Easy to use/learn PHP framework? [closed]

Question

I need to build a php app, and I was thinking about using a framework (never used one before). I've been browsing around some but most of them seems kinda complicated, I really liked what I saw about Symfony, but it looks like I will have to spend like a month until I really understand how to use it, and in one month I could code the app I have in mind 5 times without a framework. But I want to use one to "standardize" my code and prevent bugs.

So I was wondering if someone could share with me which php frameworks you think are easier to learn how to use.

My application will use mysql, and it will have some sort of "search engine" to search data that will be populated on the database using a few "scraper scripts" (that I also wants to code using the framework).

Answer 1

There are many questions answering this question here on StackOverflow and I was recently just in your position researching many different frameworks as I want to standardize my code as well.

I ended up choosing Codeigniter because I wanted something with good documentation, and that was very light (lighter == easier to understand IMO), and something that was not too strict. In Codeigniter if you really want to you can just code regular PHP and it lets you do that. I like this option because if I really get stuck on something, I just code it in raw PHP the way I know I can. I've only been using Codeigniter for a few weeks but the learning curve isn't too difficult and this is my first framework I've used.

Answer 2

Read through some of the previous discussions, and look out for ease of use advises:

• https://stackoverflow.com/questions/2648/what-php-framework-would-you-choose-for-a-new-application-and-why
• https://stackoverflow.com/questions/249984/php-framework-decision-analysis-paralysis
• Why do I need to use a popular framework?
• https://stackoverflow.com/questions/717836/kohana-or-codeigniter

If you want something easy to get started, you might want to look into the minimal frameworks:

• https://stackoverflow.com/questions/694929/whats-your-no-framework-php-framework
• https://stackoverflow.com/questions/141945/lightest-possible-php-mvc
• https://stackoverflow.com/questions/3023818/any-procedural-non-oo-php-framework

But actually the big dozen are advisable if you want good documentation. Symfony and CakePHP are complex, CodeIgniter and the newer Kohana fork are beginner friendly. While there are many more to choose from. Pick a nice API, and maybe look out for one that explains the difference between MVC and MVP. Also for a lengthy list: http://matrix.include-once.org/framework/