Recent versions of the Zend Framework come with a useful CLI (command line) tool for manipulating project structure and files called Zend_Tool. Assuming you use a standard framework layout, this tool can speed development by creating controllers, views, models, et al. I found this tool useful, but wanted to extends the tool to make it more custom to my liking. i.e. instead of
zf create controller Articles
outputting a controller that extends Zend_Controller_Action, I want to make a CMS controller builder; one that extends Typeoneerror_Cms_Controller_Crud, sets and creates a model that extends Typeoneerror_Db_ActiveRecord, etc. My intention at the beginning of this was to add a Provider that allowed me to type
zf create crud Articles
and set up all of this. After spending a few hours figuring out where everything was and how it worked, it's pretty clear that ZF Tool is still very much a "baby." Set-up is quite challenging, and you have to write quite a bit of code to make your own providers (providers define your command line actions) and contexts (contexts define resources and how to handle provider actions). I thought I'd provide some basic steps to get started with your own resources.
Installing the zf tool.
First thing you need to do is install the zf.sh script. This is available in the "bin" directory of the release. I've got my own library with a subversion external to the latest release checked out in it, so I copied the "bin" file into the same directory. So locally I have something like:
/typeoneerror
/bin
/zf.php
/zf.sh
/library
/Typeoneerror
/Zend
Now, the zf scripts need to be in your unix include_path to run. Instead of doing that I added an alias to my .bash_profle that points to the shell script:
alias zf='/Users/ben/Documents/Codebase/taz/trunk/project/bin/zf.sh'
Also, make sure the zf script is executable:
chmod a+x /Users/ben/Documents/Codebase/taz/trunk/project/bin/zf.sh
Now if you run the following command, you should see the version output:
$ zf show version
Zend Framework Version: 1.10.2
In recent versions of zf tool, you have to create a storage directory and configuration file if you want to write any custom contexts or providers. Let's do that next. First run:
$ zf --setup storage-directory
Storage directory created at /Users/ben/.zf/
followed by:
$ zf --setup config-file
Config file written to /Users/ben/.zf.ini
If you open that up you should see that the include path to the Zend library folder has been added because it's where the zf script expects it to be ("../library"). Since my client code in Typeoneerror directory lives there as well, we should be set.
# Inside /Users/ben/.zf.ini
php.include_path = "/Users/ben/Documents/Codebase/taz/trunk/project/library:.:"
Custom Resources
Now, to begin creating custom providers, we first need a Manifest. A custom manifest tells the tool what providers to register. Let's create a manifest and a sample provider first:
# Manifest.php
require_once "Typeoneerror/Tool/Provider/Crud.php";
class Typeoneerror_Tool_Manifest implements Zend_Tool_Framework_Manifest_ProviderManifestable
{
public function getProviders()
{
return array(
new Typeoneerror_Tool_Provider_Crud()
);
}
}
All we implement in this file is the getProviders method which returns a list of instantiated providers.
# Crud.php
class Typeoneerror_Tool_Provider_Crud
extends Zend_Tool_Project_Provider_Abstract
implements Zend_Tool_Framework_Provider_Pretendable
{
public function create($name = 'world')
{
$this->_registry->getResponse()
->appendContent("Hello, {$name}!");
}
}
Our sample defines a create method which simply echos out a "Hello" message
to the CLI output. Before you can actually use these new tools though, we
have to register them with the Reposity. Back to the command line:
$ zf enable config.manifest Typeoneerror_Tool_Manifest
Provider/Manifest 'Typeoneerror_Tool_Manifest' was enabled for usage with Zend Tool.
If you take another look at your config file you'll see something like:
php.include_path = "/Users/ben/Documents/Codebase/taz/trunk/project/library:.:"
basicloader.classes.0 = "Typeoneerror_Tool_Manifest"
Next register the Crud provider:
trunk $ zf enable config.provider Typeoneerror_Tool_Provider_Crud
Provider/Manifest 'Typeoneerror_Tool_Provider_Crud' was enabled for usage with Zend Tool.
And check the ini output again
php.include_path = "/Users/ben/Documents/Codebase/taz/trunk/project/library:.:"
basicloader.classes.0 = "Typeoneerror_Tool_Manifest"
basicloader.classes.1 = "Typeoneerror_Tool_Provider_Crud"
This tells the tool to load those classes for use. Theoretically, you could just add these manually to the ini file. Anyway, now we can run our tool!
$ zf create crud
Hello, world!
$ zf create crud Ben
Hello, Ben!
If you run the following you can now see that the Crud controller is registered
with the zf tool.
$ zf show manifest
type=Tool, clientName=all, providerName=Crud : crud
Custom Output Providers and Contexts
Ok, great, now we can see how to register parts with the zf tool, but now you're wondering (probably)
"how do I create custom output?".
Well, you're going to need to create two classes: a Context (in most cases a "file context" or how to save the file and the code that will be injected into the file) and a Provider which is initialized from the CLI and uses Contexts to create the resources. I found this tutorial to be a good overview of those steps.
To make things easy for my crud controller provider, I simply copied Zend_Tool_Project_Context_Zf_ControllerFile (context) and Zend_Tool_Project_Provider_Controller (provider) and edited the code generation to suit my needs. You can download the sample files I created here. The Provider defines the "create" and "delete" functions which are accessed from the command line. The Provider checks to see if the Crud controller exists and if not, creates it using Zend_CodeGenerator (Typeoneerror_Tool_Context_CrudControllerFile :: getContents).
As I said at the beginning, custom output is a chore, but I feel like this has a load of potential. ZF 1.10 begins the support of "delete" methods with providers as well but they don't seem to be fully complete yet (I implemented a delete method in my crud provider but I'm unsure how to remove the line item in the .zfproject.xml manifest as of yet). You may find yourself manually editing your project manifest as you get going.
Good luck! Feel free to send me a message if you have any tips or questions about Zend_Tool.
