Zend Framework 1.7 Includes DB2/400 Adapter

Published: December 1, 2008

by Alex Woodie

Zend Technologies, the commercial entity behind the open source PHP programming language and its related development tools, has delivered a new release of its suite of PHP tools. Zend Framework 1.7 includes a general release of the new DB2/400 adapter introduced earlier this year, which should improve the interoperability of PHP applications and DB2/400 data. The update also includes various other AJAX-related enhancements.

Zend provided an early release of the DB2/400 adapter with the delivery of Zend Core for IBM i 2.6 in September. At the time, Zend said the new adapter would provide better, faster, and more secure access to existing data and applications residing on System i server.

After poking and prodding at beta sites and the resolution of various technical issues, the DB2/400 adapter was declared ready for prime time at Adobe Systems's MAX conference in San Francisco last month, which was the venue for the launch of Zend Framework 1.7.

Zend Framework 1.7 brings other enhancements, in addition to the new data adapter. For instance, load times have improved by 25 to 50 percent, Zend says, and support for the Action Message Format (AMF) data transfer protocol should improve the product's integration with Adobe's Flex and Flash programming technologies for creating rich Internet applications (RIAs).

Other enhancements include a new editor for the Dojo Toolkit, called dijit. Dojo, which was introduced to System i shops with Zend Core for IBM i 2.6, is an open-source collection of JavaScript tools designed to help developers implement graphical and architectural elements of AJAX applications. Zend Framework 1.7 also introduces support for JQuery, a popular AJAX library that was contributed by the Zend community to the larger open source community.

In further news, Zend is now selling support subscriptions for IBM i customers utilizing Zend Framework 1.7. The subscriptions give customers access to Zend resources for gaining support over the Web and troubleshooting or answering basic questions. The standard support package costs $1,500 and gives customers access to five Web-based incidents and two hours of consulting, while the premium package, which costs $2,500, provides 10 Web-based incidents and three hours of consulting. For more information, visit www.zend.com.

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