PHP Framework Features

• A framework is a structure that is used to build an application. It determines the structure of the application and enables them to interrelate with different APIs.
• An efficient PHP framework helps in developing PHP applications faster and well organized. It also helps in building stable applications by decreasing the repetition of codes.
• Framework provides various supporting features that enable the developers in building fast and accurate applications. The features of an efficient PHP Framework are as follows:

Model View Controller (MVC) Architecture

• An efficient PHP framework should use MVC architecture.
• This architecture consists of three things – the model of database handling, the controller’s behavior and the website presentation. Most PHP frameworks following the same MVC patterns used to create web applications.
• Most of the good frameworks will also provide plug-ins, extensions, libraries and helpers. Two of these options must be there in the framework to make it proficient.

Database Support

• It is also one of the most important features of every PHP framework.
• A framework is chosen depending upon the database that is to be used in the Web application.
• For example, ‘CodeIgniter’ supports MySQL, Oracle and SQLite whereas the ‘Kohana’ framework supports MySQL and PDO.
• Most PHP frameworks allow programmers to work with a number of widely used relational databases.
• Some frameworks further simplify database operations by providing Object Relational Mapping (ORM) systems. The ORMs allows programmers to write object code directly in PHP programming language without writing lengthy SQL code.

Community Support

• Framework should have a strong, active, helpfulness community.
• The framework should be supported in terms of activity and usefulness by massive group.

Documentation Support

• A PHP framework should also have good documentation.
• It should be comprehensive, up to date and that the user guide is relatively easy to follow.

Convention over Configuration

• Many modern PHP frameworks have adopted the convention over configuration approach to increase the speed for developing Web applications.
• Some PHP framework such as CakePHP, Kohana, CodeIgniter or Akelos follows this approach.

Speed-up Custom Web Application Development

• The tools, features, and code snippets provided by PHP frameworks help developers to accelerate custom web application development.

No Need To Write Additional Code

• The PHP frameworks reduce coding time significantly by providing code generation feature.
• The code generation features provided by certain PHP frameworks enable programmers to keep the source code of web application clean and maintainable.

Automate Common Web Development Tasks

• While building a web application, developers have to perform a number of tasks in addition to writing code.
• The functions and tools provided by PHP frameworks help developers to automate common web development tasks like caching, session management, authentication, and URL mapping.

Protect Websites from Targeted Security Attacks

• PHP is considered to be one of the most unsecured programming languages. Often programmers have to explore ways to protect the PHP applications from various security attacks.
• The built-in security features and mechanisms provided by PHP framework make it easier for developers to protect the website from existing and emerging security threats.
• Also, the PHP web developers can easily prevent common security threats like SQL injections, cross-site request forgery, and data tampering.

Perform Unit Testing Efficiently

• A large percentage of web developers use PHPUnit to perform unit tests quickly and efficiently.
• In addition to being an object-oriented unit testing framework for PHP, PHPUnit further helps developers to write and run unit tests by providing coding assistance.
• Many PHP frameworks support PHPUnit natively, and enable programmers to perform unit testing smoothly.

No Need To Increase Web Development Cost

• The developers have option to choose from several open source Web frameworks for PHP.
• They can even avail the features and tools provided by this open source PHP frameworks speed up custom Web application development without increasing project overheads.