What are the pros and cons of using Yii Framework?

A framework can be massively productive for any developer who intends to build compliant, structured and efficient web apps in minimal time. In today’s time, as developers, we have a plethora of diverse frameworks regardless of the language we are programming in. The YII framework, however, is by far one of the most result-oriented, secure web frameworks to depend upon. It is designed for and by PHP to provide better developer experience through its features and better user experience through its end product.

Agreed, it may not be the one of the popular PHP frameworks for web development, it is surely one of the most promising open-source web app development frameworks. Below are some prominent advantages and disadvantages that come with YII, they are worth having a glance at.

Pros:

 The open source YII is undoubtedly the fastest framework for building Web2.0 applications (large scale). It renders a highly optimized performance, and can seamlessly be employed by developers for designing any kind of web applications. The generic web programming framework makes web development an enriched, intuitive experience (using PHP), and is perfectly suitable for large scale web applications - including e-commerce projects, forums, web portals, content management systems, RESTful services, and more.

 The MVC architecture of Yii helps the PHP web developers in crafting technically a smart web application. It helps in keeping the database server isolated from the view state of the application making it cleaner and effective. The Controller of the frameworks helps in managing different packages and libraries of the frameworks efficiently so that, the code pressure will decrease from the developer. It makes the whole system work as an object where a little tweak on the codebase will modify the entire system simultaneously. Any modification, addition, alters or deletion will be performed in a single line code and it will be visible throughout the application. At the same time, it provides a systematic approach to handle any application building process.

 Integrated with a Model-View-Controller structure, YII provides a horde of security features to ensure the highest degree of security to your application. Security plays the most important role in today’s world; because, more number of websites are dealing with sensitive informations like user data, their transaction history and also their personal credentials etc. So it must be given maximum priority in any web application. Fortunately, Yii comes with security features such as Cross-site Request Forgery Prevention, Cross-site Scripting Prevention and Cookie Attack Prevention. Since it is very significant for web developers to ensure thorough security for their app development, the framework comes embedded with authentication support, and authorization through hierarchical role-based access control. There is client side and server side validation as well, which developers can enable or disable as per their project requirements.

 The framework stands distinguished for its ability to function smoothly with third party codes. Users can seamlessly use code from their Zend or Pear framework in their Yes It Is (YII’s extended form) framework. This is like an ice on the cake; because this helps in increasing the potential of any web solution in an efficient yet professional manner. Imagine, a web application having the power of both Zend and Yii or of both Laravel and Yii!! They can definitely stand ahead among their peers and can contribute more to the PHP developer.

 Web developers also admire its clean, elegant caching support, and component-based architecture. For a developer, YII’s philosophy that code should be simple, and be written in the sophisticated manner works great. With caching, a smart web developer can build highly optimized web applications on the fly. In fact, considering a recent scenario where most of the web traffic are coming from smart devices; it becomes essential for every web developer to consider their website as a cross platform compatible one. Again, since their web app will render over smart phones, so they must be optimized enough so as to render similar user experience in all these memory intensive devices and platforms and fortunately Yii takes care of this wisely.

 It also offers ActiveRecord for relational as well as NoSQL databases, not to forget the query builders feature that YII provides. The tool further highlights its some of the most efficient caching features - letting users store cached data in different media. YII paves the way with an extremely solid yet seamless caching system, and lends support to XCache, memcache, ABC, and DB based page.

 YII framework is supremely easy to customize or check over, owing to its simple code structure. This enables developers to use varied widgets and extensions depending upon their web project requirements. At the same time, it is thoroughly object oriented - making it an ideal choice for anyone who is versed in object oriented web programming.

 The framework provides web developers with neat Ajax helpers, particularly with Grid view, and CRUD generator using Gii. Its Bootstrap extension support simplifies the whole process of creating responsive applications while integrated support for I18N allows users to have localized versions of their applications.

 Another significant advantage that YII has over most other programming frameworks is its large community support. The framework is supported and looked after by an extremely efficient team of professionals that consistently contribute to YII’s growth and development. The community pegs away at constantly integrating new features and advanced practices into the core framework - helping it evolve into a more sophisticated, performance oriented web application framework.

Cons:

 As a framework, YII does not come flooded with too many minuses. However, there is a portion of developers that steer clear of using YII as a framework for their web programming needs. To begin with, YII reveals kind of an over-reliance on static methods (a part of web developers community may not be comfortable with it).

 It is believed that YII demands extreme attention while one works with their application, for their code can quickly become bloated if proper care is not taken.

 The framework further has a somewhat steep learning curve, making it operose for new web developers to use or get started with.

Our word

Yes, YII framework does come with a few disadvantages, however, it is extremely powerful as a tool for developing a layered, structured web design. Some amazing attributes such as security, extensibility, theme organization, error handling, and integration with other frameworks make YII a great choice for web app development. We would highly recommend it!

Mindfire Solutions provides expert offshore PHP development services from India, gaining its expertise from years of experience in PHP web development and PHP application development. We have been working in PHP for the last 8+ years and have gained expertise on various PHP application development frameworks and PHP services.

