Frameworks we like: 3. Symfony, and Why?

Benny December 9, 2009 3 comments

Symfony a web application written in PHP as per the Model-View-Controller (MVC) standards launched by Sensio Labs during 2005. It is aimed to give developers full authority over the configuration. Symfony also looks to up the tempo of creation and maintenance of web applications and to reduce the recurring coding tasks. More or less a whole lot from the directory structure to foreign libraries could be customized.

The Symfony templating component is a flexible layer on top of PHP which provides you simple yet influential features that cover most familiar templating needs. One of the objectives of Symfony templating component is to be as fast as possible. It comes as a tool which is very easy to use with just a single archive to download and that’s it, you are ready to be on the go.

You might ask me the next question, what is the exact need for any framework in PHP? PHP was supposed to be meant as a fast web-based programming language. The ever-escalating popularity of Open Source Technology today has given away to the position of PHP in the web community.

Given this condition why do you need a Symfony? Why a framework in the first place? Let us see how the Symfony framework is going to benefit the customer and as well as the developer.

Benefits of Symfony Framework for Customers

• Released under MIT open source license, the Symfony framework comes as a free software and you can use it for any commercial purposes.
• Symfony Framework is independent of the database due to the ORM layer “Propel” or “Doctrine”.
• Use of tested code and also fewer lines of code which always results in less chance of bugs and also it will minimize your cost.
• Web applications are very easy to modify later on because of the clear Model View Controller (MVC) structure that separates the application into separate layers.
• Swift developments of a custom-made website build on proven methods and principles.

 

Benefits of Symfony Framework for Developers

• All codes are object oriented and entirely in PHP5.
• You will gain plenty of time in the overall development process and get improved with the maintainable and testable code.
• Very appropriate for development methodologies like XP.
• Advanced cache system which includes file cache, apc cache, mem cache and few others.
• Offers tools to make use of every useful best-practice accessible on the web today.

Initially when I came across this Symfony software, found it really overwhelming and appeared as a big step. But the structure of the framework and also because of the consistency of Application Programming Interface (API), the documentation provided was really wonderful.

I must admit that ever since we started using Symfony, we haven’t looked back.

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