[Solar-talk] Solar compared to Zend Framework

[Paul M Jones]

I've had a couple of private emails asking me, now that the Zend  
Framework preview release is public, if I will discontinue Solar, or  
rewrite Solar on top of the Zend Framework.  The short answer to both  
of these, at least for now, is "No -- Solar is not going away."

The long answer is, "Even though Solar and Zend Framework share a  
similar underlying architecture, Solar has implementation goals that  
are quite different than Zend Framework; these differences make it  
reasonable to continue Solar as a separate project."

Here are some of the main similarities between the two projects:

     * An overarching "main" class of static methods to provide common
     functionality for the remaining library classes, with things like a
     registry, a class loader, a file-finder on the include path, etc.

     * A PEAR-like class naming convention and directory structure,  
where
     the class "Example_Class_Name" maps to "Example/Class/Name.php".

     * Classes for common web application needs: input validation and
     filtering; database API abstraction and query generation; URI
     manipulation; model, view, and controller classes; and so on.  Some
     of these even have similar names, owing to their common  
adherence to
     Design Patterns.

But there are some significant technical differences between the two  
projects.  Here are some examples just from the overarching "main"  
Solar class:

     * Solar uses a unified constructor mechanism.  All Solar classes  
are
     constructed in exactly the same way, using an array of config
     options as the only constructor parameter.  This makes is possible
     to provide ...

     * A unified configuration mechanism.  Basically, you have a single
     config file that returns a PHP array keyed on class names.  Classes
     can look up their own configuration automatically when constructed,
     becuase the __construct() signature is always the same.  This also
     means that Solar can have ...

     * A universal factory method.  A call to Solar::factory 
('Class_Name'),
     optionally with a factory-time config to override the defaults,  
will
     get you a new instance of any Solar-compatible class.  This factory
     mechanism is used for the Solar::registry() (originally called
     Solar::shared()), and is also used for ...

     * A unified dependency-injector method.  In short, you can call
     Solar::dependency() and it will retrieve a dependency object for
     you, either from the registry, from a passed object, or by
     constructing a new object for you on-the-fly.  All you need to do
     is provide the class name and a specification for the dependency.

Solar currently provides other features not yet present in the Zend  
Framework:

     * built-in localization

     * read-once flashes

     * automated exception generation with localized messages

     * form processing

     * automated form output generation

     * user authentication and role classes

And of course, Solar is licensed under the LGPL (which is FSF/OSI  
approved).

So what does Zend Framework have that Solar does not?

     * A whole lot of specialty classes.  The Zend Feed, Service, and
     XMLRPC libraries are fantastic, as well as the PDF generator and  
the
     Lucene-based search engine in the incubator.  These are all
     excellent work.  Solar has nothing to compare with these; I would
     call them the real gems of the Zend Framework.

     * About a dozen regular individual and corporate contributors
     (including some components originally developed by me).  IBM and
     Oracle have developers working on it as well.  Solar does not have
     that kind of external involvement, since it has not captured the
     community's attention in the way Zend Framework has.

     * The backing of Zend, a real business, to support and drive its
     development.  Solar only has one guy (me) doing regular  
development,
     and the good will of a few regular contributors and users (Clay,
     Matthew, Jeff, Jean-Eric, Stuardo, and others).

     * A great marketing machine.  Solar, by contrast, has only
     word-of-mouth and a few blog entries.

     * More and better documentation.  This is the one thing I really
     desperately need to work on for Solar; in fact, that's the only
     thing I've been working on for the past two days (more on that
     in another post).

So that's it for now.  Let me know if you have any questions or  
comments.



--

Paul M. Jones  <http://paul-m-jones.com>

Solar: Simple Object Library and Application Repository
for PHP5.   <http://solarphp.com>

Savant: The simple, elegant, and powerful alternative to
Smarty for templates in PHP.   <http://phpsavant.com>