5 Popular PHP Frameworks - Pros and Cons

5 Popular PHP Frameworks - Pros and Cons from Agriya

How WordPress makes PHP Popular

The title of this article may sound odd to many developers as well as professionals who work with the internet. WordPress is a popular application developed using PHP, and there are many powerful PHP frameworks that offer great web building features over the web. 

Then how WordPress leads to the fame of PHP? There are many methods in which you can identify the popularity of a web page or application on the web. We can correctly identify the popularity of technology, a web page or an application by just counting the search over a particular keyword. 

Open source customization services is a massive field and many things including the WordPress development, PHP web page creation can be included in it. Here in this article, we can trace some reasons that make enable WordPress to make PHP popular among web development communities.  

What the Analysis Suggest?   

Just use the Google Trends, and analyse the popularity of all PHP frameworks and WordPress. The data will itself give you an idea. It will show you the popularity chart based on the keyword searches. Then any user can clearly identify the popularity of WordPress over any other PHP frameworks. 

No Third Party PHP Frameworks  

WordPress is an application developed fully using PHP without any third party components. It is does not need any of the third party components for developing web pages. 

WordPress Installations and PHP Hosting  

If users need to host a WordPress installation, they should resort to a PHP hosting services. Then quite naturally , users will think about PHP hosting as well. The users will then do a general study on PHP installation. This makes PHP even more popular whenever they do WordPress installation process.

WordPress Plugin System

The fame of WorPress can trace back to the development of blogs. Take the case of all the blogs developed over the web. It is more the number of websites developed using PHP frameworks. The WordPress plugins used to create blogs are basically developed with PHP language, hence WordPress indirectly makes PHP famous. 

See Also : Common WordPress Mistakes Committed by Newbies

No Programming Knowledge Need to Create Website  

This will be the most important difference between WordPress and all other PHP frameworks. The person who uses a PHP framework might be a professional or an experienced programmer who knows every aspect of programming. Those who do not know the basics of programming can utilize WordPress for developing websites. It indirectly makes users aware of PHP development as well as hosting services.

Shall I use WordPress to Develop Websites?  

It may sound to be the most important question? WordPress is created using PHP and is the most famous blog making tool. Still, users cannot use WordPress to develop all kinds of websites. Let us explain it in detail. 

If we are planning to create an e-commerce website with a large number of pages that utilize SQL databases severely, we cannot depend on WordPress. WordPress is not created to suit that purpose. It can used to create basic websites that are less in features. 

For creating web pages like blogs WordPress really exceeds all other PHP frameworks, but when it comes to creating websites loaded with massive contents and images, we will have to rely on other PHP frameworks. 

Conclusion   

The main point detailed here is the popularity of WordPress when compared to other PHP frameworks. Let us take the case of any other PHP frameworks including Yii, Laravel, CakePHP so on. 

The WordPress as a term will be quite popular among internet users than the other terms mentioned above. The role of frameworks in PHP web development is unavoidable, even though WordPress as a PHP application is more prominent among the internet users. 

Symfony 2 and CodeIgniter - Features and Benefits

There is no dearth for cross-platform PHP web application frameworks. Not one, Not two, many are there in fact. While some are more famous, others frameworks are also widely popular. 

The main aim of these frameworks is to fasten the development and maintenance of web applications. Though not absolutely necessary to use a framework, many PHP developers use them to make their development tasks easier. The other major advantages of CodeIgniter and Symphony frameworks bring with them is that they replace the repetitive coding tasks.

Symfony2 and CodeIgniter are two such PHP  frameworks with a slew of features. Here, let us analyze what these frameworks got to offer.

Features of Symfony2

• This framework, for MVC applications, has an easy installation and is also easy to configure. Interestingly, it is a framework that is simple to use; however, with its flexibility of adapting to complex cases.

• The joy of developing applications is promised with the use of Symfony2. There are many tools in Symfony. A tool like Web Debug Toolbar will come in handy for developers. 

• Beginners will not find Symfony overwhelming because the framework is very accessible. Beginners have so much access to the huge documentation, professional support and also community support.

• With every component of Symfony having its own Git repository, the developers have the chance to get the code directly. Else, they can download an archive. The other options are that they can install it with PEAR.

