Re: PHP - Best Appication Structure

[Jon Paris <jon.paris@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On 11-Sep-09, at 1:00 PM, web400-request@xxxxxxxxxxxx wrote:

> 3) From my longer-than-should-be-allowed-on-a-mailing-list response,
> using a framework has less to do with performance and more to do with
> development time and application structure.


I agree 100%.

I would also add that this is also true of any scripting language like  
PHP compared with a compiled language like RPG.

As a general rule of thumb compiled is going to be faster than  
interpreted.

Procedural is going to be faster than OO.

Given modern hardware speeds we can afford the luxury of using the  
best development method for a given requirement rather than always  
worrying about speed. Zend Framework and others simply would not be  
used for some of the huge apps that they power if they preformed as  
badly as Nathan's tests might suggest. And even if they do ...

In the case of ATK, the basic application that I used in my magazine  
article consisted of the following code:

<?php

class article extends atkNode
{
    public function __construct()
    {
        parent::__construct("article", NF_EXPORT);

        $this->add(new atkAttribute("id", AF_AUTOKEY));
        $this->add(new atkAttribute("title",
                                    AF_OBLIGATORY|AF_SEARCHABLE));
        $this->add(new atkAttribute("author",
                                    AF_OBLIGATORY|AF_SEARCHABLE));
        $this->add(new atkManyToOneRelation("issue_id",
                                            "magman.issue"));
        $this->add(new atkManyToOneRelation("category_id",
                                            "magman.category",
                                            AF_SEARCHABLE));

        $this->setDescriptorTemplate("[title] by [author]");
        $this->setTable("article");
    }
}

Out of these few lines I got a full CRUD application with:

1) pull-down selection lists for the columns issue and category.
2) Column top search boxes for title and author
3) Full search capability on any field with various search options  
including Regex
4) All columns sortable
5) Full table or sub-selection exportable in multiple formats
6) User control of number of lines per page to display
7) Referential integrity checks on add/delete/change
8) Probably a bunch more I can't recall

The app in question was over three tables (the above is the biggest  
source of the three) and once I had understood the basics of the  
Framework it took me minutes to build the app.

There is no way on earth - no matter how good an RPG framework I have  
and no matter how good a programmer I am that I can match that kind of  
development speed. And in some cases that's what it is all about.

P.S. I still write RPG for the web and other purposes - and I  
certainly recommend its use for back-end code. But the tool I reach  
for these days for a quick application is PHP.

Jon Paris

www.Partner400.com
www.SystemiDeveloper.com