What's the best MVC framework for PHP?

“The 21st century has received a magical touch from the web industry. Every sector and every enterprise are now taking the assistance from web applications to enhance their business possibilities and productivity. As a result, many web domain specific technologies were born in this era starting from JSP, ASP, PHP, ROR and Python, etc. To make the web development process quicker and accurate in order to meet the expectations and high demands of the industry, many web frameworks have been developed for different web domain specific languages. These frameworks are equipped with highly optimized and well-organized libraries, modules, and packages to help the web developers in designing enterprise standard high performance web solutions. Most of the 21^st century frameworks follow MVC architecture, i.e. Model-View-Controller scheme. With MVC, the View component (user interface) remains isolated from the core logic section of the application making the development process much professional and well-organized than before. Fortunately, MVC architecture received overnight popularity from the industry and has been well accepted by both the developers and the tech experts. As a result, the industry is now flooded with many MVC web frameworks. Among those, PHP web frameworks have been a boon for the industry. This is mainly because; they are usually open source and hence enable web developers to create low cost web applications on the fly. Let’s check ‘what are the top PHP MVC web frameworks of the industry’ and then we will try to find out which one is the best?”

CakePHP- the power of OOP and ORM: It has been a continuous concern for PHP developers to implement Object Oriented approach to their application; now it is utterly possible with CakePHP. Besides other features that are common with many web frameworks, CakePHP comes with inbuilt support for ORM i.e. Object Relational Mapper. Here, the PHP developer is given adequate room to play around the database. In fact, the database tables are transformed into Objects; and different operations over the table are performed by different functions. This is very easy to digest for any web developer. Moreover, it is well equipped with CRUD scaffolding i.e. database operations like Create, Read, Update and Delete are performed in such a hassle free manner that the PHP developers need not think much about the background database queries for any modification of the database. Everything is done in a smoother manner by the framework without giving any pain to the developer. As a result, the web developer can focus more over the core logic and innovative ideas instead of running behind the database stuffs. As the database is under the control of CakePHP, any change in the application will automate the overall changes of the application without having to modify the code at every place. This establishes the power of the Object Oriented approach of CakePHP.

Zend for high performance web app development: Zend is one of the oldest frameworks of PHP and still it has remained as the first choice for many PHP developers. Zend was one of the first PHP 5 compliant frameworks for web developers, enabling them to develop contemporary web applications at a faster rate. Now, the latest Zend framework has made it PHP 7 compliant and that means more power and more efficiency than before. It has inbuilt debugging tools, i.e. xDebug and ZendDebugger to debug your source code. It makes the code not only error proof but also well maintainable. It has Zend server and when it combines with the core framework, the performance becomes outstanding, the efficiency touches every limit and the user experience improves a lot. Capability to integrate Emulators has made it future ready and to design modern web apps for different smart operating systems like Android, iOS or Windows and of course in a responsive manner. It enables the developer to have some inbuilt testing methods to be carried out over the application in a magical manner like unit testing with PHPUnit and Integrated PHPDocumentor 2.

Laravel for large scale development: It is yet another renowned PHP MVC framework having a tremendous market share gained in a very less span of time! It is best suited for large scale web solutions. Though it got launched in 2011 but by 2015, it surged out as the best PHP framework of the industry. Being a MVC framework, it enables the web developers in creating awesome web apps in a flawless manner. It is also known as FullStack because of its unmatched quality of resource handling. It has many unique features like HTML generation, optimized web serving, user authentication, etc. The list does not end! Features like automatic pagination, blade template engine, eloquent ORM, expressive syntax and reverse routing are there to boost the confidence of any PHP web developer. Modularity, flexibility and highly customizable offerings of this framework have made it possible to rule the web industry with dignity.

Symfony 2- better for speed carving websites: Symfony 2 is yet another PHP MVC framework that was gifted to the PHP developer in 2005. When it was introduced to the industry it had a clear vision to provide utmost benefit to the PHP developers in creating highly optimized and scalable web applications. Over time, it got reinvented and refined to make the framework even more useful than before. Now in 2015 it has come up as the most popular PHP framework for high speed web application development. It has a unique approach to handle multiple resources at once without compromising on the efficiency of the application. Like any other MVC framework, it also enables the PHP developer to keep logic section of the application isolated from the View section. But here, the database is handled in an optimized manner so that the end user will get the best user experience for any type of interactive communication between the user and the server. It is highly popular in creating event driven web applications that need excess power and speed for the process and Symfony 2 framework provides the same in a tranquil manner.

Yii - small yet powerful: Yii is considered as one of the smallest PHP frameworks of the industry; but it enables the web developer in creating attractive and beautiful web applications in a short span of time. It has many templates that help in creating quick web solutions without compromising on the look and feel and user experience of the application. Though, it is micro in size, but it is highly efficient and useful in crafting quick web applications preferably for small scale web solutions.

