Laravel taking the PHP community by storm – Few reasons

Laravel is the new PHP framework on the block that is hailed as ‘frameworks for the artisans.’ It has emerged as a fresh gust of wind for the developers who want to enjoy their creative work. It is a classy and clean framework that liberates the PHP developers from the complex spaghetti codes. Yet Laravel helps to come up with impressive applications by utilizing expressive as well as lucid syntax. Although there are experts who opine that all the frameworks are equal and choosing one is merely a personal preference. But when it comes to Laravel the primary reason for its popularity lies in the fact that it enjoys support from a huge community of developers.

php application development

Developers generally opt for an open source mainly because there is an active and vibrant community that keeps coming up with popular ideas. This, in turn, helps in creating a rich ecosystem of code snippets, modules, etc. Such an ecosystem will always beat a database created by a certain company. The richness of the database depends on the size of the community. Thankfully, Laravel has a huge community that keeps on growing with each passing day. In this regard, it is reminiscent of Ruby on Rails that had emerged a few years back.

There are various reasons why this framework is preferred by the developers. Let’s begin with its migrations. For creating a database an application needs a quite simple schema with a 5 columned table. The table is required to store title, description, ID, timestamps, etc when the task is created and later updated. To meet this end, there is a feature known as the migrations in Laravel. These are in the form of files which can be used to update the database. Every time they are executed, the schema will alter in a manner that it becomes easy for the developers to update it.

Another reason why it is slowly capturing the PHP market is because it is easy to learn. The learning curve helps you to pick up the technicalities quickly and creating RESTful objects, web interfaces and MVC blocks are no trouble at all. In addition, it uses Composer, Eloquent (as the database abstraction model), Blade (templating standard), Artisan and automatic code generation tool. There are several developers who are unfamiliar with these tools. Thus, it might take a little bit of time to get accustomed to framework. However, once one gets the hang of things, building custom web applications become quite fast. Even a large one can be developed within a short span of time.

Laravel is hugely dependant on the various external packages for its functionality. Composer comes across the dependency manager here. You may as is why should this be important? Well, the composer makes it simple for the beginners to set up the project. There is no need to download zip files online or opt for cloning from github. All that a developer is required to do is click on the run and the entire copy of Laravel will be at your behest. On the other hand, the Artisan is a powerful tool. With this it expands and now the developers can use it to run various kinds of tasks. If you simply type ‘php artisan’ on your terminal window, it will open up multiple options.

There seems to be a perfect balance between usability and flexibility for creating anything that can be implemented online and yet save the long coding hours. However, saving time is not the only criterion that defines a good framework. What makes Laravel stand out is its performance. Of course, it feels all good when you do not have to spend huge hours building a web app. But once you are successful your app must be capable to handle all the hits it receives on being popular. In this regard it is important that your framework provides the necessary support. In fact, this is how a good and poor framework is judged. There are many who are reluctant to invest in testing tools. Under such circumstances, one can opt for finding the reports on a framework’s scalability and performance that are published on the web. You will find that Laravel has garnered good reviews for itself. In fact, it has emerged as a better option when compared to Zend or Yii. Generally frameworks perform faster when they are limited. But in this regard also Laravel scores better than Cake PHP and Zend.

It is due to these vast opportunities that Laravel is becoming a preferable choice for the developers. You can hire developers from PHP development company who can help you build web apps within allocated budgets and time schedules.

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

Enterprise Level Web Development – Why PHP6 for It?

As a hugely popular server side scripting language, PHP needs no introduction. Along with being fast, scalable, flexible, open source and easy to learn, PHP also supports both procedural and object oriented programming. The developers also have options to use the rich set of inbuilt functions and avail the support of active community to avoid writing additional code. PHP is also widely for developing enterprise software applications that provide a wide range of services.

PHP development

But the server side scripting language was earlier criticized due to lack of native Unicode support at the core language level. PHP6 is designed with true support for Unicode (UTF-8). It further allows developers to disable the Unicode support on the basis of individual software. At the same time, PHP6 also comes with a several new features and enhanced capabilities to complement the needs of enterprise level web designing.

PHP6 Features that Effectuates Enterprise Level Web Development

Unicode Support: As noted earlier, version 6.0 of PHP is designed with full support for Unicode (UTF-8). So the programmers now have option to use Unicode with larger (64 bit integers). At the same time, they also have option to enable or disable the option based on individual supports. The feature further make the PHP6 overcome the limitation of earlier versions.

Namespace: Many programmers use namespace to avoid collision of functions and classes with same name. They can use namespace to keep the names of the classes and methods readable by without using prefixes in naming conventions. PHP6 allows programmers to keep their code readable, while allowing the same class name or method name to be used by others without creating any problem. The feature will facilitate the development of enterprise applications in a distributed environment.

Caching Improvements: PHP6 also come with several caching improvements. Its caching features are improved at the application as well as the page (opcode) level. Also, the Alternative PHP Cache (APC) is moved to the core language level.

