What are the pros and cons of using Yii Framework?

A framework can be massively productive for any developer who intends to build compliant, structured and efficient web apps in minimal time. In today’s time, as developers, we have a plethora of diverse frameworks regardless of the language we are programming in. The YII framework, however, is by far one of the most result-oriented, secure web frameworks to depend upon. It is designed for and by PHP to provide better developer experience through its features and better user experience through its end product.

Agreed, it may not be the one of the popular PHP frameworks for web development, it is surely one of the most promising open-source web app development frameworks. Below are some prominent advantages and disadvantages that come with YII, they are worth having a glance at.

Pros:

 The open source YII is undoubtedly the fastest framework for building Web2.0 applications (large scale). It renders a highly optimized performance, and can seamlessly be employed by developers for designing any kind of web applications. The generic web programming framework makes web development an enriched, intuitive experience (using PHP), and is perfectly suitable for large scale web applications – including e-commerce projects, forums, web portals, content management systems, RESTful services, and more.

 The MVC architecture of Yii helps the PHP web developers in crafting technically a smart web application. It helps in keeping the database server isolated from the view state of the application making it cleaner and effective. The Controller of the frameworks helps in managing different packages and libraries of the frameworks efficiently so that, the code pressure will decrease from the developer. It makes the whole system work as an object where a little tweak on the codebase will modify the entire system simultaneously. Any modification, addition, alters or deletion will be performed in a single line code and it will be visible throughout the application. At the same time, it provides a systematic approach to handle any application building process.

 Integrated with a Model-View-Controller structure, YII provides a horde of security features to ensure the highest degree of security to your application. Security plays the most important role in today’s world; because, more number of websites are dealing with sensitive informations like user data, their transaction history and also their personal credentials etc. So it must be given maximum priority in any web application. Fortunately, Yii comes with security features such as Cross-site Request Forgery Prevention, Cross-site Scripting Prevention and Cookie Attack Prevention. Since it is very significant for web developers to ensure thorough security for their app development, the framework comes embedded with authentication support, and authorization through hierarchical role-based access control. There is client side and server side validation as well, which developers can enable or disable as per their project requirements.

 The framework stands distinguished for its ability to function smoothly with third party codes. Users can seamlessly use code from their Zend or Pear framework in their Yes It Is (YII’s extended form) framework. This is like an ice on the cake; because this helps in increasing the potential of any web solution in an efficient yet professional manner. Imagine, a web application having the power of both Zend and Yii or of both Laravel and Yii!! They can definitely stand ahead among their peers and can contribute more to the PHP developer.

 Web developers also admire its clean, elegant caching support, and component-based architecture. For a developer, YII’s philosophy that code should be simple, and be written in the sophisticated manner works great. With caching, a smart web developer can build highly optimized web applications on the fly. In fact, considering a recent scenario where most of the web traffic are coming from smart devices; it becomes essential for every web developer to consider their website as a cross platform compatible one. Again, since their web app will render over smart phones, so they must be optimized enough so as to render similar user experience in all these memory intensive devices and platforms and fortunately Yii takes care of this wisely.

 It also offers ActiveRecord for relational as well as NoSQL databases, not to forget the query builders feature that YII provides. The tool further highlights its some of the most efficient caching features – letting users store cached data in different media. YII paves the way with an extremely solid yet seamless caching system, and lends support to XCache, memcache, ABC, and DB based page.

 YII framework is supremely easy to customize or check over, owing to its simple code structure. This enables developers to use varied widgets and extensions depending upon their web project requirements. At the same time, it is thoroughly object oriented – making it an ideal choice for anyone who is versed in object oriented web programming.

 The framework provides web developers with neat Ajax helpers, particularly with Grid view, and CRUD generator using Gii. Its Bootstrap extension support simplifies the whole process of creating responsive applications while integrated support for I18N allows users to have localized versions of their applications.

 Another significant advantage that YII has over most other programming frameworks is its large community support. The framework is supported and looked after by an extremely efficient team of professionals that consistently contribute to YII’s growth and development. The community pegs away at constantly integrating new features and advanced practices into the core framework – helping it evolve into a more sophisticated, performance oriented web application framework.

Cons:

 As a framework, YII does not come flooded with too many minuses. However, there is a portion of developers that steer clear of using YII as a framework for their web programming needs. To begin with, YII reveals kind of an over-reliance on static methods (a part of web developers community may not be comfortable with it).

 It is believed that YII demands extreme attention while one works with their application, for their code can quickly become bloated if proper care is not taken.

 The framework further has a somewhat steep learning curve, making it operose for new web developers to use or get started with.

Our word

Yes, YII framework does come with a few disadvantages, however, it is extremely powerful as a tool for developing a layered, structured web design. Some amazing attributes such as security, extensibility, theme organization, error handling, and integration with other frameworks make YII a great choice for web app development. We would highly recommend it!

