php framework

HELLO guys,

I mainly became php programmer reading wrox books and some others too. I did not get any chapter with "php framework"

wrox book had chapter callted "unit testing framework"

local companies are asking for a skill called "php framework" and I don't understand it what is it? what php framework means?


Can you help me in this regard??

 

A framework is basically an organized pattern (usually the MVC pattern) to develop php sites and applications. They facilitate a system of methods for code organization. This allows any developer familiar with the framework to work on a project with minimal re-learning. It also allows quick code recycling, and very fast development due to pre-defined functions and helpers. Once you learn how to use one, they can greatly increase a single person's coding speed and overall application stability. On the downside, they usually have a brutal learning curve especially coming from a non-MVC programming background. They are also significantly slower than standard procedural or even light OOP coding.

The most common are Zend, Symfony, Codeignitor, and CakePHP.

If your goal is becoming a professional PHP programmer, you should have one or two under your belt. Personally, I like Symfony the best, but a lot of businesses are leaning toward Zend. If I were to pick right now with the direction of getting a good PHP dev job, I would become very proficient Zend, and learn the basics of the others that I listed.

 

Try CakePHP, its easy to understand, get used to MVC things first.
Then you can switch to Zend.

 

thanks guys. it makes sense to me. i got basic ideas of MVC and learned Smarty and some others things from MVC chapter of wrox professional php book. I just learned smarty very efficiently from MVC chapter because i had to work for theme design for serveral sites and the themeS were codeD with smarty. i just wonder they did not mention that it's also related to concept "php frame work"

 

If your project is simple, you can even try PHPFuse by Jim Keller. You even have a nice video to get started on their website and YouTube just like other screencasts provided by other frameworks.

 

Now a days people prefer CakePHP

 

There is the no-framework framework. I used this on a project and it works well.