I've been using Wordpress for the past 4 years for developing small and medium websites. Now I have an enterprise project and I'm considering using Phalcon PHP framework.
My enterprise project will be handling a large amount of users and will be publishing articles with images. This is why I still want to use some sort of CMS.
I think framework like Phalcon is great for service and business layers, but it lacks the GUI / services found in various CMS's like Wordpress. I know Phalcon Eye is in development, but it's in very early development stage (I think).
Can Phalcon MVC be used alongside any CMS? If yes, wouldn't the speed of Phalcon bee compromised by much slower CMS? (And what CMS is recommended?)
Update
The first version of my enterprise project is currently using WP for handling user registration, page / template handling, articles etc. But that's just a small part of the solution. All other code is custom and I've realized that should use a solid framework like Phalcon, Laravel, Sympfony etc.
Update 2
What if I use a framework like Phalcon for my custom code, present data and form handling. Then I build a Wordpress service that will retrieve articles from WP DB's. That way I would not need to use wordpress for presentation, but I can use WP for handling articles, images and maybe even users. Bad idea?
You can use Yona CMS (built with Phalcon), whose code is hosted on GitHub, with modular structure and great speed of Phalcon Framework.
There are few large projects working on this CMS.
Using an existing CMS for the admin and writing a phalcon frontend for it is a very intriguing idea I have pondered on and off over the years. (I haven't done it yet because I have a custom CMS to maintain, which I am not sure how to replace with WP or joomla etc)
I think it would be possible to have a site that is much faster than a WP site by using phalcon, but I think the tradeoff is no WP plugins will work, and the more PHP you use to make them work, the more you erode the benefit of phalcon and you might have well just used WordPress.
I have never used Phalcon 2.0 with Zephir, so can't comment on that.
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I see a comment about updating phalcon, which I thought I would address you can update phalcon with 3 or 4 commands (or a single shell script), and it only takes affect when you restart your webserver. Apache can do a graceful restart which shouldn't affect any of your users.
Whether phalcon is harder to update than a framework written in PHP file comes down to your update method. Updating phalcon with git is far quicker, easier and safer than FTPing individual files for example. Naturally using git for both I don't see much of a difference, just as long as the webserver is clever enough to not open the php file just as you are copying it of course...
re: speed - phalcon is very fast (upto 10x faster than zend framework v1 IMO, YMMV), it might not be as fast as node depending on what you are doing, but if your PHP is far better than your JS and your Server Admin has never used node - like me then the difference in speed it didn't look like it was worth the extra effort.
I think as per your requirement you should go for a CMS, Phalcon does not provide you the functionalists of a CMS, it has it's own advantages. If you are using wordpress and not satisfied with its performance then there are many other popular CMS solutions available in PHP like Joomla or Drupal, you can look into that also, and choose the best that fits in your requirements.
Only a CMS based on phalcon, like phalconeye, may get the benefits of phalcon's speed.
If you want speed, avoid Drupal, that not where it is the better.
Related
I am setting my own software development company and I have to choose how to organize our work. We will have to develop website and web applications in general in the near future and I would like t organize the workflow in the way we don't loose more time then needed on development process.
My concern regarding the above, is to take one of the tons of PHP existing CMS out there and use it as a base for all the coming projects or take a Laravel CMS such as OctoberCMS, or similar and use it as a base project. The former gives me more choice, because there are many CMSs with a lot of modules and templates ready to use, the latter would be a great base either for small websites and also for more complex web applications, being Laraval a MVC framework it is ready for developing more complex web applications, but offers less functionality and modules (for example OctoberCMS provides a not very easy CMS tool for editing pages, which would be not suitable for my customers).
I would like to hear your suggestions and thoughts.
Thank you
I kinda had the same trouble months ago, and I ended up choosing the framework option.
After months developing and using Wordpress-based solutions for my clients I noticed that the start up of every single project was very fast (easy to install, lots of materials available for free or cheap) and enough satisfactory, but the hell arrived every time there were some more-than-little modifications (logics and design).
Using a framework with a pattern like MVC (I use Yii) may be more difficult at the beginning, but write, debug, and organize your code is far more fluid and satisfactory, on the long run. Even a module (cms) can be easily extended or rewrite with lesser effort than packed CMS solutions like Wordpress.
So, summing up: upvote for framework option.
I made the decision to switch from WordPress being my defacto platform for new projects when Laravel Framework v4 was released, much for the same reasons mentioned by #SomethingWicked. I also have a fundamental issue with Matt M. and WordPress Core development team, that WordPress is an Application Platform. It is not, it is a Content Management Platform. Purely because it takes too many liberties in making assumptions (biased to blogging and content management) for the user.
I am also a firm believer in the 12-Factor App (http://12factor.net), which WordPress makes very difficult, neigh impossible, to adhere to.
I have experience with Joomla and have modified and wrote some simple Joomla extensions. I don't have experience using one of the popular PHP frameworks (such as CakePHP), but I was thinking about using the Joomla framework because I'm familiar with Joomla. How would I use the Joomla framework for a software project instead of using regular Joomla and writing the extensions needed for it to extend it's capabilities? Thanks!
