Introducing PHP Freedom Framework
Tomiwa Adefokun
who want to be world leaders in web development. A simple tool to step
you up to the level of advanced PHP developer in the shortest
imaginable time.” This is how the framework is described on the
project website, www.phpfreedom.org.
Some years ago, in the beginning of the web world - not many
technologies were required of a website maker; source code editor, web
browser and HTML knowledge sufficed. But so much was demanded from the
young world and hence the emergence of various technologies that would
aid dynamism within the World Wide Web and give life to the rather
static HTML.
The evolution of the web was rapid and now it has become tremendously
wide and complex. Hundreds of web development tools and technologies
are available and many more are still in various laboratories across
the world; they are developed to simplify web development processes,
reduce development time and enable standardization. Most of these
tools are built on top of programming languages like PHP, Java, Ruby
and ASP; they are referred to as Web Development Frameworks. Choosing
from the array of available frameworks may be tasking, major factors
to consider include flexibility, power and maintainability. The
stronger a framework is the lesser the developer interacts directly
with the base technologies that powers it, unfortunately a developer
tend to become so comfortable with his chosen framework and
development tool that he is likely to - as often do so many - loose
his grasp of the underlining technologies. This was a huge trade-off.
Perhaps our developers do not need to build new frameworks, but do
they not need the skills and knowledge required to engineer world
class application systems? That would require the skills and
imaginative strength of framework builders.
PHP Freedom framework is a free and open source rapid web development
framework, developed entirely in Nigeria, the first release, version
1.0, was released on the 11th of May, 2009 and can be downloaded from
the project website, www.phpfreedom.org. The project aims at helping
African developers understand the reasoning behind great application
frameworks, the standards and technologies on which they are built. It
is written in object oriented PHP5 and based on the
Model-View-Controller development pattern. It is one of the fastest
known of such solutions, and could be used to set up a 100% database
driven website in 15 minutes!
The framework is essentially useful for people who may not have more
than basic HTML or CSS knowledge, and it gives advanced developers the
freedom to imagine more... and do more. Its design concept is to bring
developers closer to the background processes and technologies; this
is what lacked in other frameworks that inspired the development of
PHP Freedom Framework. It may correctly be, as claimed by many
developers who have chosen the young tool, a suitable web development
framework for Africa, but it is more suitable as guide to
understanding world class application development systems for Africa.
We should begin to appreciate local innovations in software
technologies, little or massive; if we would count as a software
developing nation, that is the change we need.
DHTML
On Jun 13, 10:52 pm, Tomiwa Adefokun <tomiwa.adefo...@gmail.com>
wrote: