Feb
01
Still, it is lightweight and clean. Kohana is a Code Igniter fork that is completely open source and community driven. If you are used to Code Igniter, then Kohana would be a walk in the park. The one major difference is that Kohana is exclusively for PHP 5 while Code Igniter supports from PHP 4 and up. Kohana is strinctly OOP with benefits like visibility protection, automatic class loading, overloading, interfaces, abstracts, and singletons. Cool!
Whats more is that while Code Igniter supports only $POST arrays and no GET, Kohana lets POST and GET arrays live together in harmony with the same tight security of Code Igniter.
Another trivial thing thats always kind of bugged me of Code Igniter is the directory structure. Kohana’s directory structure makes a lot more sense. See, Code Igniter has one directory at the root called System. In this directory is a bunch of subdirectories of which your application directory is a part of. Kohana went and put the application directory with the system directory on the root path. I know, I know, it really is pedantic of me, but it just makes so much more sense to do something so insignificant. Well, actually, on second thought, its not as trivial as it might seem. Come upgrade time, you only need to upgrade the system folder and your application folder would be untouched. Code Igniter stores a bunch of system related files in their app folder which could get overwritten when upgrading, but need to be upgrade every once in a while as they do make changes to those files occasionally.
Another thing is that changes and fixes happens a lot faster in Kohana as it is a community project. Code Igniter is brilliant, but it was kind of slowish in releasing fixes and improvements as Ellis Labs first do Expression Engine (it seems) then Code Igniter. Kohana living in a community allows for rapid expansion and fixes.
All in all, I think Kohana is a great fork on an already great framework. Keep up the good work. If you are worried about it only working on PHP 5, well, PHP 4’s end of life was the 31st of December 2007 already! Convert! At least bugs will be fixed till 2008-08-08. Cool date they chose!
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Code Igniter, Open Source, PHP, Programming, web development Stii
Mar
15
Check it out! Code Igniter has got a new look web site with a new look logo! Looks shweeeeet!
technorati tags:codeigniter
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Code Igniter Stii
Feb
27
I promised Derek Allard that I’ll be publishing some examples of how I integrated mootools with Code Igniter, but alas, I have not yet had made the time to just sit down and do it. I promise, Derek, soon!
I just want to add that I have not integrated mootools as an Code Igniter class or library. I should prolly, but here is my reason for not doing it. Two reasons actually:
- I’m too damn lazy… That and deadlines was WHOOSHING by again.
- I like my Javascript seperated from my PHP and Code Igniter classes!
I’ll focus on the second reason, since that one is easier to defend. 
Firstly, let me just say once more that it is a matter of preference! I’m not arguing right and wrong here. Simply what I prefer and that can hopefully help you make up your mind if you have similar questions.
If you are going to integrate mootools with Code Igniter, you are going to write PHP that generates Javascript functions/classes. That for me is somewhat against the grain of the whole MVC philosophy. You already seperate your database access from your business logic from your HTML views. Now, you want to write PHP that generates Javascript just to make it easier to implement. What if you need very particular functionality? You will then have to want to stick with extending your PHP library to generate the appropriate Javascript functions. This is perfectly alright, but not always practical, since you might have certain time constraints.
There is of course a number of drawbacks you will need to consider when implementing mootools seperately, but more on that at a later stage.
Maybe I can be convinced that integrating it is better? I don’t know. It just feels more comfortable having it seperate.
technorati tags:codeigniter, mootools, javascript, php
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Code Igniter, PHP, javascript, mootools Stii
Feb
22
HUH?! Yes folks! And it could prove invaluable in SEO too! Code Igniter got a setting that allows you to append any file extension to a URL.
I’m going to use muti as an example:
The URL to their latest submissions is http://muti.co.za/new
If it was done in Code Igniter I could tell it to append the URL with the extension .muti or .africa
It will look like this then:
http://muti.co.za/new.muti or http://muti.co.za/new.africa
Now, I’m virtually sure you could achieve the same with Apache mod_rewrite!
Cool Idea2.0 eh?
PS: Ok, this was kind of useless information. I reckon if you really want to do it you could simply put your name in your url anyway… Just thought its a cool feature and the fact that you don’t need to worry about it as it is done automatically!
technorati tags:branding, codeigniter, mod_rewrite, apache
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Code Igniter, Marketing, ideas 2.0 Stii
Feb
01
My favorite Javascript library had a makeover! Site looks AWESOME!
Just for the record: The mootools site was developed using Code Igniter as far as I know. So the two are a match made in heaven!
I have just replaced the script.aculo.us library as implemented by Derek Allard in his vodcast tutorial with the mootools library doing it the same way Derek did and it works like a charm!
I’ll post a guide/example on how to do it soon. (MUST just get the deadlines behind me… you know, they make that WHOOSH sound as they go by…)
PS: On the mootools site, they state the compatibility with all the browsers. I love the way that they made links to ALL the browsers’ sites excepct for Internet Explorer!
technorati tags:mootools, codeigniter, ajax, javascript
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Code Igniter, ajax, javascript, mootools Stii
Jan
16
The thing about any MVC (Model-View-Controller) framework is that it seperates your program logic from your HTML from your database access. You can however query your database in the model and format the result to be returned so that it is already in HTML, all ready for display. So all you need to do is to assign your model result to a $data['result'] array item ready for display and echo it in your view file. Nothing wrong with that and its a matter of taste and preference.