The basic idea is that you:
Get a copy of either the whole framework or just the packages you need+dependencies (from github or composer) or use the older copy that is shipped with the CMS,
Bootstrap your application (JApplicationWeb or JApplicationCli).
Write your code using the MVC structure provided.
The big difference with writing a totally independent application is that you are doing just that, you need to build everything in the application whereas in the CMS there are already a lot of things in place. (The good part of that is that you can make new code with no legacy concerns.) For example, if you look at the JIssues project you'll see that they had to think about things like authentication. So as you would expect writing a simple application is simple, writing a complex one is complex.
You can see many examples of framework applications around, ranging from the ones found in the CLI folder of your CMS installation to JIssues, and of course the three web applications in the CMS are all examples of applications on the framework.
The Joomla Framework is intended (among other things) to be the platform upon which you can build a web-application. The framework is like the frame of one of those motorcycles they build on "American Choppers." It provides the backdrop so that you can hit the ground thinking about your app without worrying about User Authentication, database connection, and a thousand other things like those that get in the way of bringing your app to its potential audience.
If you're trying to extend Joomla, the current edition is what you should be using.
We have a project to build a web application that has many features like: google maps integration, item review and rating (something like eBay rating), chatting among users, content search based on content calculated value, integration with Facebook (for login, liking the content, fetch user's friends...etc),batch and real-time notification through SMS and email and many others.
We have two candidates for this zend and drupal, I tried to search a detailed
comparison between them without luck; only found high level stuffs.
Our criteria is to use a product which will not require lots of custom development and satisfies most of out needs out of the box, and it should be reliable and easy to maintain and extend in the future.
I would really appreciate if someone can shed some light on zend vs drupal comparison and point me to any useful recent analysis already done in this.
What are the real strengths of zend ?
Thanks in advance and best regards
Drupal is easier to have a project up and running with, it is a fully working web application out of the box. The flexibility of Drupal is pretty good, but be aware that using such a "pre-built application" type of framework tends to make the hard things easy to do, and the easy things hard to do.
Zend Framework, on the other hand offers much more flexibility, but at the cost of having to write things up from scratch yourself.
Actually, you are to choose from two different solutions. They are both used for building sites, but on a different level.
Base on the following:
Our criteria is to use a product which
will not require lots of custom
development and satisfies most of out
needs out of the box, and it should be
reliable and easy to maintain and
extend in the future.
I think you should choose Drupal. This is why:
Zend Framework is PHP framework, which enables you to build applications almost from scratch - you need to put some effort to reach the phase when you are able to actually use the application,
Drupal is Content Management Framework, that helps you build CMS system on the basis of your modules - only thing you need to start using base features is to install Drupal,
both Zend Framework and Drupal are extensible, but Zend Framework is much more extensible. Drupal has some architecture that should be followed and you can not do much about it (unless you really have time and resources to change it significantly and then be your own support, updating the core), but since you need "just extensibility" (not some major one), Drupal still meets your needs,
there are plenty of modules allowing you to add needed features to your application on both Zend Framework and Drupal, but in Drupal it is just as simple as copying the files and configuring it through the interface - there is usually nothing that has to be performed by developers,
You have to be aware also, that because of some architectural restrictions you should first analyze, whether Drupal is really suitable for your solutions. If you think the traffic will be heavy and you need different base concepts (user management, content management?), you probably should think about choosing more resource-consuming solution (which is Zend Framework).
Zend is an application framework while Drupal is more of a content management system (with some framework characteristics). That makes it difficult to compare them beyond those definitions.
Our criteria is to use a product which
will not require lots of custom
development and satisfies most of out
needs out of the box, and it should be
reliable and easy to maintain and
extend in the future.
There's no magic bullet for that but most of your criteria (pre-built modules) puts you firmly in the Drupal camp. It employ modules that you can plugin and config.
Drupal offers both the functionality of a framework (through modules and its API), and Drupal offers ready-made functionality. The trick is knowing Drupal very well.
Pre-made functionality in Drupal can be overridden through hooks, or you can find workarounds that DO NOT require modifying other modules, but sometimes this requires a lot of experience with the inner-workings of Drupal, for maximum control.
One major hurdle is deciding when to write in-house modules, or turn on modules provided in core or contrib. The problem (for me) is resisting the siren's call to use every module that Drupal provides either in core or in contrib.
Another technique is to turn on a module, and use the functions and data that the module provides, and create your own functionality on top of (or replacing) the functionality provided by the core or contrib modules.
With Zend, well they offer a very good set of classes but every page including admin pages, and features like caching, and routing will need to be built from scratch. In some ways this can be a good thing if it can get you away from the siren's call of wanting to use ready-made Drupal modules.
On the other hand, you own everything you have to make from scratch. With a community like Drupal, you can be part of a community that shares in development efforts.
