You don't have to go through a lot in order to set up Zend framework on your computer. If you follow these steps below and do them exactly then you shouldn't have a problem getting the development environment ready.

What you have to have installed (Before continuing)

We assume that you already installed either XAMPP or WAMP (Windows) , or MAMP (Mac) on your computer. If you haven't then you can acquire the software from the links below:

For windows:
Download XAMPP here
Or
Download WAMP here

For Mac:
Download MAMP here

What we will need?

1. Download the java development kit (JDK) here
2. Get the latest version of NetBeans IDE (As long as the download bundle has PHP) here
3. Download the latest version of Zend Framework here

Step 1. Extract Zend Framework

Extract your Zend framework package into a location that you wouldn't delete. Say put it in a folder under your Local Disk or Partition. Remember this is where NetBeans will load the framework from every time we create a new Zend application so keep the framework in a safe place (e.g C:\zend)

Step 2. Add Zend library to NetBeans IDE

After you have installed NetBeans, open it. In this step you are going to configure NetBeans and let it know where to find the Zend framework extracted on your computer. On the IDE's main menu click on "Tools" and select "Options". From the dialog that shows select "PHP" and on the "General" tab under the 'Global include Path' section click on "Add folder..." and browse to where you extracted your Zend framework and select the "library" folder inside. Take a look at the screenshot below:

  

Once that is done you will then have to click on the "zend" tab and where you are prompted for a zend script click on browse and again navigate to where you extracted your Zend framework and go inside the "bin" folder. Select "zf.bat" and then go on to click on "Register Provider". Take a look at the screenshot below:





Make sure you see a dialog box that says 'Provider registered, review Output window for possible errors'. This means that you have successfully added the Zend framework to your IDE and you are now ready to create applications using the framework.

Is that it?

Yes that's all there is to it when setting this up. On the next tutorial we will create our first Zend application, use the Zend command tool, and test our web application on a browser.

So stay tuned!