How to keep up with PHP Frameworks evolution?

Question

So I'm about to start a big Property Management System for the cloud. This Hotel system already exists in VB.net technologies, and now we are porting the whole system to web.

We are trying to decide between ASP.net or PHP, we are thinking on PHP because ASP.net would cost too much on licensing and servers. So there is Laravel, Symphony, CodeIgniter, Zend, etc..

The thing is, this project is suppose to live for years to come. But we feel like getting constraint ed by using a PHP framework, because every time the framework gets updated then we need to update our whole system. For example.. now Laravel got updated from version 4 to 5. And the whole folder structure changed. I can't imagine having our big system needing to be updated and keep up to every Laravel version update. How do you keep up with this ?

Also, what would happened if Laravel disappears, its the trendy fashion now. But we see PHP frameworks come and go.

Would it be wiser not to use any php framework and building everything from scratch to have more control over it ?

Answer 1

You should first note that using a framework is primarily meant to solve two issues;

1. Force coding into a certain 'format'. Collaboratively working on code can generate 'hacked' solutions, or unmaintainable code. A framework can be the force which helps keep these things in check.
2. A framework comes with a certain core-code which handles for example database abstraction, routing, etc. which can save you a lot of time to develop yourself.

An extra thing to mention; when implementing new features, there is the possibility someone has built it before and maybe even better than you would have anticipated.

Keeping up with the framework should not be too hard, as long as you abide by the coding guidelines of the framework. With the bigger frameworks, new releases have (or after sometime generate) tutorials on how to port your previous version into the new version format.

Choosing which framework to use, is a question which is opinion-based and not suited to discuss here, but keep in mind that you choose your framework according to your needs. Also check how big the community is and how much 3rd party plugins/code exists (the more, the longer the framework will last).

Good luck!