Revamped MySQL Driver: The version 6.0 of PHP development also includes a completely revamped MySQL database driver written in the Zend engine. Now the MySQL driver works with ext/mysql, ext/mysqli and PDO/mysql. The revamped database driver facilitates lower memory usage and faster execution, while supporting client side cache and performance statistics.

Syntax Changes: PHP6 comes with a number of changes in syntax. The syntax changes are made with the objective to make the coding simple and readable. Like “goto”, the programmers now have option to jump to a particular labeled point down the execution path. Likewise, the [] operator for strings and arrays now support the substr() or array_slice() functionality respectively.

Web 2.0 Features: PHP6 further makes it easier for developers to optimize the functionality and performance of the enterprise web application by incorporating web 2.0 features. As the enterprise applications are designed according to specific needs of an organization, their features and functionality vary. Most enterprise applications are designed as customized business-oriented tools to deliver specific services. The web 2.0 features make it easier for programmers to create complex and custom enterprise apps within a shorter span of time.

Updated Tools to Edit PHP Coding: Since the release of PHP 6.0, many IDEs and development tools are being upgraded to support the new release. Now the programmers have option to use upgraded version of Zend Studio, Eclipse PDT and similar IDEs with PHP support. The upgraded tools make simplify both code writing and editing process. The programmers can use the updated tools to complete PHP6 coding without putting any extra effort and time.

While using PHP6 for enterprise level web application development, the programmers have option to use several frameworks. They can use frameworks for developing and testing PHP enterprise applications without putting any extra time and effort. At the same time, the improved capabilities of PHP6 make it easier for programmers to create complex enterprise level websites and internet applications.

If you would like to hire php developers from php development company India who can help you build web apps within allocated budgets and time schedules, please contact us at Mindfire Solutions.

15+ PHP Best Practices That You Must Follow

The world of web development is becoming interesting and challenging with advanced technologies. With each passing day hundreds of web applications are being created and in this maddening race, a website needs to have a higher usability and more attractive UI and robust backend to stand out from the crowd. This is where a web programming language like PHP comes to your aid. Defined as a Hypertext Preprocessor, PHP is a dynamic language which explains the popularity that it enjoys among the developer’s community around the world.
php development

It is a server side scripting language which when combined with HTML and CSS forms a lethal combination delivering best robust websites. This server side characteristic allows you to easily design and develop dynamic webpages using PHP. Different genre of websites such as chatting platforms, ecommerce stores and CRM solutions can be developed using PHP. It is also used in all major social networking sites such as Facebook and Wikipedia. Even WordPress and Drupal have the PHP touch and are very much used worldwide for making customized websites. No wonder PHP web development is a promising sector and hundreds and thousands of talented programmers are working with this technology across the globe.

A good programmer should follow the coding standards for programming in any technology. It is a vital factor for achieving a high code quality. A common customized style, naming conventions and other technical settings allow producing a homogeneous code which is easy to read and maintain. Equally important is the style in which certain problems are solved during programming – It shows the workmanship and experience of the individual developer which shines through and ultimately makes the difference between a technically ‘okay’ code and a well systematic, ‘mature’ code.

Best Practices Followed in PHP

  • Befriend the PHP Manual : For aspirants in web development, the PHP manual is the best friend. Because it is thorough and gives helpful comments following each step to be followed in web development. Before figuring out errors or steps one should read the manual and save time for easy and quick solutions.
  • Turn on Error Reporting : Error reporting in PHP is of great advantage. One can figure out the bugs in code earlier than before and can be aware of the working of an application. There are different levels of strictness in the reporting that one can use and E_ALL command shows the most errors, be it critical and warnings alike. It is a feast to a programmer or a tester to detect errors and fix them.
  • Try an IDE : Integrated Development Environments are useful tools for any developer. They can help in many ways such as syntax highlighting, code completion, error warnings, refactoring (reworking) and many other ways. There are plenty of great IDEs out there that support PHP.

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  • Try a PHP Framework : PHP Frameworks like CakePHP or CodeIgniter render PHP applications quickly, even if the developer is not an expert in PHP. It is a great way of increasing programming efficiency. The web world is full of several PHP frameworks which can be used as per the needs of the project. Hence PHP programmers have to decide which framework would suit and meet their best business requirement by evaluating the various unique features of the frameworks.

php web development

  • Learn the DRY Approach : DRY approach is nothing but Don’t Repeat Yourself and it’s a valuable programming concept which deals with not to write redundant code.
  • Indent Code and Use White Space for Readability : A developer needs to write a good readable code with proper indenting and makes use of white space. It ensures that a code is neatly organized and easy to search so that it can be referred to in future in case of change requests come up. IDEs and advanced text editors help in adding indentation automatically. Programmers use shortcuts unknowingly when declaring in PHP – For example, let’s take a look at the code snippet below.

<?

echo”Hello world”;

?>

<?=”Hello world”;?>

<% echo”Hello world”; %>

All of the above methods are depreciated and unofficial. Sticking with the standard <?php ?> as it will be guaranteed to be supported in all future versions. This simple malpractice can cause conflicts with XML parsers and can also make code incompatible with future versions of PHP.

