Probably the most common resource you will load with Zend_Application will be the Front Controller resource, which provides the ability to configure Zend_Controller_Front. This resource provides the ability to set arbitrary front controller parameters, specify plugins to initialize, and much more. Once initialized, the resource assigns the $frontController property of the bootstrap to the Zend_Controller_Front instance. Available configuration keys include the following, and are case insensitive: controllerDirectory: either a string value specifying a single controller directory, or an array of module to controller directory pairs. moduleControllerDirectoryName: a string value indicating the subdirectory under a module that contains controllers. moduleDirectory: directory under which modules may be found. defaultControllerName: base name of the default controller (normally "index"). defaultAction: base name of the default action (normally "index"). defaultModule: base name of the default module (normally "default"). baseUrl: explicit base URL to the application (normally auto-detected). plugins: array of front controller plugin class names. The resource will instantiate each class (with no constructor arguments) and then register the instance with the front controller. params: array of key to value pairs to register with the front controller. If an unrecognized key is provided, it is registered as a front controller parameter by passing it to setParam(). Below is a sample INI snippet showing how to configure the front controller resource. Once your Front Controller resource has been initialized, you can fetch the Front Controller instance via the $frontController property of your bootstrap. bootstrap('frontController'); $front = $bootstrap->frontController; ]]>