PHP Application Development Frameworks Advantages

At present the word ‘framework’ is one of the most popular words among PHP web application developers. The frameworks Yahoo User Interface library, jQuery and Prototype were developed for JavaScript, Rails and Django – for web development, and many others. What is a framework?

A framework is a set of tools, libraries and classes intended for separating routine tasks into independent modules which can be used repeatedly. The main aim of a framework is to allow PHP software developers to focus on the tasks which are unique for each project instead of inventing the wheel again and again.

PHP application development frameworks advantages:

• Time saving. Frameworks let PHP software developers create a web application rapidly. When using framework PHP web developers don't have to think about the structure of applications, switched modules and classes.
• Collaboration. Developing web applications in a team using frameworks is much simpler and more convenient. PHP software developers don’t have to care about the programming style or code format – they just have to stick to the style stipulated in the framework. The question of application architecture also falls away.
• Constant architecture. When using a framework, all the software development projects will have the same structure of folders and files, which eliminates the need to look the required components everywhere.
• Code compatibility, namely libraries written by PHP web application developers. Software developers just have to realize the required class only once and then move it to the next web application development projects without concerning about its switching and setting as originally it was developed under the architecture of the framework.
• Convenient debugging. Most frameworks have their own built-in debugger which allows finding bugs more quickly and getting detailed information about the error during PHP application development.

There are many PHP frameworks: CakePHP, Yii, CodeIgniter, CakePHP, Zend, Symfony, Akelos, Prado, etc. but the most widely spread ones are Zend, CakePHP, Symfony and Yii.