From above discussion, we find that every framework has a specific use and if they can be efficiently used by any PHP developer, the end product will be simply outstanding! So, all are best in their fields and specific circumstances and it would be biased to declare any one as the best. After all, it depends upon the project requirements and personal choice. If you want to harness the benefits of PHP then Mindfire Solutions provides expert offshore PHP development services from India, gaining its expertise from years of experience in PHP web development and PHP application development. We have been working in PHP for the last 8+ years and have gained expertise on various PHP application development frameworks and PHP services. 

New Features in PHP 6.0

“PHP is the only oldest language that is fully dedicated to the web domain. It has nothing to do with others and it does what it is intended for. With every passing version, there is certain modification, addition and removal of features as per the demands of the industry and PHP does it in a seamless manner. This time, the industry is flooded with many assumptions, predictions and theories to find their dream land PHP v6. It is one of the highly anticipated versions of PHP; though, many said that PHP will directly release PHP7 version, but now it comes with PHP6 with some enhanced features. The release of PHP 6.0 was indubitably made to defer for long. However, the upgrade that kept most of us keyed up definitely planked in a horde of features to look forward to. But for most, the integration of native Unicode UTF-8 in the upgraded version looked preeminent of all. Listed below are some new features in PHP 6.0 that are hopeful of making many users swap to its structure”.

Internationalization: Internationalization or I18N is known for cross cultural or cross location programming. It helps in creating cross culture application with some local inputs like date, time, language, currencies and phone numbers etc. It is highly effective in crafting cross region websites for the industry. The highlight remains the embedment of native Unicode (UTF-8) to the core. Also, improved array indexing is a significant part of PHP 6.0 (enhanced array indexing is anticipated to induce the possibility of being used to sub string). Will discuss more on the next section i.e. Unicode Support.

Enhanced 64bit Support: It is awaited as yet however; PHP 6.0 envisages support for 64bit in near future. As a result, internal code compatibility will not be a hitch in any way. The security level will also increase and the standard of programming will definitely improve a lot. With this, the speed and efficiency of PHP application will also increase to a significant level. So, it is really a wow feature for PHP developers who know how to implement it perfectly fine.

Unicode Support: So far, UTF-8 has proven to be the most efficient alternative as default encoding for string values. Although UTF-16 could not thrive at being a part, the framework hopes to bring Unicode support, design and implementation for enhanced usability. As discussed above in I18N i.e. there are 18 characters in between I and N of Internationalization can help PHP developers in building cross geographic location websites using Unicode. Suppose your client want a website to be developed for 3 different languages like English, French and Belgium. Then, we can do it using Unicode. There will be a content file that keeps the translation version of each words and in the programming application, the PHP developer will keep levels for every field. Now, with Unicode this is possible. The different language words can be written in Unicode and saved into the content file and retrieved as when required by the application. Then according to some local data as discussed above i.e. Time, date, language and currency etc contents will be rendered on the web page. In short, this is highly important in creating multi lingual website in PHP.

Internal API Cleanup: There is no doubt that internal APIs for PHP platform has been on the rise since years. But, PHP 6.0 aims at building developer friendly APIs – which might extend to hash. To notify, hashes are largely employed for internal storage which further lead to the need of internal API cleanup. And since, the stream API tends to go through unfortunate ‘code duplication’, the new feature focuses on resolving the inconsistency and code duplication concerns. In the Cleanup process, the efficiency increases and the application become more stable and optimized as a result, hence improving the overall user experience.

Improved Performance: Performance is the key factor of every language, every version and every upgrade. Fortunately, PHP 6 is more efficient than that of its preceding version. Undoubtedly it will improve the overall productivity of the application and hence the user experience. Another prominent tweak comes in the form of enhanced performance by the framework. PHP 6.0 is likely to offer page level (OpCode) caching through moving Alternative PHP Cache into the PHP core. Along with this, the release unveils the new function of ‘break to label’ – which basically enables the transport of a break to a label (resembling a goto).

Removed Features from PHP: PHP 6.0 takes off magic quotes from its structure. However, developers would look forward to it if the upgraded version adds traits support, C# -style properties with getters/setters, or enable function call chaining. Along with that register_globals, safe_mode are also removed. register_globals is an important feature of PHP and if it is removed then it becomes a hurdle for the PHP developers while dealing with this parameter. I will suggest you to turn this value off for security concern. Because, remove of register_globals enables the users to add, delete or even modify the query string without any hassle and that may lead to fatal error in the application. So, be cautious of these features and accordingly implement them understanding their potential importance.

Warning Free Code: And yes, CodeIgniter eventually emerged as a significant part of this website programming language. Although code quality analyzer has gone astray, the CodeIgniter framework boasts of its warning free code function. There is no doubt that PHP 6.0 has been garnering much of attention since last few years, however it is certainly anticipated to become a popular choice as a hosting control panel vendor. This is really effective in avoiding false positive warnings which was there in the previous versions. Now, the PHP developer will be happier to find proper notification and essential warnings in the application.

Besides these, there are a slew of features that are likely to be amalgamated into PHP 6.0 with time. Though PHP 5.3 integrated many of the functions that were supposed to be embedded into PHP 6.0, the framework still has all the right reasons to intrigue developers for the most part. Also, we cannot forget the removal of register_globals and safe_mode which came as part of PHP 5.4 Alpha (while it was primarily a part of PHP 6.0).

