The db_component is a big part of zoop. For many applications, database calls are a large part the work being done. The db_component provides the interface to your data. You can either use the default connection and global functions, or make your own connections and use the methods from the database object. There are too many functions to document here(be sure to look at the documentation), but this is an example of how to set up multiple connections. It also shows a way to deal with miscellaneous functions that you may need throughout your application. Keep in mind that it's always a good idea to keep your sql calls inside objects that encapsulate your business objects/model. The next example may be dbobject, a helper for your database objects.

Chart is an extension to the graphic component. By adding a parser as a plugin to the graphic module, you can add pie charts, bar charts, and line charts to your pdfs or images. The bar chart requires some fixes in the latest repository in svn.

the new graphic component allows you to use smarty templates to output to pdfs or images.

There are many ways to make the ajax request. This probably isn't the best, but it's the one I am most comfortable using. This example requires that you have the json extension for php. It can be done without it, but json makes the data transfer from php to javascript much cleaner.