PHP is widely used in today’s web development. This means that programmers need to have PHP skills in their arsenal to be competitive. The problem with PHP code or rather with any code is that repetitive writing can be tedious and brain sapping. This is where frameworks come in to help PHP programmers.
PHP frameworks help to streamline development as they contain basic structures that enable easy construction of web applications. The development process can progress at a faster rate due to the pre-built modules, reused code, etc. In short, frameworks reduce the time taken to complete a task. While there are many frameworks available in today’s market, some more than others have gained immense popularity.
1. The Zend Framework – is immensely popular among developers. It is Web 2.0 oriented and is extensively supported by the company. However, it is more suited for developers who have a thorough understanding of PHP and is more in line with corporate level development.
2. Cake PHP – has a good balance between being beginner and advanced friendly. Its focus is on rapid development and is very similar to Ruby on Rails. It is simple and scalable and this makes it a popular choice for many.
3. Symfony – is more oriented towards enterprise level development and therefore more suited for advanced users. It is an open source framework, which is a little slower than others are but has many great features that make up for this shortcoming.
4. CodeIgniter – is an excellent framework for beginners as it is easy to use and comes with a host of tutorials. It has a very small footprint and offers simple solutions, which result in great performance and speed.
5. Seagull – is also a good framework for beginners as it is well established and has a great package of sample applications that can be quickly modified for your purposes.