1. Paragraphs
2. Words
3. Bytes
4. and Lists

You can find more information on optional parameters and how to use the view helper at github.

Custom Filter – Excerpt

// To call the filter use
$excerpt = new My_Filter_Excerpt();
$excerpt->filter($str); //$str is the string of text

//Put this in your library
class My_Filter_Excerpt implements Zend_Filter_Interface
{
	protected $_wordCount = 55;

	public function filter($data)
	{
		$sentance = explode(" ", $data);
		if (count($sentance) > $this->_wordCount) {
			$sentance = array_splice($sentance, 0, $this->_wordCount);
			$ellipsis = "…";
		}
		$excerpt = implode(" ", $sentance);
		echo $excerpt . $ellipsis;
	}
}

You can download the source here. Comments and improvements are always welcome.

<?php
/**
 *
 * @author Shaun Farrell
 * @version 1.0
 */
require_once 'Zend/View/Interface.php';

/**
 * Gravatar helper
 *
 * @uses viewHelper Zend_View_Helper
 */
class Zend_View_Helper_Gravatar {

	/**
	 * @var Zend_View_Interface
	 */
	public $view;
	/**
	 *
	 * @var unknown_type
	 */
	protected $_gravatarUrl = "http://www.gravatar.com/avatar.php?";
	/**
	 *
	 * @var unknown_type
	 */
	protected $_defaultImage = "http://everquest.allakhazam.com/pgfx/item_576.png";

	/**
	 *
	 * @param $emailAddress
	 * @param $size
	 * @param $imgAlt
	 */
	public function gravatar($emailAddress, $size = "40", $imgAlt = "")
	{
		$gravatarId = "gravatar_id=" . md5(strtolower(trim($emailAddress)));
		$url = $this->_gravatarUrl . $gravatarId . "&default=" . urlencode($this->_defaultImage) .
			"&size=" . $size;

		echo "<img src=\"$url\" alt=\"$imgAlt\" />";
		return null;
	}

	/**
	 * Sets the view field
	 * @param $view Zend_View_Interface
	 */
	public function setView(Zend_View_Interface $view) {
		$this->view = $view;
	}
}

Once again you need Firefox, FireBug, and FirePHP. Then in your .ini file add the following lines;

resources.db.isdefaulttableadapter = true
resources.db.params.profiler.enabled = true
resources.db.params.profiler.class = Zend_Db_Profiler_Firebug

The best part about this is that you can add this code only to load based on the environment set in your .htaccess or index.php file in your public folder.

1. Running Zend Framework (1.8.4 or above using Zend_Application)
2. Mozilla Firefox Browser – You should be using this anyways!
3. The latest version of Firebug – http://getfirebug.com/
4. The lastest version of FirePHP – http://www.firephp.org/

Once those firefox add-ons have been installed your ready to add in some code.

In your bootstrap.php file add

    /**
     * Setup the database profiling
     */
    protected function _initDbProfiler()
    {
        $this->bootstrap('db');
        $profiler = new Zend_Db_Profiler_Firebug('All DB Queries');
        $profiler->setEnabled(true);
        $this->getPluginResource('db')->getDbAdapter()
             ->setProfiler($profiler);
    }

With this code added all your SQL statements that are executed will show up in the console window of FireBug. If it’s not working make sure that you have the net console enabled! profiling will not work if net is not enabled.

More information about Zend_Db_Profiler can be found at http://framework.zend.com/manual/en/zend.db.profiler.html

Now its off to read Appendix A “Performance Optimisation For Zend Framework Applications”

You can read my review of Chapter 1 & 2 here.