1. PHP Frameworks
March 19, 2015

2. Why use a framework?
• Common features of web apps are created by the framework so
you don’t have to code them yourself
• Provides predictable locations for the code you write (models are
in, duh, the /models directory)
• Enforcing standards
• Allegedly “faster” and “better”
• Your boss or client tells you to
• All the other code at work is written with it
• You enjoy it

3. YOU ENJOY IT!!!
• Unless you need to follow a coding standard that
determines your framework selection (ie, “We’re
a Yii shop, by golly!”), personal preference
should be your primary selection criteria
• You will code “better” and “faster” if you use tools
that you like
• Your code will be “better” and “faster” if you use
tools that you like

4. That’s why we solicited help from people with
experience using particular frameworks for today’s talk.
Nothing you read on the internet will help you
understand what it’s like to develop with a given
framework as well as hearing about it first-hand.

5. So. Many. Choices.
• There are, no kidding, dozens of PHP frameworks.
• They all make similar claims:
• “fast”, “easy”, “secure”, “robust”, “use only those features you
need”, “small footprint”, “great documentation”, “vibrant user
community”
• The one important claim seems to be “modern”, but I couldn’t find a
good definition of that
• Requires PHP 5.3+?
• Templates?
• ActiveRecord

6. In my googling, these claims
stood out:
• Laravel is sexy
• Phalcon is fast
• Zend is slow
• There are lots of webpages that list the top X popular PHP
frameworks, but few contain more detail than you can get from the
framework homepage (I hate you, Buzzfeed. You ruined the internet.)
• Notable exception: http://www.sitepoint.com/best-php-
frameworks-2014/
• Forums seem to be the most prolific source of personal opinions
about frameworks…imagine that.

7. The 8 PHP Frameworks You
Have To Learn RIGHT NOW
• Laravel
• Yii
• Symfony
• Silex
• CakePHP
• CodeIgniter
• Phalcon
• Zend

8. Laravel
(Skaught Bowden)

9. • http://laravel.com/
• Combines the best tools and philosophies from various projects, to make development
faster, funner, and eleganter.
• Symfony packages deep under the hood, where you will likely never see them.
• Eloquent ORM for a very Ruby on Rails-ish data abstraction experience.
• Artisan CLI, notably: access to models. C&P commands into your tests & voilà!
• Database migrations (with improved rollbacks in Laravel 5)
• Composer dependency manager. Don't like Eloquent? Plug in your own ORM!
• You can override or replace almost any component!
• Homestead (pre-fab Vagrant VM) and Forge (Heroku-style hosting) = RAPID.
• LaraCon 2015 will be held in exotic Louisville, KY on Aug. 11–12!
Laravel

10. Yii
(Christopher Emmick)

11. Symfony
(Christopher Davis)

12. Silex
(Christopher Davis)

13. CakePHP
(Anyone?)

14. CakePHP
• http://cakephp.org/
• 2 out of 2 PHP user group organizers think the website is just
darling
• Inspired by Ruby on Rails and will feel very familiar to RoR
developers
• Was the first MVC framework for PHP
• V3 is a significant overhaul, making CakePHP more “modern”
• Has been criticized for poor documentation and lack of help for
newbies, but that seems to be changing (as evidenced by its
super-friendly website design)

15. CodeIgniter
(Anyone?)

16. CodeIgniter
• http://www.codeigniter.com/
• Was a top contender in the past
• First a licensing model change and then an
ownership change may have destabilized the
product in the collective mind

17. Phalcon
(Anyone?)

18. Phalcon
• Unique among platforms in that it is a C extension. You need
to compile it into PHP (or download a suitably compiled
binary, which makes things complicated on Windows)
• Wicked fast, since the framework components are inside the
PHP executable
• Excellent choice for high-volume applications that will
benefit from its speed
• Poor choice for hosted environments where you don’t control
the version of PHP or you share resources with other tenants

19. Zend
(Anyone?)

20. Zend
• http://framework.zend.com/
• Began life as part of the PHP language, was created by core contributors to
the PHP language
• Well-established user base (perhaps skewed to enterprise level
development)
• Thriving community, excellent documentation, active development (v3 is in
the pipeline)
• Historically, has been criticized for having a steep learning curve
• Corporate backing - Zend is maintained by the Zend company, which
provides PHP application development products and services (and therefore
may be a good choice if you plan to use those products and services)

21. Summary
• Not all PHP frameworks are created equal, but
they share many common features
• So, your choice might have little to do with overall
feature set and lots to do with one particular thing
a framework does well or a community
characteristic, like an IRC channel for instant help
• Distribution license of the framework may matter
for your applications (MIT, BSD, etc)