Join us on October 25th for an introduction to Open Source web application frameworks. A framework is a reusable software design which improves the development process by letting a programmer focus on the business-specific tasks of a project rather than repetitive, common tasks like database access, templating, and session management. We'll learn more about web application frameworks in general and explore a number of today's most popular ones.
This event is a co-production of
Details: Thursday, October 25th, 2007 at 6:30PM. The Science Center 3701 Market Street, Second Floor Philadelphia, PA 19108 Map/Directions Attendance is free but please RSVP at http://www.panma.org/registration.html
You'll learn about the strengths and weaknesses, the joys and sorrows of working with four leading open source PHP application frameworks, presented by local developers and members of the group:
- CodeIgniter - Owen Winkler, Rock River Star
- Symfony - Alex Gilbert - P'unk Avenue
- Zend Framework - Chris Morrell
- CakePHP - Joshua Benner
For comparison, we'll also present:
- Ruby on Rails - Randy Schmidt. Ruby on Rails is a one of the most popular MVC frameworks today. Is it worth you learning another programming language (Ruby) in order to take advantage of Rails?
- Drupal - Dave Burns & Jerad Bitner. Drupal is a PHP/MySQL based content management system, which offers much more functionality out of the box than a framework but comes with tradeoffs in flexibility and performance. Learn about the tradeoffs made when choosing between a CMS and a framework.
This should be a great event, relevant to people of all levels of experience with PHP and even other open source languages and systems. Attendance is free but please RSVP at http://www.panma.org/registration.html
Comments
http://www.panma.org/registra
http://www.panma.org/registration.html Says that the event starts at 7 PM, but your post says 6:30 PM. Which one is it? :-)
Thanks,
-- Doug
Doh!
Sorry, it's 6:30 and the change has been made to the registration form.
Thanks for the catch.
Nate
stupid questions...
Maybe this will be addressed at the forum, and I'm sure that it gives away my ignorance of PHP, but I have two questions regarding frameworks:
1) What's the difference between a framework and an extension application repository, like PEAR? Or are they the same thing?
2) Can frameworks work together, or do you have to stick with one throughout a project?
Alex Urevick-Ackelsberg
ZivTech: Illuminating Technology
Frameworks vs Extensions
A framework is typically a cohesive unit that will either abstract or simplify typical, redundant, or "brainless" developer tasks, such as error handling, logging, database access, application structure, etc. A framework will tell the programmer things like where he should put certain types of code (MVC frameworks separate data, logic, and presentation for instance), how certain operations can be triggered, or what methods to use to access the data (such as a database).
Something like PEAR is more a collection of extensions or libraries for use in any project. A single PEAR package will usually implement a singular feature or function (there are exceptions to this). I admit, however, that I'm not highly familiar with PEAR aside from some of the PEAR packages and installs I've used.
--
Josh Benner
http://bennerweb.com
--
Josh Benner
http://jbenner.net
Rock River Star, LLP
Extension repositories like
Extension repositories like PEAR usually have small stand-alone modules, each of which performs a specific function. For example, PEAR has modules that do network communication, user-agent detection, and tarball creation.
A framework, on the other hand, is a collection of functions/classes/etc. which all work together to achieve a common goal. The functions are aware of each other and make use of each other extensively. For example, Drupal has its own set of "helper functions" which are called numerous times by higher-level parts of the system. A framework is greater than the sum of its parts.
I suppose you /could/ install two frameworks in the same place, but that would be like putting two engines in your car -- really awkward! Now, if you had a very large project, there's no reason why you couldn't say, use Drupal for the front end, and make RPC calls to a backend that is powered by CakePHP or some other framework. I don't think that would be an ideal solution, unless you were trying to achieve something on the back end that CakePHP does really well, for example.
-- Doug
Example
Doug is correct that it usually doesn't make sense to use two frameworks together.
As an example of what Doug is talking about when using frameworks together may be a good idea: Our intranet site is powered by Drupal. For most custom applications that we want to incorporate into the site, we'll develop them in CakePHP and use the Drake module to integrate them with Drupal. The reason we do this is that development time with Cake is very quick, and our apps are built upon several common models and controllers so that our apps all act the same.
To mention a case study, the guy who manages our phone system needed a way to manage the phone extension data and make it available to employees without duplicating his data all over the place. We made the database model, then baked the application with Cake -- he had a working custom application on our Drupal site in about 90 minutes. The same thing could be accomplished with Drupal just as well -- we just like the rapid development time, and the fact that if we need to or want to, we can extract the Cake app and run it independently with little or no modification.
--
Josh Benner
http://bennerweb.com
--
Josh Benner
http://jbenner.net
Rock River Star, LLP
CMS / Framework!
yes, unless & untill u have a strong reason to use multiple frameworks its not advisable to do so ...
instead try to pick an appropriate framework which can solve ur issues to max possible extent.
Frnds, how are these 2 words(CMS / Framework) distinguished?
Sree
What about special purpose frameworks?
It's interesting to note that such presentations and comparisons usually are limited to discuss general purpose frameworks.
Special purpose frameworks have their place as well and as with the general purpose solutions, depending on the task at hand different frameworks meet different needs and a special purpose framework can be the best fit for your next project.
The spectrum from simple scripts over full-blown web-applications to application/service frameworks is very wide and continuous. A framework differentiates itself from a web-application in that it usually provides an API, ways to extend the functionality as well as control over the user-interface allowing to build custom web-applications.
An example for a special purpose web-application framework is Gallery 2. While most end-users use it as a photo album presentation tool, it is also used as a framework to build customized web-album / media-management related community solutions.
It would be interesting to see more special purpose frameworks to be included in such discussions and presentations.
Special purpose frameworks
Special purpose frameworks are just that -- special purpose. Hosting a conversation comparing special purpose frameworks would only be really useful if the frameworks discussed all shared a common "special" purpose. Otherwise we might be comparing apples to oranges.
The goal of this event is to compare general purpose frameworks, as the information will be helpful for developers working on a myriad of different projects. If there are some special purpose frameworks that the group would benefit from comparing in another event, I think that would be a great idea.
--
Josh Benner
http://bennerweb.com
--
Josh Benner
http://jbenner.net
Rock River Star, LLP
Free stuff at the event
So I got another package of goodies from my buddies at Apress.
Plus about two dozen copies of Linux Pro Magazine. At the event, we'll draw names from among the RSVP's for the books. The magazines are first come first served.
See you there! RSVP today and tell your friends!
Nate.