For class, I would like a to use PHP MVC framework very similar to ASP.NET MVC with NHibernate. I am very comfortable with ASP.NET MVC. I need to use PHP and MySQL. I would not like to be concerned with the SQL to save me time. I would like to just design my PHP model classes and controllers without all of that data-access logic behind it that I would have to write.
Any suggestions? Thanks.
Also, I'm very limited on what I can install on the server. For instance, I can't upgrade PHP or run other installers. I want something I can drop in.
I prefer Zend Framework MVC components combined with Doctrine if really want great power. but for something simple try CaKePHP as it has its own simple ORM implementation, and the framework is built to be the php version of Ruby on Rails.
My personnal preference for "MVC Framework" would probably be Zend Framework -- though it's not the only possible choice (I'm thinking about symfony too, for instance).
About the "not writing SQL" part, I would use Doctrine, which is a great ORM Framework.
It's actually the default ORM Framework of symfony, and can be used with Zend Framework quite easily.
I suggest Symfony. It uses Doctrine (which is inspired partly by Hibernate) too, but it is integrated deeper with Symfony than Zend Framework. Symfony provides a number of helper classes which really help automate things with Doctrine (my favorite is sfDoctrinePager). Zend Framework is a good choice, but I recommend looking at Symfony first. I would avoid the other PHP MVC frameworks as they tend to be less flexible, and if you're coming from another language you may have your own preferences on how to attack a certain problem - Symfony and ZF will both give you leeway in this sense.
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I've recently come on board with a PHP application. There has not been much design put into the app - there is a front controller, however, view, model and controller code is usually mixed together.
I would like to slowly start refactoring the code beginning with moving all the SQL queries into appropriate models. Having looked at a few frameworks, it seems that most frameworks are setup with the assumption that an app will be developed from scratch using that framework.
Is there a good framework that I can just kind of plug-in so that I can use the model libraries and then perhaps later on, integrate more of the app into the framework? Would Doctrine be a good tool for something like this? Or should I just setup my own models without relying on third-party libraries?
If you have an existing php application, then there is no point to migrate it to some framework. Frameworks help you to develop project faster - you already have one. At this point adding framework on top of what you have will only make your application more complex and, most likely, slower.
Instead of trying to find some magical framework, you should invest in refactoring (apply some OOP principles, like SOLID) and documenting the existing code. Maybe start incrementally add some unit-tests.
P.S. Doctrine is an ORM ( 1.x implements activerectord , 2.x - something like a datamapper ). ORMs are for people who are extremely lazy, misguided or do not understand SQL. By moving your existing SQL queries to ORMs code you will make it all only slower. Additionally, you will encounter problems when migrating complicated queries. Just dont do it.
I've just started rewriting a site in Kohana, and I'm quite happy with it. It seems flexible and powerful. It's very similar to CodeIgniter, but a little more modern (more of the latest PHP features are used).
If you want only MVC (not HMVC or more difficult) frameworks for simple adoptation with existing application you should touch CodeIgniter. ActiveRecords is very easy for refactoring from existing sql-queries. You even can use default or hand made functions or classes for building queries in its models.
But default, Codeigniter isn't enough flexible for difficult or multi-namespacing applications.
Im migrating a site using Zend and Doctrine2.
The site wasn't OOP in any sense but it was divided between logic view and dal. The migration is still in process (new features are coded with framework, existing feature gets migrated only when big changes are needed).
Both frameworks are non intrusive, and the most valuable thing you get for me is to standarize things.
I'm not sure if this is possible, but let's say you want to build a CMS, but you're torn between 2 frameworks because each has some features that you like. Is it possible to create the CMS with both framewoks? Does this approach have merits or pitfalls?
Speaking strictly about the Zend Framework (ZF) I would say yes. ZF components are written to be as independent from other components as possible. I would say that it would not be very difficult (It may actually be quite common) to integrate libraries of ZF into other frameworks like Cake, Symfony, or Codeigniter.
Is it possible to create the CMS with both framewoks?
While it's possible to use components from the Zend Framework inside other Frameworks / CMSs - this may be the case with other component libraries as well, but Zend's the most modular one that I know - It's usually not a good idea to mix two full-blown Frameworks.
Many central functions like MVC structures, URL routing, the database layer, Unit testing, error management and so on are by nature unable to be served by two frameworks at once without massive friction. Also, you're likely to get problems when one of the frameworks needs to be updated.
I would recommend to pick the framework that covers most of what you need, and try and add the missing features using plug-ins or own modifications.
Your question is too abstract.
For instance Zend Framework is more to be a library of specific functionalities ready-to-be-include into Your codebase then some closed development environment like for instance Symfony framework.
Thanks to it can be ZF simply included into your codebase (and Symfony too).
Symfony Framework compared to it is closed solution depending on front server environment so you cannot use it like some other framewor's slave.
