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Which framework is best for complex db app?

Posted: Mon Dec 15, 2008 3:11 pm
by affinity
Sorry if this is the wrong forum, and if its been asked a million times :lol: but I am finding it hard to decide which framework to use to build a database application. I have narrowed it down to Zend, Symfony and CakePHP (only because they seem to be the most talked about) but not sure which would be best. Over the past week I have tried them all and found the following:-

Zend
I think the overall opinion I found was Zend is probably the best, but I couldn't find very good documentation or tutorials. I grasped the very basics from some screencasts which I found very good, but they dont go into much more than the basics. I think its much more difficult to learn so could end up taking ages.

Symfony
I tried this but didn't like the command line interface to create the structure and files. I didn't like all the files already created in the project that I didn't know what they were for. Spent a while getting my first project to install, came across too many issues in the command prompt process, so abandoned it.

CakePHP
By far the quickest and easiest for me to grasp (although maybe because I know the basic setup of Zend perhaps this made it easier to learn CakePHP). The tutorial I followed seemed much easier than I found for Zend and I had a CRUD application even with a custom design built in a couple of hours. But I read online it has less library of functions or something like that, or missing some advanced functions or something. So I'm worried its perhaps too basic for a complex db application.

So I wondered other people thought. For me I think the basic question comes down to, "Is it worth working hard to learn Zend, or should I use the easier CakePHP"? What I am looking for is speed. I want to use things like ACL and Auth for speedy login and access levels, and easier database querying.

Thanks

Re: Which framework is best for complex db app?

Posted: Mon Dec 15, 2008 3:14 pm
by Eran
I am using the Zend Framework for almost all my projects so I guess I'm biased. I really believe it's the best currently out there, and if you are willing to put in the time you'll definitely reap the rewards later.

Re: Which framework is best for complex db app?

Posted: Mon Dec 15, 2008 5:15 pm
by Chris Corbyn
Take your pick and just use whatever DB library you want. Zend + Doctrine?