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CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCING SYMFONY, CAKEPHP, AND ZEND FRAMEWORK
disproportionally huge and perhaps somewhat excessive. Here is an overview of a few more notable
ones that we have found to be used successfully to develop web applications.
CodeIgniter
Started: 2006
License: modifi ed BSD
PHP versions: 4.3.2+
Its logo is shown in Figure 1-6. Website:
http://codeigniter.com
CodeIgniter is developed and maintained by a privately-owned
software development company, Ellis Labs. It is focused on hav-
ing a very small footprint, while allowing a big increase in perfor-
mance. It follows the MVC pattern only partially, for the models are
optional. It is loosely coupled and in the words of Rasmus Lerdorf,
it’s “the least like a framework.” Its lightweight approach has earned a
wide recognition in the developers’ community, but it is sometimes criticized for conformance
with PHP 4.
CodeIgniter is a good choice for less complex web applications that would benefi t from using a
framework, but the heavier ones would either hinder the applications’ performance with excessive
features, or their confi guration would take too much time. The structural simplicity of CodeIgniter
makes it also a frequent pick by beginners who choose it as learning platform before moving to a
full MVC framework.
Lithium
Started: 2009
License: BSD
PHP versions: 5.3+
Its logo is shown in Figure 1-7. Website:
http://lithify.me
Lithium took all the best that CakePHP had to offer and moved it to PHP 5.3. First it was a branch
of CakePHP called Cake3, now it is a separate project run by some former CakePHP developers. It
is lightweight, fast, and extremely fl exible with extensive plug-in support. It has many truly experi-
mental and innovative functions like a fi lter system and an integrated test suite.
The second search result Google showed us for “Lithium framework” is a page titled “CakePHP is
dead…Lithium was born.” This claim is still far from true, however, with the advantages provided
by Lithium’s support for PHP 5.3, Lithium may really endanger CakePHP in the future unless the
latter takes immediate action.
FIGURE 16: CodeIgniter logo
FIGURE 17: Lithium logo
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