  • Use Meaningful, Consistent Naming Conventions : Naming conventions are very important in case of good programming practice. Help others by using names that make sense for classes and functions. One can easily understand what the code is about or for which database table the data is fetched; easy for the programmers who can deal with the code in future for maintenance and updates.
  • Comment, Comment, Comment : A good programmer always gives comment for each line of code he or she writes. As they understand the importance of comments in the long run. White space and indentations have been used to separate the code; one also wants to use inline comments to annotate code. It is very useful to go back and find something in the code, or if what a certain function did. It’s very useful for every developer who needs to look over the code. Not sure how the code instead of keeping a comment on the code one must write the code formatting standards expressive with a good, because one can get confused with the semantic coding standards both in web design and PHP development.
  • Install MAMP/WAMP : MySQL is the most popular type of database to use with PHP. If you want to set up a local environment to develop and test your PHP applications on your computer, look into installing MAMP (Mac) or WAMP (Windows). Installing MySQL on computer can be a tedious process and can be installed in a clean and simple way.

php application development

  • Upgrade to the Latest Version of PHP: One should be aware of the advantages and new versions of PHP. There are lots of performance increases between PHP 4 and PHP 5. Check a server to make sure one is up to date with the new version and an application is compatible with the upgrades.
  • Reduce the Number of Database Queries: A good developer knows very well that database queries take lot of time to load the applications. With the lesser number of database queries executed the better a PHP code can perform. There are many tools such as Process Explorer (Windows) and Stace (Unix) that allow redundant processes.
  • Know the Difference Between Single and Double Quotes : It is more efficient to use single quotes in strings as the parser doesn’t have to sift through the code to look for escaped characters and other things that double quotes allow. It is always better to use single quotes whenever possible.
  • Give Scripts Limits: Putting a time limit on PHP scripts is a very critical thing. It is a time when scripts fail and to avoid that the set_time_limit function is used for database connection timeouts and infinite loops. The set_time_limit puts a time limit on the maximum number of seconds a script will run. After that time it throws a fatal error.
  • Don’t Put phpinfo() in your Webroot: Phpinfo (http://us2.php.net/phpinfo)is a beautiful thing. By simply creating a PHP file that has

< ? php phpinfo(); ? >

And dropping it onto the server somewhere could be dangerous; one can instantly get to know all information about the server. It is not good to drop a file containing phpinfo() in the webroot of the server. This is a really insecure practice and could potentially spell doom for server. Make sure phpinfo() is in a secure spot and could be removed after use.

  • Never, Ever Trust your Users : If an application has places for user input, one should always be prepared that they’re going to try to input naughty code. A great way to keep any website hacker-free is to always initialize variables to safeguard a website from XSS attacks (http://ha.ckers.org/xss.html). Therefore PHP.net has an example of a properly secured form-http://talks.php.net/show/php-best-practices/19
  • Store Passwords with Encryption: Good way of saving passwords in encrypted format in the database. Many programming newcommers often plunk sensitive data like passwords into the database without applying any encryption which is a faulty approach. They have to use MD5 (http://us3.php.net/md5) to encrypt passwords into the database, which is a good protective way to keep data secure.

php developers
Code is the foundation of any website and a framework catalyzes how to write beautiful code with aesthetics. Websites having bad coding style can lead to a mess in the near future. Good code is the first start to any search engine optimization and it is very important for a website template builders or new beginners who build one of their first sites. It’s too big of an investment for things to get screwed up, coded poorly or any number of possibilities. Since good coding is the foundation of any website with a strong web presence, establishing a secure and a classy website with clean, flawless code which goes much further than one thinks.

We provide PHP development services at Mindfire Solutions. If you would like to speak to one of our PHP programmers or you would like to hire PHP developers from us, please do reach out to us. We will be glad to assist.

PHP Web Programming and Business Benefits of PHP Development

php web developmentPHP is a popular scripting language that evolved from what was called the Personal Home Page by Rasmus Lerdorf. Initially developed as a series of scripts that was used to track visitors to a webpage, it has turned out to be an interpreter on most operating systems and platforms and is considered the most popular language in the field of web development today.

PHP can be used to create a range of web applications including personal websites, e-commerce applications as well as community web portals. As per statistics, about 35% of web traffic is handled by it while a vast majority of websites including those of Facebook and Wikipedia have used this language. Even the best blogging platforms like WordPress or Joomla are built using the platform.

It is not without reason that this language has become so widely preferred as well as used. Several factors have contributed to its success.

Here is a brief overview of how businesses benefit from PHP web development:

It’s Open Source and Therefore, It’s Free
The platform is freely available for use. In addition, the community of open source PHP developers not only offer technical support but are also on the lookout for updating the core functionalities of the language. It, along with the other required software such as Apache Server, MySQL and Text Editors are obtainable free of cost under PHP General Public License. For businesses, this appears to be a very cost- effective option.

It’s Powerful
The programming platform is powerful enough to allow an effective performance of several web tasks. Different types as well as natures of websites can be developed using PHP. These encompass informative forums, e-commerce shopping carts, e- business, community websites and even the rather huge database driven websites.