Mindfire Solutions provides expert offshore PHP development services from India, gaining its expertise from years of experience in PHP web development and PHP application development. We have been working in PHP for the last 8+ years and have gained expertise on various PHP application development frameworks and PHP services.

Why MySQL with PHP is Comfortable for Development?

As a powerful server-side scripting language, PHP is used widely for creating a variety of rich internet applications. Likewise, MySQL is one of the most popular relational database management systems (RDBMS). Each of the open source technologies can be used independently for web application development. But web developers prefer combining PHP and MySQL to create applications that can beat the frequently changing trends in web development. Both technologies can be further used as part of LAMP stack to rapidly create stable, reliable and high-performing internet applications. If you are exploring server-side scripting languages and RDBMS for your web development project, it is a good idea to understand the benefits of putting PHP and MySQL together.

Why Developers Prefer Putting PHP and MySQL Together?

Make the Application Compatible with Major Platforms

Along with being fast and flexible, PHP can be deployed on major web servers and operating systems. Also, it can be easily integrated with other popular web technologies including Java. The programmers can further avoid writing additional and repetitive code by reusing the software components. So the dynamic server side scripting language along with MySQL makes it easier for developers to create cross-platform applications.

Implement Functionality Changes

Nowadays, each business wants its application to deliver richer and more personalized user experience. So the features and functionality of an application often changes during the lifetime of the project. The developers, therefore, look for technologies that allow them to implement changes during various stages of the project. As PHP allows programmers to implement changes during various stages of the project, it along with MySQL helps programmers in creating applications that deliver richer user experience.

Create Dynamic Web Pages Rapidly

Many developers combine PHP and MySQL to create dynamic web pages that can interact with visitors in a more personalized way. The developers can use HTML to make web pages more useful and well-formatted. As PHP code can be mixed with HTML code seamlessly, they can use the combination to create web pages that collect a wide variety of data from the visitors. Further, they can keep the visitors engaged by creating customized content on the fly. So PHP and MySQL can be used along with WYSIWYG editors to create dynamic web pages without putting any extra time and effort.

Reap Benefits of LAMP Stack

Within a shorter span of time, the LAMP stack has emerged as a powerful and popular platform for rich internet application development. Along with PHP and MySQL, LAMP stack also includes components like Linux and Apache. Linux is an open source operating system, whereas as a web server Apache helps the application reach maximum users. Along with helping programmers in curtailing development time, LAMP stack further helps them in stable, reliable and efficient applications. So the developers can use LAMP stack to deliver highly efficient application through a well-defined development process.

Simplify Development and Deployment of Rich Internet Applications

The LAMP stack makes programming a breeze. It ensures that the coding is relatively bug-free. So the programmers are not required to invest additional time to identify and fix the errors and flaws in the software application. The feature drastically reduces the overall coding time and efforts. At the same time, the LAMP stack further makes it easier for developers to deploy the web application without any hassle. Often developers have to put additional time to integrate the programming language with the server and the database. As PHP is a designed as a standard Apache module, it can be easily integrated with MySQL and the web server.

Both PHP and MySQL are free software. So the technologies can be used by developers without incurring any additional cost. Many developers put the open source technologies together to curtail the overall development cost. The curtailed development cost also makes it easier for enterprises to beat competition.

You can get in touch with a custom PHP development company who can help you build projects within allocated budgets and time schedules.

We provide PHP website development services. If you would like to hire PHP programmers for your web development needs, please contact us Mindfire Solutions.

PHP 5.6.0 – Changes in this PHP version

Frankly speaking, it almost certainly goes without much of saying, that in order to make a particular business website interactive, compelling, safe, and secure, PHP is the best bet. This is one language that comes up with a string of specific characteristics, which makes the website in question, more effective, as well as efficient that makes the difference in attracting new customers and retaining them for a considerable period of time. In fact, here is one language that is the best, the most stable, user-friendly, and cost effective when we speak about creating as well as designing a website.

PHP, the server-side language that is used for scripting is particularly designed to facilitate web development can also be termed as a general language for programming. Over the years, the language has seen a series of changes as well as improvements. One of the latest in the series is PHP 5.6.0 that has come up with a string of value added features along with a number of backward incompatible changes as well as improvements from the earlier versions.

This new PHP version comes up with Constant Scalar expressions along with a series of variadic functions as well as syntaxes for unpacking argument. This version also features Exponentiation operator, which is nothing but a conventional arithmetic operator that returns various float values if the pair of operarands turns out to be integers, or in any case the strings that are transformed into integers and the numbers are divisible evenly. However, in this case it will return an integer value.

Moreover, the modulus operands are transformed into integers before the processing starts, mainly through a process of getting rid of the decimal part. The new version also comes up with the constants and functional imports with the use of proper keywords. Then there is phpdbg, which will act as a customary interactive as well as integrated debugger Speech Application Programming Interface or SAPI.