It would really depend on which things you liked about both...
Zend Frameowrk is more like a library, so you can pick and choose components from it. Symfony also has some re-usable components you can use.
Really, you can do anything... it just depends how much work you want to do, and how willing you are to modify the framework code. Note: most other PHP frameworks are not nearly as flexible as Zend Framework (next up probably being Symfony).
This sounds very messy, so I'd advise against it, unless you use it in the fashion I've described above. It's easy to pull ZF or Symfony components into other frameworks, but not the other way around.
Hope this helps.
The composability of most frameworks is such that that is most likely to give you all the disadvantages of both, while simultaneously eliminating most of the individual advantages of both.
It seems to me like one framework will for serve as the core - bootstrapping, MVC stack, routing - while the other will be used to pull in specific functionality - like classes for forms or filtering or interacting with web services, etc.
As much as I prefer Zend Framework for the core - and most everything else - its use-at-will architecture argues for making the other framework the core and pulling in ZF components where you need them.
As #Adrian notes, it's easy to pull in ZF components into a project built primarily on another framework, since ZF is designed with that flexibility in mind. Other frameworks are less accommodating in this regard.
You can do it. Most modern frameworks (Zend, symfony, flow) is capable to use parts of other frameworks. Symfony 2 uses Zend Logger, flow3 uses sfYaml... It is possible tu interchange some components.
But, imho, you should stick to one framework as a core, and use second only to relatively isolated subsystems. Adapter and Facade design patterns can help you to mix them together - some components / clases demands some wrapping before use in non-native environment.
For further reading: http://www.symfony-project.org/book/1_2/17-Extending-Symfony#chapter_17_integrating_with_other_framework_s_components
Of course it is possible and I don't see something wrong with it. For example I used CakePHP and Zend on a relatively large Project which was kind of a cms. CakePHP for the core (Routing, MVC) and Zend for some "Modules". Mainly for PDF, E-Mail (smtp), FTP and a few others that CakePHP was not that good at. With Cake it was fairly easy to use ZF components and didn't feel hacky at all.
In fact, ZF was written to be as independent as possible, so that you can use any component at any time anywhere. Yet, it would not work the other way round (Using ZF as core, and Cake components). Surely it is possible, but a real pain with no benefits. So ZF could be used propably inside of pretty much any other framework and nothing would be wrong with it, imho.
I'm working on a CMS for some of our projects, but would like to ease the work a bit by using a framework. This is what I need from a framework:
A framework that implements basic things like session management for me. Is there one?
A framework that supports REST. Is there one?
A framework that doesn't cause my CMS to break when the framework is upgraded. Is this something that I have to implement myself or can the framework help me.
A framework that's very object oriented. Am I right assuming this is a good thing?
The Zend Framework is allways a good choice.
http://framework.zend.com/
Or you could go with CakePHP if you want it a bit more Rails like (do it the framework wants you to do it and you have to configure/write less to achive the same)
Symfony is a nice framework that works well, in my experience, for custom CMS work. It's well integrated with the Doctrine ORM library, and the combo simplifies solutions to a lot of CMS problems. It also provides a nice set of feature for building REST interfaces.
Personally, I don't like how opinionated Symfony can be, so I use it sparingly (but often, for CMSy things where ActiveRecord doesn't seem to be an obstacle). For more complex problem domains, I prefer the Zend Framework, which sod recommends in his answer. It's very solid, provides a lot of great functionality, and it's easy to use as much or as little as you like. It provides no "model" layer, by design. That's a Good Thing if you're not buildng yet-another-cms/blog/etc
Look at symfony. For REST thing there are even generators: http://www.symfony-project.org/plugins/sfDoctrineRestGeneratorPlugin and http://www.symfony-project.org/plugins/ckWebServicePlugin/1_5_0
I use ZF a lot and I like it very much. I've learned how to solve a big part of perfomance problems with ZF, so it's became not "enormous" and "monstrous" for me.
But I'd like to know if there are any as powerful frameworks as Zend for PHP. Maybe CodeIgniter is? What is it? What are its cool features? Anything else?
And, are there any powerful frameworks which realises not MVC? Powerful means not just implementing of design pattern but a library of useful classes, functions, etc
There is a difference between frameworks, some are regualr frameworks (used to be called 'class libraries'), and some are 'full stack frameworks' (used to be called 'frameworks'). The web is and will always be about buzz-words...
Zend is a regular framework, which means you can use it's components separatly, and you aren't forced to use them. In a full stack framework, like CakePHP (I don't reallt know code igniter), you are locked inside. You can only use it's classes and they are hard to extend.
If you are looking for a competitor for ZF, be sure not to compare it with a 'full stack' framework, because it's a different thing, and it solves different problems...
Other then that, I don't know any frameworks that do not implement or give you the possibility to implement MVC, just because it's very applicable to web applications.