We currently use MySource Matrix CMS for large projects, Wordpress CMS for small projects and Zend Framework for bespoke applications...
I'm not trying to confuse and compare a CMS to a framework, that has been done before :-)
I want to identify a few CMSs for review that have foundations in strong (preferably independent) PHP frameworks.
The only one I have looked at is SilverStripe CMS and Sapphire Framework.
We have many clients that have a CMS for internet and/ or extranet and then various other bespoke applications that are then integrated via various means to look like they're in the CMS.
I believe it will be more productive and beneficial to have a common framework between these branches so they can be natively merged.
Hope this makes sense.
PS. I have used custom assets in MySource Matrix and specific modules in other CMS but you feel you are working for the CMS not the application you are building.
Have you looked at Expression Engine? Its built on top of the CodeIgniter MVC framework, and may provide a lot of flexibility for having parts of the site be managed content, and branching out into more application type stuff using CI when needed. Not free, but all my colleagues that use it, swear by it (so much so that I'll actually consider it for the next project that fits this profile). There are also add-ons for many of the commons problems you're likely to want to solve.
And while not PHP, the Django framework is also a nice cross between CMS and App Framework, with some really great features like DB Migrations, etc. I can honestly say that Learning Python made me a better PHP Programmer, and the projects I've done with django were fun and fast to code. Not to start a holy war, but I describe Django as Drupal without all the clutter (and yes I've worked with Drupal enough to respect and fear it at the same time ~ too much friction in the Drupal dev process for my taste).
Even if I didn't get clearly what you are looking for I was just searching for a CMS that is not bundled with a propietary PHP framework and it should also be fast, simple coded, ordered and flexible to extend.
After a lot of search I found OctoberCMS. It uses Laravel PHP framework and it's intended for wevdevelopers/programmers, may be in a future it will also support more WYSIWYG edition. Right now it's very fast and easy to extend via MVC implementations or plugins.
It has a nice code and structure to work as programmer. If you like to create content via HTML+CSS and you don't care about WYSIWYG, then this could be a great alternative.
It's a very different approach compared to other CMS bundles. I'm not saying it's better, just different.
With their slogans:
The PHP framework for web artisans
http://laravel.com
The platform that gets back to basics
https://octobercms.com
Have you tried Drupal? We have used it as a CMS and also integrated it with things like Microsoft Dynamics and UPS Worldship. It's pretty flexible like that.
I wouldn't call sapphire and independent framework for the simple fact you'll have a hard time finding many apps written in sapphire alone - sapphire pretty much is silverstripe. Theres also the issues of silverstripe using an ajax powered admin interface for much of its own functionality meaning you have to adhere to these to keep the same look and feel with the bespoke work you want to add.
I'm in the process of starting a new web site that is something like stackoverflow but a little bit more different along with making the members profiles highly more customizable I was thinking of building it from scratch using PHP, but was thinking of using CakePHP, but then I thought WordPress sounded better but I remember working with wordpress and it was a little bit slow at times when you tried to browse the web site.
So what I guess I'm trying to ask is that should I design the site from scratch? And I heard techcrunch.com and 9rules.com are completely done in WordPress, is this true?
Wordpress is a blogging engine, which is a specialised kind of CMS. It's not suitable for building something like Stack Overflow on.
CakePHP on the other hand is a framework - something to help you build a website so you're not starting from scratch. This would be a good bet.
For other PHP frameworks check these questions:
What PHP framework would you choose for a new application and why?
PHP Framework Decision - Analysis paralysis!
Be sure to check other frameworks too. CakePHP is a framework which makes a lot of choices for you. If your application fits in it probably works like a charm, but otherwise a framework can be a huge pain. Zend Framework has a lot more flexibility, but it also takes a lot more time to bootstrap your project. In the end it is all about personal preferences, so I would recommend you to just try some frameworks and find out how it feels for you.
Some frameworks:
Zend Framework
Symfony
CodeIgniter or it's successor Kohana
Wordpress isn't slow, if get decent web hosting and know how to tune a webserver. But no, it won't really suffice for this. FastCGI on a threaded webserver with enough memory to cover peak traffic is the way to go.
Drupal (and maybe Plone) could probably do what you want without coding, but you'd still have to learn a lot, so you might not gain much over just coding the thing.
Using wordpress or joomla or any other framework will require enormous emounts of custimization of the framework to meet your ends. If you are not very comfortable with using those frameworks and how they are built, you are probably better off writing by hand, and maybe develop your own framework that suits your own needs.
Hand code the novel aspects of your site first without concern for the final product. You goal should be to find what you really need and how you are going to need them. For instance, if you need a blog for the staff, then you can install WordPress and move on to the next problem (your branding can be duplicated to a WordPress theme).
If existing software solves the problem, then version 1.0 should be a Frankenstein solution (which sucks aesthetically). The idea is to map out the incongruities between the various problems you are trying to solve so that when you do rewrite everything you do not produce the same problems.
Ideally, you will spend most of your time adding value to what you need that is novel about the site.