**Course Title:** Mastering Zend Framework (Laminas): Building Robust Web Applications **Section Title:** Introduction to Zend Framework (Laminas) and Development Setup **Topic:** Set up a Laminas development environment and create a basic Laminas project with routes and views.(Lab topic) **Objective:** By the end of this topic, you will be able to set up a Laminas development environment, create a basic Laminas project, and configure routes and views. **Pre-requisites:** * Basic knowledge of PHP and web development * Familiarity with Composer and PHP frameworks * Introduction to Zend Framework (Laminas) and Development Setup (previous topics) **Setting up a Laminas Development Environment** Before we dive into creating a Laminas project, let's ensure that our development environment is set up correctly. We will use Composer to manage dependencies for our project. 1. **Install Composer:** If you haven't installed Composer yet, you can download it from the official website: <https://getcomposer.org/download/> 2. **Install Laminas Project Skeleton:** Use Composer to create a new Laminas project: ```bash composer create-project -s dev laminas/laminas-mvc-skeleton myproject ``` Replace `myproject` with your desired project name. **Creating a Basic Laminas Project** Once the project skeleton is installed, we can configure the basic structure of our Laminas application. 1. **Configure the `application.config.php` File:** Update the `application.config.php` file to define the configuration for your application. For example: ```php <?php use Laminas\Stdlib\ArrayUtils; // Setup the modules configuration $modules = [ 'Application', ]; // Setup the module configuration $moduleConfig = [ 'module_listener_options' => [ 'module_paths' => [ './module', './vendor', ], 'config_cache_enabled' => false, 'config_cache_key' => 'module_config_cache', 'module_map_cache_enabled' => false, 'module_map_cache_key' => 'module_map_cache', ], 'service_manager' => [ 'factories' => [ 'Zend\\Db\\Adapter\\Adapter' => 'Zend\\Db\\Factory\\Adapter\\Factory', ], ], ]; $config = [ 'display_exceptions' => true, ]; if (is_readable('config/autoload/development.local.php')) { $config = ArrayUtils::merge($config, include 'config/autoload/development.local.php'); } return [ 'modules' => $modules, 'module_listener_options' => $moduleConfig['module_listener_options'], 'service_manager' => $moduleConfig['service_manager'], 'display_exceptions' => $config['display_exceptions'], ]; ``` 2. **Create a New Module:** Create a new module in the `module` directory. For example, let's create an `Application` module. ```php // module/Application/Module.php namespace Application; class Module { public function getConfig() { return [ 'routes' => [ [ 'name' => 'home', 'path' => '/', 'defaults' => [ 'controller' => Controller\IndexController::class, 'action' => 'index', ], ], ], 'controllers' => [ 'factories' => [ Controller\IndexController::class => Controller\IndexControllerFactory::class, ], ], ]; } } ``` 3. **Create a New Controller:** Create a new controller in the `module/Application/src/Controller` directory. For example, let's create an `IndexController`. ```php // module/Application/src/Controller/IndexController.php namespace Application\Controller; use Laminas\Mvc\Controller\AbstractActionController; use Laminas\View\Model\ViewModel; class IndexController extends AbstractActionController { public function indexAction() { return new ViewModel(); } } ``` 4. **Create a New View:** Create a new view in the `module/Application/view/application/index` directory. For example, let's create an `index.phtml` file. ```php // module/Application/view/application/index/index.phtml <h1>Welcome to Laminas!</h1> ``` **Configuring Routes and Views** In Laminas, routes are defined in the `module.config.php` file. For example, let's define a route for the `home` module: ```php 'routes' => [ [ 'name' => 'home', 'path' => '/', 'defaults' => [ 'controller' => Controller\IndexController::class, 'action' => 'index', ], ], ], ``` In this example, the `home` route is mapped to the `IndexController` controller and the `index` action. To access the `home` route, navigate to `http://localhost:8080` in your web browser. You should see the "Welcome to Laminas!" message. **Conclusion** In this topic, we have set up a Laminas development environment and created a basic Laminas project with routes and views. We have also configured the `application.config.php` file to define the configuration for our application. **What's Next?** In the next topic, we will learn about defining and managing routes in Laminas. We will explore how to create dynamic routes, handle route parameters, and configure route middleware. **Leave a comment or ask for help** If you have any questions or need further clarification on any of the concepts discussed in this topic, please leave a comment below. We will do our best to help you understand and apply the material effectively. **References** * Laminas Documentation: <https://docs.laminas.dev/> * Laminas GitHub Repository: <https://github.com/laminas/laminas-mvc> * Composer Documentation: <https://getcomposer.org/doc/>