New help desk application using Zend Framework

Every now and then I sit down to take a closer look on various PHP frameworks to see if it is something I would want to use. For some reason I have never actually used any of the frameworks I have investigated. Too stubborn I guess. A while ago, when I was working on an old web application, I realized I was spending time on way too many things that was not really part of the application logic. Not very productive at all.

I decided that it was time to really make the effort and test a framework in a real project. I had a look around and decided to use the brand new Zend Framework as the base for a hosted help desk solution. I need a help desk solution myself to handle customer support in my company and fail to find something I like. It seems help desk applications  are either to complicated (packed with CRM, CM and help desk features), or just too ugly (in my opinion). So all in all a perfect project that would fill a real need.

Why Zend Framework over more mature frameworks then? It is still brand new and very much in development. Zend Framework Preview 0.2.0 was released only a couple of days ago. The reason I chose this framework over others was first of all simplicity. But no less important is the fact that it has no legacy – there are no PHP 4 backwards compatibility workarounds. This means that it can fully take advantage of PHP 5.

I have been working with the framework for a couple of weeks now and I must say that I really like the simple MVC implementation in Zend Framework. I have started using only the built in “PHP template” solution but it would be easy to switch to Smarty or any other template engine. The help desk solution is coming along nicely and should soon be ready for a public demo/beta. I just need to decide on a name and domain where I should host it.

Main view in Firesite Help Desk

Viewing a ticket in Firesite Help desk

PHP

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