions of these components first and migrate them later one by one.
Migrate the other controllers and set up dependency injection into the controllers either with Zend\Di or by using the ServiceManager.
Set up automatic deployment by making the old phing scripts work with the new directory structure.
Migrate the views (including helpers) and forms to ZF2.
Migrate the models (from Zend_Db either to ZF2 Zend\Db or to Doctrine).
Migrate other ZF1 components one by one (Translate, Locale, Cache, Acl, ...).
Refactoring rehab and long holiday.
However, I will have a workin application after every step only if certain ZF2 components work together with ZF1 components. I have no idea if it's e.g. possible to use ZF1 views (and view helpers) with ZF2 controllers.
Migration from Zend Framework 1
This guide is intended to provide tools and strategies for migrating from Zend Framework 1 to Zend Framework 2. There is no single solution that will work for every project, nor any tools to automate the process.
In this guide, we will cover the following:
Tools for namespacing your code.
Tools for consuming Zend Framework 2 within your Zend Framework 1 application.
Strategies for running Zend Framework 2 and Zend Framework 1 in parallel.
Strategies for making your code easier to migrate, focussing primarily on clean separation of your domain logic and the MVC layer.
Strategies for migrating the MVC layer.
Strategies for migrating your domain layer.
http://framework.zend.com/manual/2.1/en/migration/overview.html
Somewhere it was once written that it will be easy peasy with some intermediate layer but I never saw any links or anything in the library that looked just remotely like it.
Now the only thing and latest information you can find is in the documentation's Overview page. It is this:
Note ZF2 is not backward compatible with ZF1, because of the new features in PHP 5.3+ implemented by the framework, and due to major rewrites of many components.
I never expected it to be backwards compatible but the key statement here I believe is the major rewrites of many components.
I've started a new project with ZF2 a few months ago where I only wanted the library; so no MVC which should be easy, right? So far it's been pretty much a nightmare because nothing is the same anymore. Besides some familiar class names or structures the whole framework has been completely rewritten from the ground up.
Things I loved, used a lot and knew by heart like forms, cache or session are completely different. For my project it has cost me a lot of time with no benefit. One of the key objects for ZF2 I thought was overhaul the documentation which is as of these written way worse than the previous one.
For my other existing ZF1.x projects I don't see how to manage an upgrade except to completely rewrite the application.
From the Zend Framework 2 FAQ:
I have an application built with Zend Framework 1 – will I be able to migrate it to the new version?
Absolutely. An important part of Zend Framework 2 is the migration layer that will allow ZF 1 code to run on the new ZF 2 engine, which will be made available in the future. With it, you will be able to add new ZF 2 code, and refactor existing code, at a controlled pace.
However, at this point, I have not heard of any actual migration layer. We can only hope there will be, but at this point, I have my doubts.
We have been migrating a large application from Zend Framework 1 to Zend Framework 2 over the past year. We started out with simple things like namespacing, and slowly worked our way into the various library components. Ultimately, we ended up editing Zend_Layout to work with Zend\Filter, Zend_Form to work with Zend\Filter and Zend\Json, Zend_Navigation to work with Zend\Permissions\Acl, etc. This helped us to eliminate almost all ZF1 components with the exception of the ZF1 application structure which includes four classes Zend_Application, Zend_Config, Zend_Controller, and Zend_Layout. The final piece of the puzzle is the implementation of Zend\Mvc\Application and Zend\View, the remainder is ZF2-ready.
Most recently, we created a proxy of sorts to hook into Zend\Mvc\Application and ZF2 modules from ZF1. This has been extremely helpful. I detailed the steps over at http://webjawns.com/2013/11/migrating-to-zf2-integrating-composer-and-doctrineormmodule/.
In summary...
Convert prefixes to namespaces (Model_ to Model\, Application_Controller to Application\Controller, etc.)
Replace non-MVC components with ZF2 counterparts including autoloader
Create ZF2 application structure and hooks to begin utilizing ZF2 modules
Move controllers and views (still working on a plan for this one)
Related
Problem:
I’m unsure how to set up multi client application for Symfony so that we would not violate Symfony's best practices and work against the framework.
I would like to have one main Core namespace which would contain all the base model classes. Right next to the core I would like to set up client specific namespaces which would be used, based on client regional setting. For example LocalUS for US market, LocalUK, for UK market etc.
The Local* namespaces should take first priority for including twig templates, and as a fallback use core common shared views (as I understand, this is solvable via twig namespaces). Same goes for controllers and models - these are probably solvable via extending the Core namespaced classes? Is this all solvable via routing and providing paths for these Local* controllers?
I was looking up on github to see if there are any project that have similar setup but I couldn’t find anything.
A little background:
We have an older legacy PHP Application which was built in-house from ground up using plain PHP. As the application has grown over time, it has become hard to maintain good code quality and standards. It’s also very time consuming to teach new developers our application logic, since the application basically follows no standard design patterns and just does it’s own thing. A lot of the underlying code which handles routes, controllers etc seems to work like “magic” that nobody really dares to touch.
It is because of that we would like to migrate our application to Symfony3 framework. I’ve read some articles about the overall process of migrating legacy applications to symfony, and managed to do it with silex pretty well. Silex, however is a bit too lightweight, I found that the assetic service provider had a lot of functionality missing (twig namespacing etc), and decided it would be best if we could move to a full stack symfony framework instead.
Look into Symfony bundles - they do exactly what you need. You create a "base" bundle, than extend it with other bundles. That's how FOSUserBundle works - it provides everything you need, than you extend it and overwrite it.
I'm wondering if ZF2 is based entierly on MOVE instead of the classic MVC.
Somewhere I read that is really bases on MOVE (http://cirw.in/blog/time-to-move-on) but e.g. in the "getting started tutorial" (http://zf2.readthedocs.org/en/latest/user-guide/overview.html) they are saying "creating a simple database driven application using the Model-View-Controller paradigm".
So, what is it now based on? Does it support both?
I'm a bit confused. What are the difference at MVC between ZF1 and ZF2?
Thanks
MOVE (Models, Operations, Views and Events)
MVC (Models, Views, Controllers)
The problem with MVC is that you end up stuffing too much code into controllers,
to overcome this problem MOVE is another possible option to choose in zf2 projects,
Because in this architecture you can split your controller into Events and Operations.
Question: Is ZF2 based entirely on the MOVE architecture?
I don't think ZF2 is designed entirely on MOVE architecture.
ZF2 follows the SOLID object oriented design principle with loosely coupled MVC architecture which provide more flexibility in terms of usability.
Question: Can I develop my projects using the MOVE architecture in ZF2?
Yes ZF2 provides you with everything to support both architectures (MOVE, MVC).
It provides Models, Views, Controllers(Operations), Events.
It is up to the developer which architecture he would like to use.
ZF1 and ZF2 is compared in another thread.
MVC or MOVE
SOLID Object Oriented Programing
I am still a beginner in zf2, I am writing here since I had ported my zf1 code entirely to new zf2 framework. I could only say the new framework have lot of advantages and once you get certain new concepts and feature. you can save lot of time developing new project by reusing of modules/components etc.
In zf2 most of the library components are designed to be standalone, i.e loosely coupled, as said it gives more flexibility and a task can be done in many ways (just like PHP is). The main advantage I see is modules, I can split my project to many modules with ease and test individually and integrate very easily without any additional codes. Even I had all my resources like images, css and JavaScript files inside my module folders and access it without any problem (off course with a small code in index.php)
for me ZF1 has fixed rules, flows, etc, and zf2 have liberated flow and rules with new addition of events namespace, configuration and lazy loading, assemble objects, inject dependencies with servicemanger. in zf1 routes are automatic(programmatic), where as in zf2 we need route definition, in zf1 controllers are automatically choosen, where as in zf2 we need to define controllers as invokables, this are few things that take some time to get in once you get the idea you will feel the comfort of using the new zf2 framework
to start with you can do this steps
Learn Service Manager
How Configuration works
How events work
Components wise more or less it works the same as in zf1 (at least in my case)
below are the following advantage I had benefited
Full feel of OOP
Modular application development
Design and then develop to PHP application
Web Application(RIA) platform
We have pretty big application which has about 8 modules (big modules) written using Zend framework 1 and it has been developed for more than 3 years by couple of developers. Also it has a high traffic everyday. We use Amozon s3, Sphinx, Memcache, and some other third party services as well.
Is it a good idea to migrate it to Zend framework 2 ? Because as we went through the doc briefly, it seems Zend framework 2 has been re-written completely. Therefore we think we won't be able to migrate the application easily rather than re-writing the application according to ZF 2.
Valuable ideas would be highly appreciated.
You are correct that ZF2 is a completely different animal. So different, in fact, that there's no one-size-fits-all migration plan/strategy.
However, I recently did a similar migration. It's a fairly complex line-of-business application originally written over approximately 18 months, with a bunch of varied functionality. The main drivers for the decision were the improvements in the module and event systems.
In our case, it turned into a major point release for the product, which ended up including a bunch of UI changes along with all the plumbing.