It is Highly Compatible
The language is best- suited for cross-platform applications while also being highly compatible with the prominent web servers and operating systems. The scripts of this particular language can run across Linux, Solaris, OpenBSD, Windows as well as Mac OSX. It offers support for servers like IIS, Apache, iPlanet and more.

It Helps in Faster plus Easier Web Development
PHP not only works well with the web but also allows in quick web development. With this particular language, accessing the GET and POST or operating with HTML and URLs is easy apart from being flexible.

It Offers Complete Security
The platform is widely preferred also because of its ability to offer top level security and prevent malicious attacks. Thus, hacker proof websites can be built while the security stages can be attuned in the .ini file.

It Provides Extensions to Expand Functionalities
A range of extensions along with libraries are made available by PHP for those willing to extend the core functionalities of their websites. Even the source code of the language can be modified to incorporate the custom created components as well as extensions. This automatically increases the extensibility.

It Comes up with Great Community Support
One of the main advantages of PHP is its offer of community. For instance, if a particular developer is looking for certain script, he can check within the PHP community for availability and oftentimes, he will get something similar to what he wants, created by another developer. Others can also take advantage of certain function that you have created.

Refreshes Automatically
This is yet another advantage of PHP when it comes to web development. The platform enables automatic refreshing, hence, does not require any kind of manual changes to be made. This characteristic makes it quite sought after for building the dynamic websites in particular.

Enables Easier Access to the Other Tools
PHP allows for easier access to web based tools. Now, tools such as Google maps are extremely useful for the creation of business websites. It is for this reason that the language is popular in this respect too.

We provide php application development services. If you would like to hire php programmers from our team, please get in touch with us at Mindfire Solutions.

Why is PHP web development getting valuable?

php web developmentPHP is indeed the most frequently visited technology in the web for web apps development. It rules the other scripting languages for website development, a leader in the web world. As technology is seeping to every area of our lives the need for recognition for every business is getting important, people are aware that internet can reach out to the large audience from all around the world.

PHP has emerged as one of the most useful and yet completely free web programming platforms, along with Linux and MySQL. It is actually host side scripting dialects with regards to producing websites. Various PHP web programming solutions include CRM solutions, eCommerce solutions, shopping carts with content management system, chat software as well as conversation forum. Nowadays Php along with MySQL database will be accustomed to develop some of the most potent online sources and it is powering some of the great web applications.

PHP has had many stable releases since its arrival, and getting better with every release. PHP has many great features,d functions and frameworks that helps every developer create powerful dynamic websites according to any business demand. PHP developed websites and web applications have much simpler code to write or understand. Its a versatile and well-established language with more new versions that are under wraps. It can be customized according to online web development needs and is a flexible enough so that one can develop greater websites that is compatible with any browser.

Certain benefits of PHP Web Development can be enlisted as follows.

  • It supports major databases such as MySQL, Oracle, Sybase, etc.

  • It supports major platforms like Unix, Windows, Linux and more.

  • IIS, Apache servers can work with PHP which proves to be the versatile scripting language.

  • It meet one’s custom requirement of solutions like e-shopping carts like CMS, CRM, web calendars, etc.

  • The easy functions, methods and the syntax of this language help PHP Web Developers deploy the solution in less time.

  • It can be customized with new technology seamlessly in future if required.

  • It decreases the loading time as its source code need not be compiled every time it loads.

A PHP framework has the best practice oriented approach which help one build complex rich internet applications quickly, saving a lot of time reusing code snippets that are already available. There are so many useful PHP frameworks available on the web. Depending on requirements and need, one can select from a wide range of web development frameworks offered in the web market. Most interesting part is they are freely available and got a huge community driven forum where stuck developers can get their solutions quickly and build their website up and running in no time.

Top PHP(Rapid Application Development) frameworks are:

  • CakePHP is an opensource rapid development PHP framework that provides an MVC architecture for developing, maintaining and deploying customized applications. It comes in with great tools for form tampering protection, XSS prevention and SQL injection prevention which helps in building secure websites. The MVC conventions guide in properly to build in richer web applications and blogs. Developers and users find it more interesting because of flexible code generation, free licensing, user-friendly community, compatible with all the latest versions of PHP, cookie, security, data sanitization, email, session and request handling components,works from any website directory, with little to no Apache configuration involved etc.

  • Laravel has a well fabricated toolbox which allows to write less code, with less risk of error. And using this framework developers can build websites with greater value and productivity, such as managing guiding principles, side effects, etc. A structured approach is followed using this framework, using best practices and standards where complex websites can be efficiently deployed. It is well said that Laravel is for web artisans and creative craftsman where wonderful applications can be built with less code and expressive syntax which gets easier for programmers who build complex apps with cleaner and understandable code.

  • Symfony is a full-stack framework comprising a library of cohesive classes written in PHP5. It provides a classy architecture, components and tools for programmers to build rich complex web applications quicker. Choosing symfony allows to release applications quicker, host and scale them without any problem and can be maintained over time. It was originally conceived by the interactive agency Sensio Labs for the development of customized websites for its esteemed clients from various sectors. Symfony was published by the agency in 2005 under MIT Open Source license and today it is among the leading frameworks available for PHP web development.

