How to know when it is time to use a framework to develop a website?

Question

I have been developing websites in an n-tier structure and so far my requirements are fulfilled. But as powerful frameworks like Zend Framework, Symfony are getting popular, I wonder how to know if it is time to shift to a framework?

Am I in a kind of dilemma? What is the right option?

Answer 1

If you satisfied with your own way - never.
Frameworks being written not by gods but by people. Some of them may know less than you. Or have different point of view.
Also, it is more a paradigm dictated to you, than toolbox. A religion.
If you have your own way and it suits you, better develop your own framework. Not as universal as famous ones, but not as fat and sluggish as them too.

Answer 2

Yes.

It not only speeds up development time (once you know your way around the framework), it enables other developers to have a better understanding of how the site works.

Answer 3

Using a framework has of course its advantages because you can write your code faster, you have not worry about a lot of functionalities that are always required in a web application so you can think more about your application-specific implementation and you have just to upgrade the other functionalities. Using a framework gives you of course advantages in terms of collaboration because obviously if you use a well-known framework there are a lot of people that know it without spending time to train them.

But, when you use a framework, you must respect its structure, its coding style and its design. That's usually not a problem because if you choose wisely a framework, you won't feel the need to go off the rails.

Answer 4

The best thing to do is really just have a go! I switched from my own coding style into CakePHP about a year ago and haven't looked back since. Makes it much easier for me to work on other framework-based code by other people, too, and it's overall reduced the wtfs of looking at my own code six months later because now the code follows a much stricter format and is more predictable.

If you're asking that question, then the time to try it is probably now since you've clearly had your interest piqued. If it turns out you don't like working with them then you can always go back to your usual way (or even write your own like Col. Shrapnel says).