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Ask HN: Best PHP Framework for Web Development

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Re: Ask HN: Best PHP Framework for Web Development

#11

Post by gyardley »

mootothemax wrote: post #9

I favour Kohana ( http://kohanaframework.org/ ). Very quick and easy to get the core of your app built. Only (and potentially major) downside is that the documentation can be tricky to wade through. I'd run away from CakePHP. Caveat: last version I worked with was 1.3. The weird way it uses arrays in its ORM to kinda-sorta-but-not-quite work on the database always hurts my head. In fact, the whole way of going about…

Agreed.

Kohana's tutorials are pretty bad, but the API browser is solid and the code of the framework itself is very readable.

As a beginner, having to dig under the hood of Kohana to fully understand it initially turned me off, but I came away with a much better understanding of how MVC frameworks work.

Re: Ask HN: Best PHP Framework for Web Development

#12

Post by jaz »

vanwilder77 wrote: post #3
kaolinite wrote: post #2

Zend Framework is the traditional 'enterprise' framework, you won't go wrong with it, though there are quite possibly better alternatives. That's what we use where I work. I've heard very good things about Kohana but don't have much experience with it. Just try and pick something with a good set of documentation and a decent community.

Sure !! And well thats the confusing thing for me. Every framework comes with some pros and cons and it is really tricky to decide which framework to go with.

Another nice thing is that Zend Studio is pretty tightly integrated with Zend Framework. It's particularly nice when you're dealing with large ZF projects.

Re: Ask HN: Best PHP Framework for Web Development

#13

Post by MattBearman »

For starting out I'd definitely recommend CodeIgniter (http://codeigniter.com) simply because the documentation is second to none.

Since learning CodeIgniter I've tried CakePHP and Zend, and found CodeIgniter is easier to use, and just as powerful, so I've stuck with it. In fact the BugMuncher (http://bugmuncher.com) back end & API is built on my custom version of CodeIgniter

Also check out the datamapper ORM plugin (http://datamapper.wanwizard.eu/) if you want Rails-like Active Record goodness.

Re: Ask HN: Best PHP Framework for Web Development

#14

Post by gchucky »

Until recently at work we've use Symfony1. It's going to end of life at the end of this year, and I think we're going to shy away from Symfony2 for now. It's a bit of a mess, I think, and it seems like they're going to correct a bunch of things in 2.1, but that won't be out for a few months. We'll probably reevaluate after that.

Our other goto framework is Cake. People do have a lot of good/bad things to say about Cake, but I rather like Cake 2. It's a little more mature now, and I don't really think it's as hugely complex as Symfony.

I use Zend on my own, but I'm becoming disillusioned with it. It seems to be overengineered and, after using Doctrine for as long as I have, its modeling leaves a lot to be desired.

Recently I've been researching FuelPHP (http://fuelphp.com/) and it seems to have potential. It's a little better designed than CodeIgniter and its ORM seems interesting.

Hope that helps.

Re: Ask HN: Best PHP Framework for Web Development

#15

Post by trevelyan »

mootothemax wrote: post #9

I favour Kohana ( http://kohanaframework.org/ ). Very quick and easy to get the core of your app built. Only (and potentially major) downside is that the documentation can be tricky to wade through. I'd run away from CakePHP. Caveat: last version I worked with was 1.3. The weird way it uses arrays in its ORM to kinda-sorta-but-not-quite work on the database always hurts my head. In fact, the whole way of going about…

I've never had any problem with CakePHP and am curious what you mean.

Re: Ask HN: Best PHP Framework for Web Development

#16

Post by dirkdeman »

I tried a couple of them and sticked with CodeIgniter. Sure it has some quirks, but it's powerful, easy to grasp, not bloated (hello, Zend!) and more than capable to satisfy your web dev needs. Plus it has a great community and lots of tutorials. But really, my advice is to spend a day or two trying several of them out. Create a simple project with each of them (the ubiquitous blog for exampe) and see what works for you. Good luck!
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