And if you would like to harness the full potential of PHP web application development and are looking for a software development partner to do so, feel free to just drop in a mail at sales at Mindfire Solutions dot com and we would respond in one business day!

Checklist of points while migrating to PHP

“In software language, migration refers to improvement. With every newer version, you will get more user access for better customization and improved user experience. So you must consider the migration process for your PHP website to make it a smart site on the fly over the latest platform. But, there are many potential threats in the migration process and we can’t ignore them at any situation. You must go through some considerations before you jump into the migration process.”

What you get from migration to latest PHP version? Migration means improvement. With the latest version of PHP, you will get enough scope for advanced web application development with many new and enhanced features. Features include support for namespace, Late Static Binding, native Closures, Jump levels, Nowdoc syntax etc. Along with that, a garbage collector is also added for developing advanced web applications on the fly. It is always recommended to remain up-to-date with the latest version of any technology to deal with the ever changing demands of the user.

Back-Up- the term has the highest priority for any Migration process: When you decide to migrate to PHP i.e. the latest version of PHP, the first thing that you should do is to keep a backup of all your previous resources at a secure place. It is recommended to keep those data in a new drive or a different machine drive so that, even by mistake you are not going to lose it during the migration process. The migration process doesn’t take few seconds or minutes rather it may take as long as few hours. So, there is a potential threat of unsuccessful migration process and hence chance of data loss in between. To avoid this issue, there must be a backup of all your resources including the database. Many times the database gets altered during the process so it is necessary to keep the database in a more secure place so that if any data loss occurs we can get it back without much hassle.

Consistency is must: During the migration process due to the change in platform, there is a high chance of inconsistency after the process is completed. It is very common and obvious to find inconsistency between two different versions of any platform. Usually many existing method names, class names and libraries source code get changed in order to provide better quality services with the latest version; but, this affects the behavior of our old PHP application significantly. To avoid this, you must go through each and every modification in the technology and then study the source code of those functions from the documentation and accordingly you should change your previous codes to work with the new platform. In this manner you can avoid the inconsistency issue caused by the migration process.

Compatibility should be well tested: Just like the inconsistency issue, there will be a sure shot compatibility issue when you evolve to the newer version of PHP due to the modified source code. Moreover it also affects the existing plug-ins severely. Most of the plug-ins will not work properly with the latest version and they should be replaced by the corresponding update versions in order to compatible with the latest PHP version. Usually most plug-ins releases their updated versions for the latest PHP version to avoid compatibility issue; but there might be few plug-ins or components that don’t have any compatible updates for the latest version. In that scenario, the developer has to take the responsibility of the plug-ins or components to make them alive in the new platform without mismanaging the application. It can either be done by removing the entire plug-in and its dependencies and then substituting it with another plug-in that may work what the existing was doing previously. Another way is to modify the existing plug-in codebase to make it compatible with the new platform.

Database migration needs full attention from the developer: During the migration if anything is highly unstable then it’s none other than the database. There is a high chance of data loss during the transition and hence you must take preventive steps before you start the migration process. As we have already discussed, the previous database should be kept in a safe and secure environment just like in an isolated drive of the same system or in a different machine. If any data loss occurs we can roll back the database from the backup folder.

Always perform the migration process with a SVN or RTC: SVN or RTC are used for keeping track of any codebase change in the application server. These are highly impactful when we are performing the migration process followed by code modification to make our application fit with the new environment. Usually we find errors and bugs in the new application after the migration process and hence it can be avoided by using an enterprise standard SVN or RTC for versioning purpose. It is like a life saver for the developers during any critical situations; because it enables the application to roll back to its previous version without zero hassle.

Make sure, your application can be roll back if needed: As discussed above versioning tools like SVN or RTC can be used for roll back of modified codebase but what about if the migration process is absolutely unsuccessful? In that case, we have to check if there is any migration tool available for PHP to migrate to a newer version and whether it provides the roll back option if the process is unsuccessful. As a tech savvy, we will not recommend you to rely over a software tool for the migration process and putting all your effort and risk on the same rather we would say it would be an unwise decision to rely on a manmade migration tool. To avoid this you should keep all your existing resource as backup in an isolated location or machine so that in case of unsuccessful migration you can restore your application from the backup.

Finally, Extensive testing is must: Once the migration process is completed there must be many compatibility issue, inconsistency and unreliability in your application. Hence it must be under go severe testing approaches i.e., both manual testing as well as automation testing to find out if any loop hole is still present in the application after iterative testing processes. Never compromise on the quality of testing at any cost because this will seriously hamper your end product or application.

Mindfire Solutions provides expert offshore PHP development services from India, gaining its expertise from years of experience in PHP web development and PHP application development. We have been working in PHP for the last 10+ years and have gained expertise on various PHP application development frameworks and PHP services. We offer expert PHP web design and programming services for global clients. Our Zend certified PHP programmers are proficient in PHP Porting and Migration services, PHP website development and PHP web development.

