PHP is one of the most modern and most used web programming languages that have been used by millions of website today. According to a report PHP is being used by 82% of the total web server. It is an integral part of maintaining websites and this is also easy to learn and helps in database integration support and HTML.

Apart from other languages PHP has sustained its much position in providing fast work, error free handling and the most productive use of it. It ensures the developer in terms of security, hacking, SQL injections and XSS attacks and many other things.

The main work of developers is to develop the responsive websites according to client requirements. Back-end–developers work on two types of applications such as web apps with a database background and API. It is the responsibility of developers to generate a code that supports to front end also.

Front-end and back-end developers work together to meet the user requirement. They understand the client’s need then discuss the scope of the project, cost, and delivery time etc.
Many students prefer to choose their career in engineering nowadays. Demand for the computer science or IT students are very high.

There are so many career options in computer science field which include Developing, Designing, Networking, Database Administrator and much more. Students can choose the career according to their interest. There are so many languages to learn in computer science like PHP, NET, JAVA, Python, and Ruby etc.

If you want to choose your career in developing field, then you can go in front end development and back-end development. These all are the backend languages that is most important for development.

• What is The Best Framework to Build a PHP Web Application?
• What is The Easiest PHP Framework to Learn?
• How do I Select a PHP Framework?
• How Many Types of Framework Are There in PHP?
• Which PHP Framework is Most Secure?
• Which Framework is Most Used in PHP?
• Is WordPress a PHP Framework?
• Why Should I Learn PHP Framework?
• Is Magento a PHP Framework?
• What is PHP MVC Framework?
• Which PHP Framework is Used by Facebook?
• How to Configure MVC in PHP?
• What Are PHP Models?
• What is a PHP Controller?
• What is CodeIgniter Framework in PHP?
• Best PHP Framework For Beginners
• PHP Frameworks Comparison
• PHP Front-end Framework

What is The Best Framework to Build a PHP Web Application?

Top PHP framework that can help you in getting work done easily:

1. Laravel:

It is determined as the most popular PHP Framework used by technology freaks today. It gives the super function of good routing, easy authentication, migrations support and Blade Template Engine which helps the developers to have a creative website at once. It is indeed a much developed and advanced form to have such framework to build a website.

2. Symfony:

It is the most flexible, scalable and one of the extreme PHP framework platform for MVC applications. It is aimed at building robust application at enterprise context which also aims at providing full access over the configuration. It is also a collection of tools which helps the developers in testing, debugging and document projects.

3. Codelgniter:

It is an open-source software web framework which is used for building dynamic website with PHP. It is a free PHP framework maintained by EllisLab.

Read Also: Top 10 US Software Developers Jobs

CodeIgniter can also be modified for the use of HMVC (Hierarchical Model View Controller) that allows developers to maintain modular grouping controller, models and views in sub-directory format. Easy error handling, zero installation, easy security and other modes have brought this framework in limelight of being used.

4. Phalcon:

Got the name from Falcon, fastest bird living on earth. So is the functionality of the framework. It provides a swiftness and fastest ability to work on PHP. When competed with other frameworks, it gives the fastest time requests, low memory usage and Phalcon crew test to the developers. It is only possible because it is written with C/C++ for performance optimizing purpose.

5. Yii:

It is the modern PHP framework with OOP system. It is also built in integration with great PHP testing framework to test the application for its easiness and swifter move. Yii provides a module of easy installing, extensible high and it also enables the user to fit in wherever it wants.

6. Fat-Free:

This is the PHP micro-framework which is powerful and easy to use. It is in built with lightweight framework with less than 50KB. It was entirely developed in PHP featuring URL router, cache engine and multilingual application support.

7. Kohana:

It is the architectural patterned PHP framework with HMVC. It was built with PHP OOP keeping in mind that means it will provide you advantages of getting protection, automatic class loading, overloading and singletons. GET, POST, COOKIE and SESSION methods can also be used to bring website in advanced form.

8. Fuel PHP:

It is a framework that is written in PHP 5.3. It is featured with URL routing system, restful implementation, template parsing, ORM (Object Rational Mapper), vulnerability protection and caching system. This all has been brought up by with flexible, modular and extensible framework.

9. Flight:

It is an extensible PHP micro-framework. It is a simple and restful framework which thus doesn’t allows big web application projects. It also do support routing, error handling, JSON sending and request and many more. It can be easily used to work with PHP beginners and can become developer in top companies.

10. Zikula:

It is free open source PHP framework based on Symfony and Doctrine. It is majorly used by small enterprise or some personal projects. It is also featured with flexible theme system, WYSIWYG editors, ModuleStudio, document creator and many more.

What is The Easiest PHP Framework to Learn?

Depends on what you actually need the framework for.

Slim Framework

Slim is a microframework that helps you quickly write simple yet powerful web applications and APIs. Some individuals have learned it in a day or so.

Yii Framework

Yii is extremely performance optimized and is the perfect choice for any sized project. The documentation is great and there are plenty of resources to get you started quickly.

Laravel – The PHP Framework For Web Artisans –

Probably the most talked about framework, and reasonably so. There are great tutorials for Laravel on Laracasts for a cheap price. The docs are also pretty thorough.

How do I Select a PHP Framework?

Finding the right PHP framework is essential to build a robust and flexible web app for your business. So, below are some tips to help you choose the best PHP framework for your web development project.

Fulfill your Requirements

First of all, you need to assess your requirements or goals, you may want to create an eCommerce website, a blogging site, a social media site, or a business site. A simple blogging website needs a framework that offers various theme and plugins options.

For instance, an eCommerce website needs extensions or plugins to add functionality like payment gateway, inventory, shipping, etc. Hence your primary goal would be to look for a framework that combines these features along with scalability, security, and robustness. Moreover, you need to find the right framework that fulfills your requirements.

