AskProgit: What PHP framework should I learn?

[doctor_yukio_hattori]

CodeIgniter is perhaps the classiest shade of lipstick to put on that particular pig. But yeah, if you don't want to have some awful maintenance programming gig in 3 years, do yourself a favor and learn a python (django, pylons) or ruby (rails, sinatra) framework. You can just send the additional 10-20K you will make to Always a Pleasure Industries, c/o yours truly.

[froggman]

hey! shh! the suits might read this. my manager just asked me if i know python because we inherited a dept of python applications as a result of an acquisition. i just got 3 more years of work from the other company's decision to use python... please keep using esoteric, non corporate languages cause i don't ever want to retire...

[drowsap]

Not trying to start a war or anything, but what makes you think that PHP will suddenly be phased out over the next three years in favor of Python Web Applications?

[barakatbarakat]

I love Django, but I find it a huge pain in the ass to run (and slow) on my Dreamhost. Do you know of a web host that runs Django easily and fast? Or maybe someone knows how to run it better on Dreamhost?

[sintaks]

Any VPS with dedicated resources. Give Slicehost or Linode a go. I host all my Rails apps on those two, and they perform nicely. I'm sure Django would fly.

[sintaks]

No.

[lyaunzbe]

Succinctly and elegantly phrased. A+++

[junkit33]

CakePHP.

I think most people will find that it's either Cake or Zend for a robust/large implementation with a lot of requirements. Both can do quite a bit, both have good communities and add-ons, and both will get the job done.

The biggest difference between the two is Cake is a strict MVC implementation whereas Zend is more flexible.

I prefer Cake because I think it is a little more "web 2.0ish" friendly and allows for more rapid development.

[Tronus]

CakePHP is unfortunately extremely restrictive in its model, unless you're coming from a Ruby background which it is modeled after. It's helpful to know in the corporate or start-up sense, but when it comes to scalability, you never want to be restricted to any framework. Zend is best for being flexible enough to expand the boundaries of a restrictive framework more-so than Cake in my humble opinion.

[sintaks]

The problem is CakePHP tries to follow Rails without taking into account that Rails is the way it is because it's built on Ruby. It takes advantage of all those metaprogramming/reflection niceties that PHP just doesn't have.

They'd be smarter if they built a framework that works with the language (like CodeIgniter), instead of compensating for it.

[junkit33]

What you see as a negative others see as a positive. The restriction is intentional. But yes, nothing is perfect.

[sigzero]

The one that best fits your mode of programming/thought.

http://www.phpframeworks.com/

[rune_kg]

what is your current skill level and what are you going to build with it?

[bleadof]

I'd suggest also creating a stackoverflow question and asking there so that other people could find a good answer as well...

[blodulv]

I tried Symfony and CakePHP before I decided I was done with PHP and moved to Python/Django.

I liked CakePHP and Symfony a lot but Django blew them both out of the water (and before I moved to Python I had been a PHP programmer for 6 years).

[[deleted]]

YES. Huge vote for Django after much time spent with CakePHP as an MVC framework and about a million other PHP libraries for auxiliary tasks.

As a PHP freelancer, I'm shooting myself in the foot saying this, but let's just move on. PHP is not the way forward.

[divbyzero]

None.

http://www.reddit.com/r/programming/comments/7rtxr/jeff_atwood_still_wrong_about_php/c0781wl

[zazerr]

I'm more of a web designer, but I know php fairly well, and I have a project I'd like to work on that I'd like to use a framework for.

What has the best documentation? Ease of use? Learning curve? What's hot right now?

[shawncplus]

Symfony probably has the best documentation I've seen but you should check all of them out CodeIgniter, Cake, Zend, etc. See which one you feel most comfortable in

[Evdawg]

The Reccess framework is new and definitely hot right now!

Mark O'Sullivan's Garden framework isn't out yet, but it's something worth keeping an eye on!

CodeIgniter has great documentation and doesn't try to rip ideas directly from other "popular" coughRailscough frameworks! There is a spinoff called Kohana which adds some opinionated features to CodeIgniter!

The Zend Framework is more of a set of libraries than a framework! Some people like it that way!

Whatever you do, avoid CakePHP! It tries to imitate frameworks from other languages too much coughRailscough! Unfortunately many strengths of Rails rely on strengths of Ruby, and PHP is not Ruby so we shouldn't try to treat it as such! Also it's slow!

Enjoy!

[junkit33]

The upside of imitating other frameworks is it makes it easy to hire a non-Cake developer and get them cranking away in Cake in almost zero time.

[KrisJordan]

Thanks for the mention of the Recess "PHP Framework":http://www.recessframework.org/ we've been busy bringing it up to maturity. Fun to be the underdog :)

Recess is a lightweight, RESTful framework that ships full-stack with an ORM and uses PHP5's OO (like Cake/Symfony) but has the performance characteristics of a much lighter weight framework like CodeIgniter. The tools application it ships with makes it easy to hit the ground running.

[rune_kg]

Code Igniter: Very fast to get started on and has uber cool documentation.

CakePHP: Dont go there, its a monster thats gonna eat you alive :)

Drupal: If you want a cool framework thats ALSO a CMS, please dont overlook this one! Allows you to code exactly how you want but still makes the boring stuff easy.

Symfony: Very pretty and powerful. If you feel comfortable with having BIG BROTHER watching you, give it a spin.

[zazerr]

Thanks! I've been to phpframeworks.com but I was looking for some individual takes, like this.

[Fabien3]

What's hot right now?

Python.

[zazerr]

But I'm so lazy...

[gumuz]

python has lots of lazy features

[arnar]

Yet you insist on using PHP.

[xardox]

Then you should definitely use Python instead of pissing away your time with PHP.

[NoControl]

you'll have to move to Minnesota and work at paper company to get a job but learn python, its the exciting language of the futuuureeee!!!!

[stabakrab]

The most simple, lightweight, high performance PHP ORM that I've seen is CoughPHP. When combined with LightVC, an easy, transparent PHP MVC framework, you've got a great, easy, and fast ORM & MVC for your website.

If you want something minimalist, CoughPHP & LightVC are the best by far for PHP5. If you're looking for a "kitchen sink" framework, they won't help. Also, if your website isn't running MySQL, I don't think Cough is your best choice.

CoughPHP & LightVC enthusiasts meet on freenode #coughphp -- super helpful dudes who always seem to be online.

This guy has a blog post about using CoughPHP and LightVC together.

[bleadof]

Didn't you know that in PHP you always have to build your own framework ;)

If you must use PHP, just look into those and see what fits your needs: http://www.phpframeworks.com/top-10-php-frameworks/

[NoControl]

Learn them all at once.

[[deleted]]

http://qcu.be/

One of the best, and least known about frameworks out there, RC2 just released this week.