Developing an application server: django vs. zend vs. cakephp vs. codeigniter vs. other

Question

I'm trying to develop an application server that will deliver content to a core group of websites, as well as provide third party services to other websites that also want to use this content. The app server will be hosting web services for these core + 3rd party websites. Authentication and all that comes into play. The data itself will consist of millions of records.

These records will come from a variety of sources: APIs, RSS feeds, REST services, etc. This app server will essentially collect this data on a routine basis, and update the database with this new information. This data will then be shared via some sort of web service (most likely REST) to the core websites and 3rd party websites.

FYI, I'm making a distinction between core sites and 3rd party websites because there will be different access levels, i.e. a core website will have more access than a 3rd party website.

All that said, I'm trying to make the best decision on which framework to use. At the risk of losing all credibility, I currently have a ton of this code written as a wordpress plugin. What started as a one-time site evolved into several sites, and some homebrew hacking to make my outdated infrastructure work across multiple sites.

I'm looking to migrate all of this to a new application server, with a solid framework.

Since everything is written in PHP, obviously I'm tempted to do the migration in PHP. However, I'm considering Python because of its powerful ability to manipulate data. I don't know if it's worth the hassle, though, of rewriting a lot of code in Python.

Could anyone give me some tips on what I should do? I'm really looking to clean up a big mess more than anything, and would like a framework to encourage some solid programming conventions.

I'd add Smyfony to your list of frameworks to check out (def. look at Doctrine ORM which comes with Symfony and also stand alone). I'd stay very very far away from CakePHP due to how it handles the data models. — Matt Wonlaw
– Matt Wonlaw, Commented Jul 29, 2011 at 17:10

gpojd · Accepted Answer · 2011-07-29 16:39:05Z

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All of the frameworks that you mentioned are capable. Pick one in the language that you know the best and use that.

answered Jul 29, 2011 at 16:39

gpojd

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dustin999 Over a year ago

Thanks for the response. After doing a lot of research and familiarizing myself with various frameworks, I've decided to tackle this problem using Yii. I think a watered down framework wouldn't do the trick for me, because I have a fairly complex data model and will be doing REST services and so forth.

lqez · Accepted Answer · 2011-07-29 18:32:08Z

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I agree with @gpojd's opinion. All of them that you mentioned are fully capable.

However, it looks like they are too powerful for your job. Because they are all full-stack MVC-like web frameworks shipped with ORM, Template engine, URL redirections and i18n supports.

So, I suggest you to use more lighter/thinner frameworks. and if you don't mind choosing any programming languages, please check out the below frameworks.

Python
- Werkzeug : http://werkzeug.pocoo.org/
Javascript
- node.js : http://nodejs.org/
- with Stylus framework : http://expressjs.com/

answered Jul 29, 2011 at 18:32

lqez

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