Level of Documentation

When using any framework a developer would require solid references to streamline the development. And, a well-documented framework offers an easy way to find hidden anomalies as well as communicate the workflow. The documentation offers do’s and don’ts before any real development work is done that helps in quality code.

Further, documentation provides a deeper insight into the workings of a framework to find the right way and right approach to a development method. Developers can utilize documentation to get a quick understanding of the varied functions and uses of the framework. Hence you can look for a PHP framework that has good documentation.

Regular Updates 

You need to make sure that the PHP framework that you want to choose is regulated, updated, and maintained. Since, changes are inevitable, so when web technology becomes outdated, new updates are released with new features and benefits.

Moreover, these updates are meant to enhance the features of a framework as well as make sure that it is up-to-date. So, before you choose a PHP framework make sure that it is regularly updated and maintained because outdated versions will not support the latest techs.

Community Support

Another important point to consider when looking for a perfect PHP web development framework is active community support. However, knowing all the workings and functionality of a framework is not easy. So, finding support becomes necessary when the complexity of code rises.

Consequently, community support is very helpful in this regard. Developers can go to community forums and find the solution to their problems. The community also helps in the evolution of the frameworks especially open-source frameworks by directly contributing to them.

Reliable PHP Development Services

The last but not least point is the selection of the right technology partner. Whether you want to choose CodeIgniter web development service or CakePHP developer or Laravel or any other PHP framework, you should ensure that you can find the best tech partner. A PHP framework that is widely used by businesses and developers is also available easily.  

How Many Types of Framework Are There in PHP?

The goal of a framework is to provide you with a foundation you can use to develop projects more efficiently. To do that, it will include a lot of the functions you’d need to code from the ground up if you wanted to start from scratch.

Imagine that you’re trying to cook a new dish, for example. You’d buy a lot of ingredients you’d need to prepare in specific ways. However, you’d also need access to some basics, such as pots, pans, knives, and a cutting board. In this example, all of those kitchen essentials would be part of a basic framework. Without them, you’d need to start from nothing each time.

Frameworks function the same way, keeping you from having to constantly reinvent the wheel. If you want to develop a new PHP application, a great place to start is by looking for a framework that includes all the functionality you’ll need to use. Fortunately, there are a lot of options to choose from. They’re all unique in how they approach development, and they all come with their own pros and cons.

All of these options are free and open source, so you can try out whichever ones spark your interest.

1. Laravel

When people talk about PHP frameworks, one of the names that tend to pop up most often is Laravel. This particular framework is renown for its elegant syntax, which is easy to grasp and a pleasure to work with.

With Lavarel, you can get to work on your projects rapidly. You’ll also be able to skip a lot of groundwork since you get access to functions such as user authentication, session management, and caching. Overall, Laravel packs all the functionality you’ll need to build a modern PHP application, which is saying a lot.

If you’re interested in the technical reasons that using Laravel can be a smart idea, we can sum those up easily. First, Laravel core is solid from a performance standpoint, and you can extend the framework using a lot of add-ons.

Laravel also integrates beautifully with other third-party libraries and platforms, such as Amazon Web Services (AWS), which enables you to build highly-scalable applications. For long-running tasks, you can queue them to run asynchronously in the background, which helps to improve performance even further.

Key Features:

• Use a framework that prides itself on elegant syntax
• Extend Laravel’s core functionality using add-ons
• Use built-in functions to handle routing, user management, caching, and plenty more
• Integrate Laravel with third-party libraries and platforms such as AWS
• Run tasks asynchronously in the background to improve performance

Finally, Laravel boasts a highly-active community, which means finding help or tutorials is never a challenge. If this is your first time using a framework, that makes Laravel an even better option.

2. CodeIgniter

CodeIgniter is a PHP framework that uses a Model View Controller (MVC) architecture. In layman’s terms, that means CodeIgniter uses different components to handle specific development tasks. This approach is well-liked among developers because it enables you to build highly-scalable web applications with a smaller footprint.

If you’re new to PHP frameworks, CodeIgniter can be an excellent choice, because it’s rather easy to learn and get started with. Plus, the platform boasts excellent documentation, which means you shouldn’t have too much trouble learning the basics. CodeIgniter also offers solid performance, which means it’s perfect if you want to build lightweight applications that run well on modest servers.

Key Features:

• Use a lightweight framework built with performance in mind
• Get started quickly, thanks to the framework’s simplicity and excellent documentation
• Create scalable apps using the framework’s MVC-based architecture

There are a lot of pros to using CodeIgniter. However, we’re wary about calling it the best PHP framework, because it also comes with some downsides. For example, its releases are somewhat irregular, so it may not be the top option for applications that require high-level security standards.

3. Symfony

If there were a competition for the best PHP framework, Symfony would be right up there with CodeIgniter and Laravel in terms of popularity. Once you start digging into the framework, it becomes easy to see why.

Along with having a cool name, Symfony is highly flexible. It features a bundle and component system that enables you to cherry-pick the PHP functions you need, or simply use the entire framework.

To ensure that your applications run as they should, the framework also includes built-in testing functionality. In our experience, however, applications built using Symfony often don’t have the best performance. Plus, the framework has a very steep learning curve when compared to the other options we’ve seen so far.

Key Features:

• Use a highly flexible framework that enables you to set up individual components
• Take advantage of the framework’s built-in testing functionality
• Learn how to use the platform through its excellent documentation

Symfony can be a strong option if you care about modularity. You can just use the components you want instead of a full library, which can make this the best PHP framework if you only need a little help.

4. Laminas Project

People often refer to Laminas Projects, previously Zend,  as a ‘glue’ framework, which is a way of referring to its component-based nature. Laminas Projects is an object-oriented, MVC-based framework that enables you to load only the components you want as individual libraries.

To put it another way, Laminas Projects enables you to focus only on the components and functions you want, and ignore everything else. Thanks to this approach and the framework’s object-oriented nature, you should be able to reuse a lot of the code you write, which is always great news. In addition, it’s quite easy to integrate the platform with external libraries to extend its functionality even further.