CakePHP: A Developer’s Review

“Open source frameworks that embed support for built-in tools and eliminate the exigency for any configuration are loved by all - particularly, if they simplify the process of web application development. CakePHP is one such amazing PHP framework that allows developers to work well with large scale applications without taking too much of their time value. It was always an obsession for PHP developers to handle objects which was the power of object oriented programming languages like Java, ASP .Net or C++ etc. With the ORM Architecture of CakePHP, PHP developers get adequate scope to develop object oriented web applications that will definitely decreases the effort and increases the efficiency in a seamless manner. As a result CakePHP became one of the most popular web frameworks of the industry in a very short span of time and its popularity is increasing at an exponential rate over time. Here’s why this open source platform surpasses most other web frameworks out there”.

MVC Pattern: The integrated Model View Controller pattern in CakePHP enables users to conveniently distinguish the logic from the presentation and allows seamless reading, deleting, or updation of data. Users may find it incredible as a tool to interact with their database. Model basically lends support to data management, View lends support to data rendering, and Controller functions by responding to events – the result of which is hassle-free programming management. With the model view controller pattern, the application development becomes much handier from the developers point of view. It not only isolates the view component from that of the server i.e., database or Model of the framework. Along with that, it decreases the overall effort of the PHP developer in building highly scalable and robust application without much worry about the background design. It really makes sense when we are considering developing large scale web application with huge modules having isolated functionalities being connected to the core of the logic. 

ORM: Object Relational Mapping comes as an integral part here that lets developers convert data between unsuited type systems in databases. The tool makes it easier to infuse the data into different facilities by building compliant class objects. It even enables for seamless program writing without any need for a single line of SQL code. With ORM the developer needn’t to modify the data everywhere in the application instead of that he can simply modify it within the object and it will be visible throughout the web application. Database operations like updating, alter etc can be performed in a hassle free manner as compared to any other PHP web framework. In fact ORM has changed the face of PHP programming in a single short with the introduction of object concept into the software application. 

No Configuration: For most developers, having absolute no need for configuration is the best part. CakePHP eliminates the need for any code or configuration where the developer is required to identify the URL or the library of the website. The framework features auto-detection which makes everything further simpler. A newbie can configure CakePHP with little knowledge and with little research on the web and kick start his first web project with CakePHP. There are many blogs, articles and video tutorials available on web that can make the configuration process not only easier but also funny enough. 

Built-in Validation: CakePHP gives developers another reason to appreciate its unique structure. The program offers built-in validation, useful features, and an amazing flow of entities – all of which make web app development a smooth procedure. With the built in validation the effort of PHP developers will decrease drastically without compromising on the quality; because the functions that CakePHP offers for the developers for validation process are simply outstanding. They are highly optimized to offer better performance and speed to the PHP web application and off course they are highly reliable. 

Power to Create Tests: It lets users effectively create tests and verify the critical points in their application. CakePHP provides its users with certain core tests as well as some custom tests – which they can create their own. The power to create tests basically comes handy when someone intends to build a large web application and is required to have a constant performance check.

Class Inheritance: Unlike most open source frameworks, this one encompasses class inheritance for developers who want simplicity yet high performance from their model. CakePHP includes two folders that enable users to watch and work separately. Class inheritance helps the most when the developers have to work with many codes. Inheritance is the core of object oriented programming; and it really makes the programming much more amusing than before. With inheritance, the inception of code reusability comes and that really makes the development process much faster than before. 

Extends with Plug-ins: And not to forget, the unique ability of CakePHP to let users reuse their code! The program allows users to basically reprocess their codes and build on existing facility – however, the framework does this by expanding the developer’s program with some new features and plug-ins. One can simply modularize their application and use it as a completely different utility (interestingly, without having to change CakePHP’s core libraries). This makes the overall application an interesting one due to integration of useful plug-ins into the application. There is millions of reliable plug-ins available in web especially in JavaScript and using them a PHP application can be revived to a new and attractive look and feel.

Future Ready: It is needless to say that CakePHP is future ready. It enables PHP web developers to integrate and take advantage of all modern amenities like HTML5, CSS3 and jQuery etc. Along with that Cloud support matters a lot if we are considering future ready web solution for the industry. Responsive web designs, cross platform application development, web app development are few of the challenging features of CakePHP that has mesmerized the whole world of web.

Although the listed functions above are highly useful for anyone who uses CakePHP, the web framework is by far one of the best choices for large scale web development. It is ideal for anyone who prefers a lot of customization with utmost simplicity and of course, not to forget its CRUD Scaffolding that allows users to create, read, update, and delete.

Mindfire Solutions’ expert developers offer a gamut of CakePHP services and have delivered flawless applications to companies across a range of industries and geographies. If you are interested in developing your next application using the robust CakePHP framework, then just drop in a mail to sales at MindfireSolutions dot com and we will be sending a free quotation in one business day.

