This is a presentation that I recently gave at UpstatePHP in Greenville, SC evaluating the framework landscape in PHP.

1. What’s the “right”
PHP Framework?
Barry Jones

2. Who am I?
• Barry Jones
• Java/Groovy/PHP/Perl developer since ’98
• Ruby on Rails developer mostly since 2012
• Formerly ran Brightball, Inc here in Greenville
– Contract programming business from 2008-2012
– 99% CakePHP…
– Built our platform “The Intersect” on top of Cake
• Software Architect with ACS Technologies, Inc

3. SO WHICH ONE IS IT?
The people need to know….

4. Is it…
• Zend Framework?
• CakePHP?
• Symfony?
• FuelPHP?
• Code Igniter?
• Lithium?
• Laravel?
• Solar?
OR….
• Kohana?
• Yii?
• Prado?
• Akelos?
• PHP Fat-Free?
• Agile Toolkit?
• Silex?
• Phunction?
• K2F?
• Phraw?
• Qcodo?
• Slim?
• Phalcon?
• Roll your own…?

5. WHY SO MANY?
The million dollar question…

6. Before we answer that…
Why do other languages seem to have clear leaders?
• Ruby has Rails
• Python has Django
• Groovy has Grails
• C# has MVC
• Java has Spring

7. Many solutions to the same problem…
usually indicates an underlying issue…
which leads to lots of trade offs

8. What does that mean for PHP?
PHP is bad at frameworks…
…out of the box

9. So let’s dig into that a little
• Ruby, Python, Groovy, C#, and Java have
something in common
• They boot up…
– The application gets loaded into RAM
– Runs initializer code
– Makes its database connection(s) with a pool
– Listens for requests and only processes that request
– Can share RAM between requests
– Built for long term garbage collection

10. PHP…
• Reprocesses everything on every single request
• Configuration
• Route mappings
• Database connections
• Loading all of those framework files
– Devastating to Disk I/O
• Encapsulates and garbage collects each individual
process

11. So a PHP framework has too…
• Cache…heavily
– And then reload those configuration caches on
every request
• Per request RAM allocation is HEAVY
– It’s not loaded once and then processed
– Framework is loaded every time for every request

12. A HISTORY LESSON
Don’t worry, we’ll get back to the story

13. Rails lit the world on fire
• Java’s Struts popularized MVC…but was awful
• Rails made MVC good…
– And EEEEEEVERYBODY copied it as best they could
– CakePHP was a near clone for a while
– Microsoft’s MVC framework…almost carbon copy
– Grails…do I need to explain this?

14. But why did Rails take off?
• Ruby is great…but it’s not built for the web
• PHP is built for the web
• Ruby is an excellent language for writing Domain Specific Languages (DSLs)
– Think….
• Puppet, Chef, Capistrano, Vagrant
– Rails is a DSL for the web
• It changes Ruby to make it a web language
• That added to its popularity significantly in the Ruby community
– Nearly every Ruby library has a Rails version for premium integration
– Ruby developers are very big on testing because of the language’s flexibility
• good at testing and easy to break
– Ruby developers place a premium on workflow
• That’s a heck of a lot more than just arranging some files and throwing
routing and hooks on top…they built an entire mode of operation

15. This is important for PHP
PHP is built for the web out of the box
With no framework…
it can rock your face off

16. So why so many frameworks?
• Well…prior to PHP 5.3
– PHP was terrible for frameworks for all the reasons
previously mentioned
• Also, lack of namespaces made sharing libraries a PAAAAIN
– 5.3 was released in 2010
– CakePHP 1.1 was popular in 2006 because it ran on
PHP 4 and PHP 5 while structurally copying Rails
– The PHP “framework wars” started during a time
when PHP was bad at frameworks…hence the variety,
saturation, and trade offs
• Everybody tried to solve the problem a different way

