Reading Class 43: PHP Frameworks - mwilkin-401-advanced-javascript/bend-javascript-401d2 GitHub Wiki

As with everything in technology, evolution and progression are constants and so it goes for web development frameworks.

If working in PHP environment, considering a modern PHP framework that will enable maintainable, reusable and well-organized code. These qualities provide the foundation to allow easy scalability and adaptability.

  • Importantly many of the PHP frameworks utilize the Model View Controller pattern which separates the view or presentation and logic.

Some of the top new PHP frameworks are:

  1. Laravel : relatively new, but very popular and easy to learn because of good documentation, tutorials and other learning aids.
  • Some other advantages are an integrated templating tool for handling common tasks like authentication, caching, sessions, RESTful routing, etc.
  • It also has a rapid hosting and deployment platform.
  1. Symfony : empowers developers with a set of reusable PHP components and code.
  • It is great for large-scale enterprise projects and has a large, active community support network.
  1. Zend Framework: includes a rage of user-friendly tools, such as drag and drop editor, cryptographic coding tools, a connected Database Wizard, and instant online debugging tools.
  • Additionally, its editor supports front-end technologies like HTML, CSS and JavaScript as well.
  • It is, however, difficult to learn.
  1. CodeIgniter: is an older framework, but is simple, powerful, easy to install, requires minimal user configuration and is fast.
  • It isn’t, however, entirely based on the MVC framework; Model and Views are optional, but the Controller classes are required.
  1. CakePH : is known for speed, reliability, and security.
  • It is properly suited for commercial web applications.
  • Form validation, SQL injection prevention, good documentation, cross-site request forgery (CSRF) protection, and cross-site scripting (XSS) prevention.
  1. FuelPH: modular, extendable, and flexible.
  • It supports both MVC and HMVC [Hierarchical Model-View-Controller]l at the architecture level.
  • It has good security features and many other sophisticated features with good documentation.
  1. Yii 2: is purely object-oriented and is based on the DRY (Don’t Repeat Yourself) coding concept.
  • It features a lazy-loading technique which increases the speed in comparison to other frameworks and excels at large-scale website development.
  1. Phalcon: is based on C and C++ coding style. Its architecture is optimized at low levels, which significantly reduces the overhead typical of MVC-based apps and has many great features including good documentation.
  2. Slim: is a light-weight micro framework that is typically used for developing RESTful APIs and services. With many rich features built in, it is excellent for small web applications where a full-stack framework is not needed.
  3. PHPixie: is a new framework designed around the goal of providing a high-performance framework for read-only websites. PHPixie implements the HMVC design pattern similar to FuelPHP and is built by using independent components that can be used without the framework itself.

Each framework has its own unique benefits and drawbacks which must be taken into consideration, but with all the choices available finding a suitable framework for the project shouldn’t be challenging.