How to install Zend Framework 2 (ZF2) & ZFTool (Command Line Tool) in Linux Ubuntu 14.04

Introduction:

The Zend Framework 2 is a MVC Framework developped by the PHP developpers called Zend.

I am using an Ubuntu 14.04 Desktop with an installed Apache2 web server, php5 (5.3+ required for ZF2).

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Installation Process:

Download Zend Framework 2

First you will have to download the Zend Framework you desire to install (version >= 2.0.0 for this tutorial)

Visit Zend Archive and download your Zend package. 
Extract it to /usr/share/php/ZendFramework2

Download ZFTool

Afterwards you will need to install ZFTool. It is a command line tool which gives you the ability to create projects, models, viewtemplates and so on.

Download ZFTool from GitHub.
Extract it now to /usr/share/php/ZFTool

Now you need to grab a file called zftool.phar.

Download it directly from Zend packages.
And then extract it to the previously created folder
/usr/share/php/ZFTool/bin/.

For the extraction process you are free to choose between handling it over the terminal or the graphical way.

Notice: You will need permission rights to add content to the /usr/share/php/ folder!

You can use sftp://root@localhost to get access to this folder with root permissions, but use this way carefully!

Now you have installed the ZFTool but it is a pity to write the whole path to the executable file to use this tool.
However, as linux gives us the possibility, we can make use of aliases (for the standard user).

Create Alias

cd /etc/php5/conf.d/
sudo touch zend-framework2.ini
sudo gedit zend-framework2.ini

Now you should be able to edit this recently created file. Add the following content to it:

[Zend]
php.include_path = "/usr/share/php/ZendFramework2/library"

Save and close the file afterwards.

Let’s define the alias now:

sudo gedit ~/.bashrc

Add the following lines to your bashrc if they aren’t already defined or uncomment them
(keep in mind to edit from you standard user!):

# Alias definitions.
# You may want to put all your additions into a separate file like
# ~/.bash_aliases, instead of adding them here directly.
# See /usr/share/doc/bash-doc/examples in the bash-doc package.

if [ -f ~/.bash_aliases ]; then
   . ~/.bash_aliases
fi

Save and close again.
Now we have to create the file we are looking for in the previous bashrc:

sudo touch ~/.bash_aliases
sudo gedit ~/.bash_aliases

We add the following line(s) to the file:

alias zf2='export ZF_CONFIG_FILE=/etc/php5/conf.d/zend-framework2.ini; sudo /usr/share/php/ZFTool/bin/zftool.phar'

Finally save and close it.
Now use following command to reload your bashrc file to make the changes taking effect:

. ~/.bashrc

Now you can try to use ZFtool:

zf2 --version

You should get something like this:

ZFTool - Zend Framework 2 command line Tool
The ZFTool is using Zend Framework 2.2.4

Basic usage

For the basic commands of this tool please check the manual / help.

zf2 --help

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Debugging

If you get an error, for instance, you wouldn’t have the required permissions,
you could try to give your user the permissions to access the zend directory.

sudo -i
cd /usr/share/php/
chown -R yourUser:yourUser ZFTool/
chmod a+x ZFTool/*
exit

Afterwards try again zf2 --version while logged into the command line with yourUser.

Tutorials Export Excel file with Zend Framework

Class ExportExcelController extends Zend_Controller_Action{

public function exportexcelAction()
{
set_time_limit( 0 );

$model = new Default_Model_SomeModel();
$data = $model->getData();

$filename = APPLICATION_PATH . "/tmp/excel-" . date( "m-d-Y" ) . ".xls";

$realPath = realpath( $filename );

if ( false === $realPath )
{
touch( $filename );
chmod( $filename, 0777 );
}

$filename = realpath( $filename );
$handle = fopen( $filename, "w" );
$finalData = array();
foreach ( $data AS $row )
{
$finalData[] = array(
utf8_decode( $row["col1"] ), // For chars with accents.
utf8_decode( $row["col2"] ),
utf8_decode( $row["col3"] )
);
}

foreach ( $finalData AS $finalRow )
{
fputcsv( $handle, $finalRow, "\t" );
}

fclose( $handle );

$this->_helper->layout->disableLayout();
$this->_helper->viewRenderer->setNoRender();

$this->getResponse()->setRawHeader( "Content-Type: application/vnd.ms-excel; charset=UTF-8" )
->setRawHeader( "Content-Disposition: attachment; filename=excel.xls" )
->setRawHeader( "Content-Transfer-Encoding: binary" )
->setRawHeader( "Expires: 0" )
->setRawHeader( "Cache-Control: must-revalidate, post-check=0, pre-check=0" )
->setRawHeader( "Pragma: public" )
->setRawHeader( "Content-Length: " . filesize( $filename ) )
->sendResponse();

readfile( $filename ); unlink($filename); exit();
}

}