Simplification

[VitoNordloh]

No description provided.

[samsonasik]

empty is different with null.

$a = '' is empty, but not NULL.

[VitoNordloh]

That's right! But not in this context. $params is always an array or null.

An alternative would be

$this->params = is_null($params) ? array() : $params;

or

$this->params = null === $params ? array() : $params;

But empty is a more common way than is_null in ZF. And ... $this->params = null === $params ... is difficult to read.