Top PHP Frameworks

Zend Framework

The Zend Framework is still pretty new, and very beta, so there's still a few things to come (like a user authentication module), but it does already have quite a lot. Although it doesn't have a lot of checks in the chart, the Zend Framework does include other modules, to handle PDF files, RSS feeds, Web Services (Amazon, Flickr, Yahoo), and more. The Zend Framework also includes several different database objects, making it extremely simple to query your database, without having to write any SQL yourself.

At the moment the Zend Framework doesn't come with a full-blown ORM, but the framework developers are still debating whether to add an ORM layer or not. This might be something we see in the future, and you can always write your own ORM implementation, and have it added to the framework, as it accepts user contributions.

The Zend Framework is looking quite promising, and is definitely working to fix the common PHP problems. The stable version will probably have a lot more checks in the comparison chart!

CakePHP

CakePHP is mostly an advanced MVC framework, with a few extra modules added on top. It can handle most of the database stuff for you, and it includes support for Ajax and data validation. It also has a unique user authentication module called 'Access Lists', which can be used to give different users access to different parts of your CakePHP website.

This framework seems quite thorough and ready for use, although the CakePHP website is extremely confusing. There doesn't seem to be a stable version yet, which is a bit surprising since it's been in development for months now, but I guess it's probably possible to use the beta version on a production website as well.

Symfony Project

As you can see from the chart the Symfony Project seems like a very extensive framework, and it even includes a full-blown ORM, called Propel, which is another open source project and probably one of the best ORM solutions for PHP. Symfony also includes Creole for the database abstraction layer and Mojavi for the Model-View-Controller model layer. Because it simply re-uses these other projects, instead of re-writing them, this framework probably has the most extensive functionality, and this is clearly shown in the chart.

The only two downsides to this framework is that fact that it can't be run on PHP4, but this is pretty logical considering it needs much of PHP5's new features, and that it's so complicated. Most of the tasks, like paging, are much more complicated in Symfony than in other frameworks, and simplicity definitely doesn't describe this framework.

Seagull Framework

The Seagull framework seems like a pretty good framework, and it comes with quite a lot of features. Another positive thing is that it runs on PHP4 as well, which is a really good thing in my book, as I still use PHP4 and most web hosts don't support PHP5 yet.

Unfortunately Seagull doesn't come with any Ajax support, which is a bit of a shame, but a simple Google search returns a tutorial on adding Ajax support yourself, and it's likely it will be added in the future.

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