17. Prior to 5.3 you needed to…
• Enable APC on the server
– Optimized PHP byte code cached in RAM
– Share RAM between process (under Apache mod_php only)
– In production, set APC to not check for file changes
– This got around the Disk I/O and overhead of reloading all those files
– Also drastically reduced per-request RAM
• With CakePHP we’d go from 12mb to 2mb (also mod_php only)
• Configure a database connection pool within Apache
– OR ensure you were using MySQL because the overhead of new connections is almost
negligible
• Avoid .htaccess files like the plague
– Every framework used them for “pretty urls” instead of having them added to a server config
• Setup a reverse proxy w/ nginx
– Intercept non-application requests prior to Apache processing .htaccess rules
• Use framework specific class loaders to try to load things only when necessary
• Frameworks had to roll almost everything themselves to avoid naming conflicts
with outside libraries
– Extensive “does this work with X?” syndrome

18. So what changed?
• In 5.3
– Late static bindings
– Namespaces
• In 5.4
– Traits
– Artisan
• Built in Web Server
• CLI
• These allow…
– Lazy loading
– Dependency injection
– Aspect Oriented
Programming (AOP)
– Simpler development
workflow
– Much easier library / package
management

19. What is PHP good at?
• Scales down OR up better than any other language
– “Boot up” web languages can’t scale down easily
– With PHP, you can fill up a hard drive with code and it will all work
• Other languages, you fill up your RAM and you’re done
• This is why PHP shared hosting is everywhere and dirt cheap
• Encapsulation of each request provides near perfect server stability
– Tell me next time somebody uses “PHP” and “Memory Leak” in a sentence
– If a request dies it can’t crash the server
• In it’s raw form, it can already do almost everything you need
– Example: Built an on-the-fly image processing server for a huge site
– Same functionality previously kept crashing Rails processes
…because memory leaks
– Increased efficiency by 3000% (seriously)

20. Oh…and it can fly (the scaling up part)

21. What is PHP bad at?
More on long polling
• PHP is bad at long running process
• Long polling involves many long running connections
– which for PHP means many long running processes…
– which will vary based on the number of your users
So for example:
• Optimal PHP request/response cycle
– Request received
– PHP started
– Libraries loaded/RAM allocated (2-12mb)
– Request processed
– Request ended, garbage collected
– Total time < .5 seconds (hopefully)
• Long polling PHP request/response cycle
– Request received
– PHP started
– Libraries loaded/RAM allocated (2-12mb)
– ………. (30-60 seconds)
– Request ended, garbage collected
– Total time 30-60 seconds
– Your servers RAM will be swallowed with a dramatically lower number of users from
holding open dozens of 12mb connections
– You can make it “work” but in production you’ll have massive scaling issues
from concurrency
• nginx_http_push_module – This is not a php specific solution
– Request received with internal response address
– PHP started
– Libraries loaded/RAM allocated (2-12mb)
– Requested added to queue
– Request ended, garbage collected
– Total time < .5 seconds
– nginx holds the long polled connection instead of php
– Single background process pulls requests off the queue and processes them
– Sends response to the internal response address
– The background process handles responding to the long polling request so you control
how many are running in parallel, not your user traffic
– nginx holds the concurrent connections efficiently (as good or greater concurrency than
Node.js)
Long running processes
• Please don’t use PHP for long
polling…ever
• No really
• All those documents that say PHP
is bad at long polling…don’t take
it as a challenge…they mean it
• But if you must use
nginx_http_push_module
Also…method syntax consistency and
assorted other quirks…

22. But it’s more than just code
• The business problem:
– How do I find programmers who know this framework?
• Case: Brightball
– I loved CakePHP. It was complex, had a steep learning curve but
was incredibly powerful
– We built a tool around it that would generate a permission
controlled, data linked, interface based solely off of the
database structure
• AKA “The Intersect” (we were big fans of Chuck)
• Really bad for billable hours 
– Hard to find people who knew Cake (or any other specific
framework) despite “popularity” numbers
– With complexity, training and learning curve are bad

23. This is where Code Igniter took off
• Code Igniter was not as awesome as Cake
(sorry CI people)
– I know one of you wants to argue this point…your opinion is wrong
• But it was a heck of a lot simpler
• Learning curve and training ease led to a huge
following
– And Expression Engine

