A Brief on Code Igniter and other Web Frameworks

January 13th, 2010 by Mike Ruschak

At the Martino Flynn Digital Media Services department, we constantly strive to find ways to be more efficient and bring down costs. This is especially important in these tough economic times.

Many tools are available that help web developers accomplish cost savings.  Enterprise-,ready content management systems and frameworks are some of these tools. Today lets focus on frameworks.  A framework supports the development of dynamic web sites and alleviates repetitive activities in web development.  In the PHP community there are many frameworks to choose from: CakePHP, Symphony, Zend, Code Igniter, and Kohana are just a few. Competition is a wonderful thing but how do you choose? Although these frameworks have many similarities, some of them are built differently. Furthermore, some of these frameworks will work better on certain server configurations than on others.   Symphony and Zend, for instance, may not work as well on shared hosting as Code Igniter or Kohana would.

Features that a framework offers also play a role in deciding which one is best for your needs and requirements. These range from calendars, payment gateways, database connectivity, encryption, html helpers, language helpers, session management, ajax support, paginator, javascript helpers, URI helpers, MVC implementation, and data filtering are just some features. If a framework in question doesn’t include a feature you need, can it be extended easily?

Good up to date documentation is very important for learning a framework. A strong helpful community that offers help and support can make a huge difference as well.  If documentation is bad and the community is non- existent, the learning curve will be much higher. This is especially important for PHP beginners trying to learn a framework.

At Martino Flynn, we needed a flexible framework that could be used on just about any web host.   It was important to choose one that featured a small footprint, good community backing, average documentation, fast, and a good set of helpful features.  Code Igniter fit the bill nicely as our framework of choice.  However, never limit yourself to one framework.  For some projects a different framework may be the better choice than the one you prefer. Therefore, it is important to be familiar with what other frameworks have to offer.

- Mike Ruschak

This entry was posted by Mike Ruschak on Wednesday, January 13th, 2010 and is filed under Technology. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.