I have been programming in PHP for a while, and noticed Ruby on Rails, with a following discussion of PHP frameworks that emulate the functionality of Rails. From what I hear, these are the most popular frameworks: CodeIgniter KohanaPHP CakePHP Zend Symfony What do you think of PHP frameworks? They seem to make life a lot easier while programming but slow down the responsiveness of the site. Does anybody here use them extensively?
i use code igniter, cakephp and zend.. For me, codeigniter is the best from the 3. i think it is best to use if your creating some simple functions, like a simple cms.. ever heard of rabbit-forms in Code Igniter? yep it makes the work easier. Really it depends upon the scope of the site..
I used CakePHP, and now KohanaPHP. The difference is like hell(CakePHP) and heaven (KohanaPHP). Now every site I develop I used Kohana. I heard that is based on CodeIgniter, but was made PHP5 only, and it is more OO. Try those frameworks for yourself and you will see what suits you.
I've heard great things about KohanaPHP too. I'll be sure to try it (it just seems to have a lacking documentation). I don't really like Zend or CakePHP. Synfony has great features but its slow - too slow.
I personally like CakePHP. To me, it's well documented. I just took a look at Kohana...might be worth taking a look at.
Yeah, I prefer CodeIgniter too, but I don't use frameworks that often. You could also look at Prado (a component based and eventdriven framework), Qcodo, Akelos, evoCore, Stratos, Zoop, PHOCOA, Kohana and Limb. All those are good frameworks too!
cakePHP is really good - and I recommend using frameworks because the sites we build are increasingly complex - and a framework lets you step beyond the nuts and bolts and focus on the site you are actually building. They're a step back from a content management system though, so make sure you know why you are using a framework over a CMS before you start.
So I can use Drupal to not be a CMS at all? The good CMS will all have a good "framework" behind them, but not all those frameworks can be pared back and used without the CMS. SilverStripe for instance uses Symfony while Joomla creates it's own.
I was 'quoting' from a book I looked at by two Drupal experts. They claimed, "Drupal is also an excellent PHP framework." I'll try to also answer your exact question: 1) The admin area let's you turn off many of the default modules. 2) The theme can be 100% customized. Let's just say some leading experts claim Drupal is also an excellent PHP framework.
Drupal, from what I know, is a Content Management System - not a PHP development framework (the type of framework this thread refers to). I understand Drupal can be used to manage a website, but is there something else I'm missing? Can Drupal be used as some sort of rapid development framework?
Yes, What Drupal really is is a Rapid Development Framework... I just now searched on Google and found both pro and anti-Drupal people call it a Rapid Development Framework. search EDIT: I also tried a slightly different search phrase, and found this: For us at 2bits.com, Drupal has always been, first and foremost, a web applications framework, that happens to have some 'out of the box' features that also make it a content management framework (CMF), and a content management system (CMS).
I don't really work with frameworks, they can be really useful, but to pinpoint and finetune I believe it's always best to go 100% custom. I work with classes and functions I've built since I was a baby PHP programmer, and with those in my arsenal, I don't really need frameworks to do rapid development. But I've heard good things about CakePHP and CodeIgnitor.
A key advantage over a homegrown library is security... you have more people reviewing the site for weakenesses... and plugging them. Although most of us are building small sites that don't really attract the attention of hackers.
Also, above security, the MVC structure enforces good coding practices, and it's also good if multiple people are working on the same project - the framework-based code is often easier to understand and maintain.
What I find interesting is the difference in needs between a framework for Javascript and a framework for PHP. With JS, you're primarily working around browser inconsistencies. Whereas with PHP, well, that's what PHP does, it works around server differences. So when I see frameworks like cake/etc, it just seems redundant to me.