Key Features:

• Use a PHP object-oriented framework with an MVC architecture
• Re-use your code thanks to the platform’s design
• Integrate Laminas Projects with external libraries easily
• Use only the components you want, and ignore everything else

However, there are a few downsides to using Laminas Projects. The platform is fairly complex to pick up, for example. In our experience, if you’re moving from a tool such as Laravel to Laminas Projects, the jump can be quite challenging, and it can be somewhat intimidating if it’s your first framework. Still, Laminas Projects can be the best PHP framework if you have development experience and you like object-oriented coding.

5. Phalcon

Phalcon is a bit of an oddity when it comes to PHP frameworks. Its source code is written in C, so it’s basically a C extension of PHP. This sounds odd, but in practice, it results in one of the fastest frameworks we’ve had the pleasure of using.

When it comes to performance, Phalcon lives up to its name, and it consistently delivers results that are near the top of the pack. Phalcon is also very light on resources, and it uses an MVC architecture. Plus, it’s unique in that the framework itself has almost no files once you install it. Instead, you just add the modules and libraries you need when you need them, which makes for a very uncluttered development process.

Key Features:

• Use a PHP framework that’s based on C
• Take advantage of Phalcon’s fantastic performance and low resource overhead
• Use only the modules and libraries you need

So far, Phalcon must be sounding pretty good. We’re big fans of this framework, but it’s worth noting that since we’re talking about a less popular tool, its documentation isn’t up to par with giants like Laravel. Finding help with bugs can also take more work. However, Phalcon comes pretty close to being the best PHP framework you can use, especially if performance is what you’re looking for.

6. CakePHP

In the early 2000s, CakePHP was the first PHP MVC framework to hit the market. Back then it was a revelation, and it’s still one of the best PHP frameworks you can use (and one of the most popular).

Newer versions of CakePHP have improved in performance over time, and added lots of new components. However, where CakePHP really shines is in the way it approaches convention in coding. This means that with CakePHP, once you master its set of conventions, you can focus on development and get more work done faster.

Along with that, CakePHP offers a wonderful set of libraries that include a lot of helpful components (as every PHP framework should). During our tests, we found that CakePHP offers one of the most thorough sets of components you can find, so it’s a great option if you need to implement hard-to-find features.

Key Features:

• Take advantage of a broad set of components
• Use CakePHP’s conventions to code projects faster

Of course, CakePHP can be a bit restrictive due to its love of conventions. If you like to code by the seat of your pants and to be as creative as possible, CakePHP might not be the best option for you. Still, it’s a strong pick for many developers.

7. Yii

Yii is another strong entry in our roundup of the best PHP frameworks, and it’s a worthy competitor. Right away, we can tell you that Yii shines due to how easy it is to set up. Along with that, the framework is right up there with Phalcon when it comes to performance, which is a huge selling point.

Just like the other PHP frameworks we’ve seen so far, Yii offers a robust set of components you can use to speed up web application development. However, it stands out due to its robust set of security features, which you can use create highly secure projects.

Key Features:

• Excellent speed and performance
• Use the default setup or customize it to meet your precise needs
• Create secure websites and applications

As for its downsides, Yii can be a bit tough to pick up if it’s your first framework. It’s a top competitor for the title of best PHP framework, but if you’re new to the language, there are other more beginner-friendly options you can use.

8. FuelPHP

FuelPHP is a relatively new PHP framework, first launched in 2014. The creators claim to have gathered the best practices out of other powerful frameworks and created something new and exciting. Some of the most unique aspects are described in the features section.

Key Features:

• Full support for HMVC
• Hardened security out of the box
• A unique command line utility

The framework supports PHP version 5.4 and above. Plus it offers in-depth documentation that will help start developing as quickly as possible.

Which PHP Framework is Most Secure?

You can make any code/ framework secure by coding yourself. You just have to follow some security techniques provided by PHP or any other programming languages. In PHP follow csrf tokens, xss security, high password machnism and use techniques to prevent from SQL INJECTION , use google CAPTCHA and all so that you can make security for your code.

At the end in PHP Laravel is the best framework for security purpose because its development team always looks for its all security issues and is always up to date.

Laravel is the best PHP framework.

Laravel has become the most popular free, open-source PHP framework in the world. Why? Because it can handle complex web applications securely, at a considerably faster pace than other frameworks. Laravel simplifies the development process by easing common tasks such as routing, sessions, caching, and authentication.

Which Framework is Most Used in PHP?

PHP is one of the oldest and most popular web development languages, and Laravel is its most popular framework. The PHP scripting language has a variety of frameworks with robust technical capabilities such as – Laravel, Symfony, CodeIgniter, Yii 2,  Phalcon, CakePHP, Zend , Slim, etc.  Yet, Laravel has retained the top position on the list of top PHP MVC frameworks.  

We will outline some of the interesting features of the Laravel framework here, which will explain why it is gaining so much popularity.

1. MVC Support and Object-Oriented Approach

The first and best advantage of using the Laravel framework is that it follows – Model, View, and Controller-based architectural pattern and it has an expressive beautiful syntax which makes it object-oriented.

2. Built-In Authentication and Authorization

Laravel provides an out-of-the-box configuration for the Authentication and Authorization system. That is, in just a few artisan commands your application will be equipped with secure Authentication and Authorization.

3. Packaging System

A packaging system deals with the multiple support software or libraries that help the web application to automate the process. Laravel uses a composer as a dependency manager, which manages all the information needed to manage packages.

Packages are a great way to accelerate development is to provide the functionality we need out of the box. Image, Laravel Debug bar and Laravel IDE helper are some of the best Laravel packages.

4. Multiple File System

Laravel also has a built-in support for the cloud storage system such as Amazon S3 and Rack space Cloud Storage and of course for local storage. It’s amazingly simple to switch between these storage options as the API remains the same for each system. One can use all three systems in one application to serve files from multiple locations like in a distributed environment.

