Easiest way to Install Zend Framework 2 on Windows XAMPP

Zend Framework is one of the most popular php framework. But its installation is not as easy as many php CMS like WordPress, Joomla or Php frameworks like CakePhp or CodeIgniter. I always found difficulties installing it on my local system. Hence I decided to write installation process to help others.

Step 1: Download the Zend Skeleton Application from http://framework.zend.com/manual/2.3/en/user-guide/skeleton-application.html

Step 2: Go to C:\xampp\htdocs\your-zendframework-folder-name and unzip the Zend Skeleton Application there

Step 3: Open command prompt by pressing `window key + R` and type here cmd. Now go to C:\xampp\htdocs\your-zendframework-folder-name and type the following three commands:

php composer.phar self-update

php composer.phar install

php composer.phar update

Note: In C:\xampp\htdocs\your-zendframework-folder-name C:\xampp is the path where your xampp is installed, if you have installed it in different drive like in d:\dev\xampp then you should use D:\dev\xampp\htdocs\your-zendframework-folder-name instead.

During installation (php composer.phar install) some errors may occur like -

Could not fetch https://api.github.com/repos/zendframework/zf2/zipball/e192ce17bacd22896dd319f58bad18bc1b290100, please create GitHub OAuth token to go over the API rate limit.
This also may ask to enter Token (hidden). I request you to repeat this process again and again until it downloads zendframework/zendframework.

In case above command in step 3 not working you may also try -

php composer self-update

php composer install

php composer update

Installation via composer is necessary for zend framework 2.5.1+.

After successful installation you can open your browser and navigate to http://localhost/your-zendframework-folder-name/public/ and you can see that zend framework is installed successfully.