Is Kohana worth giving up on due to lack of Documentation & Examples?

Question

Hello, I've recently chose Kohana for a new project I'm doing
And quite frankly, it's going a bit slow due to lack of resources.
I've stumbled again and again on problems that I can't find a solution to
Examples are probably the hardest to come by, so I'm considering
Switching, especially because I'm only starting and I am still able to do it
without to much trouble.

I've been looking at CodeIgniter, although I know that Kohana is a branch out,
CodeIgniter has far more examples and documentation, I'm wondering about your opinion.

Edit: I would love to see some complete Kohana sites example,
so that I would have a really quick reference.
Nothing like already-working code to give you inspiration.

---

I've decided to move to Symfony Yii for my next project,
It seems better documented and learning something new is always good.

Answer 1

This is a very subjective question...

Kohana's documentation is very poor from a newcomer's perspective, and the attitude of the dev's isn't one that makes it easy to get to grips with the framework. Some would argue that if they had better docs, the developers wouldn't be pestered by the same questions time and time again. However, they have chosen to aim their framework at experienced php coders, and part of that means tutorial type documentation is overruled in favour of consistent and well-structure sourced code. The upshot of this is that (as a non-beginner) you can figure out what is going on simply by reading through the source code.

Personally, I like this approach as it ensures a greater number people involved with Kohana will have RTFM and have a better level of understanding as a result. If you aren't comfortable reading through source code, or haven't the time / inclination needed to gain the necessary skills, then it's probably better to switch to a framework with more tutorials / docs and get on with the business of creating!

Answer 2

Hi Asaf,

I was in a very similar position to what you did. I was doing research, saw Kohana was a branch of CodeIgniter (CI) and supposed to be better. It's lack of documentation and community is very significant. I worked through it and developed a major system, and while I would send you a link it is a secured site and we don't have demo logins.

I haven't really looked at new developments since I started it (7 months), but the impression I got was it wasn't moving much.

My personal opinion is to drop it. The speed difference between the two is probably negligible (not based on any facts, just thoughts). If I had to redevelop the systems I was using I would definitely use CI.

I have some friends, and they seem to like it. If its not too much trouble, I think its worth the switch now.

Answer 3

I decided to stick with zend framework. I find that when I build apps on ZF I can reuse most of my code even without striving to code in the right way. ZF also has a great community and great changes are to be seen in upcoming ZF2. I think it is the best tool available and only symfony could compete it because symfony offers few great features which ZF is lacking. ZF is a little bit complex in the beginning though. So if you aren't familiar with ZF yet and you need your project done now and fast, I wouldn't recommend ZF. CodeIgniter is somehow similar to ZF however lighter, offers less features and is easier to learn.

Answer 4

Generally I would say if you weren't experienced with PHP, Kohaha may be a less desirable choice. You have to ask yourself if you are willing to fire up a framework file in your IDE to examine how it works. I sometimes have to do this. You are lucky however, the source code is very well documented. You could argue that the source code is kind of like the documentation.

However, nothing beats proper documentation created by the developers. Code Igniter does win this argument, but I personally think their we must still support PHP4 leads to too much ugly code and development hassle.

But with Stack Overflow, the Kohana forums, unofficial wikis, cheat sheet and blog posts, there should be enough to get you through the basics. If you run into trouble, just ask!

Answer 5

I was in a similar position to yourself. I would say not to listen to Kerry with respect to dropping the framework.

The framework itself has poor documentation, but the source code is clear and a masterclass in how to write clean, self explanatory, decoupled code (especially in KO3). Once I got the hang of how Kohana works, it improved my own coding ability.

Once the penny drops with some of the Kohana libraries, you then have the chance to implement their patterns into your own code to solve similar problems. And at that point you realise how superbly structured it is as a framework.

Although I know you can extend libraries in CI, it is a snip in Kohana, just a case of following their cascading file system and a few conventions. It is extremely easy to write drop in modules that can be used in any of your other Kohana Projects.

With the Zend Framework, it certainly looks rich in features, but I have never personally liked the "style" of the code and have previously found the docs and the code hard to follow. But I am sure many would disagree.

Answer 6

IDE code hinting helps a lot with Kohana you won't need to check manual often since Kohana source code is properly self documented

I prefer NetBeans PHP 6.8 (Oracle ver 6.9 kinda sloww)