  • Zend Framework is based on simplicity, object-oriented best practices, user-friendly corporate licensing and agile codebase which is regularly tested. This framework is focused on making simple, reliable secure and new web 2.0 applications & web services and consuming widely available APIs from leading vendors such as Flickr, Google, Yahoo, Amazon, as well as API providers.

The above popular PHP frameworks are unique in nature and can very well suit to any business need. They play a vital role in making websites richer and attractive adding value compared to other counter websites.

Everyone wants a website that looks appealing, attractive, customized and very much interactive with users and all this is possible with PHP allows one to customize their websites keeping everything simple and yet classy. PHP possesses all the main points of a successful programming language. PHP Website Development has maintained vast developer group of people around the world and lots of PHP professionals regularly enhance this. The web application developed in PHP costs less and affordable for website owners who can save a lot of money though it is having a multi-featured web application.

It has literally revolutionized the web development industry with a dynamic brand fresh structure.

There are many choices available to create robust and classic Website Development yet PHP will be action ahead of all and offer many useful features and functionalites. PHP based website is an ideal platform to flash and graphics for giving striking and attractive looks to the site. The versatility of PHP as a web design language is pretty much unmatched by any other scripting language,and since it was initially created it has been consistently used to produce the same excellent results. Using these frameworks, PHP developers would shorten the development timeframe for PHP web development projects.

We provide php development services. If you would like to hire php programmer from our 100% certified team of PHP developers, please contact us at Mindfire Solutions.

Top Reasons why Enterprise Level Application should be built in Symfony

php web developmentAmong so many popular PHP frameworks why should one choose Symfony? There are 101 reasons to choose Symfony. It is the latest framework used world over having some amazing features and great documentation which can help its users. It can speed up creating robust web applications. And can maintain and customize web apps really well. Most important is, it is open-source, free and its libraries deliver some of the best standardized set of job-specific tools, that can be used across many different projects. It follows (MVC) Model View Controller paradigm and avoids using repetitive tasks.

The Symfony has delivered best applications sufficing various needs of business and enterprise domains. It has built applications for various sectors such as community sectors, social networking sectors, content management, online auction, online invoice etc. It can be used as a free project management tool suitable for small to big size projects. It is fully configurable. Managing tasks, people, customers get easier in enterprise level applications. Some of the best and popular sites using this framework are Snippet, Steer CMS, Askeet, PlanCake, Limetracker, Yahoo bookmark, travel bug, w3counter.com etc.

This open source framework was born in 2005 and is the first unique framework to support the latest PHP version 5.3 to by has a huge community of users and contributors. More than 550 people contributed to the Symfony core and the community was over 1,600 bundles for the full-stack framework. It also has many annual dedicated conferences around the world and has a huge fan following user group.

Top Reasons to choose Sympony:

  • Flexible Architecture: It enables developers to create superb and long-lasting web applications and web services in the easiest possible way. Empowered by MVC components, which enable this application to filter the logic from its defined user interface – in order to make the desired changes. In fact, testing also becomes easier and faster.

  • Innovation: Symfony has everything one expects from a framework, it is flexible, got a good speed, reusable components, etc. Then a structure of what has been developed and uses of best practices.

  • Useful: Since Sensio has developed a habit of shaking up the established order and is always striving for excellence, Symfony (and its entire community) has developed a sense of curiosity that goes well beyond PHP. And has some added features which has served the world of PHP in a different way, such as dependency injection from the Java world. It has a web debug toolbar which has helped programmers in a productive way.

  • Interoperability: Build applications in a way to meet the best business needs, for this Symfony plays a big role. Symfony respects the existing standards of PHP: The PHPUnit, naming conventions for classes, etc. Furthermore, Symfony also allows to use certain of its software building blocks such as translation management, dependency injector, form management, etc. without necessarily using the framework in its entirety. It has interoperable features and uses external software building blocks like Swiftmailer.

  • Reputation: Quickly adopted by technocrats active in this field following its launch in 2005, Symfony today gives stable environment that is both popular and recognized internationally. The number of its references have grown significantly since its launch. Symfony is also an active community driven; developers, integrators, users and other contributors who participate in the ongoing enrichment of this tool.

  • Easier Maintenance: Symfony automatically has low performance overheads. Symfony development builds customized, robust applications for all kinds of enterprises, as well as enables developers full control over the configuration i.e. one can customize everything. Symfony have a collection of tools to help programmers to unit test, debug and document development process in order to match enterprise specifications.

  • Resources: It builds robust applications in an enterprise context, thus provides developers full liberty to control over the configuration – right from directory structure to the foreign libraries everything. Symfony aims at shortening this time and also aims at automating common tasks so that the developer can focus on various specifications of the web applications.

  • References: It renders applications for varied sectors such as intranets, public sites, community sites, social networks, management and workflow applications, etc. Examples hundreds of sites and applications of all sizes and of all types trust Symfony. Yahoo, Opensky.com, Dailymotion, have been supported by this framework .

