Frameworks for PHP

Dwoo
Dwoo is a PHP 5 template engine positioned as an alternative to Smarty. It is (nearly) fully compatible with its templates and plug-ins, but it is being written from scratch and is aimed to go one step further with a cleaner code base.

http://dwoo.org/

CodeIgniter
CodeIgniter is a powerful, high-performance, open-source PHP framework that helps you author PHP applications rapidly. CodeIgniter is known for having a light footprint, thereby reducing your server’s work. 

http://codeigniter.com/

YII Framework
Here is a high-performance component-based PHP framework that is supposed to be more efficient than CodeIgniter, CakePHP, ZF and Symfony. An optimal solution for developing large-scale Web applications. Yii supports MVC, DAO/ActiveRecord, I18N/L10N, caching, jQuery-based AJAX support, authentication and role-based access control, scaffolding, input validation, widgets, events, theming and Web services.

http://www.yiiframework.com/

NetBeans
A dedicated PHP coding environment and complete integration with web standards. The NetBeans PHP editor is dynamically integrated with NetBeans HTML, JavaScript and CSS editing features such as syntax highlighting and the JavaScript debugger. NetBeans IDE 6.5 fully supports iterative development, so testing PHP projects follows the classic patterns familiar to web developers.

http://www.netbeans.org/features/php/index.html

Solar
Solar is a PHP 5 development framework for Web applications derived from the Savant templating engine. Solar uses the MVC architectural pattern and has a host of classes and functions for securing your Web app against SQL injection, cross-website scripting (XSS) and other common exploits. 

http://www.solarphp.com/

PEAR – PHP Extension and Application Repository
PEAR is a popular framework and distribution system for reusable PHP components. The purpose of the framework is to provide a structured library of open-source code for PHP users, a system for code distribution and package maintenance and a standard style for PHP code.

http://pear.php.net/

Propel
Propel is an Object-Relational Mapping (ORM) framework for PHP 5. It allows you to access your database using a set of objects, providing a simple API for storing and retrieving data.

http://propel.phpdb.org/trac/

Zend Framework
The Zend Framework by Zend Technologies (the creators of PHP’s scripting engine) is a popular PHP Web application framework that embraces the principles of PHP OOP; it’s very extensible and has built-in utilities for working with free Web service APIs, such as those of Google, Flickr and Amazon.

Qcodo
Qcodo is an excellent open-source PHP Web application framework. It’s subdivided into two parts: (1) Code Generator, and (2) Qforms. Code Generator handles the creation of object code and PHP and HTML front-end code from your data model. Qforms is an intuitive system for handling and creating complex PHP-driven HTML Web forms. Check out demos of applications that use Qcodo and presentational material that covers Qcodo. 

http://www.qcodo.com/

SAJAX
SAJAX is a JavaScript and AJAX application framework that works well with PHP (as well as several other server-side scripting languages). See SAJAX at work by going to Wall live demonstration.

Smarty

Smarty is a popular PHP templating system to help you separate PHP logic and front-end code (HTML, CSS, JavaScript). It will keep your projects modular and easier to maintain.

http://www.smarty.net/

CakePHP
CakePHP is one of the leading PHP frameworks for creating robust, fully-featured Web applications. CakePHP has an extensive and well-organized online manual. If you want to learn via video tutorials, check out the CakePHP screencasts.

http://cakephp.org/

PHPSpec

PHPSpec is a simple and intuitive PHP framework. It follows the Behavior-Driven Development principle and therefore allows you to write behavior-oriented code, oftentimes in plain English. 

Top 10 good PHP framework

A good PHP framework can help you develop a PHP application quickly, with more simplicity and with a vision "best-practices-oriented".

Take a look at this list with 10 great PHP frameworks and suggest that you prefer or a new link to a framework not included into this list.

1. CodeIgniter
CodeIgniter is a powerful PHP framework with a very small footprint, built for PHP coders who need a simple and elegant toolkit to create full-featured web applications.
Read more...

2. CakePHP
CakePHP is a rapid development framework for PHP that provides an extensible architecture for developing, maintaining, and deploying applications.
Read more...

3. Symfony
Symfony is a full-stack framework, a library of cohesive classes written in PHP5. It provides an architecture, components and tools for developers to build complex web applications faster. Choosing symfony allows you to release your applications earlier, host and scale them without problem, and maintain them over time with no surprise.
Read more...

4. Prado
PRADOTM is a component-based and event-driven programming framework for developing Web applications in PHP 5. PRADO stands for PHP Rapid Application Development Object-oriented.
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5. Qcodo
It is a completely object-oriented framework that takes the best of PHP and provides a truly rapid application development platform. Initial prototypes roll out in minutes instead of hours. Iterations come around in hours instead of days (or even weeks). As projects iterate into more cohesive solutions, the framework allows developers to take prototypes to the next level by providing the capability of bringing the application maturity.
Read more...

