Matt S

If you're in the market for a PHP MVC (Model-View-Controller) framework, here is a quick roundup of some of the best available that I've used that will hopefully ease your decision:

CakePHP - http://cakephp.org/

This is one of the most popular frameworks available for those wanting a Rails-like experience in PHP. Cake's main strengths are its automation (form handling, HTML and Javascript helpers, etc.), its powerful database layer (integrated CRUD and table associations), and large community. It also features scaffolding and command line tools for code generation that allow for quick prototyping. This is my personal favorite and its only real flaw is its lack of documentation on certain advanced features (though overall the documentation is good).

CodeIgniter - http://codeigniter.com/

CodeIgniter is a popular framework that came about through development of ExpressionEngine (ExpressionEngine 2 is even built on CodeIgniter). This is, by far, the easiest PHP MVC framework to learn. It has some of the best docs of any framework and is easily accessible to even novice PHP programmers. It also sports a large feature set, but its core is somewhat lacking (no integrated CRUD or table associations and use of models is optional). There is less automation than frameworks such as CakePHP resulting in more flexibility, but also more work for the developer.

Zend Framework - http://zendframework.com/

Zend Framework boasts one of the largest collection of classes (including many web services) of any PHP framework. However, that's all Zend Framework really is -- a collection of classes with little cohesion. It is referred to as a "glue" framework where you pick and choose what components you want to use, but in the end it is really no more of a framework than PEAR. This, however, was Zend's goal since this framework can be used entirely by itself to develop an appilcation, or its classes can be used independently (or even be integrated into another framework). This makes the framework extremely flexible, but it provides very little automation and requires a lot of configuration. Zend Framework has very thorough documentation, but it has one of the steepest learning curves of any PHP framework.

Symfony - http://www.symfony-project.org/

I don't have much experience using Symfony, but the framework deserves a mention. It is comparable to CakePHP in terms of popularity and, like CakePHP, features command line tools for code generation. It's marketed as an "enterprise" framework and is even used by Yahoo. Unfortunately, it is a little heavy due to its extensive use of 3rd party libraries (e.g. Propel) and requires a lot of configuration. Its complexity also means a relatively steep learning curve.

Emmanuel

Very well written and useful, thank you!

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cass_is_awesome

Very, very informative, I have to say.

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robinson.jason

My followon question would then be what IDE do you use with CakePHP to aid in developing your php apps? Most of my experience was with Java/Struts on the jDeveoper IDE, and I have minimal experience with Eclipse.

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H

I'd probably use something I found in a quick Google Search with Textmate.

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