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.