Best PHP "frameworks" or libraries or whatever

[scootermaster]

My PHP coding is pretty brutal (I'm guessing) but I'm starting to code up some serious stuff, and I figure I might as well use one of those frameworks/libraries, right? You'd assume (hope?) that the code would be more modular, and more importantly, more secure. Just stuff like functionizing database connections with appropriate error reporting and crap like that. Obviously not just stuff like that, but that's the general idea. Trying to keep my code clean, modular and secure. It's to the point where I keep thinking about how I could use a function to do this, and more than likely, it's already been done.

What I'm coding up, at least initially is this database submission system. It looks at some information in a local file, parses it and makes some "guesses" as to what to fill out in a form (as intelligently as possible, just based on some rules). For example, I want to prepopulate some possibly helpful google searches, so the user just has to click on them, and they'd [hopefully] open in another windows. Then, the user has to fill out any remaining form fields (if there are any), clicks submit, and it goes on to the next entry. So nothing too crazy, I think. It's just a lot of database connections and stuff, as the "guesses" to what to fill out in the fields will be based on other things in the database.

So that's the first part of what I'm doing.

Eventually, my code will be "linked" (somehow, don't ask me how yet) to a CMS, most likely Wordpress or Drupal.

Any thoughts on which way to go? Do these things have steep learning curves?

 

[ChristianV]

I don't think it's a good idea to code modules/plugins or whatever for a CMS just to make the code "secure". First: it wouldn't make it secure. Second: It's better if you learn something about security and PHP.
As for "modular code": I think it's very good to develop one's own CMS, because this really improves your knowledge of php. It's a great project and you can learn a lot of different things from it. Like: "What about a 'secure' CMS"?

 

[scootermaster]

Originally posted by: ChristianV
I don't think it's a good idea to code modules/plugins or whatever for a CMS just to make the code "secure". First: it wouldn't make it secure. Second: It's better if you learn something about security and PHP.
As for "modular code": I think it's very good to develop one's own CMS, because this really improves your knowledge of php. It's a great project and you can learn a lot of different things from it. Like: "What about a 'secure' CMS"?

I'm afraid I'm going to have to sorta disagree with both of those statements.

First off, I don't know much about these frameworks/libraries, but I do know that using something, like STL is much better than deciding to "get your hands dirty" and coding up your own list class, even if doing so makes you feel like more of a man.
Much, MUCH MUUUUUUUUUUUUUCH better. So I would assume that these things we're talking about here (Cake? Django? etc) are similar. The reality is, I could give fuck-all about PHP. It's cute, like any weakly-typed language, but it's not really anything I care enough about to get serious with. I'll learn what I need to know, and am open to trying new things, but I feel exactly zero compulsion to become some sort of guru in web programming. I've got vastly more important fish to fry.

As for coding up my own CMS, I've thought about it, and I've known people who have done it. Successfully, even. But that seems so much like re-inventing the wheel it's more like re-inventing the damn circle. If I have to, to do what I want, then I will. But I'm not even sure yet. I have about 20,000 static pages to create first (the results of this db that I'm populating using information from another db). If I can't find a good CMS to serve them, then I'll make my own. But that's down the road.

The reality is, there seems to be this battle between DIYers and, for lack of a better term, pros. I can't help but laugh when I see someone on a forum chastising someone else for using Eclipse, and boasting how they still use Notepad to code up websites. Congratulations. As Chris Rock said, "You can drive your car with your feet in ya want to...that don't mean it's to be donnnnnnne". Pros use tools. To not leverage them is not only stupid, it's bad business sense.

So, my question remains: Which of these tools do you people prefer?

Thanks for your replies.

 

[scootermaster]

So no one uses any of these things?

So far I'm looking at Cake. Seems nice enough.

 

[George P Burdell]

I've done some work with symfony. Good stuff.

There are too many PHP frameworks out there with many conflicting reviews/comparisons. Right now, the best way to figure out which ones are good is to try them out yourself.

Zend has a framework of their own, which may be a mature product. But I haven't tried it because I didn't like the documentation.

 

[Hyperblaze]

I just ended up building my own framework for the apps that I build.

Some folks would say "why???"

I simply answer "because I can, and it's fun"

A highly scalable framework and now that I've done a lot of base work, it's a LOT quicker to build anything.

Easy to learn, and fun to create.

 

[esun]

I'd say CakePHP is the best you'll find for a PHP framework. I should warn you to stay away from 1.2 until it's done and has some real documentation available. It's extra features will certainly be nice, but until there's solid documentation on how to use them, it's just too much of a hassle to try to figure it out yourself (or at least, it was too much of a hassle for me).

 

[George P Burdell]

Originally posted by: esun
I'd say CakePHP is the best you'll find for a PHP framework. I should warn you to stay away from 1.2 until it's done and has some real documentation available. It's extra features will certainly be nice, but until there's solid documentation on how to use them, it's just too much of a hassle to try to figure it out yourself (or at least, it was too much of a hassle for me).

Does cake have a command line interface?

 

[SparksBox]

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