Tag Archives: framework

For larger PHP projects, it’s a good idea to use the Model-View-Controller pattern and URL routing to organize things a bit more logically and make the code easier to update in the future. Frameworks like CodeIgniter, Kohana and CakePHP do this, but they can be overkill for some projects.

Enter GluePHP.

GluePHP is a lightweight framework (really, it’s a single class!) that only does one thing: it routes URLs to PHP  classes. It “glues” (the developer’s pun, not mine) everything together by routing URLs like example.org/asdf to your class with the name “asdf.” By implementing GET() and POST() methods, you can fire off other methods and output results.

A simple example, that doesn’t use any of the more advanced features like regular expressions in URLs, would look like this (from the documentation):

require_once('glue.php');

$urls = array(
'/' => 'index'
);

class index {
function GET() {
echo "Hello, World!";
}
}

glue::stick($urls);

I would say it’s worth bookmarking if you do much PHP work. It would be great for throwing together quick websites or tech demos.

Fuel Your Coding has a three-part series worth checking out. It covers how to build your own lightweight PHP framework for your projects.

There are quite a few php frameworks out there. Some huge, some small; Some useful, some not. I often hear developers, even myself, complain about frameworks in php not having or not doing something the way they/we want it too. So my solution? Roll your own framework! This series of articles is going to give you a brief and quick intro on how to do just that. We are going to cover url routing, basic database connection, basic templating and basic rewrite rules for Apache. What we will not cover is ORM development, advanced routing and installation of LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP). Also error checking will be next to none as this is just an example.

• Part I: URL Routing and Directory Setup
• Part II: Templating
• Part III: Database Interaction

It’s a neat tutorial, and in the end you’ll have something useful: an organized basis for future PHP projects. You have an underlying structure that will help you get into building your next application sooner.

CodeIgniter is a PHP framework that incorporates the MVC methodology. It’s fairly lightweight, doesn’t require messing around with the console, and once you get used to it, it might make it easier and faster to code.

CodeIgniter simplifies many tasks, such as database I/O and form handling, it’s modular architecture allowing you to load various libraries when you need them. It uses the Model-View-Controller design pattern, where the “View” files are templates and such, with the Models and Controllers doing the heavy lifting. Overall the framework tries to promote cleaner, more efficient coding.

Some people don’t like frameworks, some people are lost without them. I’m somewhere in between. They can be helpful in some situations, but I tend to be a bit more DIY when it comes to PHP. It’s all a matter of personal preference, and of course choosing the right tool for the job.

If you have a bit of experience with PHP, it may be worth giving CodeIgniter a look.