Symfony framework-An overview and usability for web development

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Symfony framework: An overview
And
Usability for web development

Contents
Introduction.......................................................................................................................................3
Architecture.......................................................................................................................................4
Technicalities.....................................................................................................................................5
Where is it used.................................................................................................................................6
Advantages........................................................................................................................................6
Disadvantages....................................................................................................................................7
Popular Websites on It.......................................................................................................................7

Introduction
PHP is considered as one of the world’s most popular scripting language for many different
reasons, the major ones being the flexibility that it offers and the simplicity to use it. But many a
times it has been noted that coding in PHP gets monotonous and repetitive which is the casewith
other scripting languages as well. To get over this problem, PHP framework acts as a solution.
WHY PHP FRAMEWORKS?
PHP frameworks perform the operation of streamlining the development of web applications
written in PHP by providing a basic structure for which to build the web applications. In other
words, PHP frameworks help in promoting rapid application development reaping benefits such
as saving time, building stable applications, and reducing the amount of repetitive coding for
developers.
Frameworks help beginners to build more stable apps by ensuring proper database interaction
and coding on the presentation layer. This allows the developer to allocate more time in creating
the actual web application, which would have been wasted in spending time writing repetitive
code. On the contrary experienced PHP programmers treat these frameworks as tools for “weak”
programmers that are unclear in writing good, clean code.
Currently, PHP frameworks exist in market such as Symfony, CakePHP, CodeIgniter and the Zend
Framework which provide asolid structure for the code and alsooffering some extra functionality
that would be much harder to replicate on its own. It's important to note that the frameworks
mentioned follow the MVC pattern, which is fairly common in all frameworks.
HOW DOES IT HELP?
There exist numerous possibilities in working with PHP Frameworks and depends entirely on the
developer how much can it extract out of the framework. This is evident from the fact that the
choice of the framework will vary from an advanced PHP programmer and a beginner. PHP
frameworks help eliminate repetitive coding and systemizes the building process.
Everyone has different preferences and needs. What may seemas implementing a framework for
speeding up the coding process to one developer, may seemlike a waste of time to another. Most
of the time this depends on what level of skill you possess; be it advanced or beginner, PHP
frameworks have been put into place to save time and reduce the work load.
Here we will be looking into one such framework: Symphony.
The Symfony PHP Framework holds a library of various classes written in PHP 5.0 Architecture,
useful components and excellent tools are provided for creating complex web apps. As per
(Symphony, 2015) this framework is owned by Symfony Contributors and SensioLabs and was
released on 22 October 2005.

Architecture
Figure 1 Symfony framework overview
As per (Exploring Symfony's Code, 2015) Symfony is based on the classic web design pattern
known as the MVC architecture..
• The model represents the information on which the application operates--its business
logic.
• The view renders the model into a web page suitable for interaction with the user.
• The controller responds to user actions and invokes changes on the model or view as
appropriate.

• sfController is the controller class. It decodes the request and hands it to the action.
• SfRequest stores all the request elements (parameters, cookies, headers, and so on).
• SfResponse contains the response headers and contents. This is the object that will
eventually be converted to an HTML response and be sent to the user.
Technicalities
Symfony was heavilyinspired by other web application frameworks such as Ruby on Rails,Django,
and Spring. As per (Symphony, 2015) Symfony makes heavy use of existing PHP open-source
projects as part of the framework, including:
 Propel or Doctrine as object-relational mapping layers
 PDO database abstraction layer
 PHP Unit, a unit testing framework
 Twig, a template engine
 Swift Mailer, an e-mail library
 Symfony also makes use of its own components, which are freely available on the
Symfony Components site for various other projects:
 Symfony YAML, a YAML parser based upon Spyc
 Symfony Event Dispatcher
 Symfony Dependency Injector, a dependency injector
 Symfony Templating, a template engine
 Using plugins, Symfony is able to support JavaScript frameworks and many more
PHP projects, such as:
 Prototype or jQuery
 script.aculo.us, for visual effects
 lessphp, a Less-to-CSS converter
 TinyMCE or CKEditor, for rich text editing
 TCPDF, a PHP library for generating PDF documents
The inclusion and implementation of a JavaScript library is left to the user.

Where is it used
As per (Symphony, 2015) Symfony is used by the open-source Q&A serviceAskeet and many more
applications, including Delicious.
 At one time it was used for 20 million users of Yahoo! Bookmarks.
 Symfony2 is used by OpenSky, a social shopping platform, and the Symfony framework is
alsoused by the massivelymultiplayer online browser gameeRepublik, and by the content
management frameworkeZ Publish in version 5.
 Drupal 8 also has incorporated components of Symfony in its next release.
 Symfony2 is also used by Meetic, one of the largest online dating platforms in the world,
on most of its websites for implementing its business logic in the backend.
Advantages
As per (Six Technical Reasons, 2015), some of the advantages are listed below:
 Good Documentation and Twig implemented(bridge)
 The configuration is easy, because the programmer has to configure only specific things
to the application.
 The framework includes a wide setof command line tools which are helpful during project
management and develpment process.
 Limitless Flexibility
 Sustainable and Stable PHP Framework
 If you are trying to add some new feature to the library, you just need to create a plug-in
 Less Greedy and Fast Palced PHP Framework
 Expandable and Easy to Use
 Elation in Development
 Good Reputation
 Rapid development/prototyping.
 integrated input validation that can be presumed to be secure.

Disadvantages
As per (the advantages and disadvantages of using Web based Frameworks, 2015), some of the
disadvantages are listed:
 The configuration cliff means once you go further than the configuration of your framework
your productivity drops right off, it can be difficult to implement features outside of a
frameworks configuration.
 Developer tramlines means the developer has to do things the way that the developer want
you to do things.
 Eventual possible drop of support / Loss of Popularity
 Often inflexible when wanting to extend or modify core behavior
 Errors of doom" – errors that arise from the core or underlying architecture with no good
traceback to where they originated
 The features of this framework is in danger of losing understanding on how things are
working.
Popular Websites on It
As per (Builtwith, 2015) there are 52,185 websites that have used symfony PHP Framework. Some
of the active and popular websites on Symphony PHP framework are:
 http://www.eenvandaag.nl
 http://www.pacificsleepprogram.com
 http://www.edumedia-sciences.com
 http://www.crazyaboutcookies.com
 http://www.bigskysmilecenter.com

References
Builtwith. (2015, May 30). RetrievedfromBuiltwith:http://trends.builtwith.com/framework/symfony-
PHP-Framework
DennisLan. (2015, May 30). Retrievedfromdonews.com:
http://blog.donews.com/DennisLan/archive/2004/10/13/129403.aspx
Exploring Symfony'sCode. (2015,May 30). RetrievedfromSymphony:
http://symfony.com/legacy/doc/book/1_0/en/02-Exploring-Symfony-s-Code
Linkedin.(n.d.).Retrieved0605, 2014, fromLinkedin:http://www.linkedin.com
meeticTech.(2015,april 9). Meetic Backend Mutation With Symfony.Retrievedfromslideshare.net:
http://www.slideshare.net/meeticTech/meetic-backend-mutation-with-symfony
S].(n.d.).RetrievedfromSymfony.com:http://symfony.com
Six Technical Reasons. (2015, May 30). RetrievedfromSymfony:http://symfony.com/six-technical-
reasons
Symphony.(2015,May 30). RetrievedfromWikipedia.
the advantagesanddisadvantagesof using Web based Frameworks. (2015,May 30). Retrievedfrom
Stackexchange.com:http://programmers.stackexchange.com/questions/35276/the-advantages-
%20disadvantages-to-be-had-from-using-a-web-framework

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