PHP Framework: Ebay Like Site

Question

Hello all,

I am going to be builiding a site like ebay - with all the features of ebay. Please note my payment method is limited to paypal.

What would be the best PHP framework to use to build this quickly, efficiently and with the smallest learning curve?

I have narrowed down to CodeIgniter as the major contender for this project - but having looked through the docs I couldn't find a library or class that I can use with paypal - is the same for all frameworks- surley not?

Zend framework - I considered this but although its documentation is very good, hardly any video tutorials - other frameworks seem to have lots of these especially with normal developers creating screencasts - where is the Zend community!

CakePHP - Having read the stackoverflow threads, I gathered this is a slow framework, giving developers little control as it seems to be a CMS backbone rather than a framework - agree? It was also said cakePHP and Zend have a steeper learning curve than CodeIgnitor.

I have start my short-listing again and I would appreciate any help with this.

Thanks all

Answer 1

I'd really recommend Codeigniter for speed. I've made a few things with it and it was great.

If you need some help learning Codeigniter Nettuts has been doing some really good screencasts

Answer 2

You'll very likely find CodeIgniter to have the lowest learning curve. Regardless of the framework you choose, you'll have to pick up where the framework leaves off, and that is going to mean a significant amount of work on your part (if you truly want to implement all the features of ebay). There seems to be a PayPal lib in the CodeIgniter Wiki. Looks like it would be a great place to start.

Answer 3

In the end, it won't matter. Your code for database and presentation will trump any 'problems' your framework has. The frameworks you listed are awefully similar. You'll be more or less stuck with which you pick, so pick one and learn all you can.

If you're going with codeigniter (note, maybe take a look at Kohana too, the php5 fork of CI), you can always use libs out of Zend if theres something that fits your needs.

Answer 4

Cake is not a CMS backbone, it's a framework like the others. It's just more opinionated, i.e. geared towards CRUD operations (create, read, update, delete, what you typically do in a CMS). If your application is focused on CRUD, Cake will give your development a kickstart; you can get a complete admin interface for your database tables up in, literally, minutes.

Thanks to that it may be a little slower, especially compared to "loose" frameworks like Zend, but in the end it won't matter much. You can do anything with any of these frameworks and any of these frameworks can be optimized to run as fast as possible. Try to get a simple prototype app up and running in all of them and choose the one that seems most comfortable to you.