24. Not a problem in other languages
• Dominant frameworks lead to common knowledge
bases among developers
• Hard to find a Ruby programmer that doesn’t know
Rails
• That allows continuous evolution because businesses
avoid the training/hiring quandry
• Namespaces allows easy library integration and sharing
between frameworks and for the language as a whole

25. Then there’s workflow…
• Common frameworks lead to…
– Common testing integrations
– Common library integrations
– Common database flow
– Common team operations

26. So the answer is…?
If I have to tell you the “right” framework...
then there isn’t a clear choice

27. WAT!

28. No!
Not that!

29. Just kidding 

30. LET’S TALK ABOUT LARAVEL
This will be fun

31. First the framework wars
• What about all the “other” frameworks
– All of the existing dominant frameworks have to
maintain a migration path for their user bases
– This makes full reinvention on php >= 5.4…hard
• Laravel does not have this problem
– But it does need to gain widespread adoption

32. So first up…
Laravel is a Rails clone
And I mean that in a good way
They didn’t just go for file structure
Or callbacks
Or active record
Or middleware
Or migrations
Or testing
Or workflow
Or modularity
They ate the whole…dang…thing

33. Libraries
Ruby on Rails
• Ruby has Gems
• Rails applications have a
Gemfile
• Bundler installs Gems and
manages dependencies
PHP and Laravel
• PHP has Composer
– And PEAR
– And PECL
• Laravel uses Composer
• Namespaces make this work

34. Dev Environment
Ruby on Rails
• Ruby has RVM
– Ruby version manager
– “cd” into a project directory and
your ruby version and gemset
changes
• Bundled web server
– From your project directory, your
application runs
– Dozens of projects in different
versions, with different libraries
and different dependencies are
easy
• Command line app access
– Rails console
PHP and Laravel
• Php 5.4 + has Artisan
– Going forward, running multiple
local versions of PHP will be easier
– Also will make tools like Foreman
an option for complex apps
• Laravel has Homestead
– Complete Vagrant based dev
environment
– A framework that takes dev
environments this seriously is huge
– Will only improve thanks to Docker
• Command line app access
– Artisan CLI

35. Migrations
Ruby on Rails
• Migrations are “the” way
• Necessary for teams
working on the same code
locally
• Eases deployment across
multiple environments
PHP and Laravel
• Migrations are “the” way
• Virtually identical to Rails
migrations

36. ORM
“Laravel ships with a superb ORM: Eloquent. If
you have used the Ruby on Rails framework, you
will find Eloquent familiar, as it follows the
ActiveRecord ORM style of database
interaction.”
– Laravel documentation

37. Deployment
Ruby on Rails
• You can always run your
own…
• But Heroku is where Rails
apps begin
• Deployment:
– `git push heroku master`
– Aaaaand that’s it
PHP and Laravel
• You can always run your
own…
• But Laravel Forge makes it
easy to get
 THAT
On Linode, Digital Ocean,
Rackspace or AWS

38. Other stuff
Ruby on Rails
• Built with testing in mind
• Queuing is standardized
• RESTful
• Excellent localization
• Extremely well documented
• Rack Middleware layer
• Highly modular
• Very clean syntax
Laravel
• Built with testing in mind
• Queuing is standardized
• RESTful
• Excellent localization
• Extremely well documented
• StackPHP Middleware Layer
• Highly modular
• Very clean syntax

39. What Laravel needs…
• Like any PHP Framework, it needs saturation
• It’s covered all the other bases
– Powerful MVC framework
– Developer workflow
– Full language package management
– Simple, fast deployment options
– Very well documented
– Built for teams (testing + migrations)
– Modular
• Just needs more people using it to solve the “hiring”
case

40. Thanks!
now go learn Laravel

41. Credits/Reference
• http://www.techempower.com/benchmarks/#section=data
-r9
• http://laravel.com/
• http://rubyonrails.org/
• http://cakephp.org/
• http://ellislab.com/codeigniter
• https://www.google.com/imghp
• http://rack.github.io/
• http://stackphp.com/
• http://php.net/releases/5_3_0.php
• http://php.net/releases/5_4_0.php
• http://www.php.net//manual/en/book.apc.php