• Symfony2 is database engine independent. It is enterprise ready. Even for long-term projects it is very much stable. 

• This framework is totally customizable. Numerous development environments come with it by default. Symfony, making the task of developers much simpler, has got multiple tools. Common software engineering tasks can be automated using such tools.

• Is this framework compatible with most database engines? Yes, it is. It is compatible with MySQL, Oracle, PostgreSQL, Microsoft SQL Server, etc.

• Symfony is one framework which is easy to extend. Therefore, integration with that of other vendor libraries is also easier.

• Data and interface translation is allowed, thanks to the built-in internalization layer, which is automated within Symfony.

• Great data quality in the database, enhanced user experience are made possible with the help of Forms. The Forms in Symfony support automated validation & repopulation.

• Output escaping, cache management features, Routing, Factories, Plugins, Built-in email and API management are some of the characteristics that are helpful in Symfony. 

Features of CodeIgniter

• It is a fast, reliable and lightweight framework. The framework also has got a clear documentation. The user guide consists of introduction and tutorial. There are also a number of "how to" guides.

• There are no such coding rules in CodeIgniter that are restrictive in nature. A developer can use his own coding and also naming conventions. 

• Monolithic libraries that are of large scale aren't in CodeIgniter. This framework is a lean framework. It helps improve productivity. At the same time, it offers third party plugins for promoting functionality. 

• CodeIgniter offers  Active Record Database Support, Form and Data validation, XSS filtering and sessions management. 

• The framework also offers Image Manipulation Library, FTP class, File Uploading class, Localization and pagination. 

• Data Encryption, Full Page Caching, Benchmarking, Error Logging, etc are also possible with the CodeIgnitor framework. 

PHP vs Python - A Detailed Scrutiny

If you ask web developers to pick up a right language or framework of their choice, they will indeed look for multiple options that their selection can conveniently match with. In that choice-list you may find many particulars ranging from licensing policy to community support. 

A great number of developers choose a framework which is ultimate in documentation. The PHP language has been in popularity for long years, but python joined the party much lately. But it came to the trend much quickly. Here let us make a detailed comparison of python as well as PHP web development.

Factors that Favor PHP Web Development

PHP is a language which resembles so close to C, and it is also promoted by a good number of dollar signs. This closeness in the coding structure with C makes it the favourite of many reputed developers. Another plus of PHP is that it has fantastic documentation. PHP lacks namespaces, and sources of many functions can be identified with the help of prefixes. It may not be the case always. 

PHP frameworks are noted for its huge and massive community support. For clearing any questions in PHP, users can seek community help. In PHP codes, users will find functions identified as classes for the purpose of stimulating namespaces. PHP is more like a casual language having a common installed settings.

Features that Favor Python Web Development

Python as a language supports beautiful coding. Comparing PHP, it is easy to understand, and has superb clarity. Users will find extended use of classes in Python. It gives developers the option of multiple inheritance, method chaining and so on. To make things work in Python everything should be passed in the form of references. It has threading combined with operator overloading functions. 

Almost all the GUI frameworks can be mixed with Python. Python is marked for its UNICODE support. It supports all the high-level data types, a step ahead of PHP codes. The classes and functions that are promoted by Python are just A1. It is a language having superior stability. Python runs with the help of a simplified syntax.

Python vs PHP: Focal Points

Speed:

when we consider the execution time and working speed of both languages, Python clearly stands ahead in most occasions. Strictly speaking both these languages cannot claim a clear advantage at most occasions when it comes to writing or execution. Still maximum developers are of a view that Python is faster.

Community Support& Frameworks:

In general no language can beat PHP in the matters of the number of frameworks as well as community support. It excels all other languages in terms of community support. Take the instance of CakePHP, Laravel, and Codeigniter so on. 

The number of frameworks based on PHP is far better to Python. Python as a newly introduced language, and it is getting good community support these days. The number of frameworks developed with Python is also on the up now. It is rapidly getting popular as PHP, and developers have started using it for the development of major projects.

Portability:

portability is one of the aspects in which Python stays behind PHP. PHP is very easy to set up. A developer does not need to create HTTP headers for the purpose of hosting all the time while using PHP. PHP gets linked with the databases so easily. To set up Python, users will have to care for the convention in which Python is written.