Assuming you liked ZF1, the good news is that ZF2 is much better framework (as a framework). The ModuleManager, EventManager, Di, and ServiceManager components (and the general MVC-related stuff) are really great, once you grok them. The bad news is that they're a complete departure from ZF1. So you're at the very least signing up to completely overhaul your dispatch and routing, you'll be saying goodbye to Zend_Registry (ServiceManager/ServiceLocator are a huge improvement).
The other bit of good news is that you can almost certainly keep all the old ZF1-type components around for as long as you need them. So if you're relying on Zend_Cache, Zend_Log, Zend_Mail, etc, a little bit of fiddling with autoloader configs should make that possible.
What I'm suggesting is that if you do take the plunge, consider just migrating to ZF2-as-a-framework first, and worry about ZF2-as-a-component-library later.
If you've stuck with the fat-model/skinny-controller paradigm, it's probably feasible to just replace the Controllers, Front-Controller, Zend_Application stuff in a fairly straight-forward way. Once you get that into production, you can then work on removing dependencies on ZF1 components as time permits. In my case, there wasn't much of that, as things were pretty well factored and wrapped (so, for example, moving from Zend_Cache to Zend\Cache was trivial)
Finally, you should know up-front that View-layer stuff (mostly the helper-related stuff) is different too. If you have a bunch of complicated view-related stuff (partials, custom view-helpers, etc) all over the place, you need to anticipate either rewriting them, or finding a way to use the old Zend_View stuff in ZF2 so you can migrate piecemeal. I didn't really deal with this because our interfaces were fairly simple and we took it as an opportunity to overhaul the UI.
Just my $0.02, but I hope it helps.
There is no quick and easy way to migrate because ZF2 is very different from ZF1.
Related: Step by step migration from Zend Framework 1 to 2
I'm wondering if ZF2 is based entierly on MOVE instead of the classic MVC.
Somewhere I read that is really bases on MOVE (http://cirw.in/blog/time-to-move-on) but e.g. in the "getting started tutorial" (http://zf2.readthedocs.org/en/latest/user-guide/overview.html) they are saying "creating a simple database driven application using the Model-View-Controller paradigm".
So, what is it now based on? Does it support both?
I'm a bit confused. What are the difference at MVC between ZF1 and ZF2?
Thanks
MOVE (Models, Operations, Views and Events)
MVC (Models, Views, Controllers)
The problem with MVC is that you end up stuffing too much code into controllers,
to overcome this problem MOVE is another possible option to choose in zf2 projects,
Because in this architecture you can split your controller into Events and Operations.
Question: Is ZF2 based entirely on the MOVE architecture?
I don't think ZF2 is designed entirely on MOVE architecture.
ZF2 follows the SOLID object oriented design principle with loosely coupled MVC architecture which provide more flexibility in terms of usability.
Question: Can I develop my projects using the MOVE architecture in ZF2?
Yes ZF2 provides you with everything to support both architectures (MOVE, MVC).
It provides Models, Views, Controllers(Operations), Events.
It is up to the developer which architecture he would like to use.
ZF1 and ZF2 is compared in another thread.
MVC or MOVE
SOLID Object Oriented Programing
I am still a beginner in zf2, I am writing here since I had ported my zf1 code entirely to new zf2 framework. I could only say the new framework have lot of advantages and once you get certain new concepts and feature. you can save lot of time developing new project by reusing of modules/components etc.
In zf2 most of the library components are designed to be standalone, i.e loosely coupled, as said it gives more flexibility and a task can be done in many ways (just like PHP is). The main advantage I see is modules, I can split my project to many modules with ease and test individually and integrate very easily without any additional codes. Even I had all my resources like images, css and JavaScript files inside my module folders and access it without any problem (off course with a small code in index.php)
for me ZF1 has fixed rules, flows, etc, and zf2 have liberated flow and rules with new addition of events namespace, configuration and lazy loading, assemble objects, inject dependencies with servicemanger. in zf1 routes are automatic(programmatic), where as in zf2 we need route definition, in zf1 controllers are automatically choosen, where as in zf2 we need to define controllers as invokables, this are few things that take some time to get in once you get the idea you will feel the comfort of using the new zf2 framework
to start with you can do this steps
Learn Service Manager
How Configuration works
How events work
Components wise more or less it works the same as in zf1 (at least in my case)
below are the following advantage I had benefited
Full feel of OOP
Modular application development
Design and then develop to PHP application
Web Application(RIA) platform
I would like to try Silex but i've some questions.
I know to use Symfony2 and i would like to know if Silex is very different of Symfony or it's the same thing (same operation, same code... ) ?
Moreover, Silex is recommanded for small PHP projects and Symfony for medium or big projects , it's true ?