Symfony Framework- A comprehensive review

“Just like PHP language, Symfony is an open source framework for PHP developers. It aims for high performance and complicated web application development without much effort and resource to be utilized for the development process. Moreover Symfony2 i.e., the subsequent version of Symfony is an open source framework with all amenities that a developer use to get at the cost of a high premium. Being an open source framework, it enables the developers to take the advantages in the form of quality, reliability and security etc. Imagine a software application or framework being developed by a team of hundred members and another framework being developed by a community of millions of developers – then the quality of community driven software application will definitely better than that of its counterpart and the same happens with Symfony2. There is a huge community of Symfony developers who spend their quality effort in developing better and even better framework by fixing each and every bug without any delay. This will definitely improve the quality and security of any open source framework just like Symfony2. Apart from this, due to the availability of source code, a Symfony developer can get the freedom to modify the source code for better flexibility and customisation offerings. What is more? The core of Symfony(2) is highly optimized and hence popular in the industry for developing enterprise standard large scale web applications with minimal effort”.

Features that will mesmerize you definitely! Symfony2, an open source framework for PHP developers is highly motivated to develop enterprise standard web solutions that are not only efficient but also feature loaded. IT industry takes Symfony2 as a tool for high performance and large scale web solution development process. Being an efficient framework it reduces the development time and overhead in a magical manner. Symfony2 is a native PHP5 framework and hence it enables PHP developers to take every possible advantage of PHP5. Symfony2 has an inbuilt testing feature to perform different types of testing operations by the developer during the development process itself. It reduces the overall cost of production of any web application to a large extent. Symfony2 is highly decoupled and hence it enables the developer for prompt unit testing of the application through smaller pieces of modules and components. In fact, PHPUnit is there for standard testing purpose. The list is not yet ended; PHP5 has inbuilt debugging features which is extremely funny and productive for the developer. The native debugger is an outstanding feature of Symfony2.

Scalable app development- Symfony2 is here! Symfony2 follows MVC Architecture which is an enterprise level efficient, trusted and tested design for the web industry. With the MVC Architecture it keeps the core logic section of the application isolated from the view through an intermediate controller. Basically MVC Architecture i.e., model view controller architecture is meant for high performance and efficient web application development in less time without any need of more resources and hence it becomes a cost cutting technology for the industry. The model keeps all the data including tables and database that are associated with the application where as the view only renders the final HTML content brought from the model through the controller or analyser of this structure. Any modification in the model will directly affect the entire application and hence it eliminates iterative codes to be executed or modified by the Symfony2 PHP developer. It is highly preferred for scalable software application development.

Efficiency, productivity and reliability from Symfony2: Symfony2 provides outstanding cache management tools and techniques for the web developer to control each and every byte of memory of the application. Considering the fact that there is a tremendous potential for mobile web users, we can’t ignore mobile website development to sustain in the market with more customer base. The improved cache management feature of Symfony enables the web developer in producing highly optimised and efficient websites on the fly. On the other hand, the ease of use and customisation feature of Symfony makes the developer more productive than before. A PHP developer can write better and well maintainable codes on the Symfony2 IDE. It helps in decreasing the overall cost of development and maintenance of a web application to a significant level. The powerful features and components of Symfony helps in developing high quality performance oriented reliable web application development. The inbuilt testing tools and techniques along with native debugger can turnout as a magical reliable tool for the developer.

Symfony2 is highly flexible with support for plug-ins: Every framework has many in built functions, libraries, modules and classes for quick and optimised application development and so the case for Symfony. These features and tools helps in improving the customisation options of an application so that we can end up with an outstanding and attractive website that is fortunately a feature loaded one. Besides inbuilt tools and components, it also offers freedom to the Symfony PHP developer to integrate third party software tools and plug-ins for enhanced user experience. There are millions of external resources available and we can integrate them in our website to give it modern look and feel. jQuery plug-ins and twitter bootstrap micro framework can also be integrated with Symfony for improving potential in developing marvellous web applications.

With jQuery mobile, it can give you better mileage: Symfony2 is jQuery mobile compatible. jQuery mobile is a framework for developing smart sites intended for smart phones and tablets of the industry. It is highly optimised and light weight due to the adoption of HTML5 and CSS3 as the core scripting technology of the framework along with all-time developer’s favourite jQuery. It enables a Symfony developer in developing cross platform and cross browser compatible web application development for Android, iOS, windows and Blackberry operating systems etc. It has inbuilt themes that allow quick mobile website development. Due to HTML5 and CSS3 and powered by AJAX technology, it helps in creating attractive and interactive dynamic and asynchronous mobile websites for outstanding user experience.

Never be alone! Symfony2 is a trusted and tested brand of the industry and having an outstanding track record in developing scalable websites since its inception. No doubt it is a magnificent piece and having a strong developer community around the globe. So you will never feel alone while developing a large scale or light weight mobile application using Symfony platform during any moment of the development phase.

At Mindfire Solutions, we have dedicated developer teams for almost all major PHP Frameworks. We have been providing expert PHP development services to our clients for more than 10 years now and have executed over 100 projects in various PHP and PHP Frameworks. Please feel free to contact us if you have any custom application development requirement, our senior CakePHP, Zend, CodeIgniter, Symfony developers will love to assist you in your requirement.