Conclusion

For the creation of scalable applications, Python can favor developers a lot. Python frameworks like Django has the support of Google. Over 60% of websites are created using PHP, and it happens to be a clear advantage. 

According to the current trend, web developers prefer python for its speedy development capabilities, and clean codes. Still, PHP web development has its own merits, and developers are eagerly waiting for its new version 7, for improved options. 

Why and When You Need PHP Frameworks

Frameworks developed on PHP have been in focus of web communities all over the world. PHP web developmenthas eased to a large extent with the coming up of these well equipped frameworks. 

A PHP developer easily gets more than a list of 10 frameworks to work with. Here in this article we can deal with two different sorts of questions: why you should use a PHP framework? And in what circumstances will PHP prove useful to you?

Frequent Reasons for Using PHP Frameworks

• PHP offers fine options to do the coding in an organized way. Developers have to just follow the same pattern for getting things done.

• It is one of the advanced frameworks which has a fine set of tools as well as libraries designed for the use of various tasks. Using PHP frameworks, a developer can control all factors of making a website so easily.

• PHP frameworks stand high in terms of security. Yii2 is an instance to the point. PHP codes are hard to crack when we consider security aspects.

• Rapid web development by using minimum lines of codes is another favourable aspect of using PHP. Smaller the number of codes, smarter the work will be. Less number of codes means good processing speed as well as easy maintenance.

• One of the vital points that lead to the success of all PHP framework is the community support. The errors, misconceptions, and difficulties that occur to developers can be solved within less time with the aid of community support. Well informed community support happens to be an important factor for the growth of PHP frameworks.

• Another aspect which promotes PHP frameworks is the availability of multiple frameworks. It gives developers even option to create their own frameworks. 80% of designers depend on well- known frameworks to complete the task. 

• All the popular PHP frameworks are updating new features to stand the test of time as well as to draw the attention of website and application developers.

When will You Choose PHP Web Development?

Both beginners together with expert use PHP frameworks widely. To be very much particular, it is hard to seek out a definite answer to the question, for the choices of developers differ as per various conditions. So we can point out certain general aspects only.

• Those who want to develop a project very rapidly by using fine codes having less error possibilities can resort to PHP frameworks. PHP frameworks comes in simple patterns that can be very easily followed.

• Whenever you are asked to create a website or an application in a specified time limit, it will be a great idea to switch to some PHP framework. Hence it offers plenty of ways to finish your tasks quickly.

• If you are a novice at coding, try PHP first. PHP frameworks follow the organized MVC pattern which is very simple to follow. Beginners can save plenty of time while developing projects using PHP frameworks. They will get sufficient community support to correct errors and develop faultless codes.

Common Mistakes Made by PHP Web Developers

The popularity of PHP is obviously known. Going by the market demand, this server-side scripting language that is used in web development is the most desired programming language. It is estimated that PHP was installed on 39% of the websites. This proves the point that PHP is the most preferred language among the web development community. 

 "To err is human..." goes the adage. True to that, in the course of coding, it is common that most PHP developers, at times even ninjas, commit some easily avoidable blunders, be it basic or complex ones. 

The many frameworks in PHP have only made the language more sophisticated, further increasing the chances of making mistakes. Avoiding these mistakes is, however, important, and will help you to speed up your development process. 

Failing to use Database Caching

Are you using a database in the PHP application? If so, ensure that you use some kind of database caching. Memcached, which is free, has now become the famous caching system. Use of Memcached will also contribute to the performance of the database. 

Use of incorrect Comparison Operator

Combining comparison operators in the code is definitely not so good practice. It is necessary to be very familiar with operators like =, = =, !=. These are a few operators which are misused, and knowing them better will drastically enhance the programming speed. Also, you do not have to spend too much time on debugging if the operators are understood better. 

Continuing the use of MySQL Extension

MySQL extension is not reliable and is insecure. It also misses on few modern MYSQL features and even doesn't support SSL. Surprisingly, many developers still continue to opt mysql extension. Having said that, it is now time for you to opt for MYSQLi.

