> OK, after pasting 2 commands into my terminal, I have my Symfony > installed. but where is it? Ie. which url can I access it?
symfony is an open-source PHP web framework
Based on the best practices of web development, thoroughly tried on several active websites, symfony aims to speed up the creation and maintenance of web applications, and to replace the repetitive coding tasks by power, control and pleasure.
Symfony provides a lot of features seamlessly integrated together, such as:
simple templating and helpers
cache management
smart URLs
scaffolding
multilingualism and I18N support
object model and MVC separation
Ajax support
enterprise ready
In addition to tutorials and showcase apps (screencast of the ajax tutorial / best PHP code generation engine for your backend interfaces), symfony has an extensive documentation.
after reviewing more than 10 PHP Frameworks, the "best PHP code generation engine for your backend interfaces" showcase screencast hooked me up right away.
Moreover, I was about to go for those "do not depend on anything" frameworks because I was afraid that such versatile system, that make use many best existing components, would be hard to install. But I was wrong, and I'm really glad that I was wrong — pasting 2 commands into my terminal, less than 2 minutes later, I have my Symfony fully installed! Everything is just amazing.
documented on: 2007.01.27
> OK, after pasting 2 commands into my terminal, I have my Symfony > installed. but where is it? Ie. which url can I access it?
Symfony is a framework, a collection of class an library to help you to create web-applications. So, after the pear install, you can't directly "access" to symfony.
You have to create a workspace, with a project and application(s) inside this one :-)
Look at the first day of the askeet tuto, all is well explained !
aruban
Symfony is an object-oriented PHP5 framework based on the MVC model. Symfony allows for the separation of business rules, server logic and presentation views of a web application. It also contains numerous tools and classes aimed at shortening the development time of a complex web application.
A framework adds new mechanisms on top of a programming language, and these mechanisms automate many of the development patterns used for a given purpose. A framework also adds structure to the code, and pushes the developer to write better, more readable and maintainable code. A framework also makes programming easier, since it packages complex operations into simple statements.
A framework is usually developed with the same language that it extends. A PHP5 framework is a set of files written in PHP5.
A framework will add layering to an application. In general, they divide applications in three layers:
The *presentation logic* handles the interactions between the user and the software
The *data source logic* carries the access to a database or other data providers
The *domain logic*, or business logic, is the remaining piece. It involves calculation made on inputs, manipulation of data from the presentation, and dispatching of data source logic according to the commands received from the presentation.
Web application frameworks intend to facilitate the development of… web applications (websites, Intranets, etc.). Building a basic dynamic website can be easily achieved with existing programming languages, and PHP is known for its simplicity and broadly adopted for that purpose. With PHP alone, you can already query a database, manage session cookies, access files in the server, etc. But when it comes to building a more complex website, where business logic increases the volume of code to maintain, the need of a web application framework arises.
Symfony is a complete framework designed to help and speedup the development of web applications.
It is based on the following concepts:
compatible with as many environments as possible
easy to install and configure
simple to learn
enterprise ready
convention rather than configuration, supporting fallback calls
simple in most cases, but still flexible enough to adapt to complex cases
most common web features included
compliant with most of the web "best practices" and web "design patterns"
very readable code with easy maintenance
open source
The main concept underlying the symfony framework is that the most common tasks are done automatically so that the developer can focus entirely on the specifics of an application. There is no need to reinvent the wheel every time a new web application is built.
To fulfill these requirements, symfony was written entirely in PHP5. It has been thoroughly tested in various real world projects, and is actually in use for high demand e-business websites. It is compatible with most of the available databases, among which:
MySQL
PostgreSQL
Oracle
MSSQL
and any other database if a Creole driver exists for it
The symfony object model relies on three distinct layers:
a database abstraction
an object-relational mapping
a Model-View-Controller model for the front and back-office
Common features of web projects are made easy since Symfony natively automates them:
internationalization
templating with helpers
form validation
cache management
shopping cart management
smart URLs
scaffolding
email sending
Pagination
AJAX interactions
In addition, to fulfill the requirements of enterprises having their own coding guidelines and project management rules, symfony can be entirely reconfigured using YAML configuration files. It provides by default, several development environments, and is bundled with tools to easily achieve the following operations:
prototyping
content management
live configuration changes
deployment
unit testing
applicative testing
logging
debugging
Symfony uses some code fragments of other open source projects:
Creole, for the database abstraction layer
Propel, for the object-relational mapping layer
Mojavi, for the Model-View-Controller model layer
Whether you are a PHP5 expert or a beginner in web application programming doesn't matter. The main factor that should direct your decision is the size of your project.
If you want to develop a simple website with five to ten pages, having limited access to a database and no obligation for performance, availability or documentation, then you should stick with PHP alone. You wouldn't take much advantage of the features of a web application framework, and using object orientation or a MVC model would only slow down your development. Symfony is not optimized to run efficiently on a shared server with only CGI support.
On the other hand, if you develop bigger web applications, with a heavy business logic, PHP alone is not enough. If you plan to maintain or extend your application in the future, you will need your code to be lightweight, readable and effective. If you want to use the latest advances in user interaction (like AJAX) in an intuitive way, you can't just write hundreds of lines of JavaScript. If you want to have fun and develop fast, then PHP alone will probably be disappointing. For all these cases, symfony is made for you.
And of course, if you are a professional web developer, you already know all the benefits of web application frameworks, and you need one which is mature, well documented, and with a large community. Search no more, for symfony is your solution.
So far I have cut all PHP frameworks to three possibilities - PRADO, Symphony and Zend Framework. It's funny how all three of them while having the same outcome in mind, bring *totally* different approach to the problem and therefore deliver various products.
It looks like PRADO is strong in event/component approach, Zend in "doing the basics" and the rock-solid background of "The PHP Company", and Symphony? I like the admin-generation part of the software, it's probably the best of what you can find.
documented on: 2006-10-17, Michal Til
@Symfony Awesome job! I'm using this framework for a major commercial project. So far the results are very impressive. We are currently looking at how much of a donation to make :)
documented on: 2006-01-01, Anonymous