Before we proceed, let us first understand what Agile development is. Agile is a software development method where development is divided into sprints, each sprint will have agreed functions/modules that will be developed, after a sprint is done it can be given to client and bugs/changes from that sprint will be taken over in the next sprint and the same carries on until the final delivery. Many companies follow Agile methodology for development, what is it that is driving companies to change to Agile methodology? Agile methodology makes development faster, faster development automatically reduces the development cost, functions/modules from each sprint can be checked thoroughly and effectively, easier for client to go through the sprint and ask for changes on each stage rather than asking for changes after entire product is developed as it is done in some other methods.
Now that we know what is Agile methodology, it is easier for us to identify the qualities that a framework needs, so that it can be used under Agile Application Development. Here are some of those qualities, less coding, faster development by using reusable parts of code, low configuration changes, easy installation, simple migration mechanism, security, good documentation and forums/community online content that can be used by developers.
Listed below are 4 best PHP frameworks of that has the above qualities:
1. Laravel
Laravel is built by using some symfony components, which ensures that code is reliable. This framework uses Eloquent ORM, simple routing mechanism, easy to integrate third party libraries, composer or packagist can be used to integrate plugins which removes burden from developer of where the files have to be placed under the directory as composer itself places the plugin files under the respective folders. Queue in laravel can be used to run long running tasks in background. It has tools that are needed to build large applications as well as enterprise applications.
2. CakePHP
CakePHP can be used to build application very quickly, it has bake feature which generates the code and hence reduces the development time. No much configuration is required, it comes with database configuration file where in developer can just give the credentials and start working. Translations, caching are inbuilt features. Components like Auth, Session and Helpers like Form can be used, by using these developer will be resusing the code that’s already written. It has naming conventions which helps in keeping the files in a particular format. CakePHP comes as secured package as it handles Form tampering, sql injections and cross site scripting internally as all those are inbuilt features of CakePHP. CakePHP has a well formatted documentation which developer can easily refer to and get the things done.
3. Zend
Zend framework is a object oriented framework and uses many OOPS concepts which makes the code reusable. ZendService can be used to execute complex logic, by using it developers can access web services. We can load only the components that are needed and treat them as individual libraries. It has vast set of components like Zend_Auth for authentication, Zend_Feed to read RSS feed, by using these components developer can reduce the time to code as he need not code the lines which actually does that work. Zend framework has good documentation and community that can help the developer.
4. Codeigniter
Codeigniter uses MVC design pattern which separates the code of business logic and view logic. It has good set of inbuilt libraries and helpers. No need of installation, we can just copy paste the folder and we are ready to work. During initialization it automatically unsets global variables and turns off magic_quotes_runtime directive, making the framework secured. Like other frameworks even codeigniter has its own database statements like create, update, delete etc., Finally, Codeigniter has an excellent documentation which helps developers in getting the things done.
We, at Carmatec, have worked practically across all PHP Frameworks. Get a free consultation from our PHP experts, if you’re looking to build a website or an app.
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