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PHP Framework suggestion

3 points by zeved ↗ HN
Hello! I am a freelancer and I was given the task to create a car park / junkyard site. However, I dont really know what to use. I thought of using a CMS but I will have to modify quite some stuff to fit my needs and I'm affraid I will bump into the CMS' API and that will set me back alot. What do you recommend? Keep using a CMS (and if so, which one?) or go for a framework? I think it's better to use a framework so that everything will link together nicely. However, I have little experience with frameworks but I'm not affraid. Do you have a suggestion for a PHP begginer (sort of). I tried CI and Smarty but I don't really feel at home with them.

Thanks!

5 comments

[ 2.9 ms ] story [ 11.9 ms ] thread
neolizzard2k
Cms -> typo3 Framework -> silverlight

But if you ask me - it's try and error case. Test some frameworks and use the where you feel save. Usually as a beginner you should take one with a bigger userbase (e.g for questions)

[dead] pdfpro
Instead of trying to learn a PHP framework, try learning how to build modules/plugins for a popular CMS. You get a lot of functionality out-of-the-box with a CMS (Drupal, Wordpress, etc.), and a lot of different theme options (themeforest.net). Additionally, using a CMS is going to be much more secure than creating a web app with a framework from scratch - especially as a beginner. Furthermore, there are many, many 3rd party modules/plugins that you can use instead of building everything from scratch. Once you learn how to build modules/plugins the right way, you will be surprised how much creative latitude you have working inside a CMS.
krapp
I think that it's more important for modern PHP programming to be familiar with PSR-0, Composer and the Model-View-Controller pattern than necessarily a specific framework, because depending on how simple this site needs to be it can be done entirely by pulling in, say, Twig and a url router and some other packages into Composer.

If you want a framework that does less for you, then consider Slim Framework. If you want one intended for scalable projects with a lot of existing libraries and helpers, then consider Laravel (though in the latter case, the learning curve can be a bit steep.)

edoceo
+1 to krapp. The patterns in Yii, Cake, Zend are very similar. Try one, then another to see which feels better. Or simple ones like Slim, Twig or Radix
johnny22
many of the popular frameworks and cms projects are based on (or use many of) symfony2 components. looking at symfony2 and silex will give you a pretty good handle on how they work.