Thread

Codeigniter looks good and everything but so far only one issue with Codeigniter.

there seems to be no major sites built with Codeigniter. None.

Can you convince me - by providing some real world samples - that Codeigniter is suitable for major portals also - lets say - 50 000 visitors per day or more

Why should we convince you?

Use it if you like it. Don’t use it you don’t. No one is going to give you a sales pitch. 😊

Why should we convince you?

Why the indifference? This is an interesting question, I’d love to see some examples too.

Why the indifference? This is an interesting question, I’d love to see some examples too.

Expression Engine is build on top of CodeIgniter. Should be plenty of examples on their showcase page.

Why should we convince you?

Because people who have been working with really big and serious PHP portals may need to know whether Codeigniter is an option or not, because big sites have different needs.

( there are other options you know CakePHP, Zend, Kohana etc.)

Because big sites have different needs.

Like what?

In the end it’s ‘just’ PHP regardless which framework you use. Sites with a lot of traffic have issues, but the framework is hardly ever the problem (well maybe except for Cake because it’s slow 😉 ). Scaling is usually up, then out. Neither of those have anything to do with either PHP or a framework in particular and everything to do with architecture and hardware. (apart from writing C functions to replace ‘slow’ PHP functions, but that’s a whole different ballpark).

Again, it’s not really a competition: use the best tools for the job, or whatever you feel comfortable with.

Here is the showcase of Expression sites… http://expressionengine.com/showcase/websites/alpha

If you are new to programming and need something more shrink-wrapped you could go with a full blown CMS like Joomla, Drupal or a commercial one like Expression.  Codeigniter is for people who need a good set of tools for building their own applications.  As far as frameworks go there are other players and you could find some arguments for using either.  So, it really boils down to taste.  For me the draw to Codeigniter is that it is well documented.  I started looking at Bitweaver as a CMS/framework but the documentation just plain sucks. 

The Codeigniter framework is plainly logical in my opinion and it’s features are withing my grasp.

Just my 2 cents…

Bob ?;O)

One really experienced PHP programmer told me that he is using Codeigniter for smaller projects and Zend framework for bigger projects

I wonder why is that ..    ( to provoke a little )

p.s. and where goes the line between smaller projects ( Codeigniter ) and bigger projects ( Zend )

Your not going to provoke anyone here.  Perhaps quite the opposite reasoning than you think… A larger framework will have a harder learning curve.  For me less is more.  I have created a few database driven websites from scratch and then others using other peoples code.  I have a harder time keeping perspective of things I don’t write myself especially when the code base is quite large.  So a smaller tool set works for me.  If you want Zen… go Zen… There is another thread on the virtues of both and the consensus is that Zen is more difficult to use. http://ellislab.com/forums/viewthread/56889/

Bob ?;O)

p.s. and where goes the line between smaller projects ( Codeigniter ) and bigger projects ( Zend )

I think you just answered your own question: it really is a grey area.

Zend is nice because there are many components which will make your life easier. It’s also a little bit more mature (supports i8n natively, has a lot of good web-services classes, caching components, etc) as in that it’s completely rewritten in PHP5 and thus uses a lot of ‘smart’ OOP to do the same things CI does but more elegant.

That doesn’t mean CI can’t do the same things Zend can. In fact because the way Zend components are used, you can easily implement them inside CI. The big drawback to me for Zend is that it’s rather verbose: you need to write a lot of code to do small things. CI is much ‘simpler’. You setup your database connection, and you are pretty much good to go. It’s easy, has a very simple syntax which everyone should agree takes less than a week to ‘master’ and takes away a lot of the annoying repetitive coding.

Thank you nOxie - thats a good answer - Zend has more advanced library , for Webservices etc. that big portals usually need , and Zend is thus more complicated to learn

If you say that in general Codeigniter can do the same things that Zend can - then why big portals are not built with Codeigniters ?

could it be that big portals are being developed by experienced professionals usually - who usually know Zend well and - why to use Codeigniter for big portals when you are experienced with Zend ..

http://mpora.com/ is the largest I know of. I have no idea what it does per day.

But it’s kind of a dumb question. Download it, run your own tests, and figure it out for yourself.

At least one big Codeigniter site named after the long conversation ) hopefully there are some more of similar size Codeigniter portals in the world

This http://www.mpora.com site has about 56 000 visitors per day according to some stat counters , so looks promising

could it be that big portals are being developed by experienced professionals usually - who usually know Zend well and - why to use Codeigniter for big portals when you are experienced with Zend ..

Well define experienced. I have 10 years of PHP experience. Does that make me experienced? I know a lot of students who just finished college and their heads are filled with Design Patterns and OOP paradigms. Are they experienced? Is the guy who has been programming for 20+ years in Fortran, Cobol and C and decides to learn this ‘new thing’ called PHP experienced?

Programming is, to me at least, an art form. While you have many mediocre artists, there are only few who truly are amazing. Obviously there are a lot of artists who no one understands, or rather, no one likes and there is a large group who are plainly rubbish. But all of them have experience.

So what does this tell you? Like I stated earlier, it’s all ‘just’ PHP. Put it in the hands of a truly amazing programmer, and it powers sites like Youtube, Digg and more than half the alexa top 100 sites. Put it in the hands of mediocre programmers, you’ll get the standard corporate website. Put it in the hands of hobbyist, you end up with Wordpress, Joomla and all the other behemoths OS engines. (I’m not saying they are bad products, but if you look at the code, most good programmers would start crying or jump of a cliff).

Obviously you care more about the differences between CI and Zend. I would reckon that most programmers who want to use many of the Zend components, are inclined to just use the whole package, instead of adapting components to CI. This would make sense, especially if they have a lot of experience with the Zend framework and are comfortable/familiar with the conventions/configurations of Zend.

a note about above… to me… use CI because it’s the fastest of all the frameworks (not opinion), and if you need one or two classes to do something, just add the class to your library for that project.  And hell, you don’t have to use a framework at all.  .NET comes out and the PHP community freaks and every tom dick and harry made a framework… for what?  At the end of the day, if it’s not making it easier and speeding development (and believe me… ZF will NOT make your life easier), then what’s the point?  CI is fast and speeds development. <-period