[ Config file: ]
[development]
db.adapter = “Mysqli”
db.params.host = “localhost”
db.params.username = “user”
db.params.password = “password”
db.params.dbname = “dbname”

[ Bootstrap: ]
# config
$config = new Zend_Config_Ini(APP_PATH.’/config/settings.ini’, ‘development’);

# database
$db = Zend_Db::factory($config->db);
Zend_Db_Table::setDefaultAdapter($db);

[ Then the model: ]
class SomeModelName extends Zend_Db_Table
{
protected $_name = ‘db_table_name’;

public function findByPermalink($permalink = ”)
{
return $this->fetchRow($this->select()->where(’permalink = ?’, $permalink));
}

}

And viola! thats it. Minimal amount of code and all the DB functionality I need