Not using PHP Data Objects

MySQLi may be ahead of MySQL extensions. It is certainly fast, reliable and secure, but is MySQL specific. So, it will be instead better to use PDO. Doing so allows you to use object-oriented syntax. It will also make you ready for the SQL databases. 

Apart from that, PDO enables using of named parameters. Moreover, it would save a lot of time by allowing you to inject the fetched data into new object. 

Failing to rewrite URLs

Rewriting of URLs is very important. Having a URL full of variables will not be easy to memorize the URL. And so is not acceptable to today's needs. Hence, the URL has to be clean, easy to read and easy to remember. Make use of the guide that is offered by frameworks like Laravel, Symfony, Zend, Phalcon in setting up clean URLs. 

Conclusion

PHP web development will continue to gain popularity even in the coming days and there can be no doubt about that. Coding on a language like PHP will surely be a breeze if some of the commonly made mistakes are avoided. 

Key Features and Benefits(Advantages) of CodeIgniter

There is a huge demand for CodeIgniter among the PHP web developers due to its dynamic features and benefits these days. It is one of most popular and agile open source PHP framework for creating robust web applications in PHP web development field. 

Any web applications developed based on CodeIgniter framework perform effectively and rapidly. It helps the programmers to build dynamic and custom web applications with an advanced technology platform by offering valuable set of aspects to write code from scratch.

Let us look out some of benefits and features of CodeIgniter.  

Key features

Model-View-Controller Based System

CodeIgniter make use of the MVC system to find complex models and helps you to create application easily by using controllers and views. It assists the developer to build core libraries for the system and enables you to integrate your own existing scripts with database.

Error Handling

It offers simple user-friendly interfaces that help you to detect error functions throughout the application globally. In this way of approach, it provides instructions to error logging class that allows debugging messages to be saved as text files. It displays all PHP errors in your web application without missing inadequacy. 

Form Validation

This feature helps you to write the code in a single line by using effective validation framework system. It generates codes without any errors and ensures various control structures to be placed within the HTML form.

Migration

Developers can manage database schema updates across various web application fields easily with helps of the migration aspect. Migration from one server to another server is simple and hassle-free in CodeIgniter.

Configuration and Customizable 

This aspect helps the developers to create what they need to develop based on the web applications. You can edit the existing files in CodeIgniter easily and it does not confuse beginners to develop a new life. In addition, configuration and customizable of the files are easy in this frameworks.     

Benefits or Advantages of CodeIgniter

• It helps web developers to find out the errors in programming codes and fix-up the issues instantly in the web applications.
• It provides you user-friendly interface that help developers to create a dynamic, flexible, secure and large web applications effectively in a short span of time.  
• Web developers can make use of this powerful framework to customize the configuration files easily and it provides hassle-free migration from source to destination service hosting.
• The framework helps the programmer to create both front-end and rear-end of a web application effectively and easily in a secured manner. 
• Programmers can create web applications with additional features and high-end functionalities by using in-built resource and libraries of the CodeIgniter. 

Final words

CodeIgniter is unique among many PHP frameworks and its features and merits ensure high functionality, better performance and world-class quality. This framework is really great for web developers to carry out some minor issues like in any other framework.

Principles of MVC for PHP Developers

 

 

What is MVC ?

 

The model-view-controller (MVC) is software architecture or a design pattern that is widely used in website development. It is generally used for creating web applications or software and ensures high efficiency. 

A perspective point on the MVC is through a PHP web development – scripting language of choice and most familiar frameworks use MVC architecture, including ASP.NET, Ruby on Rails and Zend Framework to present something unique involvement. 

The three major modules are embedded in the PHP web development that results in the development of scalable and impressive web applications.

Why should you consider using it?

For PHP developer, MVC offers better philosophy and presents creative idea conveniently to make your application more maintainable. Basically, the MVC structure provides code presentations and layout in simple form and also adds new functionality with efficient code to provide a better way to customize or re-use the code for faster applications. 

It provides consistency and manages a project among several PHP developers can be easier as well. With help of MVC, you can obtain complete separation in programming logic and the interface codes. PHP web development with MVC Architecture Index.php can easily set the path variable including config.inc.php file.