A few things worth noting:
Silex is based on the Symfony2 components, just like the Symfony2 framework is. As such, it can be considered an alternative user interface to the components (the user being a web developer).
Since they use the same basis, migration between them should be relatively easy.
Just like Symfony2, Silex is mostly a controller framework. It provides you with some structure, but the model and view parts are handled by third-party libraries (such as Twig or Doctrine).
Since your business logic should not be in your controllers anyway, if you separate that code out and keep your controllers light, the limiting factor in terms of project size will only be the amount of routes you have.
That said, Silex will not give you the bundles that Symfony2 has.
Here are some interesting thoughts on when to use Silex (especially in the comments):
https://web.archive.org/web/20160131151109/http://www.testically.org/2011/10/11/is-there-a-specific-situation-when-to-use-a-php-micro-framework-like-silex/
Silex itself is pretty bare, which means that if you want more then just routing and tests you will need to add specific features (DB, Twig ...) in form of Services.
I recommend to take a look at some readymade Plates that provide you with this:
https://github.com/lyrixx/Silex-Kitchen-Edition
or
https://github.com/ivoba/superleansilexplate (thats mine :))
Another point is that Silex has a probably lighter footprint than Symfony2, so if you need a smaller & faster site, Silex is worth a consideration.
(UPDATE) Since Symfony 2.8 You can use symfony 2 as a microframework with a micro kernel controller. See short description here: symfony.com/blog/new-in-symfony-2-8-symfony-as-a-microframework. Now Symfony gives us more control over the structure and architecture. Good alternative to Silex if You prefer the Symfony 2 style.
Comparing Silex to Symfony before 2.8 release
Silex microframework is based on Symfony but it's not exactly the same thing. Using a full-stack framework such as Symfony for a small project is simply overkilling the project.
In a microframework, you have more flexibility to choose the tools you want to use. You can make more decisions about application architecture and logic.
In a full-stack framework with some extend you would have an architecture and a logic already predefined with restrictions and limitations to its configuration.
Silex was designed to build up the tool rather than get the set tools that you might not need. I would say that for small projects in Symfony you would have to remove features - were in Silex you would have to add them.
It is also not true that Silex isn't fit for larger projects. Silex can be used with success for larger projects but remember that you would have to build up your tools to fit your requirements (if you need to customize the architecture and logic - perhaps this is the right way to go). Other than that, I would consider using Symfony instead, because Symfony already has bunch of tools available out of the box.
Bear in mind that:
To conclude, Silex is good for smaller applications and for those, it can surely replace Symfony. Silex can also be used for larger projects (but for larger applications I would recommend to use full-stack framework instead, like Symfony).
Reference for slides at: http://www.slideshare.net/dustin.whittle/silex-from-micro-to-full-stack . If you feel like it, go ahead and read some more about the Silex framework.
I also recommend watching this intro comparing Silex to Symfony: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RDVtnsoOysE.
Again, a few Pro for using Silex coming from people who actually use it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OJcdHGJFfLU
Silex is good for small projects, but it can be used for big projects as well. What I like the most of Silex is that I have complete control over my project structure but it's my responsibility if my project is well organized or not.
Also I recommend it over symfony if like me, you moved your application logic to the client side using a JS framework. For me it feels an overkill to use symfony only to serve a few json requests.
Silex is based on the independent Symfony2 components and isn't truly considered a full-stack web application framework like Symfony is. You should only use it for very small projects that only require a few files, or you'll outgrow it pretty quickly.
Silex is a great framework for small as well as big applications. Giving structure to the project is your responsibility in Silex. As the project becomes larger, you can nicely integrate symfony components into it although the documentation for the symfony provider is not so good especially for symfony security component.
Silex is great for prototyping projects. If you know you will be using most of the symfony components then go for symfony because you will end up with integrating almost all symfony components into silex.
In my case I needed speed right out of the box and silex provided me with the speed and although I am using most of the symfony components, it is a lot faster than symfony out of the box.
At the moment I write this, Silex is in maintenance mode and it's end of life occured in June 2018.
Which means you shouldn't use it anymore for new projects.
They recommend you to use Symfony 4 instead.
Silex was really good and fast (maybe faster than symfony 4 for simple requests/requirements), but SF4 may bring some new stack and benefits to our applications.
Update: However, in all of my attempts on migrating from Silex to Symfony 4, the simple services took 4x times more to respond no matter what I do. Silex seems to do a much better job for simple micro services.
Silex is a PHP microframework. It is use for the small project.The coding style of the symfony and the silex is almost similar to the symfony.But the symfony is use for the large projects