Review of PHP CodeIgniter Framework

“The new era web service applications are designed on a modern platform for better accessibility and code integration: It is known as Model- View- Design pattern or simply MVC. The same, we can find from PHP CodeIgniter platform. As the name suggests, there are 3 components and they are separated from each other by a virtual yet effective screen. It keeps the View i.e. the user interface absolutely isolated from the core logic. The View and the logic are controlled by an intermediate Controller. The Model consist of the core logic, database and rules of the application and it provides the relevant contents to the View i.e. Browser after the instruction of the Controller. By this process, the MVC architecture helps in keeping every aspect of the application safe and secured and most importantly in a systematic manner. Let’s have a glance over the CodeIgniter framework”. 

Complete documentation for the user: Since, CodeIgniter is a framework developed on the MVC architecture; there are many components, libraries and functions available inside. In fact, the Model designs itself cumbersome. So, it becomes difficult for a developer to start writing code on the platform without any prior knowledge or in-depth knowledge of its components. To make the things easier CodeIgniter provides a complete documentation for all its components and features. As a smart web developer, you should go through each and every page of the documentation so as to make the best use of the framework. The documentation works like a user guide and hence it is extremely useful from the developer’s point of view. It has various indexes like MVC basics, Routing basics, Form validation, Performance improvement etc and these are extremely important in developing an enterprise standard web solution. It is always recommended to learn the documentation along with a corporate training for improved productivity of the developer. 

Installation will not take more time or effort: CodeIgniter is a web application framework developed in PHP and enables PHP web developers in building reliable yet faster web solutions without much hassle. To getting started with CodeIgniter, one needs to install the framework on the server. For the same, you need to download the software and unzip the package from internet. Now you have to upload all the folders and files to the server on which you are suppose to work on. You can also use encryption or sessions by setting encryption key. The process is very simple and it doesn’t require any hard effort from the developer. Once you configure CodeIgniter you can start coding from the index.php page. 

Advanced features have made it to sustain in the industry for years: There are many advanced and effective features that CodeIgniter possesses for designing high quality web applications. The most important feature of CodeIgniter is its MVC Architecture, which is extremely helpful in creating complex web applications in less time and with more accuracy. CodeIgniter is extremely light weight and hence it can help you in building light weight web applications that will definitely load faster on the browser especially when we are considering modern browsers for smart phones and tablets etc. CodeIgniter has an inbuilt form and data validation feature that eliminates the unnecessary effort that is being given by the developer in other platforms. It has FTP class and File Uploading class for manipulation of files in the application server. The enhanced full page caching features can definitely help in improving the performance of the application and hence user experience. It has other features like Active Record Database Support, Session Management, Error logging and Calendaring class etc. 

SEO with CodeIgniter: Search engine optimisation is the most important feature of any web framework and it is now a must for every framework. Just like other PHP frameworks i.e., WordPress, Joomla etc, CodeIgniter also possess a search engine optimisation tool to make the PHP website well visible on Google. The search engine optimisation process starts with the title of the page and the search engine friendly URL. CodeIgniter has support for creating search engine friendly URLs along with other SEO features like key word density calculation, URL routing and SEO analysis etc. The URL routing or rewriting technique helps in improving page ranking in the search engine for better visibility of your website. 

Ease of Use for CI developers: A framework can’t sustain for a decade in the industry without any potential. CodeIgniter has already proved its potential with awesome features and of course easy to use developer interface. The developer interface of CodeIgniter is extremely easy to understand i.e. a beginner can start coding on the platform without much hassle. Different components of the framework can easily be integrated to the application for enhanced productivity. It has many templates available for the CodeIgniter developer so that he can start developing web pages easily with the templates that are already made available for the developers. 

Migration process is not a headache for you: Migration is something used for the improvement of your application with more optimised classes and data query. In web application development process it is extremely important for any business to be up to date with time in order to provide better customer support for your service or product. In CodeIgniter, the developer is allowed to manage his database schema for different environments and platform. The developer needn’t to manually run the MySQL queries for this process rather it can be done from within the platform itself. The best part is that it also provides scope for the CodeIgniter developer to reverse or role back of the migration process if found any issues during the migration. With CodeIgniter you can track all the versions of your database changes just like versioning of files as we use git i.e., we can go back or forward easily to a different DB version as per our requirement and as when we need it. 

Flexibility and customization is really a wonderful feature: A framework is usually having some optional features that can be achieved for your application with the integration of plug-ins, themes etc. CodeIgniter developers are allowed to integrate various open source plug-ins developed in PHP or jQuery to make the website more feature loaded and attractive. A PHP developer can customise his web application through different plug-ins and components for enhanced user experience. On the other hand, it also helps in extending the functionality of the application without any high effort due to availability of source code from CodeIgniter expert community. 

Nevertheless to say, CodeIgniter has an amazing track record of more than a decade and how this is possible we can easily guess from above discussions. 

At Mindfire Solutions, we have dedicated developer teams for almost all major PHP Frameworks. We have been providing expert PHP development services to our clients for more than 10 years now and have executed over 100 projects in various PHP and PHP Frameworks. Please feel free to contact us if you have any custom application development requirement, our senior CakePHP, zend, CodeIgniter, Symfony developers will love to assist you in your requirement.

