Zend Framework is an open source, object oriented web application framework for PHP 5. Zend Framework is often called a 'component library', because it has many loosely coupled components that you can use more or less independently. But Zend Framework also provides an advanced Model-View-Controller (MVC) implementation that can be used to establish a basic structure for your Zend Framework applications. A full list of Zend Framework components along with short descriptions may be found in the components overview. This QuickStart will introduce you to some of Zend Framework's most commonly used components, including Zend_Controller, Zend_Layout, Zend_Config, Zend_Db, Zend_Db_Table, Zend_Registry, along with a few view helpers.

Using these components, we will build a simple database-driven guest book application within minutes. The complete source code for this application is available in the following archives: