15 replies to this topic

[Stefany93]

Hello fellows,

I want to study frameworks but the problem is that the big ones like Zend and Yii are very difficult to be understood by someone who has never dealt with frameworks before. I tried going over to simpler ones, but their documentation is simply horrible - "This framework is documented by itself" Told you, simply terrible.

So if you can be so kind to point me to a simple and well documented framework so that I have get the hung of these stuff, I will be very grateful.

Thank you!

Best Regards
Stefany

[parkerj]

You can check out http://kissmvc.com/. It is a one file PHP framework, and the documentation seems substantial for just one file.

[trq]

Laravel is an excellent framework. http://laravel.com

[gizmola]

I'm a big fan of the Symfony2 documentation. It's a component framework (a framework made up of a number of components, any one of which can be used independently of the framework) which has become THE framework/library trend in the last year.

It also has a micro framework based on it named Silex, which is more minimal/library based yet shares the same components as the full stack Symfony2, and microframeworks are cool for learning the pieces of a framework without all the complexity (see trq's Proem for another example). I personally wouldn't advise you spend a minute with any framework that isn't already using Composer.

With that said, any of these frameworks comes with a fair amount of complexity, unless you have a good idea what MVC, Validators, Forms, ORM's, Templates etc. fit into the mix. Often what I find is that the frameworks have good introduction to the surface level, but as soon as you want to do something that veers from the simplistic, you're quickly in over your head, and this is why many framework people don't even try to have much in the way of documentation.

[Stefany93]

Sorry it took me so long to reply, thanks to everyone for the links and suggestions!

@gizmola, thank you so much for the detailed explanation, I value it a lot!

[jazzman1]

@Stefi, I have good knowledges in cakephp, but.....I'm suggesting you to start with Symfony2.

[Jessica]

I love CakePHP, it's easy, great MVC, good docs.

[Electro808]

I hit a brick wall eventually with every framework I try, LOL
I got as far as the CRUD that Yii gives you, but then got completely overwhelmed from then on.
The Symfony guide was great until I ran out of steam at the point where they too suddenly lapsed into "we're going to assume you know what we mean" eventually. I don't know if I'll ever get the hang of it all

I'd rather write all my own stuff so I know what's going on, but I lack the skills to make it pretty. Maybe I should just manually add to what Yii gave me at the CRUD stage, ignoring the rest of the bazillions of classes and interactions they all seem to find easy to learn but I don't.

Their only tutorial approach seems to be "here, sit down and study this example for many frustrating hours, see how you get on" - rather than a step by step bitesize guide where we can take it one manageable chunk at a time, feeling a little bit smarter every few minutes. That's the only way of learning I can cope with, so I'm left high and dry by frameworks

[mygan]

My first php framework i worked in was codeigniter, personally i'm not the biggest fan of their documentation, but it has got a lot of good recommendations from others. Nowadays codeigniter seems a bit "old" or "not so classy", and I agree, but i think its a good framework to start with, it got simple functionality, and is not to hard to understand.

And when you feel comfortable with codeigniter, and if you feel like you miss something, or maybe wonder if some things can be done in a better/nicer way, start searching for other frameworks.

My personal favorite is laravel(If you ever have developed in asp.net you will feel at home), and another good framework is fuelPHP.

It's hard to just give you a framework, try them out, read their documentation and then you can reflect on what bests suits you or your project.

best regards
mygan

[trq]

Sorry, but Codeignitor is a bad example of a framework and should be avoided like the plague. It's design is terrible, and as an example, it's not something you should be learning from.

[Sanjib Sinha]

As I used little bit CodeIgniter and even created a Bengali travelogue based on it, I found it little bit clumsy for the beginners. Documentation is not complete either. But there is always a chance to build your own code base on it. Like you avoided active record class and write your own database class etc.

[jazzman1]

Sorry, but Codeignitor is a bad example of a framework and should be avoided like the plague. It's design is terrible, and as an example, it's not something you should be learning from.

Agreed!

[cpd]

CodeIgniter just takes everything and shoves it into a super object - its extreme globalisation with a raincoat.

I can sympathise with Electro808 with regards to the time it takes to fully learn a framework, the only way to do it is to practice though. That said the time lapse between the OP and his brick wall is 7 days: you can't expect to fully learn a framework in 7 days unless you work at it non-stop. I think you need to spend more time on it.

Edited by CPD, 04 January 2013 - 04:57 AM.

[JayanBee]

Codeigniter has less learning curve and has more support in online compared to other frameworks. Codeigniter has large community support and resources. It is one of the mostly used MVC frameworks.

[trq]

Codeigniter has less learning curve and has more support in online compared to other frameworks. Codeigniter has large community support and resources. It is one of the mostly used MVC frameworks.

The OP said he wanted to study PHP frameworks. Codeignitor is probably one of the worst designed frameworks around. It isn't going to teach the OP anything about good design or best coding practices. I always recommend it (CI) be avoided.

The only reason to study CI would be to learn how to not build a framework.

[sKunKbad]

Codeigniter has less learning curve and has more support in online compared to other frameworks. Codeigniter has large community support and resources. It is one of the mostly used MVC frameworks.

Due to my longtime use of CodeIgniter I'd say the argument that is has large community support and resources is actually no longer something that should be said. Over time most of the serious devs have moved on, and "the community" aka the people who still use the forum seem to be mostly noobs that speak English through Google translate. The resouces that used to be in the wiki were at one point moved to github and most were not updated so most of the downloads disappeared. My biggest problem with CodeIgniter isn't so much that it's technically inferior, but that development is dead and if they ever do officially release v3 the license makes it unusable for me and the type of clients I want to do business with. Go with Laravel, Symphony, Yii, Cake, Slim, or anything else. Spending time with CodeIgniter is now just a waste of your time, and time is money....