I’ve spent the last few days fruitfully, searching and comparing the most popular and promising of PHP frameworks. Before I get started, I know the automatic follow up will be PHP bashing, and hailing RoR as the savior of the world. This post isn’t about a rails vs PHP comparison, though I intend to write on that shortly.
I was working on a project which required a simple calendar with inline edit. The calendar is for a school which marks if the day is working or not, and the comment (told ya, its very simple). Needs PHP, jQuery, jQuery jEditable plugin and a MySQL table to store the data.
The demo is here. If anyone is interested in the code, drop a comment.
P.S: Yea I suck at CSS. If anyone does a better job, please let me know.
Of late, I’ve been noticing a lot of PHP bashing around the web. Most of it is related to one major issue: Security. Granted, PHP’s security implementation isn’t the best out there, and it is a widely discussed topic. But more often than not, the security loopholes are due to bad/inconsistent programming principles, rather than a core PHP issue.
Also, PHP’s lack of support for threaded programming is another major let down. While this is a genuine issue, rewriting the entire PHP core and the parser to support threads is not worth the effort. But I genuinely haven’t felt the need for multi-threading in PHP till date. While threading is a must for system programming, the need for it in a web environment is not entirely clear. Also, the major strength of PHP – its simplicity will be compromised if threading is to be introduced.
Another genuine concern is the confusion caused by settings such as “register_globals” , “magic_quotes”, “safe_mode” . These three variables have had a major impact on the deployment of PHP scripts. Web hosts allow ways to tweak these settings, but for the layman who just wants to get a blog up and running, its a bit of a hassle. Also its an issue that needs to be addressed by web developers who want maximum compatibility for their applications. The next major release PHP 6.0 aims to completely do away with this settings for good, and that will indeed clear up a lot of mess.
Most of these issues boil down to one thing – the lack of a an official formal specification. Although the PHP Group oversees the continued development, it is still a community effort, and as such requires stringent software engineering and management. Since the original PHP parser was completely rewritten for version 3 and above, there have only been attempts to patch up vulnerabilities, and add new features like Object Oriented Programming, namespace support among others. PHP 6 is touted to be THE release, which will address most of the major concerns.
For all its shortcomings, its still THE easiest server side scripting language to work with. The C/C++ syntax, seamless integration with MYSQL, support by almost all web hosting providers still make it THE web language IMHO. The LAMP stack is undoubtedly the king of the web, and will continue to be so, owing to the simplicity and widespread community support offered by all its components. And not to forget, its completely free.
Frameworks offer quick and dirty ways to get your code done. Though hardcore programmers still shun them, they are God sent for lazy/beginner programmers who need to get lot of work done quickly. Having looked at all the major heavyweights(literally) of PHP frameworks, I wanted to look for alternatives.
My requirements:
Small
Simple (No unnecessary complications)
Easy to use (For a beginner like me)
So here are the nominees:
1. ELF-PHP (Extra Light PHP Framework)
This framework is built on the MVC architecture for software engineering buffs, has good documentation, and will get you started in a jiffy. It probably has the most features compared to the others in this list, and the developer plans to add some more in the future release.
P.S: Grab the latest code from the repository.
It simple, its PHP and its a framework. Has comprehensive logging features, offers various modes for the server (local, production, staging, shell) and is actually being run in 40 different sites by the developer. Should be dependable. Needs documentation on various features though.
Other than having a unusual name, its a micro php framework for separating application logic from presentation. Development has been stopped by the developer, so don’t expect support or documentation. For a more recent version micro paging framework, check out Sticks by the same developer.
Expect a more comprehensive review of each framework in the furure.
phpBB is the holy grail of free and open source forum/discussion board on the internet. With tons of plugins, themes and a amazing community, its probably the best too. But for those like me who don’t want the bloat, and would rather use a simple and easy to manage forum, here are a few alternatives:
1. SimpleMachines – Probably the second best known free forum script. Slimmer than phpBB, and with a better, cleaner admin interface, its my personal favourie. And yes, it does have its fair share of themes/plugins and good community support.
2. FluxBB – This one is “really” light. The download comes in under 300kb, is XTML and CSS valid, and with a minimal but delightful interface is bound to loved by Mac fans.
3. bbPress – Comes from the creators of Wordpress, its their in house forum software. Nuff said.
4. Vanilla – Other than having a tasty name, it also offers a very small and simple forum. Great for “minimal” fans.
5. Phorum – Its an open source PHP forum. Probably not as good looking as the others, but does the job well.