[ciapug] Frameworks

[Matthew Nuzum]

On 9/5/07, Chris Hettinger <cjh at raccoon.com> wrote:
>
> My idea for the small application: Your To Do List.
> Create a simplistic app to insert and modify items on a to do list, or
> shopping list. Perhaps, those comfortable with their chosen framework
> could demonstrate during the meeting just now easy it would be to add
> new fields, or a new feature (status, and completed dates) to their app.
>
> Doesn't have to be fancy! Just enough to give the group your impressions
> of the framework. Code to demonstrate would be valuable bonus.
>

People should chime in and give feedback on what they'd like to see
evaluated, but here are some concerns I have:

 * I don't want a framework that's been optimized to make the
ridiculously simple tasks even simpler.
 * What are the strengths of the framework?
 * How easy is it to configure for production? (i.e. does it need a
special server configuration or will it work on a standard hosting
setup)

Taking these points into consideration, the todo list application is a
fine example, but I think that it should be complex enough to be
representative of the stuff we do in the real world.

Here are tasks that I often have to do:

 * Log users in
 * Have both required and optional fields in forms
 * Have a "pager" that shows results from the database with next/prev
links to cycle through long record sets
 * Master/Detail type display, where you have a summary that you click
out to view/edit more details
 * Include semi-static content in a side-bar on each page, for
example, in a blog you might have the last 10 posts

Since these are frameworks, in many cases, they have features built in
that should save you time and make your app more secure, like
preventing sql injections. It would be interesting to know if they
have this and if so how well they work.

Since we're evaluating a framework, I don't think this should be a
test of the programmer's coding capability and therefore shouldn't
need much application logic. Ideally, a framework would handle the
monotonous stuff and allow us to focus our time on presentation and
logic.

-- 
Matthew Nuzum
newz2000 on freenode