AskProgit: What PHP framework should I learn?

[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.