Over the summer I started a project which I would like to introduce to you. Junction is a new persistance layer, much like Propel, written in PHP 5 and based on the popular Java persistance layer Hibernate.
A persistance layer is a little bit of software between the database and the application. It maps data objects (with getters and setters) to database tables. The goal is to automate basic query construction, decouple the application from the database, and allow for faster development. With Junction you write a simple data object (the only requirement is that it have getters and setters) and a mapping file, following that you can start interacting with the database.
In the spirit of the open source mantra "release early, release often" I and my partners have chosen to release Junction. It is our hope that you will find yourself immediately productive with it. Over the course of the year we will be continuing development with a focus on several major features. Junction is completely open source (under the MIT license), so please help out with bugs or suggestions. Please see our project web site - http://junctionphp.com/ - for more information.
http://junctionphp.com/