5. Artisan Console

Laravel has its own command line interface called as Artisan. Common uses of Artisan include publishing package assets, managing database migrations, seeding and generating boilerplate code for new controllers, models, and migrations.

This feature frees the developer from creating proper code skeletons. One can extend the functionality and capabilities of Artisan by implementing new custom commands.

6. Eloquent ORM

The Eloquent ORM is Laravel’s built-in ORM implementation. Laravel has the best Object-relational Mapper as compared to the other frameworks out there. This Object-relational mapping allows you to interact with your database objects and database relationships using expressive syntax.

7. Templating engine

Laravel comes with the inbuilt template engine known as Blade Template Engine. Blade templating engine combines one or more templates with a data model to produce resulting views, doing that by transpiring the templates into cached PHP code for improved performance.

Blade also provides a set of its own control structures such as conditional statements and loops, which are internally mapped to their PHP counterparts.

8. Task Scheduling

Scheduler, introduced in Laravel 5.0, is an addition to the Artisan command-line utility that allows programmatic scheduling of periodically executed tasks. Internally, scheduler relies on the cron daemon to run a single Artisan job that, in turn, executes the configured tasks.

9. Events and Broadcasting

Laravel has a concept named broadcasting which is useful in the modern web application to implement real-time data, showing live feeds,etc. Broadcasting allows you to share same event name between your server-side and client-side, so you will able to pull real-time data from the application.

10. Testing

When it comes to the testing of the application Laravel by default provides the unit test for the application, which itself contains tests that detect and prevent regressions in the framework. Integration of PHP unit such as a testing framework is very easy in Laravel application. In addition to that unit tests can be run through the provided artisan command-line utility.

Apart from these features, Laravel also has official packages that come handy when integrating different features in the application.

Is WordPress a PHP Framework?

On the surface Wordpress is a content management system. It is used by most of its users as a content management system and it offers all of the features of a content management system.

However, we don’t see Wordpress as just a content management system, we see it as a framework. Really when you think about it, what is a framework, specifically: What is a PHP framework?

• Routing – Wordpress offers the ability to have custom rewrite rules, capture URL parameters and do other things around routing out-of-the-box.
• ORM/Database interface abstraction – Wordpress comes with a powerful database class with ORM capabilities that allow us to work with the database either indirectly through abstract methods or write raw queries (just like a PHP framework ORM most likely would).
• Templating – By default Wordpress works on the basic premise of there being a certain hierarchy of files named a certain way. Technically your theme “index.php” file is your main layout and entry point. From there on in, you can do things like; include partials, extend other templating files and do dynamic logic based on database data, AJAX requests and more.
• Authentication/User management – Wordpress ships with a powerful role based authentication layer that is easily extendable. There are plugins out there that extend the authentication layer beyond what a lot of PHP frameworks can offer like; LDAP authentication, social authentication and more.
• Administration panel – There is no PHP framework to my knowledge that ships with an extendable and aesthetically pleasing UI like Wordpress offers. Sure there are third party packages for frameworks like Laravel that give you an admin panel, but they require configuration to work with your application correctly.
• Plugin architecture – Wordpress has a hook based plugin architecture that is both powerful and easy to use. Most internal aspects of Wordpress are configurable through action hooks and filters. You can even define your own hooks/filters to make your sites extensible via plugins.
• Media management – I do not know of any PHP framework that offers the kind of out-of-the-box media management functionality that Wordpress does. The ability to handle, process and store various kinds of media from audio to video and photos.
• Caching – I know most PHP frameworks offer caching functionality, but with Wordpress you not only get an out-of-the-box caching functionality that works, but there are millions of plugins out there offering more finer-grained caching control.

The one downside to Wordpress is that it doesn’t offer any kind of familiar pattern that frameworks like Laravel do. There is no MVC, everything is this functional flat-file architecture for backwards compatibility. Does this make Wordpress a less-worthy contender for a royal framework knighthood? There are plugins that offer the MVC pattern in Wordpress, but unless you absolutely need an MVC structure, don’t bother.

So yes: Wordpress is a PHP framework. It is by no means a drop-in replacement for all framework specific purposes, but it offers so much out-of-the-box, there are not really many situations where Wordpress would not be appropriate for the task at hand.

Why Should I Learn PHP Framework?

PHP is one of the many server-side languages you can learn to build web sites. It joins other languages such as Java, ASP.NET, Ruby, and R. Eighty percent of the top 10 websites are powered by PHP, including Facebook and Wikipedia. PHP has consistently demonstrated its ability to scale the largest web sites while at the same time having an easier learning curve than other languages.

A neat feature of PHP is that it’s very flexible and versatile. PHP is almost the same as if it was an object-oriented language, making it a very convenient language to work with. It also has a quite powerful meta-language for developers. 

PHP is typically used to run Web sites, but you can run PHP on your Windows, macOS, and Linux workstations. The easiest way to run PHP is to install Docker and then run a container with PHP included. The container referred to in the link has PHP, MySQL, and NGINX running in a single container. You can be up and running in a few hours.

Is Magento a PHP Framework?

Magento is an e-commerce platform written in PHP atop the zend-framework, available under both open-source and commercial licenses. It is written in an advanced object-oriented idiom that uses the MVC pattern and XML configuration files, aiming for flexibility and extensibility. It is owned and maintained by Adobe.

Magento uses E-commerce platform which offers companies the ultimate E-commerce solutions and extensive support network. Magento allows user to update E-commerce website automatically. It is simple, quick and versatile to use.

Magento was developed by Varien Inc., and it was first released on March 31, 2008.

Why to Use Magento?

• Magento is an open source E-commerce software.
• Magento is scalable and offers small organizations to build business.
• Magento enables searching and sorting of products in several ways.
• Magento easily integrates with many of the third-party sites which are needed to run effective E-commerce website.

