A brief introduction into the web application frameworks available for the PHP development language.

2. Who Am I?
Adam Englander
adamenglander@yahoo.com
@adam_englander
http://adamknowsstuff.com
https://github.com/derptest
• DirectEdge Brands Director
of Software Development
• Coupla CTO
• Founder/Organizer of Las
Vegas PHP Users Group
• Co-Organizer of Las Vegas
Developers Users Group
• #VegasTech Enthusiast

3. Overview
In this presentation we will briefly touch on
a variety of PHP Web Frameworks. They
come in three categories:
 Legacy
 Next Generation
 CMS
 Up and Comers

4. Legacy Frameworks
 Zend Framework
 Cake PHP
 Code Igniter
These frameworks are not heavily object
oriented. Zend and Cake have large
installed bases and large communities.
Progress is slow.

5. Zend Framework
 Oldest large framework left
 Mostly a collection of libraries that are
poorly coupled
 Sponsored by “The PHP company”
 Large community
 Large installed base

6. Cake PHP
 True complete framework
 Provides tightly coupled components
 Has a number of code generators to
help speed up development
 Large community
 Mostly modular
 Many modules available
 Trying to transition to a modern
framework

7. Code Igniter
 Simple framework
 Barely object based
 Very little installed base remains
 Only had on release in the last year
 Poorly documented

8. Next Generation
Frameworks
 Symfony
 Silex
 Laravel
Modularized and heavily object oriented.
All use dependency injection containers.

9. Symfony
 Core components used in all next
generation frameworks as well as CMS
platforms
 Highly modular for drop in functionality
 Spring based DIC
 Supports multiple ORMs
 Corporate sponsor
 Avid community

10. Silex
 Symfony components
 Easy to stand up quickly
 Somewhat middleware based
 Can get confusing with larger
applications
 Fairly large number of pluggable
components
 Simple callback based DIC

11. Laravel
 Symfony component based
 Full stack MVC
 Modularized for larger applications
 Easy message queue based integration
 ORM supports multiple RDMBS and
NoSQL databases
 Active user base
 Corporate sponsorship

12. CMS
 WordPress
 Drupal
PHP CMS systems drive a large amount of
the internet and can be very useful if you
need mostly content and few additional
features.

13. WordPress
 Extensible CMS system
 Huge install base
 Large community
 Easy to start up
 Highly extensible within the framework
 Must extend within the framework
 Old school implementation and modules

14. Drupal
 Symfony components
 Complex Symfony DIC
 Highly extensible
 Highly customizable
 Large community
 Many modules available in the
community
 Can get out of hand

15. Up and Comers
 Phalcon
 Yolo
Up and comers are newer frameworks that
show promise but have not been widely
adopted.

16. Phalcon
 Inner working code is C
 Very fast
 Very specific
 Can be limiting

17. Yolo
 Middleware based framework
 Symfony components
 As simple or complex as you like
 A great alternative to writing your own
framework without being constricted
within a larger framework.