symfony Open-Source PHP Web Framework
symfony development
etonDIGITAL has moved over to using the symfony web application framework. After developing and maintaining a variety of platforms the development team made a choice to use the symfony framework. This enables us to develop web applications in a focused, coordinated way; the framework uses many of the best ideas set forward by Ruby on Rails, without the complexity of learning another language.
The framework is based on PHP5, and uses the enhanced object oriented features that this brings. We encourage developing reusable components; this speeds up code development, and reduces bugs through the reuse of tested and trusted code.Two of the key features that aid the structuring, readability and maintainability of object-oriented code are MVC and ORM.
MVC
The Model View Controller architecture enables us to create well designed code that allows the programming and html teams to focus on their specialist areas.The model layer encapsulates the data layer, which may consist of databases (MySQL, Microsoft SQLServer or others), WSDL/SOAP data providers, XML/RSS/Atom feeds. This layer also contains the business logic for the web applicationThe controller layer connects the view layer to the business logic; generally this consists of handling requests from the visitor, retrieving or storing information using the business logic in the model layer, and preparing data for display by the presentation layer.The presentation, or view, layer provides the layout for the data in the website. Usually this consists of HTML/CSS, but equally this could be targeted for mobile phones in WML or similar.
ORM
The object relational mapper allows us to write code without directly accessing the database; no knowledge of SQL is necessary. Of course, performance optimisations can still be carried out to ensure the site is highly responsive; but ease of development is improved through the global use of objects.
symfony support
The strength of symfony framework lies in the large community of developers now writing web applications in the language. The framework is constantly being improved, and features that do not fit directly within the framework are contributed as plugins that can be added to an application to enhance functionality. The list is too long to include here, but includes everything from payment gateway APIs, user management, CMS, search, RSS feeds, News, Blog, Forum, SEO, fancy javascript effects, and many more. Many of these will be featuring in the new social networking website we are building!
more symfony features:
- simple templating and helpers
- cache management
- smart URLs
- scaffolding
- multilingualism and I18N support
- Ajax support
- enterprise ready
symfony PHP Web Framework Homepage: www.symfony-project.com
To receive a quote for symfony development, please return the brief questionnaire to get the process started.