Features of Magento

• Magento provides different payment methods such as credit cards, PayPal, cheques, money order, Google checkouts, etc.
• Magento enables shipping of products in one order to multiple addresses.
• Magento helps to manage the orders easily by using the admin panel.
• Magento provides order of product status and history of product. It also supports e-mail and RSS feeds.
• Magento supports multiple languages, different currencies and tax rates.
• Magento filters the products and displays in grid or list format.
• Magento makes it easy to browse the products. It has features such as image zoom-in and checking of stock availability.
• Magento has built-in SEO (Search Engine Optimization).

Magento isn’t built using some other PHP framework. Rather it makes isolated use of Zend and Symfony components. But overall, Magento is an ecommerce framework built in PHP. It’s not some below par product built with Laravel or something.

You cannot build something like Magento and have all the overhead of frameworks like Zend, Symfony and Laravel. They may be good for quick jobs, but Magento needs to handle lots of products, sales, customers.

What is PHP MVC Framework?

PHP MVC is an application design pattern that separates the application data and business logic (model) from the presentation (view). MVC stands for Model, View & Controller.

The controller mediates between the models and views.

Think of the MVC design pattern as a car and the driver.

The car has the windscreens (view) which the driver (controller) uses to monitor traffic ahead then speed or brake (model) depending on what he sees ahead.

Why use PHP MVC Framework?

• PHP MVC Frameworks simplify working with complex technologies by;
  • Hiding all the complex implementation details
  • Providing standard methods that we can use to build our applications.
  • Increased developer productivity, this is because the base implementation of activities such as connecting to the database, sanitizing user input etc. are already partially implemented.
  • Adherence to professional coding standards

Which PHP Framework is Used by Facebook?

Facebook uses PHP for its front-end, and they also spend a lot of time dispatching to back-end services. Again their framework is home-grown, but they have even gone so far as to build their own PHP engine and development tools. They’ve open-sourced some of their framework code as well.

How to Configure MVC in PHP?

Let’s now briefly discuss each component of the MVC design pattern.

Model – this part is concerned with the business logic and the application data. It can be used to perform data validations, process data and store it. The data can come from;

• flat file
• database
• XML document
• Other valid data sources.

Controller – this is the part deals with the users’ requests for resources from the server.

As an example, when the users requests for the URL …/index.php?products=list, the controller will load the products model to retrieve the products data then output the results in the list view.

In a nutshell, the controller links the models and views together depending on the requested resources.

Views – this part deals with presenting the data to the user. This is usually in form of HTML pages.

What Are PHP Models?

Models are PHP classes that are designed to work with information in your database. For example, let’s say you use CodeIgniter to manage a blog. You might have a model class that contains functions to insert, update, and retrieve your blog data.

Here is an example of what such a model class might look like:

class Blog_model extends CI_Model {

        public $title;
        public $content;
        public $date;

        public function get_last_ten_entries()
        {
                $query = $this->db->get('entries', 10);
                return $query->result();
        }

        public function insert_entry()
        {
                $this->title    = $_POST['title']; // please read the below note
                $this->content  = $_POST['content'];
                $this->date     = time();

                $this->db->insert('entries', $this);
        }

        public function update_entry()
        {
                $this->title    = $_POST['title'];
                $this->content  = $_POST['content'];
                $this->date     = time();

                $this->db->update('entries', $this, array('id' => $_POST['id']));
        }

}

What is a PHP Controller?

Controllers are another essential feature provided by Laravel. In place of defining the handling request logic in the form of Closures in route files, it is possible to organize this process with the help of Controller classes. So what the controllers do?

Controllers are meant to group associated request handling logic within a single class. In your Laravel project, they are stored in the app/Http/Controllers’ directory.

• Basic Controllers
• Controller Filters
• Implicit Controllers
• RESTful Resource Controllers
• Handling Missing Methods

What is CodeIgniter Framework in PHP?

CodeIgniter is a PHP MVC framework used for developing web applications rapidly. CodeIgniter provides out of the box libraries for connecting to the database and performing various operations like sending emails, uploading files, managing sessions, etc.

CodeIgniter Features

Let’s see some of the features that make CodeIgniter great. The following list is not exhaustive but gives you an idea of what to expect when working with CodeIgniter.

Small footprint

The entire source code for CodeIgniter framework is close to 2MB. This makes it easy to master CodeIgniter and how it works. It also simplifies deploying and updating it.

Blazing fast

Users tend to favor applications that load very fast. If you have worked with some of the modern frameworks, then you will realize that they take less than one second to load just after installation. CodeIgniter, you can loads on average around less than 50ms. The extra time spent optimizing like is the case in another framework is freed up when you are working with CodeIgniter framework.

Loosely coupled

The built-in features are designed to work independently without relying too much on other components. This makes it easy to maintain and make upgrades

MVC Architecture

The PHP CodeIgniter framework uses the Model-View-Controller architectural design. It is industry standard practices when working with web applications. MVC separates the data, business logic, and presentation.

Excellent documentation:

The framework is well documented, and there are good books, tutorials and answered forum questions on CodeIgniter. This means whatever challenge that you have, chances are someone has already encountered the problem, solved it and the solution is out there for you.

Application specific built-in components:

CodeIgniter has components for sending email, database management, session management and many more as you will discover as we continue with the tutorials.

Extendable:

CodeIgniter comes with some libraries, and helpers out of the box. If what you want is not there or you would like to implement an existing feature your way. Then you can do so easily by creating your libraries, helpers, packages, etc. You can also create REST API in CodeIgniter.

Short learning curve:

CodeIgniter is easy to master for anyone who is already familiar with PHP. Within a very short time, the student can Learn CodeIgniter and start developing professional applications using CodeIgniter.