However… The purpose of MVC frameworks is that it seperates your program logic from your HTML from your database access!! A GOOD rule of thumb is to always keep all HTML in your view files, logic in your controllers and database access in your model files.
Derek Allard did a BRILLIANT vodcast tutorial. It even shows you how to utilize the script.aculo.us AJAX library to do AJAX calls in your application! The ONLY thing that I found wrong was that he mix HTML in his models (to be fair, it was due to an AJAX call and for the sake of time I do understand!). As I’ve said, there is nothing wrong with it technically, but if you keep things where they are supposed to be (HTML in your view files) then you know exactly where to go look for issues without even thinking about it. It will also make co.labs easier since I will not wonder where what is generated that was written by some other developer, etc…
BTW, Derek, I’m a big fan.
technorati tags:codeigniter, mvcframeworks, php, scriptaculous
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Code Igniter Stii
Jan
15
After my “discussion” with devkungfoo about PHP MVC frameworks, I decided to re-develop one of our current projects in Code Igniter. The project was about 60% complete, so I thought it might not be a bad idea since I’m anyway not going to have time playing with CI.
It turns out that it is by FAR the best idea I’ve had so far in 2007! I plonked myself in front of my PC over the weekend and started fooling around, reading the docs and testing it. My first thoughts was I’m biteing off more I can chew at such a late stage. Then this morning I plunged into the project to see how far I can get and how long it will take me to get with this project to get up to date (at least till where I am now).
I’m stoked!!! It took me all of a week’s work (thats how long it took me to do the part I’ve done in Code Igniter) in one day. It is amazing. AMAZING!!!
You guys at Code Igniter are the absolute best! PHP Developers, if you are looking to use a MVC framework (and you SHOULD), then stop looking any further and go with Code Igniter.
For the guys at CI, I’m planning to re-develop a pet project of mine later when time allows, and I’ll give back by doing it tutorial style! Maybe I can even persuade devkungfoo to join in. What do you say Dinesh?
technorati tags:php, softwaredevelopment, mvc, codeigniter
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Code Igniter, Kick-ass Tools, PHP Stii
Jan
10
I recently commented like a super-cowboy on devkungfoo’s blog. I made the following (stupid|hot-headed) statement:
I’m considering writing my next big project from scratch, steering clear from any frameworks for now.
Believe me if I tell you that its been on my mind for most of my holiday. I should really learn to think before I shoot my mouth off like some MG42 (I’m playing Call of Duty 3 ) machine gun!
Let me explain. With the coming of Web 2.0 there has been a lot of focus on MVC (Model-View-Controller) development frameworks. What makes them special is that they follow some very important development principles like the DRY (Don’t Repeat Yourself) principle and they do Database abstraction GOOD! They also encapsulate a lot of standard functions in a “tool library” (if I may call it that) that makes software development quick. Really QUICK. They also separate your data (Models) from your logic (Controller) and your HTML (Views). So all in all, I do not for the life of me know why I made such a comment! MVC’s are great and should be used. To redevelop from scratch, although very novel and brave, is somewhat stupid. Yes, I know I’m contradicting myself something awful, but I’ve been known to do that due to my bloody motormouth. 
Last year I spent a lot of time researching a bunch of MVC frameworks. I first of all looked at Ruby on Rails which is arguably one of the best frameworks out there. The cons of this frameworks for me was:
- Its new and most ISP’s do not support it. Our ISP said the only way they’ll host it is if we farm our own server at them and maintain/install it ourselves. Now that seemed like a fun and interesting prospect at the time, but time was the major constraint!
- The other point is that it is a new language which I needed to learn. Also a time constraint issue, although they have a GREAT thing called InstantRails for Windows that do the entire setup process for you! So I have played with it and would definitely look at doing some projects in future using RoR. Ruby is a wonderful language!
Another great MVC framework written in Python and well worth while checking out if you can develop in Python is Django. But the same goes for Django that goes for Ruby on Rails.
I then decided to look at what is available in PHP since I’m proficient in it. Was I pleasantly surprised! There are hundreds of frameworks! All flavors and for all versions of PHP. Lovely! I still found that there is quite a learning curve involved in these PHP frameworks and although I know PHP like the back of my hand, I have to learn how to implement things utilizing the framework to its full potential!
I ended up singling out two frameworks: CakePHP and Code Igniter.
CakePHP is considered the Ruby on Rails of PHP. A great and extremely powerful framework it is, but I found it a bit clunky and big and in some instances simply overkill!
Code Igniter on the other hand is extremely lightweight and flexible and a whole lot simpler to learn. It lacks in certain aspects as at the time it had no AJAX support, but including AJAX was not a big issue as it was easy enough to do.
So, out of the frameworks, Code Igniter is the one to use for small to medium sized projects.
technorati tags:softwaredevelopment, programming, mvc, frameworks, php, rubyonrails, ror, python, django, webdevelopment
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Code Igniter, PHP, Python, Ruby (on Rails), web development Stii
