Introduction
Welcome to another tutorial. Today, I will be giving you a walk
through of zftool, which provides basic tooling support in Zend
Framework 2. If you’re new to Zend Framework, or have been
reading the introductory series here, it can come in quite handy.
But unlike other frameworks, such as
Yii (
through yiic) and
Symfony (
via the Command Line tool), the tooling support in Zend Framework 2 is rather light on.
These respective tools provide rather robust support for
automatically generating models from database connections, checking logs
and a host of other much required functionality.
I understand from some tweets with
Enrico Zimuel
new additions are planned for zftool. But for right now, Zend Framework
is definitely the junior. However, that aside, I like to take the adage
of a glass half full and see zftool as a good start. Today we’re going
to use it to carry out the following tasks:
- Create a basic ZF2 project
- Create several modules
- Creating an autoloader classmap
- Checking if there are any issues
By the end of today’s tutorial, you will have a good understanding of
how to get started with it and to be able to use it in your projects.
Firstly, let’s install zftool and get started.
Note for Windows Users
This tutorial is run under Ubuntu Linux. However, with only minor changes, you can run it in your version of Windows as well.
Installation
There are a number of ways in which zftool can be installed, including using Composer and
downloading the Phar tool.
During the research for this article, I tried to
install it via Composer,
but continuously met with permission related errors. As a result, I’ve
chosen to focus on the Phar tool approach, which works, almost,
seamlessly.
If you’d like to go down the Composer route, run the following command in your Terminal or console and you’ll have it available.
$ composer require zendframework/zftool:dev-master
Otherwise, download
the phar file. Once it’s downloaded, run the following commands. These make it accessible universally on your system:
sudo cp -v zftool.phar /usr/local/bin/
cd /usr/local/bin/
sudo ln -s zftool.phar zftool
sudo chmod +x zftool.phar
If you’re not familiar with the Linux command line, what we’ve done
here is to copy zftool.phar to one of the directories automatically in a
users PATH.
Then we’ve created a symlink to it, giving it a simpler name and finally set the executable bit on it –
now it’s ready to run.
Running the Phar Tool
Now that we have the Phar file available, let’s have a look at the
options available. Running the following command will display a help
screen, showing all of the options supported:
zftool -v
ZFTool - Zend Framework 2 command line Tool
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
ZFTool
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Basic information:
zftool modules [list] show loaded modules
zftool version | --version display current Zend Framework version
Diagnostics
zftool diag [options] [module name] run diagnostics
[module name] (Optional) name of module to test
-v --verbose Display detailed information.
-b --break Stop testing on first failure
-q --quiet Do not display any output unless an error occurs.
--debug Display raw debug info from tests.
Application configuration:
zftool config list list all configuration options
zftool config get <name> display a single config value, i.e. "config get db.host"
zftool config set <name> <value> set a single config value (use only to change scalar values)
Project creation:
zftool create project <path> create a skeleton application
<path> The path of the project to be created
Module creation:
zftool create module <name> [<path>] create a module
<name> The name of the module to be created
<path> The root path of a ZF2 application where to create the module
Controller creation:
zftool create controller <name> <module> [<path>] create a controller in module
<name> The name of the controller to be created
<module> The module in which the controller should be created
<path> The root path of a ZF2 application where to create the controller
Action creation:
zftool create action <name> <controllerName> <module> [<path>] create an action in a controller
<name> The name of the action to be created
<controllerName> The name of the controller in which the action should be created
<module> The module containing the controller
<path> The root path of a ZF2 application where to create the action
Classmap generator:
zftool classmap generate <directory> <classmap file> [--append|-a] [--overwrite|-w]
<directory> The directory to scan for PHP classes (use "." to use current directory)
<classmap file> File name for generated class map file or - for standard output. If not supplied, defaults to autoload_classmap.php inside
<directory>.
--append | -a Append to classmap file if it exists
--overwrite | -w Whether or not to overwrite existing classmap file
Zend Framework 2 installation:
zftool install zf <path> [<version>]
<path> The directory where to install the ZF2 library
<version> The version to install, if not specified uses the last available
Reason for failure: Invalid arguments or no arguments provided
Creating a Project
Ok, with the tool ready to go, let’s set about using some of it’s
functionality to creating and managing a Zend Framework 2 project, as
outlined above.
Create the Project
Firstly, we’ll create a raw project, called ‘simple project’. To do so, run the following command:
$ php zftool.phar create project ./simpleproject
This will create the core project files in a directory in the current
directory, called ‘simpleproject’. It will give you output similar to
that below:
ZF2 skeleton application installed in ./simpleproject.
In order to execute the skeleton application you need to install the ZF2 library.
Execute: "composer.phar install" in ./simpleproject
For more info in ./simpleproject/README.md
Assuming there were no permission issues, the project directory should look as follows:
$ ls -l ./simpleproject/
-rw-rw-r-- 1 maltblue maltblue 342 Jun 12 06:34 composer.json
-rwxr-xr-x 1 maltblue maltblue 709565 Jun 12 06:34 composer.phar
drwxrwxr-x 3 maltblue maltblue 4096 Jun 12 06:34 config
drwxrwxr-x 3 maltblue maltblue 4096 Jun 12 06:34 data
-rw-rw-r-- 1 maltblue maltblue 1807 Jun 12 06:34 init_autoloader.php
-rw-rw-r-- 1 maltblue maltblue 1548 Jun 12 06:34 LICENSE.txt
drwxrwxr-x 3 maltblue maltblue 4096 Jun 12 06:34 module
drwxrwxr-x 5 maltblue maltblue 4096 Jun 12 06:34 public
-rw-rw-r-- 1 maltblue maltblue 1759 Jun 12 06:34 README.md
drwxrwxr-x 3 maltblue maltblue 4096 Jun 12 06:34 vendor
The Generated composer.json File
Looking in the project directory, we see
a new composer.json file,
which has the basic configuration and requirements for a Zend Framework
2 project. If you’d like to go further, feel free to alter it as suits
your needs, running
composer update afterwards.