6. Zend Framework
Zend Framework is focused on building more secure, reliable, and modern Web 2.0 applications & web services, and consuming widely available APIs from leading vendors like Google, Amazon, Yahoo!, Flickr, as well as API providers and catalogers like StrikeIron and ProgrammableWeb.
Read more...

7. Akelos
The Akelos PHP Framework is a web application development platform based on the MVC (Model View Controller) design pattern. Based on good practices, it allows you to:
Write views using Ajax easily, Control requests and responses through a controller, Manage internationalized applications, Communicate models and the database using simple conventions.
Read more...

8. Maintainable
The Maintainable PHP Framework was originally built only for our own projects, then released to open source at the request of our customers. Like any framework, it's certainly not appropriate for every application. It's designed primarily for use with small- to mid- sized applications.
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9. evoCore
evoCore is the framework at the heart of the b2evolution blogging application. It is freely available for anyone to use. It is dual licensed so you can choose to use it either under the GNU GPL or the Mozilla MPL license. (b2evo for example is using it under the GPL).
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10. Stratos
The Stratos Framework is an open-source, object-oriented web application framework that facilitates the rapid development of well-organized, secure, and maintainable PHP web applications. Stratos frees you from working on tedious, routine tasks, and allows you to focus on specific software requirements.
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10 Reasons To Choose Drupal Over Joomla

1. SEO Friendly URL’s – This is a pain in the butt with Joomla! It’s automatically built in with Drupal and very very easy to use.
   2. Easy To Use Admin Interface - I think Joomla tried a little too hard in this area. Drupal found a way to just make things more simple and not so overwhelming for the beginner user.
   3. Built In Blog – The blog that’s built in to Drupal is very easy to use and customize. Joomla really does not give a good blogging option at all surprisingly.
   4. Web Forms Plugin – This is a terrific plugin that I suggest you use. Just do a search for it on the Drupal.org website. Let’s you create as many of your own customized forms as you need. Very easy to use and very comprehensive.
   5. User Management – User roles and access control is so much easier to manage and maintain using Drupal. It makes multi-user websites easy to create rather than a pain in the neck.
   6. Ubercart – I just recently wrote about this shopping cart plugin for Drupal. Hands down the best shopping cart you will find for any content management system period.
   7. Drupal Taxonomy – Drupal’s way of categorizing content is such much better than Joomla. You can tell that it was way more thought out beforehand. This is important for anyone creating content rich websites.
   8. Meta Tags Plugin - a fantastic plugin allowing you to create custom meta keywords and more importantly descriptions for each page. Do a search for this one. Great Plugin.
   9. Page Title Plugin – Something Joomla does not currently have. A plugin that EASILY allows you to customize each pages Page Title. An absolute must for search engine optimization.
  10. Social Networking – For a major social network I of course choose elgg. However, if you are looking to build a more niche/smaller social network than Drupal is perfect. Again referencing to it’s user management capabilities combined with it’s Drupal Taxonomy to content manage all content Drupal makes for a fantastic easy to setup social network.

I wrote this post for two major reasons. First and foremost of course, to inform you the reader about Drupal and it’s advantages. The other is to hopefully in one way or the other encourage Joomla to “take it to another level” if you will. Hopefully it will help motivate Joomla contributors and creators to better refine the CMS that they have. If they don’t, people are gonna find out how much better Drupal is and stick with them.

CodeIgniter : A recommendation for PHP Programmer

Why I recommend PHP Programmers to use CodeIgniter?

Yes I’ve decided to use it along with this I’ve asked my programmer friends out there in office to use it. You’re wondering why I choose CodeIgniter rather than using Zend Framework, which add more values in PHP programmer’s career.Let’ me answer them all in the reasons below.

1. The main issue which I got attracted with CodeIgniter is its performance. CodeIgniter is faster than other popular PHP MVC frameworks. And also take a look at another benchmark test . So it’s clear that CI is faster than other Framework. Rasmus also told that he liked CodeIgniter because it is faster, lighter and the least like a framework.
2. Another main reason behind recommendation, it has very low learning curve. CodeIgniter Downloads come with a tremendous user guide which is a great documentation like PHP Manual to begin with. And from my personal experience, CodeIgniter has very low learning curve compared to CakePHP and Zend Framework. If you’re a beginner for PHP frameworks then I recommend to go with CodeIgniter at begining.
3. The coding conventions are flexible and simple. Ironically, CakePHP has very strict coding conventions so you must be very careful about cases of characters while coding.
4. Why not Zend Framework and why CodeIgniter? Ok, one question goes here what is so good about Zend Framwork ? Eventual answer is ZF contain huge set of libraries and classes compared to any other framework. So you can use huge amount of Zend’s libraried in CI as well.

These are the main reason why I recommend for using CodeIgniter for PHP programmers.But I still believe that I’ll be using CakePHP for once I get final version of 1.2.0 because I still believe that it is robust,  has a  great design patters and great tool for group development .

If you recommend any other PHP framework, please let us know why you recomment that framework