Best PHP Framework For Beginners

If you are new to PHP, then before devoting himself known a framework, first understand about PHP and its features. Then the most interesting is dedicated to the framework of object-oriented programming and also designs (a few as MCV, MCVD).

With this learning, regardless of what framework you will utilize, you will have a greater capacity analysis procedure to see which best suited the project.

Also we recommend Laravel. This is one of the most popular and advanced PHP frameworks for web applications with its expressive and elegant syntax. It also has great features, such as allowing you to command your data, use a light-weight blade tempting engine, and a great foundation of well-tested and reliable code.

PHP Frameworks Comparison

Regardless of what you are building, be it a simple website or something much more complicated, you need to have the best tools in the business to get the job done.

If your PHP framework was built properly and kept in good maintenance, it gives developers the tools they need to get the backend to work better, save time and use the same code for other purposes. With the help of frameworks, you will be able to get the job done.   

To help you choose the one that will best fit your needs, we’ve created a top PHP frameworks comparison list:   

Laravel

Laravel framework heads up our list of best PHP web frameworks because of its popularity, and ability to be used for web apps creation with the MVC pattern. All the releases are well documented which makes it relatively easy to learn and to build apps very quickly. It has a very effective templating engine that makes all kinds of tasks like authentication and caching.

Symfony

This framework is loved and chosen by many developers because it offers many reusable components and code. If you are designing a web app for big enterprises, Symfony is the right choice for such projects. It has a large community of developers who can provide technical assistance, but it also comes with extensive documentation as well.

However, unlike Laravel, it takes quite some time to become acquainted with it, therefore be sure to give yourself some time if you have never used it before. Also, if your project will depend on modularity, Symfony would be the best choice.

Phalcon

At first glance, this framework might seem a bit strange since the source code is written in C.  This PHP framework performance and its top-notch speed makes developers prefer Phalcon to others widely used frameworks.

It is not resourced heavy and there will only be a handful of files remaining after it is installed, thus allowing developers to add any components whenever they need. This really provides a smooth development process without any hidden pitfalls.

FuelPHP

When FuelPHP was released it was like a breath of fresh air because it was an amalgamation of the best things that PHP frameworks had to offer. It is fully supported by the MVC architecture as well as its better version HMVC. It is full stack and offers features such as modularity and extensibility.

Zend

Zend is good for massive projects. It was created with the agile methodology in mind and, thanks to its architecture, developers can focus on the components they deem necessary. In addition, it comes with debugging tools, drag and drop editor, cryptographic coding tools and many other features. Since it offers such a vast array of benefits it must be included in the top PHP frameworks list.

PHPixie

Not every PHP framework was designed to tackle complex problems. With PHPixie you can create read-only websites such as social networks and custom web apps. It uses the HMVC pattern just like FulePHP and uses independent components that can be used separately. They have all been thoroughly tested and will not need a lot of dependence.

CakePHP

The framework was released at the beginning of the century and is still being perfected by the community. It offers fast builds and proper class validation making it one of the best choices for customized website development. It is built on the CRUD framework which makes it easy to build great looking websites that are jam-packed with features.

It also includes good security measures with cross-site encrypting protection, SQL injection prevention, and other security features. It also has a vast community of users that offers support portals and premium support.

Yii2

If you are wondering what Yii stands for, it is deciphered as “Yes, it is!” It is simple as its name might suggest but boasts a loading technique that is better than other frameworks. It is object-oriented and was designed in such a way that avoids using the same software pattern over and over again.

One of its major benefits is the class code generator which facilitates object-oriented programming and fast prototyping.

Slim

This framework was inspired by Sinatra and is great for creating small web apps that do not require a full stack PHP framework. It has great things like URL routing, HTTP caching, and is very useful for creating REST APIs and applications. It is easy to use and can be picked up quickly by beginners thanks to its great documentation.

CodeIgniter

Trusted framework for creating scalable web apps. It is simple to use, built well and requires almost no user configuration. While CodeIgniter might be viewed as an MVC framework it is not completely based on this architecture: controllers are necessary while models and view classes are not.

Having said this, the biggest benefits of this framework is its speed. It is the fastest out of all the frameworks with database tasks. Even with all this rich set of features, it is still easy to learn, which cannot be said about other frameworks that offer a similar set of features such as Zend.

Aura

If you are creating a very simple web app, this is the best one to choose. It has decoupled libraries which are self-contained. All of these libraries are kept up to date by the user community. It is best suited for simple apps and it has great features such as a configuration system, CLI dispatcher, logging instance and many other useful things.

Flight

This micro framework allows you to manage some routine tasks such as routing and class loading. Developers can set variables, handle views, add filters without having to name them first and many other features.

Medoo

This one is farther down on the list because it is an abstraction library designed to enhance the development process. Since it is very lightweight, you can learn it quickly and works well with some of the more popular frameworks Laravel and Yii. It does support simple and complex SQL queries, data mapping and does not allow SQL injections.

Pop PHP

A micro framework that has been thoroughly tested in order to create REST APIs and apps very quickly. It also goes by the name “Popcorn” and offers a very small number of web-based components, but developers can add them should the case may be. It was created to make sure that developers adhere to the routing rules depending on the request method.

Fat-free

Even though this is a micro framework, what sets this one apart from other microframeworks on this list is that it packs a lot of the useful feature that you can find in Laravel and CodeIgniter. It supports SQL and NoSQL databases and it is easy to create web apps with it. While it might seem that its rich set of features requires full stack development, it is still a great framework for PHP developers.

PHP Front-end Framework

Building a front-end application requires the combined use of HTML that is responsible for webpage basic layout, CSS to manage the visual formatting, and JavaScript to maintain interactivity.

Frontend frameworks are needed to facilitate the job of web developers: these software packages usually provide pre-written/reusable code modules, standardized front-end technologies, and ready-made interface blocks making it faster and easier for developers to craft sustainable web applications and UIs without coding every function or object from scratch.