Symfony is a well-organized and simple to use and learn framework. Written in PHP language, it is one of those PHP5 frameworks which has a good documentation support , number of useful plug-ins, updates, new release versions and much more. Symfony framework is also gaining popularity and recognition for its simple installation and stable performance in Windows and other systems.It supports databases such as MySQL, PostgreSQL, SQLite, Oracle. It even supports automated form validation and user input clearance for avoiding SQL injections and XSS attacks.

Resolving routine tasks of Symfony developers is quick with Symfony Development as it allows rapid web application development as well as web application management. It aims to build classic applications in an enterprise level, which means one can get total control over the configuration right from the directory structure to libraries and almost everything can be customized. Symfony is bundled with additional tools for development purpose, thus helping to test its applications. It can debug and document any project. By choosing this framework, one can get the benefit of an active open-source community. PHP web development teams can help you build projects within allocated budgets and time schedules.

We provide php development services. If you would like to discuss with a certified php developer from our team, please get in touch with us at Mindfire Solutions.

Top Benefits of PHP Agavi Framework

PHP frameworks streamline the development of web applications written in PHP by providing MVC (Model View Controller) architecture. Where the Model refers to data, View to the presentation layer and Controller to the application or business logic, this makes coding in PHP faster and less complex, as each of them works separately without affecting other operations. A framework prompts a developer to write good code, adds structure to the code, and makes it more readable and maintainable. In addition, a framework makes programming easier, by converting complex operations into simple ones.

php application development

Today PHP frameworks play a major role in designing customized web applications by enhancing the general format of PHP coding for the development of web applications. The latest important news revolving around PHP forums is that it’s expanding the PHP frameworks, to cater the needs of web-based applications and their development gets easier. Additionally these frameworks allow web programmers to reuse the developed code and create a stabilized and dynamic web content, which is liked by all. Some of the important frameworks used these days are Agavi, Smarty PHP, Prado, Zend Framework, Symfony, Cake-PHP, Yii and Solar.

The main benefits of using a PHP framework are as follows:

  • Code Re-use

  • Saves time and effort

  • Access to services API’s

  • Community forums

  • Easy plugin creation

Agavi is a new framework which helps programmers to write clean, maintainable and extensible code. It is the latest PHP5 web application framework started with the famous Mojavi project. This framework is a great way to save time and effort on software projects; the pre-built modules perform tedious coding tasks and open a great way to learn about good coding practice. Agavi produces full-fledged applications with the website construction kit.

This is an Open Source framework supporting some of the important features such as web services, internationalization and heavy focus on code modularity and reusability. It is search engine optimization friendly. Agavi methods solve application-specific problems such as maintaining customer databases and sending promotional emails to customers. Any application may be implemented entirely inside a single Model or across dozens of Models that represent various areas of software. Some Models act as wrappers for external libraries and even other applications or interfaces.

Benefits Agavi Framework

  • State management: There are a lot of states in the web application process that needs to be maintained. Agavi framework makes life very easy for programmers by allowing them to manage and control the entire state of the application.

  • Generalizing Queries: Without databases no web applications can be developed ever. With PostgreSQL, MySQL and SQLite any dynamic websites can be created apart from generating queries. This framework supports various databases.

  • Form Handling: Agavi Framework can help in situations when some wrong data is entered in the form and the database displays an error. With its help the chances of errors get reduced as the framework will check everything and even the debugging of errors become simpler.

  • Code generation: The entire data can be handled while creating a database. A code generator can be utilized for the database and the framework should create forms which are to be used for data entry.

  • AJAX: It stands for Asynchronous JavaScript and XML, is not new but is one of the most desired web 2.0 powered websites. Usually it takes lot of time to write down the functions with AJAX but with the help of Agavi framework, the entire process becomes easier.

Developers get added benefits using this framework – it gives the ability to build complex websites quickly and easily. Repeated coding is avoided using this framework which has inbuilt core library, where coding gets lighter as compared to the traditional way of PHP coding. It has its own specific debugging methodologies such as Session and cookie Handling, Pagination, Form Validation, Input/output, Database Abstraction, , Email, Calendar etc. the Agavi framework offers the best built-in tools to make work easier, quicker and built securely.

With this framework, most of the work can be done automatically. 3rd party libraries are used all the time for every new project because most of them will come with the default framework install. It fixes things automatically using this modern framework which are great with dynamic loading, where they load code only as needed. Different page requests can be loaded with different amount of library code based on what needs to be used. Developers can have fun using this framework making life easy and deploy classy apps implementing cool new things with new customized features. And no doubt that Frameworks are cool and hot today, used for developing and deploying rich business applications. So why not take their advantage and meet best business needs. PHP application development teams can help you build projects within allocated budgets and time schedules.

We provide php development services. If you would like to discuss with a certified php developer from our team, please get in touch with us at Mindfire Solutions.

Top 5 features which contribute to WOWness of Laravel Framework

php developmentLaravel Framework is a modern web application framework that designs customized web applications quickly and easily. It follows Model view controller which makes it more useful than PHP. It attempts to take the pain out of development by easing common tasks used in the majority of web projects, such as authentication, routing, sessions and caching. It has improvised web development experience in PHP by a ton.