This interactive PHP debugger on the other hand is implemented as a typical SAPI module. phpdbg is capable of having a comprehensive control over the domain or environment without having any effect whatsoever, on the performance or functionality of the codes. In fact, phpdbg is an extremely lightweight, user-friendly, and a powerful platform for debugging, which is predominantly stepthrough in approach.

In this new version php://input has become reusable, while $HTTP_RAW_POST_DATA has now deprecated. php://input basically is a typical read-only stream that is designated to allow the users go through the raw data from a request body. When it comes to POST requests, php://input should be preferably used rather than $HTTP_RAW_POST_DATA. This is mainly because it is not dependant on the special directives of php.ini. PHP 5.6.0 also comes up with GMP objects that are equipped to support operator loading mechanism, which in turn helps files that occupy more than 2 GB space to be accepted. Apart from all these, the new PHP edition also has incorporated certain changes that have affected compatibility in a great way.

In the new version, the array keys do not need to be overwritten, when it comes to defining arrays as property of a definite class, through literally any array. In this version, the json_decode() is much stricter when it comes to parsing of JSON syntax. Also, stream wrappers now are capable of verifying by default, the peer certificates, and the host names while using SSL/TLS. Moreover, the GMP resources in the new version can be classified as objects and the Mcrypt functions in the new edition need valid keys as well as IVs.

So these are the changes that the new avatar of PHP comes up with and which provides the added benefit to the users, apart from the customary benefits that the language offers to the programmers and coders. You can get in touch with a php development company who can help you develop web apps that are stable, scalable and secure.

We provide php website development services. If you would like to hire php developerfor your web development needs, please contact Mindfire Solutions.

How to Bake Your CakePHP Development Right?

As an open source web application development framework, CakePHP allows developers to write codes without putting much time and effort. Despite being written in PHP, CakePHP is modeled based on the concept of Ruby on Rails. Also, it supports some of the widely used software design patterns, and software engineering concepts. At the same time, CakePHP also provides a basic structure to the developers to build, deploy and maintain a variety of web applications.

Many developers migrate to CakePHP architecture to build websites in a fresh and innovative way. The architecture, normally, consists of three components, i.e., model, view and controller. You can use Model to interact with various data sources, and use View to manage the web page layout and design of the website. At the same time, the Controller will allows you control the functioning of model and view based on the commands received from end-users.

You can use the Model-View-Controller (MVC) architecture to build robust and efficient web applications. CakePHP framework also provides a large collection of base classes for your web application development that makes it easier to extend and customize the application. Further, you have option to use the additional classes and objects to reuse the behavior of MVC base classes for various subclasses. So the code can be easily extended and reused by a programmer to develop web application compatible with PHP 4 and PHP 5.

Features that Help in Baking Your CakePHP Development Right

MVC Coding Pattern: The MVC architecture acts as the base of CakePHP framework. The coding pattern further makes it easier for developers to disintegrate the design and presentation of business logic. Each of the three layers controls specific aspect of web application development. You can use Model for database application, View for GUI implementation, and Controller for business logic. Further, each layer can be used independently to make the application development process simpler, faster, and smoother.

Support for Latest PHP Versions: At present, CakePHP fully supports the latest versions of PHP programming language. The support for PHP 4 and PHP 5 can be used to develop the next generation of web applications. Also, you can easily incorporate specific features and functionalities to meet the varying demand and choices of your clients. Some of these options will further help you in improving the user experience for the application.

Use the Fast and Flexible Templates: No one can deny the effectiveness of templates in making web application more comprehensive and efficient. CakePHP is hugely popular among developers due to its large collection of fast and flexible templates. Also, you have option to design custom CakePHP templates to optimize the look and feel of the front end of your web application. You will also find a number of professional CakePHP template developers who offers a variety of customized templates commercially.

Keeping Your Website Secure: CakePHP scores much higher than other frameworks due to its strong security features. You must use its Create, Retrieve, Update, and Delete (CRUD) features to secure the user submission process without putting any extra time and effort. At the same time, the Object Relational Mapping (ORM) framework also makes it easier for developers to streamline SQL queries by presenting tables as base classes. The framework also supports its own shell to incorporate command-line interface.

Additional Features and Functionalities: CakePHP further offers a set of functionalities that makes web application development more convenient and enjoyable. Along with support all database types and database drivers, the framework also allows developers to rich query APIs, shorten URL syntax, and use smarter router prefixes. It also allows you to view helper for JavaScript, XML, AJAX, Forms and Pagination. You can simply use its automated configuration to detect the most preferred setting automatically. So you can easily configure the system without writing lengthy codes.

As CakePHP is licensed under the MIT license, it can be easily used to build commercial web applications. Also, you can use its Clean MVC Conventions get the relevant assistance and guidance in baking your CakePHP application right. PHP development services teams can help you build projects within allocated budgets and time schedules.

If you want to hire a PHP developer for your PHP web development needs, please contact us at Mindfire Solutions.