Shared hosting doesn't offer Zend framework? Is that normal?

Hosting
1

I have heard of the Zend Framework and Optimizer in the past in connection with commercial PHP scripts, but never before had an occasion to need it. I am now looking at deploying a script that requires both and I find that my shared hosting plan includes the Optimizer - but not the Framework. To get the Framework I have to move up to a VPS. Is that typical for a host? If so, how do people work with it?

2

Each host is different, we for example have the Zend Framework available on all servers but optimizer isn’t present by default.

Anyway to the point, have you looked at http://www.alberton.info/zend_framework_mod_rewrite_shared_hosting.html as a solution? or http://www.zfforums.com/zend-framework-general-discussions-1/concepts-ideas-planning-39/multiple-websites-one-shared-framework-193.html

Should be doable.

3

Zend framework isn’t installed as software as such - you just copy a directory of files into your web application root directory. These are then included into your application.

However, a lot of the zend components require certain apache modules and a recent version of php (5.2.4) - e.g Zend_Cache_Backend_Apc requires apc, Zend_Http_Client_Adapter_Curl requires curl etc

You may find shared hosting that has many of these installed, but on a vps or dedicated server you’ll be able to install any that are missing. It’s probably worth trying the script on your existing hosting to see if it’s compatible, also if the script specifies which zend modules it uses you can check against phpinfo to see if the host has what is needed.

4

Thanks for the suggestions, both. I wound up moving away from the script that required Zend, so my current problem is solved for now - but I will keep this information in mind for the future.

5

We don’t install it centrally - because it tends to cause problems when we go down that route, you get clients that have code that only works with a specific version, you upgrade and they have broken code. IMHO for libraries that change a lot as ZF does it’s far better for a developer to utilise their own copy, it’s not like it takes up a huge amount of space.

Thanks,