I'm a big ZF fan, but you can take a look to Symfony which is pretty powerfull but maybe a little to heavy sometimes.
I'd personally recommend Kohana. They just released 3.0 less than a week ago (it's in the forums, not on the dl page). It used to be a branch of CodeIgniter for PHP5, but it just underwent a big rewrite so now it's much cleaner and faster.
Basically, it does just enough to help you, but stays the hell out of your way. It's very lightweight and fast. It beats the pants off of pretty much any other framework I've used - Zend, Symfony, CakePHP, and CodeIgniter.
The thing about Zend is that you can actually decouple its components. You can use them without using the rest of the framework (just register the autoloader). Really, Zend to me is more like a heavy framework with a bunch of PEAR libraries in it. The framework is too heavy for normal use, but the components are nice.
I personally like CodeIgniter, it is good to start from 0 due to its great documentation and it can be easily expanded with the lot of plugins. It is considered pretty fast framwework (faster than ZF, Cake php and Symphony) however its speed is lowered by PHP4 support and any framework will lose its speed as you add new libraries and plugins there.
ZendFramework is the most powerfull php framework I have found. CodeIgniter is a lightweight MVC framework so its not powerful.
ZendFramework also has loose coupling so you can use some Classes without other classes like the front controller.
CodeIgniter MVC is not as powerful and the ZendFramework MVC but i haven't tried any other framework
I've choosen CodeIgniter because it is lightwight and because i'm not using a ORM and Smarty, this means i only need the router and controller/model class.
But it is missing a few features like user/login handling being the most serious.
I also use some zend classes like amazon access.
For those that have begun playing around with zend expressive, does it require knowledge of zend framework 2? meaning do I have to learn/know zf2 in order to use Expressive? or did they make enough changes where learning zf2 would be pointless/confusing?
along those same lines, other than the zend-expressive.readthedocs.org page, can anyone recommend some good tutorials/walk-throughs to get started ?
I would say that the knowledge of Zend Framework 2 is not required to work with Zend Expressive. Certainly, the two share some components (Zend.Mvc for the routing and Zend.ServiceManager for DI, if you choose them in Expressive) and the logic of some things is similar, so a knowledge of ZF2 would not go wasted. But if you don't know it, you don't need to learn it before starting to use Expressive.
Regarding some useful resources on Expressive, here are some:
http://www.sitepoint.com/build-nasa-photo-gallery-zend-expressive/
http://www.masterzendframework.com/zend-expressive-introduction/
https://github.com/RalfEggert/zend-expressive-tutorial
https://www.briefs.fm/zend-framework-bites
You don't need any zend framework experience to start with zend expressive. But it gives you a head start when using zend components in your project.
Some more links to get you started:
Official docs: https://zendframework.github.io/zend-expressive/
Project examples: https://zendframework.github.io/zend-expressive/reference/expressive-projects/
If you already know Zend Framework, namely things like,
PhpRenderer
ServiceManager
ViewModel
it will help you, because you can choose those ZF components to go into your Expressive configuration and get a good head start, instead of taking baby steps learning what those are.
But, if you do not already know those, there is no reason to learn Zend Framework and I could argue that learning Zend Framework, in order to use Expressive, will be detrimental.
That is, because, Expressive, builds on new ideas of a microframework, and using pipelines of Middlewares, rather than a pre-determined pre-set pipeline of Zend Framework's zend-mvc module, and Middlewares and zend-mvc are quite different. If you are new to Expressive, I'd look into each concept separately and pick the components you wish to use. The concepts are
Routing
Dependency Injection Container
Templating
You can also pick your own Error handling module. Also Expressive gives you standard compliancy, such as PSR-7 and PSR-15 when it becomes available.
If you already know Zend Framework, namely things like,
PhpRenderer
ServiceManager
ViewModel
it will help you, because you can choose those ZF components to go into your Expressive configuration and get a good head start, instead of taking baby steps learning what those are.
But, if you do not already know those, there is no reason to learn Zend Framework and I could argue that learning Zend Framework, in order to use Expressive, could be detrimental.
That is, because, Expressive, builds on new ideas of a microframework, rather than a pre-determined pipeline of Zend Framework, and those are quite different. If you are new to Expressive, I'd look into each concept separately and pick the components you wish to use. The concepts are
Routing
Dependency Injection Container
Templating
You can also pick your own Error handling module. Also Expressive gives you standard compliancy, such as PSR-7 and PSR-15 when it becomes available.
It can be good to know Zend Framework (or similar framework) because working with those frameworks gives you an understanding of how those components are built, and how they connect. However, Expressive Skeleton gives you a pretty good idea and a good headstart on very good groundwork concepts and modern web development (routing, templates, error handling, DI container). Newer concepts in Expressive are Middlewares and piping them together. Those were not present in Zend Framework at first, but now they made it in there as well.