Java background shifting to PHP5. Here are some quick info for Java geeks who wants to use PHP5 (there are many reason why should you use PHP 5, I won’t go in detail into that).
1.You can continue using your favourite Eclipse IDE for PHP5 programming. Use PHPEclipse http://phpeclipse.sourceforge.net/update/releases
2.PHP5 is a full blown language, so like ANT, you have a make/build tool called Phing. This is based on ANT so you can migrate your ANT script for Java to build a PHP5 project. Yes …with little restrictions.
3.If you have been designing Enterprise style Java application having fine grained tiers like Web tier, Business Tier and Data tier …you can continue following the same approach!!
4.If you are coming from ORM (Object Relational Mapping) background like Hibernate, good news …you have plenty of choice in PHP5. My favourite is Doctrine. Those Doctrine developers are the smartest kid on the block. Doctrine is the best thing that has happened to PHP world. I will be writing shortly a Quick Learn article on my use of Doctrine in an application.
5.Now does there a Unit testing framework like Junit in PHP5. Yes … you have PHPUnit which is also part of XUnit family, also there is the simplest testing framework called SimpleTest, SimpleTest is sweet one, it gets you up & running in few seconds. So you can use TDD (Test Driven Development) and build high quality PHP app.
6.In case you are looking for a framework like Spring Framework in Java/J2EE, then there is Zend Framework. Though Zend Framework can’t be compared to Spring in totality but it is built using loose coupling concepts … it doesn’t dictate you and you can follow your own design & architecture.
7.How about MVC framework like Struts? There are plenty of choice in PHP5 like Symfony, CodeIgnitor, CakePHP. But I liked Zend Framework’s View, Controller approach as it allows me to use my own design and architecture approach and not tightly integrate the modules.
8.So what about Tempalting framework like Velocity and Freemarker in java…is there anything like this in PHP5 ? Yes, there is Smarty, which is programmer’s first choice.
Using the above framework on your Eclipse IDE, you can rapid develop application in PHP5, increase testability, and improve productivity.
There are great framework out there but my approach in this article has been to choose only those API/framework which matches with what I have been following in Java world for years.
Tags: Agile PHP