Front-end frameworks include certain development instruments, such as a grid making it simple to place and position the UI design components, pre-defined font settings, and website standard building blocks (i.e. side panels, buttons, navigation bars, etc.)

1. Phalcon (BSD Licenses)

Phalcon is a PHP web framework based on the model–view–controller (MVC) pattern. Originally released in 2012, it is an open-source framework licensed under the terms of the BSD License.

Unlike most PHP frameworks^, Phalcon is implemented as a web server extension written in Zephir and C, aiming to boost execution speed, reduce resource usage, and handle more HTTP requests per second than comparable frameworks written primarily in PHP.

One drawback of this approach is that root/administrative access is required on the server to install Phalcon by building a custom binary or using a precompiled one.

2. Bootstrap

Bootstrap is a free and open-source CSS framework directed at responsive, mobile-first front-end web development. It contains CSS- and (optionally) JavaScript-based design templates for typography, forms, buttons, navigation, and other interface components.

As of April 2021, Bootstrap is the tenth most starred project on GitHub, with more than 150,000 stars, behind freeCodeCamp (almost 312,000 stars), Vue.js framework, React library, TensorFlow and others.

The most prominent components of Bootstrap are its layout components, as they affect an entire web page. The basic layout component is called “Container”, as every other element in the page is placed in it. Developers can choose between a fixed-width container and a fluid-width container.

While the latter always fills the width of the web page, the former uses one of the five predefined fixed widths, depending on the size of the screen showing the page:

• Smaller than 576 pixels
• 576–768 pixels
• 768–992 pixels
• 992–1200 pixels
• Larger than 1200 pixels

Once a container is in place, other Bootstrap layout components implement a CSS Flexbox layout through defining rows and columns.

3. jQuery

jQuery, at its core, is a Document Object Model (DOM) manipulation library. The DOM is a tree-structure representation of all the elements of a Web page. jQuery simplifies the syntax for finding, selecting, and manipulating these DOM elements.

For example, jQuery can be used for finding an element in the document with a certain property (e.g. all elements with an h1 tag), changing one or more of its attributes (e.g. color, visibility), or making it respond to an event (e.g. a mouse click).

jQuery also provides a paradigm for event handling that goes beyond basic DOM element selection and manipulation. The event assignment and the event callback function definition are done in a single step in a single location in the code.

jQuery also aims to incorporate other highly used JavaScript functionality (e.g. fade ins and fade outs when hiding elements, animations by manipulating CSS properties).

The principles of developing with jQuery are:

• Separation of JavaScript and HTML: The jQuery library provides simple syntax for adding event handlers to the DOM using JavaScript, rather than adding HTML event attributes to call JavaScript functions. Thus, it encourages developers to completely separate JavaScript code from HTML markup.
• Brevity and clarity: jQuery promotes brevity and clarity with features like “chainable” functions and shorthand function names.
• Elimination of cross-browser incompatibilities: The JavaScript engines of different browsers differ slightly so JavaScript code that works for one browser may not work for another. Like other JavaScript toolkits, jQuery handles all these cross-browser inconsistencies and provides a consistent interface that works across different browsers.
• Extensibility: New events, elements, and methods can be easily added and then reused as a plugin.

4. Django

Django is a high-level Python web framework that enables rapid development of secure and maintainable websites. Built by experienced developers, Django takes care of much of the hassle of web development, so you can focus on writing your app without needing to reinvent the wheel.

It is free and open source, has a thriving and active community, great documentation, and many options for free and paid-for support. 

Django helps you write software that is:

Complete

Django follows the “Batteries included” philosophy and provides almost everything developers might want to do “out of the box”. Because everything you need is part of the one “product”, it all works seamlessly together, follows consistent design principles, and has extensive and up-to-date documentation

Versatile

Django can be (and has been) used to build almost any type of website — from content management systems and wikis, through to social networks and news sites. It can work with any client-side framework, and can deliver content in almost any format (including HTML, RSS feeds, JSON, XML, etc). The site you are currently reading is built with Django!

Internally, while it provides choices for almost any functionality you might want (e.g. several popular databases, templating engines, etc.), it can also be extended to use other components if needed.

Secure

Django helps developers avoid many common security mistakes by providing a framework that has been engineered to “do the right things” to protect the website automatically.

For example, Django provides a secure way to manage user accounts and passwords, avoiding common mistakes like putting session information in cookies where it is vulnerable (instead cookies just contain a key, and the actual data is stored in the database) or directly storing passwords rather than a password hash.

Django enables protection against many vulnerabilities by default, including SQL injection, cross-site scripting, cross-site request forgery and clickjacking.

Scalable

Django uses a component-based “shared-nothing” architecture (each part of the architecture is independent of the others, and can hence be replaced or changed if needed).

Having a clear separation between the different parts means that it can scale for increased traffic by adding hardware at any level: caching servers, database servers, or application servers. Some of the busiest sites have successfully scaled Django to meet their demands (e.g. Instagram and Disqus, to name just two).

Maintainable

Django code is written using design principles and patterns that encourage the creation of maintainable and reusable code. In particular, it makes use of the Don’t Repeat Yourself (DRY) principle so there is no unnecessary duplication, reducing the amount of code.

Django also promotes the grouping of related functionality into reusable “applications” and, at a lower level, groups related code into modules (along the lines of the Model View Controller (MVC) pattern).

Portable

Django is written in Python, which runs on many platforms. That means that you are not tied to any particular server platform, and can run your applications on many flavours of Linux, Windows, and Mac OS X. Furthermore, Django is well-supported by many web hosting providers, who often provide specific infrastructure and documentation for hosting Django sites.

5. Angular

Angular (commonly referred to as “Angular 2+” or “Angular v2 and above”) is a TypeScript-based free and open-source web application framework led by the Angular Team at Google and by a community of individuals and corporations. Angular is a complete rewrite from the same team that built AngularJS.

