Why use framework?

[presario]

I am new into php. I have developed a few applications. The biggest advantage of using framework as it appears to me is that it save you a lot of development time?

 

I would like to have some recommendation for using framework with strong reasons.

 

1.) Which framework is better and why?

2.) Using a framework would limit my development skills to that particular framework?

3.) Should I spend some handsome time in developing real php applications before moving to a framework?

 

 

[thehippy]

There are plenty of these threads asking the same "what's the better framework" question with different responses, so I'll leave that to you're own discretion to research those.  You mentioned though, that you were new to PHP and I thought I might have a word or two of advice.  While frameworks are of definite benefit, I do find they tend to gloss over the details in order to increase productivity.  They leave it up to the developer to know how and what the internals do.  So, if you dive into a framework without the knowledge about how the underlying functioning works, you may end up frustrated and have to dig deeper to come to an understanding of how to debug a problem.

 

Frameworks seem to get a stigma for being very rigidly structured and with my experience this just isn't true.  They may have conventions and requirements, but when it comes to actually making use of the code base, they don't limit my ability to solve problems, so your assertion that using a particular framework would limit your development skills set, that just doesn't hold any relevance with me.  I find its quite the opposite in fact, the more I expose myself to other code, the more I adapt, find what works and continuously evolve as a programmer.  I guess I should mention that I'm not fixated on one particular framework either, while I'm fond of one, it doesn't limit my curiosity about others.

 

I think you should have a degree of familiarity with PHP before you use a framework, primarily for the reason I mentioned before, frameworks tend to gloss over the details.  I wouldn't require you to write real world applications for everything, but give yourself a practical education.  I have a web server on my local network I use to test out code, write your own website, your own applications, to test, to learn.  PHP is a pretty big beast nowadays so maybe come up with a curriculum of what you need to learn and what you want to learn depending on your interests.

 

Some topics you might want to consider (in no particular order):

• 
  Coding Standards (PEAR/Zend, MySource/Squiz)
  OOP and Design Patterns in PHP
  Coding Practices (Agile, Unit Testing, Test-Driven Design, version control)
  Filtering & Validation (RegEx, Sanitizing Inputs)
  Databases (Prepared Statements, Abstraction, Pooling, Caching, Data Integrity, Indexes)
  Templates, Forms & PDFs Generation/Manipulation
  Internationalization & Localization
  Authentication & Authorization (Role/Group Based Permissions, Cryptography)
  Mailing (SMTP, Domain Keys, PKI Signed Mail)
  Security (Types of Attacks to counter)
  Sessions (Security Issues)
  Searching (Cached Searches, search engine, spider/crawler)
  Web Services & AJAX controls (REST, JSON, Web APIs)
  Caching, Performance and Scaling Issues
  Debugging and Profiling
  PEAR, PECL & Common PHP extensions
  

[keyur.delhi]

mr. "thehippy", great advice 

[ronvanb]

Thanks for the great awnser mr thehippy. Just 1 question i can think of after reading this one.

Javascript and ajax are two favorites  of mine.

Is it simple to keep combining them with my PHP if i start using a framework?

I'm new to frameworks. And wondering if its the right direction to go for me.

 

thanks again.

 

 

 

 

[mapleleaf]

Codeigniter!!

[Anti-Moronic]

Thanks for the great awnser mr thehippy. Just 1 question i can think of after reading this one.

Javascript and ajax are two favorites  of mine.

Is it simple to keep combining them with my PHP if i start using a framework?

I'm new to frameworks. And wondering if its the right direction to go for me.

 

thanks again.

 

Yeh sure - javascript (use jquery ! and ajax (use jquery for that too ! are completely separate from anything to do with php because they are 'client' languages whereas php is a 'server' language. Basically, php serves the client. So php can give the client javascript, ajax, html, xml - anything the client can interpret.

 

I've just gotten into zend which is quite good but frameworks like codeigniter, and cakephp are great for rapid application development which is the main reason for using a framework in the first place.

[lostnucleus]

Ans to Q

a)Zend framework , coz made by php  guyz (zend engine which power php)

b)Yes u will became framework dependent ,

c)OOP and Design Patterns in PHP

[trq]

Ans to Q

a)Zend framework , coz made by php  guyz (zend engine which power php)

 

Zend is open source and developed by its community. I could almost guarantee that less than 1% of its code is written by any php core developers.

[ronvanb]

Thanks for the awnser Anti-Moronic.

This means my html stays the same.