Using Yii Development Software for your Website

Summary
The article highlights the important features and constituents of Yii platform. It provides a slight background about the Yii development and traces down its development to attain an official status as one of the leading PHP development frameworks across the globe. Brimming full with specific features and specialities, Yii Development platform is all about enhancing the developer experience by allowing operability, security and scalability. The latter part of the article addresses the various benefits that developers gain through Yii platform.

Yii Development Software for your Website

While developing a PHP based website, many developers are faced with the decision of selecting either of the two broad choices. Either purchase a complete PHP product or use the PHP framework. Considering the second option lands you in opting for many choices including the Yii Development framework services.

Why use a PHP framework?

Most PHP frameworks help the developer to enhance their codes security and, more importantly, help slash the time it takes to build websites and/or web applications. In addition, a good framework allows the developer to easily upgrade websites without any hassle. Additionally, PHP frameworks constantly evolve and are usually more advanced in terms of applications than the average out-of-the-box solution.

Yii Yes it Is!

Yii is described as a revolutionary framework with a multitude of applications that been specifically created to assist the developers. YII was initially created to correct some of the shortcomings of the PRADO framework. For example, the PRADO framework did not provide efficient customizable tools that were later on covered by YII. YII was released as an open-source project under the terms of a BSD licence, allowing the user to freely develop an open-source or a proprietary web application. Not only is the framework available online, but also the extensions, various demos and logo are also readily available on the Internet. In 2008, Yii was formally launched and is, in fact, an acronym for Yes It Is.

Yii Developer services include: application development website development portal development and Application maintenance and support.

Developers also have an option to outsource PHP development projects to Yii. The Yii Development team can offer a quick, highly customizable and efficient service pertaining to any PHP project. Currently, Yii is constantly under evolution with several of their newer versions available in the market. The Yii platform is also coming up with their framework that is based on top of the PHP 5.3.0+. The new code offering is being released via GitHubs code repository. Much of the development work has been undertaken as result of the feedback from its developers. Even though, it is not as prominent as other frameworks, Yii is lauded as one of the best PHP frameworks available in the market today.

Yii its Features & Specialities

Yii is a general purpose framework for web programming through which virtually any kind of webapplication can be developed. Big traffic-flow applications such as forums, portals, e-commerce systems can be developed through Yiis simple yet advanced caching facility.

I.

Model-View-Controller (MVC)

The Yii software package provides users a Model-View-Controller (MVC) design. MVC separates user interface considerations from business logic. This allows the developer to play with each part of framework without adversely affecting the other. In addition, the MVC views allow the user to display various interfaces at the same time. While using a framework, developers inevitably have to mix some code in the presentation logic. However, the best practice is to keep any presentation markup out of the controller and, more importantly from the model. This is easily achievable through Yii. In MVC, the model represents the information (the data) and the business rules. The view contains elements of the user interface such as text, form inputs, and the controller manages the communication between the model and the view.

In addition to the MVC, Yii also offers another tool called Application. This tool allows the execution context for processing requests. Therefore, Application collects data from user requests and then sends the same to the relevant controller. II. Databases

Yiis Data Access Objects enables the developer to access different database management systems through one simple interface. Accessing various database management systems, the user does not have to modify the data accessing code that ultimately saves time for the developer. Further, the Query Builder minimises SQL injection attacks by using an object-orientated method of dealing with SQL enquiries. Yiis ActiveRecord makes database querying a much easier task especially for simple queries. For more complex situations, straight SQL scripting may be more useful and Yii provides the same as part of the package. Finally, if the developer does not wish to use the databases provided by Yii, there is a flexibility to create and manage their own databases; and then use the same within the Yii Framework. III. Form Input and Validation

Yii greatly simplifies the collection of user data within HTML forms. The software allows the user to design and develop forms, as well as facilitating the population of forms within current/default data value. Yii requires the developer to first create a model class followed by the creation of a controller action which responds to a form submission and the creation of a form in the view script. IV. Extending Yii

Yii Application Development tools even provide the extensibility of tools. A user can expand the softwares existing tools by creating your own widgets as well as tools. V. Authentication and Authorization

The software contains a built-in authorization support as well as a hierarchical role based access control. VI. Layered Caching Scheme

Data caching, page caching, fragment caching and dynamic content are supported by YII. The storage medium of such caching can also be easily modified without having to change the application code. VII. Automatic code generation

A number of extensible code generation tools, such as Gii. GiiModule is a module that provides webbased code generation capabilities. Similar to Yii is CakePHP framework that allows developers to use code generation and scaffolding features for rapidly building prototypes. CakePHP is a perfect fit for commercial applications.

VIII.

Security

The software has suitable measures in place to prevent SQL injection, cross-site request forgery, crosssite scripting and cookie tampering. All these features help in protecting the code on various instances; ultimately protecting the developers work from any breach. IX. Unit and functionality testing

Yii gives the developer a suitable and safe environment to write and run tests on any PHP application. X. Third Party Code

Code created within Yii can easily integrate with other third party applications such as the Zendor Pear framework. For instance, additional assistance is provided by its integration with the Javascript framework, jQuery. XI. SEO- friendly URLs

It is possible to create SEO-friendly permalinks within the Yii Framework. Despite being a multi-step process, the developer can use slugs to access view actions with the help of an extension and entries to the urlManager. Removing index.php is as simple as adding a few htaccess rules and changing two options. To give a cleaner /site/page/ URLs, some more entries can be added to the urlManager. XII. Assistance

Yii provides a comprehensive and thorough support system for the user. This includes detailed documentation such as manuals as well as tutorials. A flourishing online community is also available to assist.

Why Yii?
Some commentators state that Yii is one of the simplest of the PHP frameworks for the novice user to work with. Simultaneously, experienced users will find that the simplicity of Yii allows them to quickly write the required code without any hassle. In addition, its support network and the provided documentation only enhance the development experience for the programmers. Users will find Yii more comprehensive and better structured than other frameworks. This makes Yii an ideal platform that enables developers to write less code and achieve the final result. Coupled with same features as other frameworks, Yii remains a popular choice for many developers. Users will also benefit from the speed at which they can work and still make a huge number of page loads a possibility. However, this does not cause the developer to sacrifice on the number of features provided under Yii platform. Some have even described Yii as the market leader in PHP frameworks and a primary example of the way frameworks will continue to be developed in future. Common complaints such as building authentication systems or navigation bars do not feature with Yii. The software can automatically build websites with the minimal input from the developer. This is achieved, for example, by using the creating, reading, updating and deleting the built-in (CRUD) function.