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@NogDogJan 24.2011 — #A framework will give you more control and flexibility. That may not be entirely true, as you can always modify a CMS's code base, write plug-ins and extensions, and so forth; but if you're going to go to all that trouble, maybe a framework would have been better in the first place.
If a CMS can handle some significant part of your project out of the box and you only need to tweak a few things, it could be a excellent choice for you. If you need to build something that is not a "typical" web site of the sort targeted by a CMS that you know how to work with, you might be better off working with a framework if you're going to write a whole bunch of custom code anyway. Heck, you could use a framework to build your own CMS for building the types of sites you plan to build in the precise way you like to build them, not depending on how the CMS authors like to build them.
Neither is better or worse than the other: it's simply deciding if you are going to build your house from prefab units, modifying them as needed; or if you just need to take a pre-made foundation and then build everything else on top of that in a more customized manner. (And most popular frameworks have all sorts of libraries available you can use, essentially blurring the lines between frameworks and CMS's.) @NogDogJan 25.2011 — #The only framework I've worked much with is CodeIgniter. I tried CakePHP first, and just couldn't get a good handle on it, then tried CI. It may just be that their documentation was better -- at least at the time, that was maybe 2 years ago -- but I picked it up pretty quickly.
A number of PHP-ers I know are big fans of Zend. It probably has more tools and more flexibility, at the "cost" of being a bit at a lower level, meaning you may have to do a little bit more work. But with any of them, once you've hashed out how you like to use a give framework, just like with a CMS you'll have your own code base to add to it for the way you want to do things. @NogDogFeb 01.2011 — #You can get the complete PHP source code here, if that's any help: http://www.php.net/downloads.php . SPL is part of the core PHP now, so it should be in there (and it's all C[+[+]] code).
Frameworks vs CMS’s
I’ve been using Joomla for about 2 years, including extension development, but now I’m thinking on going a step further and either start with Drupal, or learning some PHP framework (CodeIgniter seems the most appealing after watching some video tuts).
I know the difference of both sides. Framework: a skeleton with classes and design patterns to help you build any website much faster than from scratch, CMS: an application built with its own framework which a priori is aimed at content management (articles/items).
From my experience in Joomla, you can currently code almost any extension you want, not only for content management. So what I’d like to know is whether learning a bare framework is worth it. Someone could tell me something you could do with a framework that Drupal/Joomla couldn’t?
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@NogDogJan 24.2011 — #If a CMS can handle some significant part of your project out of the box and you only need to tweak a few things, it could be a excellent choice for you. If you need to build something that is not a "typical" web site of the sort targeted by a CMS that you know how to work with, you might be better off working with a framework if you're going to write a whole bunch of custom code anyway. Heck, you could use a framework to build your own CMS for building the types of sites you plan to build in the precise way you like to build them, not depending on how the CMS authors like to build them.
Neither is better or worse than the other: it's simply deciding if you are going to build your house from prefab units, modifying them as needed; or if you just need to take a pre-made foundation and then build everything else on top of that in a more customized manner. (And most popular frameworks have all sorts of libraries available you can use, essentially blurring the lines between frameworks and CMS's.)
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@NogDogJan 25.2011 — #A number of PHP-ers I know are big fans of Zend. It probably has more tools and more flexibility, at the "cost" of being a bit at a lower level, meaning you may have to do a little bit more work. But with any of them, once you've hashed out how you like to use a give framework, just like with a CMS you'll have your own code base to add to it for the way you want to do things.
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@NogDogFeb 01.2011 — #You can get the complete PHP source code here, if that's any help: