I have been using CodeIgniter for about 3 months now and love it. I’ve even started using it at work which is great.
I originally built a project management tool using just PHP, it took me around 3 weeks to develop, minus bug fixes. I spent most of that time structuring the application and creating core files such as form validation, authentication and so on. I knew I was never going to be happy with the current version as it wasn’t structured very well, on top of that It needed to be secure and bug free.
I had been meaning to try CodeIgniter for quite some time and had a second look at the documentation (CodeIgniter has great documentation), I decided it would be a perfect fit for my project as it had Form validation, Security built in, Form builders, Secure file uploading and tonnes more all built in. I managed to get to the same state the original app was in a weekend. It’s incredible how much I managed to do in a short amount of time.
Building the application with CodeIgniter not only made my application more secure, the application is structured very nicely. If I want to add some features to the application I can do that in a short amount of time without breaking anything. I did all of this in a fraction of the time It originally took me to build. I don’t think I will ever build a personal project without using CodeIgniter or another framework again. Not only was it fun, my applications code base is 100x nicer.
I wouldn’t suggest a framework to someone who doesn’t have a decent understanding of PHP, but if you do then you’re missing out. There are many frameworks you can use such as CodeIgniter, CakePHP, ZendFramework, Symfony. I went with CodeIgniter because its lightweight and has very good documentation, however the ones I have listed are great.
