About CodeIgniter

Between the frameworks I have managed, I consider CodeIgniter is one of the most to develop quality web sites quickly. It shows great versatiliy, is fast because not load too much libraries at beginning and has a rapid learning curve.

I’m working for more than two years with this tool and I thinks is very useful to create web sites, mainly if they use a database. Once you learn to work with it, the developing of the application is immediately.

Basically, CodeIgniter is a tool what uses OOP or Object Oriented Programming and uses MVC (Model/View/Controller) design pattern that let us to divide the developing segments in individual parts. The model let us create the queries to the database, the view is used to visualize and organize the HTML code; and the controller controls all the logic of interaction with the user. This division lowers the errors when you are debugging code and permits a better organization to the code structure.

Advantages

Between the advantages I can mention the faster loading. Because uses few libraries when is starting, CodeIgniter can load the controllers faster.

It owns a quick learning curve. If you know about OOP of course, You can handle this tool more faster in a intuitive manner, since the libraries and functions are few. The manual provided with the application is clear and it explains its internal functionally and the description of main library methods directly.

It manages Active Record. This functionality let make logic sequences of simple queries, which eases time developing.

Interaction with new libraries. It’s easy to develop custom libraries that are called by different controllers.

Disadvantages

Lack of plugin to create CRUD libraries automatically. I suggest should exist such tool in professional editors like Aptana, so one can generate the PHP code from a database model.

Use of CLI to run commands on shell, for example crontabs. Although, according to news, some future version will include this feature.

Suggested Editors

Aptana is a PHP versatile editor that supports from 4 to 5.3 PHP versions. It identifies the PHP language structure and detects syntax errors. Is very useful.

If you need an WYSIWYG editor, you can try Dreamweaver.

CodeIgniter can be downloaded from the website: http://codeigniter.com