A CMS on 2 DIFFERENT frameworks?

Question

I'm not sure if this is possible, but let's say you want to build a CMS, but you're torn between 2 frameworks because each has some features that you like. Is it possible to create the CMS with both framewoks? Does this approach have merits or pitfalls?

Answer 1

Speaking strictly about the Zend Framework (ZF) I would say yes. ZF components are written to be as independent from other components as possible. I would say that it would not be very difficult (It may actually be quite common) to integrate libraries of ZF into other frameworks like Cake, Symfony, or Codeigniter.

Answer 2

Is it possible to create the CMS with both framewoks?

While it's possible to use components from the Zend Framework inside other Frameworks / CMSs - this may be the case with other component libraries as well, but Zend's the most modular one that I know - It's usually not a good idea to mix two full-blown Frameworks.

Many central functions like MVC structures, URL routing, the database layer, Unit testing, error management and so on are by nature unable to be served by two frameworks at once without massive friction. Also, you're likely to get problems when one of the frameworks needs to be updated.

I would recommend to pick the framework that covers most of what you need, and try and add the missing features using plug-ins or own modifications.

Answer 3

Your question is too abstract. For instance Zend Framework is more to be a library of specific functionalities ready-to-be-include into Your codebase then some closed development environment like for instance Symfony framework.

Thanks to it can be ZF simply included into your codebase (and Symfony too).

Symfony Framework compared to it is closed solution depending on front server environment so you cannot use it like some other framewor's slave.

Answer 4

It would really depend on which things you liked about both...

Zend Frameowrk is more like a library, so you can pick and choose components from it. Symfony also has some re-usable components you can use.

Really, you can do anything... it just depends how much work you want to do, and how willing you are to modify the framework code. Note: most other PHP frameworks are not nearly as flexible as Zend Framework (next up probably being Symfony).

This sounds very messy, so I'd advise against it, unless you use it in the fashion I've described above. It's easy to pull ZF or Symfony components into other frameworks, but not the other way around.

Hope this helps.