Popular and Efficient PHP Frameworks/Methodologies

bobbybudds

Hello everyone. Let me introduce myself. I did a bit of development a few years back using PHP4 and haven 't really touched it since. At work I was doing a lot of C# .net.

Now my question here is what are the latest trends with PHP web applications? Are classes used much now? Are there any frameworks which resemble N-Tier applications. Can anyone give me the names of these frameworks, or post any useful links to resources. Pretty much what I'm asking is what is the standard for developing web applications? I greatly appreciate any help thanks.

NogDog

Are classes used much now?

Yes, parrticularly if using PHP5 with its much improved OOP support.

Are there any frameworks...?

There are a number of MVC (Model/View/Control) frameworks out there, each with its proponents and detractors (like everything else in this business). For a list of many of the possibilities, see phpframeworks.com.

Another hot topic to be aware of is "AJAX", though most of that has to do with the JavaScript side of things.

dougal85

Call that a list? Here is a list of MVC php frameworks! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Model-view-controller#PHP

If you don't want anything too heavyweight - a good consideration would be just determining a way to separate you logic and presentation. Ie. keeping the PHP and HTML separate. MVC does this, but MVC isn't applicable to everything and everyone.

NogDog

dougal85 wrote:
Call that a list?...

Just the first match on my Google search. Figured it was a good start. :p

dougal85

yeah, yours was more than enough. I just wanted to point out how many frameworks are out there for PHP and MVC alone.

halojoy

frameworks
mvc
they are so many now it makes me dizzy 😃

Most of us practice some form of MVC without thinking of it
... we separate execution of php CONTROL(php code)
from VIEW(templates) and
from DATA(model) ..... (mysql database class, functions)
... at least when we have realized this is good to do.

So there is nothing new, really, in this, except they have got a word for it
and it is The Hype of The Day
I prefer strict MVC lightweight 'frameworks'.
Without too many libraries.

Besides the many hits you can get from Google, as already mentioned,
Wikipedia has got lists for Frameworks + Comparisons in different prog languages
Among them of course PHP.
Here is a good starting link:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_application_frameworks
🙂 🙂

regars 🙂
halojoy - has soon downloaded something like 100 PHP Frameworks ZIP-files
--- small as well as simple, light as well as Heavy, even strictly barebones Model-View-Controlers
... still I never used them, I build my websites using good old separation of php code
😃

bobbybudds

Thanks for the replies. Browsing now...

Which would you say was the most similar to:

Presentation Layer -> Business Logic Layer -> Data Access Layer

halojoy

bobbybudds wrote:
Thanks for the replies. Browsing now...

Which would you say was the most similar to:

Presentation Layer -> Business Logic Layer -> Data Access Layer

I am sorry those words means not much to me.
Maybe it is because english is not my first language.
Maybe it is because i do not do presentations & not into business.

Data Access Layer I understand.
Because I use most every time some form of data stored in some file.
It is not different from MySQL and other databases.

MySQL uses 1 directory for each 'database-name'
and uses 3 flatfiles inside this directory for each 'table-name'
As can be seen here.
By the size and the name, we can say help_keyword.MYD is the table data file itself

/mysql/
  help_keyword.frm     9kB
  help_keyword.MYD  76kB
  help_keyword.MYI   14kB

Myself uses 1 file for each 'table-name'. Makes backup a panncake of ease.
This file can be anywhere.
Whether you want to use [man]fwrite/man & [man]fread/man to a filename you specify, executed by php.exe directly
or go the long way,
... let php.exe call php_mysql.dll to do the job of finding /mysql/ directory + files
and translate your highlevel db-language 'SQL-queries' into read/write instructions
for interaction with your files stored
... it is a matter of taste.

Presentation Layer
i guess it is like displaying one or two webpages ... or am I wrong?
Presentation is like show something ... like some text or images.

I hope and think you can yourself find what you are looking for.
Only you know best what you want, right?
Dont trust others too much to influence what you should use.
Try and see which tools work for you.
You are one unique person. one of a kind.
With your own preferences ..... hopefully 😉

The difficultie here, regading Framework and MVC is not to find them,
.. but to find out which ones of the 99 you will not use, of those 100 options.
Leaving you with a good one to try out 😉

Regards 🙂
halojoy

NogDog

Model / View / Controller is roughly analogous to Data Layer / Presentation Layer / Business Layer, except that the model part of MVC will include some of the busniess logic as well, with the rest of the business logic being in the controller.

dougal85

Halojoy, Presentation Layer/Business Logic Layer/Data Access Layer is a 3 teir architecture that I think is most commonly found in ASP.NET.

As NogDog said they do have similarities and they aim to do the same thing in a slightly different way. Helping structure your website and creating seperation between HTML etc. and code.

halojoy

dougal85 wrote:
Halojoy, Presentation Layer/Business Logic Layer/Data Access Layer is a 3 teir architecture that I think is most commonly found in ASP.NET.

As NogDog said they do have similarities and they aim to do the same thing in a slightly different way. Helping structure your website and creating seperation between HTML etc. and code.

thanks, dougal
different vendors use different Terminology for same things.

maybe it is just as simple as MVC, but in other words
Model(data), View(presentation), Control(business logic)

what makes these branch specific terms more difficult, is that majority of us, do not have english as our native languag

in our own languages we have proplems at all to understand concepts
now, the last thing I want to study is ASP or .NET from Microsoft
... it is just because I have no need for that
there are plenty of better options and more CLEAR terms for what I can use

I am sorry I could not get it.
I blame it on my preference for tell things in plain words
words that can be understood by most anyone .. regardless of mothertongue

thanks for trying to clarifying to me, dougal85
I really appreciate this 🙂
thanks my buddy in php

=============================0

a sidenote here to douglas matthew:
I really long to see you Ajax Query Builder
you may remember I took a look at your demo last year
and did some positive feedback comment.

even if I can understand you do not want to make Ajax Query Builder open source
I really think you should put DEMO online again 🙂
you script deserves this .. for sure!
... i ma waiting for it .. when you have time to do it .. i will be pleased

regars to ...dougal
from
halojoy

==========================================

Appendix A:
halojoy review of Ajax query Builder .. 05-12-2007, 04:37 AM

dougal85

Re: The query builder, I was thinking about it actually and I just got my hosting back on Apache... so maybe one day. I've still not seen anybody else tackle the idea or try to do it on the web. however mine was never in a state to be used and I didn't have time to finish it. I had hoped that some members of the phpMyAdmin team (or others) would have been interested in continuing it or helping me but alas I had no luck. However, that is rather off topic.

The 3 tier (Presentation Layer/Business Logic Layer/Data Access) architecture is sufficiently different. MVC is generally much stricter and defines a very set way of doing things. MVC is actually now available on ASP.NET 3.5 - it looks very nice but I've not tried it yet.

I've only used the 3-tier model on the odd occasion so I can't comment on it that well. I'm far more familiar with the theory and different implementations of MVC.