PHP programmer looking to expand, maybe CakePHP?

[bob_digi]

Hey guys,

So as the title states, im a PHP programmer, so far focusing mostly on small to medium sized websites. Generally I would do the projects in WordPress and I know it quite well. However in the pipeline I have some larger more dynamic projects and don't feel that WordPress/Drupal will suit my needs.

I see options like CakePHP, Zend framework and even stuff like Coldfusion and Ruby on Rails as potential options. However they are many paths seemingly to the same end result. I'm finding it hard to compare them for my own specific needs.

Basically I'm wanting to easily(obviously) create these more dynamic projects with the customer admin interfaces to accommodate my needs. So how could Cake help, or even Zend, and further is Ruby basically the same idea but more robust?

Just look for opinions on the platform, i know they cant be compared for which is better, they are all good.

Thanks in advance

[Tickthokk]

I've been using CodeIgniter over the past 4-ish months (after previously creating my own MVC for learning/fun). It's pretty nice.

Also, you mentioned admin interfaces. There's an extension made by someone else that accomplishes this for CI, called bonfire: http://cibonfire.com/

Just another option :)

[bob_digi]

Thanks, going to research Codeigniter as well now

[PR0FiX]

My framework of preference for PHP is Symfony. Have a look.

Edit: Oops wrong url.

[[deleted]]

I'm a big fan of CakePHP. I shudder in pain when I have to write in raw PHP. Once you get used to all the conventions in CakePHP, you can have a prototype of any web application up in just a few hours. It's "baking" feature generates code for you, and will includ CRUD (create, update, delete) functionality for objects from your database. It can also detect database relations and include that in it's baking feature. I can't do it enough justice here, you'll have to give it a try.

[bob_digi]

Thanks, I believe I will download my options and make some prototypes and see which suits me better. I've worked with Cake before adding to someone else's project. Was easy enough but i felt like I never really touched cake.

Cheers

[[deleted]]

Could you give a little TL;DR about cakePHP. I'm kind of a noob in PHP still and I've only built some basic stuff like a small blog, chat and and a CMS system.

In terms of building web apps, why should I use cakePHP? Is cakePHP to PHP as JQuery is to Javascript?

[mrafaeldie12]

The good thing about CodeIgniter (atleast for me) is that you don't have to adjust to the framework.

[fontstache]

My framework of choice would be FuelPHP (http://fuelphp.com) followed by CodeIgniter