This unique framework has grown big in just two years with latest versions. It has widespread good coding in all PHP projects. Laravel is probably the only framework that can make PHP code look very, beautiful and developers are enjoying using this easy framework. It has a unique architecture, where it is possible for developers to create their own infrastructure that is specifically designed for their application. This may be most beneficial to large projects such as content-management-systems.

Features of Lavarel Framework:

  • Routing system: This framework takes an incredibly simple and easy-to-use approach to routing. Most beginner PHP developers aren’t familiar with anything other than the most natural of route systems. It brings more flexibility and control over which route is triggered on the application. A direactory is created to match any desired URI. For example, an index.php file is added to the following directory: blog/admin/ and now can be accessed by browsing to: localhost:8888/blog/admin/index.php. It allows to create links to named routes. While creating links just use the route’s name and Laravel will automatically insert the correct URI. This allows to change routes at a later time and it will update all of the relevant links site-wide.
  • Unit-Testing: It is an important part of Laravel framework. It runs hundreds of tests to ensure that new changes don’t unexpectedly break anything. Laravel is widely considered to have some of the most stable releases in the industry as it is cautious of the known failures. Slowly it is being liked by the developers. It also makes it easy to write unit-tests for own code. One can then run tests with the “Artisan” command-line utility.
  • View Composers: These are blocks of code that can be run when a view is loaded. A very good example of this would be a blog side-navigation where it contains a list of random blog posts. A composer would contain the logic to load the blog posts so that all one has to do is load the view. This keeps from having to make sure that controllers load a bunch of data from models for views that are unrelated to that method’s page content.
  • Application Logic: It can be implemented within any application either using controllers or directly into route declarations using syntax similar to the Sinatra framework. Laravel is designed with priviledges giving a developer the flexibility that they need to create everything from very small sites to massive enterprise applications.
  • Automatic Pagination: It prevents application logic from being cluttered up with a bunch of pagination configuration. It gets the count of db records and selected data using a limit/offset called ‘paginate’ and interacts Laravel where to output the paging links in view. Laravel’s pagination system was designed for programmers to make their work easier to implement and change. Laravel can handle these things automatically and makes tasks easier.

This framework has a unique architecture, where it is possible for developers to create their own infrastructure that is specifically designed for kind of application. This is most beneficial to large projects such as content-management-systems. It has a huge community more than 350 members active and helping each other out all the time and the framework itself is a piece of art.

Laravel helps to create wonderful applications using simple, expressive syntax. It is a promising framework and has a great and bright future ahead. It caters to the basic need of a web app with basic functionalities from a website, blog, huge amount of data processing, apis are used for importing and exporting data, mobile apps and rather a large web app all built at the same time – All of this is possible only with Lavarel, an awesome framework giving most classy and clean web apps. PHP development India teams can help you build projects within allocated budgets and time schedules.

We provide php application development services. If you would like to hire php programmers from our team, please get in touch with us at Mindfire Solutions.

Top 5 Amazing Features of FuelPHP Framework

php developmentAs technology is changing so the demand of new techniques are evolving in the web development field. Many PHP frameworks offering extensive designs with exclusive features that makes source code programming less complicated there by providing standard templates and plug-ins. Some of these PHP development frameworks have corporate communities who offer solid Web development support by providing best business standards. Code Igniter Kohana, Zend and FuelPHP are some of the most popular upcoming PHP frameworks, with merits and demerits depending on PHP requirements. Dan Horrigan created a FuelPHP framework in the year October 2010. It takes advantage of the bells and whistles of PHP 5.3+ and works like CodeIgniter.

FuelPHP is a new entry to the IT market this year. It is knocking Kohana off of the fourth spot. It is modular which means one can quickly “bolt” parts onto applications. The code compact, simple and slicker more than with Codeigniter. The framework follows (Model View Architecture) MVC architecture along with ViewModels (also known as presentation models) which were added to the mix which gives a powerful layer between the Controller and the View.

FuelPHP is a combo of CodeIgniter and Kohana. Its codebase covers lot of functionalities such as Caching, HMVC, Sesiions, Models, ActiveRecord, Cookies, Templating, Forms, Templating and many more. Has a cascading file system like Kohana framework. Additional functionalities can be added as packages. It is flexible enough in almost all components of the core framework and can be extended or replaced. Developers love to work on this framework because of its various customized features and many benefits it bestows upon its users. It provides an amazing structure usually in the customized version of CodeIgniter and takes advantages of PHP 5 version.

Top 5 Amazing Features of FuelPHP Framework

  • Complete Flexibility – One of the many benefits of Fuel is that there are very few restrictions on how to write code. Classes can be in any file structure one wants, declare any folder as a “modules” folder, easily extend native classes and there are countless other examples of how Fuel lets one write code in their own way.

  • Community Enthusiasm – Just like CodeIgniter framework, FuelPHP is huge community driven framework used for web development. Libraries and constant modifications were being developed and released, which helps to keep the framework moving forward when the core was moving at a slower pace before. Its structure helps to develop core, modules, and packages at an incredible quicker pace.

