Ask HN: What PHP framework would you choose if you could start over?

#1

Post by kluck » Tue, Jun 28, 2016, 1:35 PM UTC

Suppose you work at a company and a new project comes up with no reponsibility whatsoever to reuse existing code. The task is to create a web application based on a framework with the following features:

- GPL-compatible licence

- developed by community, not a company

- framework and application are written in PHP

- should be extendable via plugins/addons/extensions etc.

- cms features are included (or via addons)

- deployment features are included

- no php code in templates

- payment and shop features are included (or via addons)

What framework would you choose?

Also, feel free to share experience with web frameworks even if you don't know any framework that might fit.

Re: Ask HN: What PHP framework would you choose if you could start over?

#2

Post by uptown » Tue, Jun 28, 2016, 1:42 PM UTC

Laravel

It's got the most active PHP community, and sufficient online support from documentation and community. You could also start with Spark and let them handle the boilerplate.

https://spark.laravel.com/

Re: Ask HN: What PHP framework would you choose if you could start over?

#3

Post by kluck » Tue, Jun 28, 2016, 1:52 PM UTC

uptown wrote: post #2

Laravel It's got the most active PHP community, and sufficient online support from documentation and community. You could also start with Spark and let them handle the boilerplate. https://spark.laravel.com/

Does it match _all_ the criteria above?

Re: Ask HN: What PHP framework would you choose if you could start over?

#4

Post by JeremyBanks » Tue, Jun 28, 2016, 2:00 PM UTC

Django

Re: Ask HN: What PHP framework would you choose if you could start over?

#5

Post by vacri » Tue, Jun 28, 2016, 2:01 PM UTC

kluck wrote: post #3

uptown wrote: post #2

Laravel It's got the most active PHP community, and sufficient online support from documentation and community. You could also start with Spark and let them handle the boilerplate. https://spark.laravel.com/

Does it match _all_ the criteria above?

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=laravel

Re: Ask HN: What PHP framework would you choose if you could start over?

#6

Post by Juliate » Tue, Jun 28, 2016, 2:03 PM UTC

What's the scope/role/purpose of your app?

Re: Ask HN: What PHP framework would you choose if you could start over?

#7

Post by accnt » Tue, Jun 28, 2016, 2:04 PM UTC

Laravel I believe matches most criteria above. Symfony would be a second choice.

The driven factor though is community. This is key. No matter how good your framework is if there is no community behind it to create, innovate, talk about it and so on.

Worked with Zend framework 2, which I believe is a great PHP framework, but the community is stagnant. We often have to create modules (libraries) for things most frameworks already had (ie, Symfony).

Re: Ask HN: What PHP framework would you choose if you could start over?

#8

Post by tangue » Tue, Jun 28, 2016, 2:04 PM UTC

* - developed by community, not a company *

This rules out Symfony and Laravel which are imho the only sane options in php.

Why do you need this requirement ?

Re: Ask HN: What PHP framework would you choose if you could start over?

#9

Post by Finnucane » Tue, Jun 28, 2016, 2:05 PM UTC

JeremyBanks wrote: post #4

Django

BSD license, not GPL.

Re: Ask HN: What PHP framework would you choose if you could start over?

#10

Post by jordanlev » Tue, Jun 28, 2016, 2:08 PM UTC

As someone with positive experience in Ruby on Rails, I would choose (and have chosen) Laravel. Specifically version 5.1 which is the current LTS release.

It does not have a CMS module nor an ecommerce add on as far as I'm aware, but depending on the complexity of your requirements they might not be difficult to do yourself (eg just a few pages of editable content with a few wysiwyg editors here and there, and a straightforward shopping cart / checkout experience using Stripe for payment).

If you absolutely need plugins for all the things in your list, I think Symfony is probably your best bet -- but it is less of a cohesive framework than Laravel, so you'll be mixing and matching things and doing a bit more work on your end (but possibly worth the tradeoff).