Before we understand how Zend integrates PhoneGap into PHP tools for mobile and cloud apps, we first have a look at what is Zend? What is PHP? What is a PhoneGap? How is Zend associated with PHP? And then how the Zend integrates PhoneGap into PHP tools for mobile and cloud apps?
Zend is an open source and object-oriented web application framework implemented in PHP 5. It is basically licensed under the New BSD License and approved by the Open Source Initiative. Zend Framework applications run on any PHP stack that accomplishes technical requirements.
Zend is generally called as a component library as it has many components, which are independently used as per the requirements. It offers an advanced MVC implementation, which can used to create a basic structure for Zend Framework applications.
Then, PHP is a famous scripting language mainly designed for Web development on the server-side. It serves as a definitive platform for the quick development of web services and web applications. PHP usually runs on a web server and deploys on several operating systems and platforms. The PHP runtime is generally used to execute a PHP code that enables to build dynamic web page content or images used on websites.
Subsequently, PhoneGap is an open source or a mobile development framework, which enables you to create mobile applications using standardized web APIs for your enviable platforms. It is basically produced by Nitobi and bought by Adobe Systems. It facilitates software developers to build applications for mobile devices using CSS3, HTML5 and JavaScript, instead of using device-specific programming languages like Objective-C.
The latest versions of Zend tools and development environment influence the power or ability of PHP for mobile and cloud computing. Due to this reason, PHP has become one of the strongest competitors in this world of mobile app development today.
Zend allows developers to build apps with Zend Studio and deploy it on Zend Server that is running in the cloud. As Zend is the provider of PHP based tools for cloud and mobile app developers, it has established updates for three flagship products.
The three flagship product updates divulged by Zend community are as follows:
Zend Studio 10 is an integrated development environment or IDE meant for PHP. It adds a ton of capabilities to web and mobile apps. The most important attribute of Zend Studio 10 is that it can create apps across different systems with the added PhoneGap integration. Zend Studio 10 integrates the mobile development ability of PhoneGap and JQuery, this make the IDE into a drag-and-drop mobile application creation tool.
Zend Studio 10 facilitates easy creation of cloud-connected mobile apps. It has become an important tool for all developers who want to create exemplary business apps by using PHP. In previous days, the developers required various IDEs for developing cross-platform mobile apps. Zend Studio 10 flourishes on PhoneGap Integration, which allows developers to create cross-platform mobile and cloud apps using a single IDE.
Zend Studio 10 also allows developers to build apps that work across various mobile operating systems such as iOS, Blackberry, Windows and Android. It consists of inbuilt emulator displays, which allow you to see how your mobile app looks like on a particular mobile device.
Another PHP Zend development tool is the Zend Server 6. It is an application server that enables developers to run business critical applications in PHP. It consists of tools that help in automating app development and observing more than one app at a more grainy level.
Zend Server 6 facilitates organizations or enterprises the ability to observe the performance of individual PHP application in all their cloud instances. It provides new runtime abilities for cloud scale. It offers various benefits for both businesses as well as professional developers who want to leverage the cutting-edge technologies.
Zend Server Gateway is another PHP Zend development tool or API used for cloud services. It is mainly used for REST (Representational State Transfer) based cloud services. This API allows developers to integrate the REST-based cloud services into drag-and-drop environment of Zend Studio 10. This allows applications to communicate with other connected systems in the cloud and also provides easy validation and authentication.
At present, Zend server is one of the widely used PHP application servers across the globe. Most of the famous brands like NYSE, eBay, Euronext and GE, use this Zend Server to integrate the cutting-edge technologies into their businesses.
The latest version of Zend Server provides many features that permit the automation of app deployment to the cloud and enhance application dashboards. Thus, it facilitates monitoring the performance across hundreds of cloud instances of an application.
Moreover, auditing and compliance are the additional features provided by the latest version of Zend Server. These features enable operations to provide developers visibility into applications. This enables them to do a root-cause analysis of application issues without requiring them to change the live code directly.
Therefore, the latest version of Zend provides you end-to-end solutions that enable you to create mobile and cloud apps faster. It also enables you to deploy applications on a fault-tolerant and scalable cloud application platform.