Using HAML with Zend Framework - how to implement and is it worth it?

Question

I've just finished a rails project using HAML and really found it very convenient. I need to set up a php based project for another client and wanted to pretty much set it up so I can use HAML for all the views. The Zend Framework is my framework of choice as I've been using it for a few years now, however aside from Hamlphp I haven't really found much on the web on the usage of HAML with Zend Framework. Its like HAML seems exclusively used by Ruby on Rails developers.

Whats the best way to set this all up - I want to set up Zend Framework with Doctrine 2 as the ORM and use HAML for all my views and layouts plus use Sass. Any ideas guys? Has anyone implemented this or should I stick to HTML here instead.

Answer 1

Sass runs through a preprocessor and generates your css pre deployment. You can use it in your development workflow with any language framework pretty easily by using the command line watch or using something like codekit.

HAML is much more difficult though. You need it to interact with your view logic, so it will need to be coupled with your zend views somehow. Haml is a ruby gem, so thats going to be awkward. There are Haml php ports, but they are probably not going to be as up to date as the real thing.

I tried to do this with CakePHP earlier this year. It was OK, but really, a lot of effort and complexity in the stack just to write haml.

This guy outlines a way to do it in cake: http://www.travisberry.com/2011/01/haml-sass-markdown-and-cakephp-oh-my/

In the end I decided I was swimming the wrong way and just wrote what I was doing in rails. Appreciate you do not have that option.

I think a better plan if you do crave a better language for your views would be to use something native and good - eg Twig.