Angular is used as the frontend of the MEAN stack, consisting of MongoDB database, Express.js web application server framework, Angular itself (or AngularJS), and Node.js server runtime environment.

6. Neos Flow

Flow (formerly known as TYPO3 Flow or FLOW3) is a free and open source web application framework written in PHP. The first final version was released on October 20, 2011.

It was primarily designed as a basis for the content management system Neos, but can also be used independently. It is generally suitable for PHP development of mid- or large-scaled web applications.

Neos Flow provides the base of the Neos Content Application Platform, but can also be used independently, i.e. establishing own applications such as a blogsystem, e-commerce and/or similar tasks. In the context of Flows’s documentation a blogsystem is used to visualize the various paradigms of Flow like MVC (Model-View-Controller), AOP (Aspect-Oriented-Programming) or DDD (Domain-Driven-Design).

The system uses namespaces and therefore depends on PHP 5.3+. It uses Doctrine 2 as a database abstraction layer, and can interface with e.g. MySQL and PostgreSQL.

7. Vue.js

Created by Evan You, Vue.js is an open-source progressive JavaScript framework for building user interfaces (UIs) and single-page applications; it is commonly referred to as Vue. This framework uses “high decoupling”, allowing developers to progressively create user interfaces (UIs).

Library modularization using a framework is common in frontend development. Both React and Angular have modularization. But what differentiates Vue.js from other alternatives is its “high decoupling”, how easy it is to extend functionalities, and how well all parts work once more modules are included.

For example, if we want to organize and render small visual components, all we need is Vue.js’s ‘core’ library; it is unnecessary to include additional libraries. As the application grows, we have libraries to manage routes such as ‘vue-router’, libraries to manage the global state such as ‘vuex’ or libraries to build responsive web applications such as ‘bootstrap-vue’.

Additionally, if our application needs to be optimized or needs good SEO, we can include the ‘vue-server-rendering’ library. In the following figure, we can see how the libraries we just mentioned are progressively included, from a small SPA to multi-page applications (MPA).

Vue.js’s component system is reactive, which means that Vue.js knows how to communicate through asynchronous events; for example, a child component can communicate with its parent component through events.

With Vue.js there is no friction with other libraries or resources, in other words, we can use the tool with which we are most comfortable with. For example, we can write only HTML and JavaScript or if we want we can add CSS, JSX or TypeScript.

Vue.js has a special command line (CLI) created on Node JS. This tool allows us to start a project using a boilerplate (or base template).

Additionally, the Vue.js development team maintains a Chrome extension that allows us to see how our component tree is rendered, how events are being launched and recorded, how the internal state of each component is saved, and how the global state of the component is behaving.

8. Angular js

AngularJS is a JavaScript framework for building MVC-based web applications. It allows you to split the business logic layer, data layer, and presentation layer. It uses HTML as a template language to extend its syntax for creating various application components. It also helps to reduce the code by data binding and dependency injection features.

AngularJS is an open-source framework that is widely used for creating client-side MVC web applications. Moreover, it is widely used in every industry by individuals and businesses worldwide, so there are huge career opportunities for candidates who have a good knowledge of Angular JS.

Following are the main features of Angular JS:

• It is an open-source JavaScript MVW Framework
• Extends HTML support by adding tags, attributes, and expressions
• Allows easy event Handling
• Provides support for Data Binding
• Offers built-in template engine and routing
• Provides form validations and animations
• Offers dependency injection

9. ASP.NET MVC (Apache License)

ASP.NET MVC is a web application framework developed by Microsoft that implements the model–view–controller (MVC) pattern. It is no longer in active development. It is open-source software, apart from the ASP.NET Web Forms component, which is proprietary.

ASP.NET Core has since been released, which unified ASP.NET, ASP.NET MVC, ASP.NET Web API, and ASP.NET Web Pages (a platform using only Razor pages). MVC 6 was abandoned due to Core and is not expected to be released. Core is currently planned to merge into “.NET 5”^.

Some well known sites that use ASP.NET MVC include Stack Overflow, Microsoft, GoDaddy and Ancestry.com.

Based on ASP.NET, ASP.NET MVC allows software developers to build a web application as a composition of three roles: Model, View and Controller. The MVC model defines web applications with 3 logic layers:

• Model (business layer)
• View (display layer)
• Controller (input control)

A model represents the state of a particular aspect of the application. A controller handles interactions and updates the model to reflect a change in state of the application, and then passes information to the view. A view accepts necessary information from the controller and renders a user interface to display that information.

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In April 2009, the ASP.NET MVC source code was released under the Microsoft Public License (MS-PL).

“ASP.NET MVC framework is a lightweight, highly testable presentation framework that is integrated with existing ASP.NET features. Some of these integrated features are master pages and membership-based authentication. The MVC framework is defined in the System.Web.Mvc assembly.”

The ASP.NET MVC framework couples the models, views, and controllers using interface-based contracts, thereby allowing each component to be tested independently.

Bottom Line

PHP is the main language that is used in dynamic web development if you want to create a static website or any dynamic website PHP is one of the main languages you can choose from. If you are a beginner then you can learn PHP from any online tutorials as there are so many websites provide free video tutorials to teach you the basics and advanced level programming.

There is so much demand for developers in the market today. Candidate can also work as a freelancer and can work on a client project. Future scope of developers is too high as each organization needs a development team to manage or build their websites. There are so many job portals available which provide the PHP Jobs Vacancies for the job seekers.

PHP incorporates different free and open-source libraries in its source conveyance, or utilizations them in coming about PHP twofold forms.

PHP is in a general sense an Internet-mindful framework with worked in modules for getting to File Transfer Protocol (FTP) servers and numerous database servers, including PostgreSQL, MySQL, Microsoft SQL Server and SQLite (which is an implanted database), LDAP servers, and others. Various capacities commonplace to C software engineers, for example, those in the Stdio family, are accessible in standard PHP fabricates.