When & Why to Use PHP Framework?

Over the last few years, web development industry has seen groundbreaking changes in frameworks. As the time has gone popular PHP frameworks like Laravel, Phalcon, Symfony, Zend, and CodeIgniter have just got bigger and better and become a handy tool for developers to build giant application effortlessly.

PHP is one of the widely used languages for web development and almost every reputed CMS system use PHP as a base programming language. Some really popular CMS like WordPress and Joomla are written in PHP and one of the widely accepted and giant eCommerce system called Magento has been built with the use of Zend framework. We shouldn't exaggerate the fact that PHP is one the best language available for web programming which has made it possible to build from simple one-liner to powerful content management and community web applications extremely easy. The huge feature list, easy learning and fundamentally sound architecture has further produced few outstanding arrays of frameworks making the process for web applications development further simpler.

With so many off the shelf CMS and eCommerce platforms available, does it still make sense to go for custom development using any of the PHP based frameworks like Code Igniter or Zend Framework or Symphony? We intend to bring you insight into why and when you can take a decision to use PHP Framework for both developers and business perspective.

Size of a Project

For a simple web application or a website with basic features, it’s wiser to use some good open source system. However, for more complex and bespoke functionality requirement it’s more recommended to work with the framework.

A completely customized structure, functionality developed keeping in mind your business and users, can be much handier rather than enhancing off the shelf systems which can many times be unnecessarily huge, confusing and difficult to manage. The key to a successful bespoke system built on any PHP framework is, to well plan the architecture and approach following the best development practice resulting in something more unique to business requirements.

Tight deadlines

The huge amount of development time can be saved with the use of Frameworks due to the availability of the large variety of tools like input sanitization and abstraction layers in particular.

It's very common scenario in website development companies where clients are really pressurizing and so often demand quick turnaround. Frameworks can be real lifesavers under high pressure as they help enormously in quickly delivering repetitive and commons tasks.

For web developers apart from time constraint respite, it’s also advisable to explore the knowledge of frameworks as they can be so much helpful in improving programming skills.

For Beginners To backend PHP Programming Task

When you are new to web development field and if you are looking to learn the basic of server-side language then we would advise to first attempt to write your own code before you make use of frameworks. Once you gain some good experience in using the server-side language, you will be getting a much better grasp of using the framework. It is always good to understand the language of the framework on which it is built first. This will help you utilize the framework and efficiently do debugging and further enhancements easily.

There are pretty good reasons to use the Frameworks:

• Code and file organization is extremely easy
• Countless numbers of tools and libraries that can help you with:
  • Form validation
  • Database abstraction
  • Input/Output filtering
  • Session and Cookie handling
  • Email, Calendar and pagination and much more
• MVC (Model View Controller) Architecture
• Less code which ultimately speeds up your development
• Security - PHP has many input and output filtering functions which can add an extra security layer to protect your website against certain attacks
• Suitable for teamwork
• PHP frameworks have great active community support. You will find the accurate solution of any query quickly

List of Popular PHP Frameworks:

Zend Framework

It is an open source framework, implemented in PHP 7. All its components are compatible with E_STRICT, which helps to write bug-free and crush-proof code. BNP PARIBAS and BBS websites are built on Zend Framework.

Symfony

Created by SensioLabs, at first Symphony was a paid service, but since 2005 it is completely free and is released under the MIT license. Drupal, phpBB platforms and even eRepublic, massively multiplayer online browser game was built on Symphony.

Cake PHP

“Cake is a lie”, but not in this case. CakePHP framework was inspired by Ruby on Rails and took lots of its parts as basics. BMW, HYUNDAI and MIT websites are created on the CakePHP framework base.

Code Igniter

This framework is best for building dynamic websites. Users like it, because it is “faster, lighter and the least like a framework”. Google listed CodeIgniter very well and GitHub platform is built on its source code.

Laravel

In 2015 SitePoint survey considered Laravel to be the most used framework. It has a beautiful syntax and modern toolkit. Every year Laravel sets a conference named Laracon that focuses on their framework, its updates, and development.

Phalcon

Unlike others, this framework is implemented like web server extension and is built on Zephyr and C. It is released under the BDS license. Marchi Auto, PractiCan and Outsmart websites were built on this framework.

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There are many other pros and cons of using frameworks but its utilization is completely dependent on your project requirement and choice of development platform for web developers. Please share with us your experience and which framework you are using to get your job done.