A An insightful post by the King of php himself can be found here: THE NO FRAMEWORK PHP MVC FRAMEWORK. Confusing? hahah – well Andy Jeffries ( A PHP, RUBY ON RAILS AND MYSQL Developer) sums it up really well here:  DESIGN PATTERNS VS AGILE DEVELOPMENT

I posted this in a forum in the morning today, please read the reply i got:

Keep an open mind …….

A good framework:

1. better separates presentation from logic
2. has a clear documented structure
3. has features

He uses a view, controller, and model but he doesn’t use a “front controller”. URL’s are mapped directly to views. That’s not necessarily bad, (that’s the asp.net way) but:

- without a messy .htaccess file, you miss out on nice flexible hackable urls
- you miss out on pre processing like showing a cached page without loading the entire view file and all it’s includes. 

I believe this person who commented on my post in the forums has a POINT WORTH NOTING…

I started out in this business with a keen eye on design and especially flash.  What i missed out was was the business logic side, especially how rapidly one can develop websites/applications with the use of open source php frameworks.

What i didnt realize is that design is great, but most people want projects done with php. I’m not going to go on about this, but i am doing extensive research on different frameworks and which one would suit your business the best.

Here is a list of what i have found so far (Ajax and Javascript support as well).

1.  AJAX CORE 

AjaxCore is an open source PHP framework that aims the ease development of rich AJAX applications, using Prototype’s JavaScript standard library. This means it uses Prototype as the core for making the AJAX requests, as it’s proven to be reliable on any browser, plus adding all Prototype’s features and shortcuts that reduce typing and help avoid the reinvention of the wheel.

The framework is really easy to use, you can start using AjaxCore right away as it doesn’t require you to learn anything new. All functionality is build into a PHP class file that you’ll have to extend with your custom requirements, and then bind HTML elements with PHP functions that will called when the appropriate JavaScript event is triggered, thats all you have to handle, also optionally you may send HTML elements by just attaching their IDs and the framework will do the rest.

2.  ARTISAN CORE   

The Artisan Framework is a new PHP5 Framework that allows developers to quickly build robust web software. However, it can be used to build command line and non-web software quickly as well. Like other PHP5 frameworks, it makes use of the Model-View Controller design pattern to operate. Artisan System is fully Object Oriented, and all of the objects that can be built with it interact with each other nicely.

3.  CAFFEINE PHP TO GO  

Caffeine is a lite-weight PHP 4 and PHP 5 compatible framework that provides a small development layer, without getting in the way of the programmer. It’s “PHP To Go”!

Caffeine’s core can be expanded by using Libraries. Libraries are a collection of PHP Classes or Functions.

4.  CAKE PHP

CakePHP is a rapid development framework for PHP that provides an extensible architecture for developing, maintaining, and deploying applications. Using commonly known design patterns like MVC and ORMwithin the convention over configuration paradigm, CakePHP reduces development costs and helps developers write less code.

5.  FUSE 

FUSE is a Model View Controller framework for PHP. Taking influence from other web frameworks such as Ruby on Rails and CakePHP, then adding in custom, intuitive features of our own design, FUSE has developed into a robust, stable platform for MVC development using object oriented PHP.

5.  HORDE

The Horde Project is about creating high quality Open Source applications, based on PHP and the Horde Framework.

The guiding principles of the Horde Project are to create solid standards-based applications using intelligent object oriented design that, wherever possible, are designed to run on a wide range of platforms and backends.

There is great emphasis on making Horde as friendly to non-English speakers as possible. The Horde Framework currently supports many localization features such as unicode and right-to-left text and generous users have contributed many translations for the framework and applications.

6.  LISA FRAMEWORK

LISA is an object oriented web application framework based on PHP 5.2 and Smarty template engine. LISA is follows the model view controller architecture.

PEAR

PEAR is a framework and distribution system for reusable PHP components. You can find help using PEAR packages in the online manual and the FAQ.

8.  PHP NUKE (More of a Content Management System than a Framework)

PHP-Nuke is a news automated system specially designed to be used in Intranets and Internet. The Administrator has total control of his web site, registered users, and he will have in the hand a powerful assembly of tools to maintain an active and 100% interactive web site using databases.

Ok so here are the most popular ones that i have seen.  Refer below to some of the Content Management Systems driven by PHP.

- **Joomla
- Drupal
- ModX
- **TextPattern
- XOOPS
- **Wordpress 
- **Expression Engine 

** My favorites

Note that i havent mentioned Code Igniter at all.  This is simply because i have already made a post about it. The reason CI is better than most is that it provides great documentation and a helpful community, which is far more superior that any of the documention for the Frameworks above (excluding the CMS systems of course.

Have i missed anything here?  Feel free to add to this list

Throughout my time as a web developer i have realized that using dynamically created web pages is the best solution to rapidly developing websites and applications.  I usually hunt around for frameworks when i have the free time and one that I found today was:  Code Igniter

WHAT IS CODE IGNITER?

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. If you’re a developer who lives in the real world of shared hosting accounts and clients with deadlines, and if you’re tired of ponderously large and thoroughly undocumented frameworks.

Code Igniter is right for you if..

• You want a framework with a small footprint.
• You need exceptional performance.
• You need broad compatibility with standard hosting accounts that run a variety of PHP versions and configurations.
• You want a framework that requires nearly zero configuration.
• You want a framework that does not require you to use the command line.
• You want a framework that does not require you to adhere to restrictive coding rules.
• You are not interested in large-scale monolithic libraries like PEAR.
• You do not want to be forced to learn a templating language (although a template parser is optionally available if you desire one).
• You eschew complexity, favoring simple solutions.
• You need clear, thorough documentation.