  • Built in Modular structure –This is the reason why this framework is so popular among the developers and ranks FuelPHP in the first place. Fuel doesn’t force anyone into using modules or an HMVC file structure, but if one chooses to implement them the process is well documented and quite easy to integrate. Once apps are created in a modular structure fashion, it becomes easier for developers with clear benefits.

  • ORM in the Core – This package gives a chance for one module in the new application and ended up using it for every module so far. It maps a model to each table in the database, assigns the fields of the table and their respective relationships to other tables. FuelPHP is small, fast and allows to develop web based applications very quickly. It is fully extendible and comes with built-in module and package support.

  • Security – Out-of-the-box FuelPHP’s Views will encode all output to make it secure and prevent XSS attacks. If one need to allow HTML through it can mark as safe or have it cleaned by the default included HTMLawed. This framework supports input filtering, CSRF prevention with tokens and the Query Builder which assists in preventing any SQL injection attacks. PHPSecLib offers several security features inside the framework. More about it has some customized security features such as SQL injection prevention, URI filtering, XSS filtering, Output encoding etc.

With over 20 million indexed domains using PHP frameworks, including major websites such as WordPress, Facebook, there are good reasons why many web developers prefer it to other server-side scripting languages, such as Python and Ruby. It normalizes web apps, assists productivity, reduces repetitive coding and creates more stable sites. Among so many frameworks one has to decide which would be the best to suit their business needs, as each of them has astounding features which deploys classic web applications.

We provide php application development services. If you would like to discuss with a certified php developer from our team, please get in touch with us at Mindfire Solutions.

PHP Web Development Comes With a Range of Advantages

PHP DevelopmentEarlier, enterprises were interested in building websites to attract more customers. But within a few years, websites have become essential for all types of businesses. With each other business going online, website development has become complex, challenging and competitive. So, developers often look for innovative ways to design websites that are distinct, dynamic and interactive. At the same time, programmers also look for programming languages that enable them to build robust internet applications and websites at a rapid pace.

As a popular programming language, Hypertext Preprocessor (PHP) is widely used by web developers across the world. As PHP is open source and free, it complement the requirements and budget of all types of projects. Also, the programming language is effective in boosting the performance and scalability of websites, as it does not pout a lot of strain on the web servers. The language also offers a set of advantages that complement all rapid web application development projects.

Top 6 Advantages of PHP Development

  1. Open Source: The ongoing recessional phase of the economy is having a huge impact on website development cost. Most enterprises are looking for cost-efficient options to have an online presence. So many developers use open source programming languages to reduce the project cost. As PHP is an open source, it can be used by both independent and corporate developers. The language can be downloaded, distributed and used without incurring any expenses. Also, the programmer has option to edit, modify and update the source code to according to his specific requirements. The feature further makes PHP suitable for small enterprises who cannot afford the licensing cost of other languages.

  1. Less Server Strain: Along with choosing the right look and feel for a website, the programmers also need to explore option to optimize its performance and scalability. Many web application developers also find it a daunting challenge to reduce the strain on server. The PHP web applications are effective in putting a less strain on the web servers. If the web application is large, it can handle high level of traffic and user requests in a comfortable way. The inbuilt memory of the language ensures that the server load is reduced, and the website is running without any interruptions.

  1. Option to Use CMS: Most websites, nowadays, use a variety of content to keep the visitors engaged. So websites are designed with features to use content management system (CMS). Some of the most widely used CMS like WordPress and Joomla are designed using PHP and MySQL. So the CMS can be integrated seamlessly into a website. The integration will further contribute towards making the website more dynamic and interactive. As the language uses syntax similar to C and C++, a programmer can avail the help of a large community of developers to integrate the content management system.

  1. Compatible with Major Operating Systems and Servers: While developing a website or web application, you need to ensure that it can run major operating systems and web servers. PHP is popular among programmers due to its compatibility with major operating systems like Windows, Linux and Mac. Many reports have highlighted that a PHP application can run seamlessly on more than 99% of web servers. The compatibility with most operating systems and servers help programmers in developing robust websites that can be accessed by users regardless of their choice of computing device.

  1. Work with All Data Sources: The choice of database varies from one enterprise to another. Some businesses even store the data in a distributed environment. So the web application must be effective in supporting several databases. A PHP application works fine on database servers like MySQL. Further, the language is effective in managing data stored on a variety of databases. The efficient database management features makes the programming language to build web 2.0 applications and websites.

  1. Using PHP Frameworks: Most developers use web application development frameworks to avoid writing longer code. While developing a PHP web application, they have options to use several frameworks. The frameworks are further design to take care of some regular functions like content management, member management, search function, and admin backend. Also, an enterprise can option to use PHP frameworks that are free and open source. So the frameworks can contribute towards reducing both project development time and cost.

The large community of PHP developers frequently updates the programming language to meet the latest trends in web application development. The frequent and significant updates make PHP the best programming language for rapid web application development.

We provide PHP Application development services. If you would like to hire php programmer from our 100% certified team of PHP developers, please contact us at Mindfire Solutions.