PHP Major Frameworks

PHP frameworks are the latest hot topic in the PHP community, and new frameworks are being released daily. With over 40 frameworks available http://www.phpwact.org/php/mvc_frameworks it's difficult to decide which framework works best for you, especially as each framework offers different functionality.

In this article we will look at ten popular frameworks, and compare them to each other. First I will give you a general chart which gives you a quick overview of all the frameworks, and after that we'll go through each framework and discuss it in short.

As you can see from the chart the Symfony Project seems like a very extensive framework, and it even includes a full-blown ORM, called Propel, which is another open source project and probably one of the best ORM solutions for PHP. Symfony also includes Creole for the database abstraction layer and Mojavi for the Model-View-Controller model layer. Because it simply re-uses these other projects, instead of re-writing them, this framework probably has the most extensive functionality, and this is clearly shown in the chart.

The only two downsides to this framework is that fact that it can't be run on PHP4, but this is pretty logical considering it needs much of PHP5's new features, and that it's so complicated. Most of the tasks, like paging, are much more complicated in Symfony than in other frameworks, and simplicity definitely doesn't describe this framework.

The ZooP Framework is really feature-packed, and as the chart clearly shows, it supports almost anything, except for an ORM layer. What's even more surprising is that it runs on PHP4, which is really exceptional considering all the functionality it offers.

Another thing ZooP offers is inbuilt GUI controls, making it very easy to create forms quickly. It supports most of the basic form elements, and that advantage of using GUI controls over regular HTML is that you can tightly integrate validation logic with the GUI controls.

The Seagull framework seems like a pretty good framework, and it comes with quite a lot of features. Another positive thing is that it runs on PHP4 as well, which is a really good thing in my book, as I still use PHP4 and most web hosts don't support PHP5 yet.

Unfortunately Seagull doesn't come with any Ajax support, which is a bit of a shame, but a simple Google search returns a tutorial on adding Ajax support yourself, and it's likely it will be added in the future.

CakePHP is mostly an advanced MVC framework, with a few extra modules added on top. It can handle most of the database stuff for you, and it includes support for Ajax and data validation. It also has a unique user authentication module called 'Access Lists', which can be used to give different users access to different parts of your CakePHP website.

This framework seems quite thorough and ready for use, although the CakePHP website is extremely confusing. There doesn't seem to be a stable version yet, which is a bit surprising since it's been in development for months now, but I guess it's probably possible to use the beta version on a production website as well.

*'the CakePHP website is extremely confusing'*

Couldn't agree more. And it is still true as of 2007.01.26.

documented on: 2007.01.26