Necessity of MVC Framework for PHP developers

Using MVC framework, PHP developers can create websites that are easy to manage, operate and ensures robust performance. A business logic and GUI of the MVC framework in development phase allows the PHP developers to work freedom on two different verticals result to create a dynamic webpage.

See Also : Popular PHP Frameworks in 2015 for PHP Web Developers

Benefits of MVC framework

MVC frame work provides high clarity in designing with efficient modules and huge support for creating massive applications. It offers interactive web development system and unique user interface for developing a webpage. 

Saves timing of the PHP developers while changing codes all again and allows them to make changes only in the required parts. In case of any issues of the PHP web development this framework acts as a Turnkey platform to solve a problem.

MVC File Structure

The file structure follows easiest way such as simple folders for views, models and controllers, which are linked to each other via one directory form. It also consists of other folders and files such as an index file includes a folder for images, text, videos, etc.

Conclusion

The PHP developer should learn the principles of the MVC architecture to use coding frameworks that includes MVC, such as CakePHP or Codelgniter. A unique thing of this framework is seems to keep logic and design separate while maintaining high efficiency in your project.

Most 10 Popular PHP Frameworks in 2015 for PHP Web Developers

Since PHP frameworks encompass incredible features, it has gained a huge recognition and has become the world’s most versatile serve side scripting language. It is a dynamic and easy to learn language extensively used for programming web pages. 

PHP frameworks are widely known as functional platform and help creating any complex application easily and quickly. 

 

Most PHP developers are choosing PHP frameworks since it is a brilliant platform for coding applications and provides a definite structure and environment to develop your project in a speedy manner. It’s also a peerless web development practice will completely helps to increase the scalability and to build top quality web pages. 

Here, we have mentioned a list of PHP frameworks which help to execute your PHP project promptly as well as with least possible efforts while increasing your productivity. 

Popular PHP Frameworks

 

1. Laravel 

 

Laravel is a simple and classy PHP framework helps to build stylish and high quality web pages. This is one of the perfect frameworks to meet numerous programming needs of various different projects in a timely manner. As it is packed with many Symfony components, it enables the PHP developers to come up with a solid framework which finally ends with creating excellent codes. 

2. Cake PHP

Another fantastic PHP framework that PHP developer should check out for this year is CakePHP 3.0. It has upgraded components, enhanced session management, ORM improvements and etc. It provides options to develop standalone libraries through increase modularity. 

 

3. Symfony

Symfony is an amazing and well known PHP Framework, highly demanded for its high responsive features, stability and simplicity. It has everything required to build websites by utilizing the best practices including reusable components and many more.

4. Code Igniter

 

 

CodeIgniter is the popular and impressive PHP framework with a tiny footprint, specially designed for developers who want to create full-featured web applications at ease. It also offers a rich set of components to design elegant range of web applications with utmost perfection.

5. Yii Framework

 

If you are the one searching for the best PHP frameworks in 2015 then go ahead with Yiiframework. It is high in speed and more secured to develop your PHP projects within the limited time span. Its high compatibility and caching support with AJAX, makes it a right choice for PHP developers to develop good quality web pages. 

 

 

6. Zend Framework

For enterprise level projects, Zend frameworks are ideal choice. It is an open source framework that uses object oriented code. Hence, it is high in performance and extensible as well as more secured. 

 

7. Phalcon 

Phalcon is a full-stack PHP framework written using C/C++ for performance optimization. Its creative architecture makes it the fastest PHP framework to develop any kind of websites. 

 

8. FuelPHP

PHP developers can develop their projects using FuelPHP which is absolutely simple and flexible MVC( Model View Control) Framework. Fuel PHP is a powerful, efficient and supportive PHP framework that helps to build unbelievable sites. 

 

9. Aura

Aura comprises of a collection of superior quality, well-tested, independent library packages and etc which can be efficiently used in any code base. Every library package is self contained and doesn’t depend on any other package. 

 

10. PHPixie

PHP developers, who are looking for a lightweight PHP framework, can choose PHPixie which is based on the MVC pattern which assist you to design applications with extreme speed. It is easy to learn and execute impeccable web application.

No matter whether you are a PHP developer or Custom Web Development Company looking to provide world class solution to PHP web developmentthen choose the above Frameworks to become successful.