In a recent post I mentioned how I really wanted to try Ruby on Rails for a new project but couldn’t get it running. Given the requirements of my application I couldn’t realistically use Java, so I started playing with CakePHP. I then read some of the comments on that ruby post where CodeIgniter was suggested. I downloaded and immediately liked it.
CakePHP or CodeIgniter
While I didn’t dislike CakePHP, it was more to true to the RubyOnRails style of app building than I really wanted. CodeIgnitor was more flexible and lighter which is what I was really looking for. It still had the benefits that I was wanting in a framework, such as the nice URL to controller/action mapping, helper functions, database functions, etc. and so far is working out quite well.
The one thing that has given me a bit of a headache is PHP’s lack of namespaces, so some forethought is needed on naming your classes otherwise collisions will occur. Not a big deal, but something that I took for granted in Java.
Nice side benefit
I have to admit that it has been pretty nice to not have to use an IDE to get work done. I’ve been using Notepad++ for my PHP and HTML work and it works out great. No compile, deploy, restart or whatever. Just save and refresh.
I hope to have this project completed fairly quickly and give it whirl. It has been my first serious app written in PHP and if all goes well maybe it will make me a little money, who knows. If I had it to do all over again AND I didn’t want to resell it I would probably have written it using Grails 
. I might still give RoR a shot sometime though.
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I vote CakePHP. Although some say Code Igniter is easier to learn than CakePHP, but maybe I’m just that dumb, cuz I couldn’t get it to work.
I’m actually quite happy that I’m that dumb, because it lead me to CakePHP and I’ve been loving every minute of it.
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Baz L