The Zend Framework is an excellent code base to work with, providing PHP developers with an ever-growing library of loosely-coupled components to aid in application development. Most notably, the Zend Framework provides developers with an MVC architecture, a pattern of modern software design which separates an application into clearly-defined layers: Model, View, Controller.

After spending many months with the Zend Framework however, I realized that the Zend developers seemingly forgot about the M in M-V-C. I am not alone in this realization. Zend_Entity was in the works for a while, by a lone developer. The current word is that Zend is discontinuing the development of Zend_Entity and will be integrating with Doctrine.

Doctrine integration is a huge step forward for the Zend Framework, in my opinion, as it will provide developers the means to separate their application’s domain layer from the data layer without having to develop their own mappers. Until then, the model in the Zend Framework is left up to the developer.