Is it really worth to change from CodeIgniter to Zend Framework? if so, how difficult would it be?

Question

Hi friends, I don't know if this is a good place for such a question. If not, sorry for messing :/

I have been using Codeigniter for a while, I have already built my own cms (to use for all my projects) and many modules (news, image uploads, etc.) and I can do my work well and quick... but I always wanted Zend Framework actually. The reason I've chosen Codeigniter is because of time-issues. I had very tight time-line for my projects when I decided to go for a framework for using for the rest of my life. and only because of the short time learning matter I chose CodeIgniter. I'm actually happy now. But I cannot take my head of thinking about Zend!

My question is, is it really worth to give serious learning time to Zend? I'm already very busy with projects, I will have to sacrifice much from my rest time, less sleep at nights to learn, etc. and I will need to build my cms and all other modules from scratch with Zend.

Is it really worth it? And how do you think about how difficult will it be to learn Zend for a person who already knows Codeigniter?

Thanks a lot!

Answer 1

Platonic affair

You say you're happy but still you have a secret platonic affair with the Zend Framework. So there must be some things which you like more about ZF or you've been reading and hearing about it and you see that it is constantly gaining reputation and quality.

Can you tell us more about that?

Framework choice paralyses

I can only tell you my experiences from the perspective of a ZF user. A year ago I faced the framework question as well and I thought a lot about it and which framework to choose. See my auto-discussion here.

I decided to learn Zend Framework and so far I don't regret the decision at all. At the moment as I assess the PHP framework market I'd say there are really only two excellent options from the overall perspective: Symfony and ZF.

Why to change, if you're happy?

But then again, you're happy. Your choice of technology should primarily be based on whether or not it allows you to fulfill the given requirements. If you have built your own CMS already and you can fulfill the customer requirements swiftly and with style, why would you change but for your own fancy?

Learning is a good thing

On yet another hand ;) it seems always worth learning something new. But maybe you can just play around with ZF, try a small personal project or something.

Maybe it's even more worth learning a C language or Ruby or Python or ...

Learning ZF

Anyways, if you decide to go for ZF you'll most probably not regret it and I don't think it will take you so much time. You know PHP, you know the way frameworks function. You just have to read about some new concepts and get used to another API. And hey ZF is losely coupled, you can even start using its classes in your CI apps and get to know it 'en passent'.

Answer 2

Switch to ZF if you take advantage of the new features it offers. Connection to services, OpenID support, REST server, SOAP server...

But if you need only basic CMS-like features (CRUD + authentication) than it's ZF too much :)

I think you should learn it, but don't try to rewrite your working CI CMS into ZF. It's worthless. And it will also be slower.

Disclamer: I'm happy ZF user :)