Should we use Zend Framework Pros and Cons

“Frameworks work like a blessings for software developers. It not only decreases the effort of a developer but also improves his productivity and programming skill. A framework is like an abstraction in which the software developer can put his code to make it a fully fledged application in less time and with more accuracy in a systematic manner. It is like a platform containing code libraries, tool sets, and many inbuilt modules that can help the developer in creating enterprise standard software applications. Zend framework is a PHP framework which is absolutely dedicated for the development of PHP web applications on the fly. It can create high performance and powerful web applications in less time and effort. But as we know nothing is perfect in the world and so the case for Zend framework. Though, Zend framework has a lot of useful features but also it has some cons”.

Pros of Zend framework:

Highly customizable: Customisation is the ability of a framework to help the web developer in creating a web application with numerous features and options. In other words we can say this is the flexibility tendency of a framework. The more flexible a framework is, the better it is from the developer’s point of view. Zend framework has a victorious record for customisation offerings in the industry. With Zend framework you can tailor your website in any manner you like with different customising tools available with the framework. It provides consoles, local storage, and user configuration options for the web application to make it more flexible and attractive enough. Again it is a fully object oriented framework and follows inheritance and reusability concepts of OOP for well-organized and personalized web development. It enables the PHP developer to control over each and every feature of the framework and hence creating a beautiful website from within the platform. The best part is that you can customise your Zend application at your finger tips in no time and hassle.

For all your big data application, there is Zend: Zend framework has everything in the form of an object. As a result, a Zend developer can take the advantage of code reusability and inheritance for his application. This is highly recommended for enterprise standard large scale web applications. Zend framework can handle any type of and any number of dependencies in an application without slowing down the performance. The framework has an awesome architecture built on MVC pattern that will definitely mesmerize you while dealing with complex component of the web application. Hence there is a potential demand for Zend developers in the industry especially for big data applications.

HTML5 Compliant: Zend framework is developed with HTML5 and hence a web designer can take the advantage of Zend framework for quick web page development that is not only light weight but also elegant in nature. It has HTML5 form features available from within the framework. It supports input types like E-mail, URL, Phone number, date pickers and search etc. You needn’t to bother about the client side field validation since it is taken care by Zend. Zend also provides new types like datalist, keygen and output etc.

Larger community support: Zend is not a new framework for PHP developers; in fact it is an old framework having a stunning track record. Due to its unmatched quality and usability it is vastly accepted in the industry and there are many popular websites being developed in Zend. There are thousands of Zend certified PHP developers available in the industry and they are serving the industry through their experience and expertise in the field. On the contrary this will help other developers in getting support from Zend community for any type of issues that arise during the development process.

Efficiency and speed is simply awesome: Zend follows the object oriented approach of C++ and hence this is highly powerful and fast. A PHP website that is developed in Zend platform is usually runs faster than that of any other framework. Hence all big data web applications prefer to use PHP Zend framework. Zend has almost unlimited number of customisation options for the developer and this will definitely help the developer in creating highly optimised and efficient web solutions.

Cons of Zend framework:

Getting started is not as easy as with any other PHP framework: Unlike any other PHP framework, Zend is truly heavy and huge. It has a large volume of libraries, components and classes available inside the core. Though it helps in crafting any type of web application without the need of any external resources, but again you should know all the features of the framework to use them efficiently. It will take few months to be familiar with these inbuilt functions so that, you can take the best advantage of the framework. Once you learn these features and understood the core architecture of the framework, you can start coding on Zend for an awesome application.

Lack of enough resource for the beginners: It is really true that there are minimum resources available on web for Zend developers. This is probably due to availability of all features and components within the framework itself. But for beginners it is a disadvantage because he needs some resources and tutorials on the framework to sharpen his programming skill.

Expensive plug-ins: Though Zend is highly powerful and efficient but again it comes with some shortcomings. There are many plug-in available in the market to help the developer in adding better and refreshing features to the application but at the cost of good bucks. It is believed that the plug-ins available for Zend platform are usually costs more than that of any other platform.

Huge documentation can be confusing sometimes: Zend has a beautiful documentation consisting of every tiny detail of the framework. Since there are a large number of features available in the framework hence we can expect a bigger volume of documentation to describe all those features and components. Many times, it becomes tough for the PHP developer to check each and every page of the documentation to understand the true power of the framework. In fact, it creates confusion in the developer’s mind when he is projected to work in the Zend platform without any prior expertise or experience.

Every framework is having some advantages along with few disadvantages and so the case for Zend as well. But considering the advantages of Zend, the disadvantages are simply negligible. So you can go ahead with Zend for your next web application project.

Mindfire Solutions is one of the oldest PHP development companies in India with 15 years of track record. We have delivered over 1000 custom applications to our esteemed clients. Our PHP team consists of certified Zend Programmers who can take up complex web projects. If you have any web application idea in mind or you want to give new life to an existing application, please feel free to get in touch with our PHP and Zend team; we will revert back within one business day. As a limited time offer, you can also avail our Risk-Free trial offer.