The Zend Framework version 1.5 was released last week. The Zend Framework is a powerful glue framework I've recently been using.
Glue frameworks are different from full stack frameworks like django, drupal, or symfony. Where full stack frameworks provide you all their power in a set structure, glue frameworks let you pick and choose what parts you want to use and don't set your applications structure.
If you are looking at bolting on functionality to an existing application rather than re-building your application from the start take a look at the Zend Framework. It's good for developing from the ground up, don't get me wrong. But, where other frameworks can be difficult, if not impossible, to strap on to existing applications; the Zend Framework can be bolted on to something already developed with a fair amount of ease.
Some of the new features include a forms system, YouTube APIs, UTF-8 support when creating PDF files, and a lot more. The form system is conceptually similar to the formapi in drupal but uses objects instead of arrays and the syntax is different.
At the same time they released the most recent version of the Zend Framework they updated their website as well. The new site is much easier to navigate and targets the different types of users well.
If you're a web application developer it's worth checking out.
Glue/Full Stack tradeoff?
On the ZF team we tend to challenge a lot of trade offs that are perceived as 'givens' in the development community. This is a good example. I'm not convinced that ZF has to fall in either the 'glue' or 'full stack' category. I think it can fall in both.
At the moment it is a glue framework by your definition, and I've heard lots of developers using the same terminology or similar ('component library' is another common one). But with the Zend_Build proposal we begin building an infrastructure that basically assembles applications out of our components. The experience will be exactly like that of the 'full stack' frameworks with a few exceptions:
* You won't have to use a conventional project structure, but there will be recommendations for common hosting environments.
* We have absolutely no plans to compromise the use-at-will nature of our components. The tooling component that helps you build applications will itself be use-at-will.
I hope you enjoy 1.5, and I'm happy to hear you like the new site.
,Wil