{
"name": "zendframework/skeleton-application",
"description": "Skeleton Application for ZF2",
"license": "BSD-3-Clause",
"keywords": [
"framework",
"zf2"
],
"homepage": "http://framework.zend.com/",
"require": {
"php": ">=5.5.3",
"zendframework/zendframework": ">2.2.0rc1",
"zendframework/zend-developer-tools": "dev-master",
"zendframework/zftool": "dev-master",
}
}
Installing Zend Framework 2 in the Project (With Composer)
With the basic files in place, unless you have the Zend Framework
libraries on your path, the application won’t run. So, in the project
directory, run
composer.phar install to bring in the required libraries and dependencies.
The output will look similar to that below. I’ve trimmed it for sakes of readability.
$ composer.phar install (or) $ php composer.phar install
Loading composer repositories with package information
Installing dependencies (including require-dev)
- Installing zendframework/zendframework (2.2.0)
Downloading: 100%
Writing lock file
Generating autoload files
Creating a Module
Now let’s create a module which doesn’t already exist; we’ll call it
Generic. As before, we create the module via the command below:
zftool.phar create module Generic
You should see output similar to that below, indicating there were no problems.
The module Generic has been created
Looking in the Generic module directory, we see the following structure:
$ ls -l module/Generic/
total 16
drwxrwxr-x 2 maltblue maltblue 4096 Jun 12 06:47 config
-rw-rw-r-- 1 maltblue maltblue 437 Jun 12 06:47 Module.php
drwxrwxr-x 3 maltblue maltblue 4096 Jun 12 06:47 src
drwxrwxr-x 2 maltblue maltblue 4096 Jun 12 06:47 view
Under config is a module.config.php file. So, we now have the basic structure of a ZF2 module.
Viewing a List of Modules
But what if we want to see the list of modules? Well, here’s where I
hit an issue. I believe the following command will show us that list.
$ php zftool.phar modules (or) $zftool modules
But no matter what I tried, it always resulted in the following error:
No modules installed. Are you in the root folder of a ZF2 application?
At this stage, I’m not sure if it’s a bug or a user (me) problem.
However, as I get more information, I’ll update the post about this
issue.
Classmap Generation
Ok, we’re just about done. If you’re familiar with Zend Framework 2,
you’ll know that performance can be increased through a classmap file.
A class map file stores a map of files which the application may
require, saving it from performing a file location resolution.
Effectively, it’s a class file location cache.
Let’s assume we have a series of classes in the module directory.
Let’s create a classmap file for it. To do so, we run the following
command:
$ zftool classmap generate module/ autoload_classmap.php
This looks for all class files in the module directory and then writes it out to autoadclassmap.php in the current directory. It will have output similar to that below:
Creating classmap file for library in /home/parallels/zftool/vendor/simpleproject/module
Scanning for files containing PHP classes .... DONE
Found 4 PHP classes
Creating classmap code ... DONE
Writing classmap to autoload_classmap.php... DONE
Wrote classmap to /home/parallels/zftool/vendor/simpleproject/autoload_classmap.php
The Generated Classmap File
If you’ve not seen a classmap file before, here’s what the one we just created looks like (formatted for better readability):
$ cat autoload_classmap.php
<?php
// Generated by Zend Framework 2
return array(
'Generic\Module' => DIR . '/module/Generic/Module.php',
'Application\Controller\IndexController' => DIR .
'/module/Application/src/Application/Controller/IndexController.php',
'Application\Module' => DIR . '/module/Application/Module.php',
'Users\Module' => DIR . '/module/Users/Module.php',
Running Diagnostics
Now on to the last command we’re going to run, module diagnostics.
I’m going to run diagnostics on the new, Generic, module we’ve created
in this tutorial. From the project root, run the following command:
$ zftool diag --debug Generic
This will run diagnostics, showing debug information. In this case, just re-iterating the running version of
PHP.
itadmin@itadmin-AcerPower-Series:/var/www/simpleproject$ zftool diag --debug Generic
Starting diagnostics:
OK ZF: PHP Version: Current PHP version is 5.5.3-1+debphp.org~precise+2
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
'5.5.3-1+debphp.org~precise+2'
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
OK (1 diagnostic tests)
itadmin@itadmin-AcerPower-Series:/var/www/simpleproject$
Verbose Information
Running it again, with the verbose flag set, show’s approximately the
same information, just less detailed. We can see here there were no
issues with the module. So there was nothing to report.
itadmin@itadmin-AcerPower-Series:/var/www/simpleproject$ zftool diag --debug Application
Starting diagnostics:
OK ZF: PHP Version: Current PHP version is 5.5.3-1+debphp.org~precise+2
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
'5.5.3-1+debphp.org~precise+2'
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
OK (1 diagnostic tests)
itadmin@itadmin-AcerPower-Series:/var/www/simpleproject$
I must admit I’m not quite sure of the intent of the diagnostic tool.
I’ve renamed Module.php in Generic, renamed the Generic module
directory, yet still the tool reports everything is ok.
I’ll be doing so more research into this and updating the article with what is found.
