Frameworks! Say What?

SpicyDuck

SpicyDuck

SpicyDuck

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Joined
10 Dec 2003
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So, I've decided to step-up my knowledge or use of PHP and Ajax, to create much more user-friendly, clean, new and modern websites and web applications.

My knowledge of HTML and CSS is great, and I'm extremely confident with them, but they feel very beginner to me now. My knowledge of PHP is still quite basic, but I can do simple things such as contact forms, user registration scripts, etc.

Looking into the whole thing (PHP and Ajax), I've noticed the use of the word 'Framework' and I have no idea what this means. What is a Framework and what are the advantages of using one?

I've seen CSS Frameworks, PHP, Ajax... everything really. I suppose I should download one I'm comfortable with (CSS) and play with it, but I'd like to hear peoples opinions. If you have a recommendation, that'd be appreciated too. :)

Thanks.
 
So, effectively, it's just a library of Scripts to make the development process faster, in some sense.

I'd rather keep my own library, to be honest. Maybe I'm missing something, but it doesn't seem like something I would make use of yet.

Great link though, I love the site. :)
 
Believe me, a good framework can reduce development time drastically. I'd highly recommend at least trying a few out. The most useful frameworks are usually server-side backend frameworks (e.g. Ruby and PHP frameworks).

My personal recommendations in the way of PHP frameworks would be CodeIgniter and Kohana. The latter is a remake of the former that's been redesigned from scratch and optimised for PHP5, however it's still not very mature as a framework and its user guide is nowhere near complete yet. I find them incredibly useful and pleasant to use because they provide structure for your application and handle all of the mundane tasks for you while not restricting what you can do.

Seriously, a framework can make your life so much easier – I'd cringe at the idea of going back to writing a website from scratch, having used CI and Kohana.
 
I've heard good things about Symfony and CakePHP but I don't use frameworks. I've spent a lot of time developing my own mini framework which perfectly works with the way I like to develop. I've used CI and Qcodo, but I just don't like the way they make you work, so I've made my own way! I use jquery but that's because it's just stupid not to. again, I've heard good things about scriptaculous and prototype but I'm quite happy with jquery so I shan't change.

Isn't smashing magazine great!? :D
 
Sic said:
... I use jquery but that's because it's just stupid not to. ..
Click to expand...
I'm the same as you, always build my own libraries so I can work as I want to including javascript, however I have just checked out jquery and it looks great! Definitely will be migrating my current site to this.

Thanks!
 
thing with jquery is it's not intrusive at all - with most frameworks, they require you to work in a really specific way but I already have a really specific way of working. jquery just saves SO much time
 
I'll check out CI now, and see how it goes. :)

My main concern is that these Frameworks offer no educational benefit, as it does all the work for you. It's actually one of my dirty little pleasures to do all the code indenting and stuff myself.

But I'll check it out and see how it goes.

I actually had Smashing Magazine in my bookmarks from way back, but I added it quickly while busy doing something else, and forgot about it.
 
Well certainly, if you're learning a language, a framework isn't a good idea for that very reason, but once you know the language, it just makes things so amazingly easy to do :)
 
OvertoneBliss said:
I'll check out CI now, and see how it goes. :)

My main concern is that these Frameworks offer no educational benefit, as it does all the work for you. It's actually one of my dirty little pleasures to do all the code indenting and stuff myself.

But I'll check it out and see how it goes.
Click to expand...

I'd say that CI was the least intrusive of the frameworks I've tried because you don't really have to use all of their libraries.

I used to be the same as that, I think it's learners' itch or something - you feel like you want to be able to lay your name to absolutely everything, but the good thing about having a library or framework already set out is it allows you to allocate time to improving the application at a higher level, rather than messing around with things that the user isn't even going to notice. you'll still get to indent code to your heart's content ;)
 
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