To Use a PHP Framework or Not? [closed]

Answer 1

i just want to tell about my own experience in programming, I'm still newbie though

1. first by using framework you'll get used to their coding style/rule, which is good because most of the framework are deeply thought about how they write their code. in short i get better style and cleaner code
2. Usually framework come with many arsenal (plugins and or library), which you can find in internet, this will reduce your coding time, cut wasted time. In short you can make your own precious time thinking on business process
3. with using open source framework, there's other programmer who already know and probably mastered the framework, then you can easily collaborate with others.
4. in truth i'm not a well organized programmer, but it was before i 'm using some open source framework. perhaps like me you'll get more organized

That's all I can share with you for now, i'm not good with writing in english, sorry for that. but the point is i recommend you to use framework

Happy coding friend.

Answer 2

My philosophy is that you should only use something when it solves a need that you currently have.

There's a real tendency, particularly in this realm, to simply use a framework for the sake of using one or because you feel like you should be using something. I discourage such practices. Also frameworks I think have the most value when you've done things the hard way so you have a good understanding of what problems you have and how the framework can help you in that situation. Framework choice does depend on the situation.

That all being said, the MVC pattern with Web applications is useful so it certainly wouldn't hurt you to learn at least one. I'd stick to a fairly minimalist framework however. CodeIgniter springs to mind here.

Lastly, the other danger with frameworks is that they can be so invasive that you're no longer doing PHP, you're doing CakePHP, Symfony or whatever. That's not necessarily a problem but the danger in it being so invasive is you don't get a good grounding in PHP and if you ever want to change it'll simply be too hard that you'll never be able to do it.

Answer 3

The following post is in response to a thread that was immediately closed as I was writing my answer to RenderIn's post at: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/3265509/what-are-the-benefits-of-using-a-programming-framework . The thread was closed and in the comments a link was placed directing him to here, so I'll attempt to answer his question here. In quotes below is what I was ABOUT to submit:

"Allow me to recommend Joomla! to you and your organization. At my last employer, I had to pick-up PHP (having no prior experience with it), and after about a month and a half of doing some manual hand-coding of PHP, I was tasked to code a Joomla! component that would serve-up videos to users. I also had to create a backend that would allow non-techie administrators to categorize, edit, delete, etc., the videos as well as provide thumbnails for them, etc.

Now to get a working prototype for that, it took about two months (I was an intern at the time and only working 20-24 hours per week, so if you have quite a bit of PHP experience as well as experience with MVC development methodology, you probably could've gotten a working prototype up a LOT quicker than me)."

Now in response to the OP of THIS thread: Spending the time to learn a framework is definitely worthwhile (I haven't seen it mentioned in here until my post so I'll say it again: for a PHP-framework I'd recommend Joomla!).

Some of the benefits of learning a framework (an open-source one like Joomla!):

• A huge community of people who can help answer your questions (besides stackoverflow; lol)
• Access to ALL of the source code, so you can customize it however you want.
• Lots of free (and paid) third-party plugins to enhance functionality.
• Lots of tutorials.
• Frameworks take care of performing a lot of mundane tasks automatically.

In reference to bullet four: Joomla! takes care of things for you such as database connection management and such so that you don't have to bother creating all your own custom functions to connect to your MySQL database or return different types of database results (e.g. one record, first result of first record, list of records, etc.), you simply place calls to theirs. Joomla!'s API is openly available on the web at their site: http://api.joomla.org/

Anyway hopefully this helps RenderIn and anyone else wondering about frameworks (especially PHP-related ones).

Answer 4

Frameworks are great when you got a team of developers working on the same project. The MVC controller integrates the designer + programmer beautifully. However, creating "framework-like" elements and "reinventing" the wheel isn't such a bad idea. If you're working on a huge project, it's better to get down and dirty with your code and customize EVERYTHING to fit your needs. It'll become a stronger product as it will be developed entirely for the project.

Answer 5

I would strongly recommend using a framework for anything more than a simple script. It may seem overkill sometimes, but I would argue that it's not. I've had a few occasions where I thought I don't need it (simple app, basic CRUD in 3 db tables).

Shortly after, I found myself doing manual mysql_escape_string, XSS filtering and so on. From then on, I only write non-framework code when I think that the setup will take more that the working code. And that happens very seldom.

If I would have to recommend a PHP framework, I'd have to go with CodeIgniter or Yii Framework, depending on how complex your project is.

Answer 6

I think it's undoubtedly a good investment to spend the time to learn a PHP framework. For one, it'll teach you how someone has tackled the problem of architecting the framework, how to organize your PHP code, and how to handle things like sessions and database accesses...etc...

For the most part, if you are serious about developing web-apps, you will need to use a framework of some sort rather than writing your own framework from scratch.

Some reasons why you should NOT write your own framework:

1. You're re-inventing the wheel, when it's been done many times over already.
2. You're not very likely to do a better job than an open-source framework, which has been tested and iterated over by many developers.
3. You'll spend all your time writing and debugging your own framework than you will spend on actually creating your application.

So yes, learn a couple of frameworks and find one that suits you the best!