Customizing Zend_Queue Creating your own adapter Zend_Queue will accept any adapter that implements Zend_Queue_Adapter_AdapterAbstract. You can create your own adapter by extending one of the existing adapters, or the abstract class Zend_Queue_Adapter_AdapterAbstract. I suggest reviewing Zend_Queue_Adapter_Array as this adapter is the easiest to conceptualize. 'queue1', 'driverOptions' => array( 'host' => '127.0.0.1', 'port' => '3306', 'username' => 'queue', 'password' => 'queue', 'dbname' => 'queue', 'type' => 'pdo_mysql' ) ); $adapter = new Custom_DbForUpdate($options); $queue = new Zend_Queue($adapter, $options); ]]> You can also change the adapter on the fly as well. setAdapter($adapter); echo "Adapter: ", get_class($queue->getAdapter()), "\n"; ]]> or 'queue1', 'namespace' => 'Custom', 'driverOptions' => array( 'host' => '127.0.0.1', 'port' => '3306', 'username' => 'queue', 'password' => 'queue', 'dbname' => 'queue', 'type' => 'pdo_mysql' ) ); $queue = new Zend_Queue('DbForUpdate', $config); // loads Custom_DbForUpdate ]]> Creating your own message class Zend_Queue will also accept your own message class. Our variables start with an underscore. For example: You can extend the existing messaging class. See the example code in tests/Zend/Queue/Custom/Message.php. Creating your own message iterator class Zend_Queue will also accept your own message iterator class. The message iterator class is used to return messages from Zend_Queue_Adapter_Abstract::recieve(). Zend_Queue_Abstract::receive() should always return a container class like Zend_Queue_Message_Iterator, even if there is only one message. See the example filename in tests/Zend/Queue/Custom/Messages.php. Creating your own queue class Zend_Queue can also be overloaded easily. See the example filename in tests/Zend/Queue/Custom/Queue.php.