Master Zend Framework: What Does It Take To Start Using Zend Expressive?

On the Master Zend Framework site Matthew Setter has posted a new tutorial showing you what it takes to get started using Zend Expressive. The article is more about the environment the framework would live in (well, the application written with it) than the actual framework itself.

Ever thought that it's hard to get started with Zend Expressive? Ever think you need to know Vagrant, Ansible, Docker, Puppet, Linux, and more? Nope, you don't! In this post, I'm going to show you that, while these tools can help, if you’re just getting started with the framework (such as learning about it), you don't need them.

I want to be clear, before we go any further, that I’m not talking about doing fully-fledged development. [...] So what I’m talking about here is when you’re just starting out and getting a feel for Zend Expressive, right up to building a test application. I’m not talking about a fully-fledged, deployed application that requires copious tests, one backed by a CI/CD pipeline.

He then talks a bit about the history of Zend Framework and how one of Expressive's goals it to help take some of the sting out of using it. Following this he covers some of the possible tooling you could use including two environment tools: Docker (useful but not required) and Vagrant (handy but also not a must). Finally he gets to the actual requirement - a version of PHP 7 installed on the system. He shows how it, along with its included web server, can be used in development to host an Expressive site by itself.