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I wouldn't recommend Zend (I find it rather resource heavy) - but rather Laravel or Symphony, CodeIgniter is also nice and extremely easy to learn - probably th

I wouldn't recommend Zend (I find it rather resource heavy) - but rather Laravel or Symphony, CodeIgniter is also nice and extremely easy to learn - probably the lowest entry level that I can think of, but 2.0 is taking it's sweet time to come along so that's a huge downside, plus, Ellislab wants to sell the project... Regarding CMS work, I have personally found that Magento is one of the best things to specialise in. Ecommerce is a huge market.

babuskov 12y ago
I agree. Learn CodeIgniter first because it is easy. Once you create a couple of projects with CI, switch to Laravel (or Yii framework). CI is really good to get a grasp on MVC way of thinking, and learning Laravel later will make you appreciate all the features is has (and CI is missing).
JonoBB 12y ago
No, don't even think of learning CodeIgniter. Besides being pretty much dead (version 3 has been coming out for, what, about 2 years now?), it has terrible architecture. The superglobal singleton is just awful and will kill you slowly.
- ZoFreX 12y ago
  This. I don't understand why CodeIgniter gets mentioned in the same breath as Zend or Symphony, or any other fully-fledged framework. CI is, to start with, much smaller: it's tiny, the sort of thing you could knock out in a week. It also has deep-rooted architectural issues that are preventing some of the longest standing bugs being fixed (for example, take a look at the router). Lastly it's not anywhere near as modular as it purports to be, and the code and architecture quality is rather poor.
  - dutchbrit 12y ago
    The only reason why I mentioned it is because it's extremely easy - for a beginner, it's not a bad choice because it doesn't overwhelm you. Take baby steps.
    - adamors 12y ago
      But then you're better off with something like Silex. It's tiny and easy to pick up, but you're using a solid software and along the way get familiar with Symfony components as well.
      - dutchbrit 12y ago
        I'm not familiar with Silex, I'll check it out!!
    - JonoBB 12y ago
      Just because something it easy does not make it the right choice. Conversely, it is a bad choice because it teaches you bad practices and you will be forced to implement so many hacks on any reasonable sized project. Just don't use it.
      - babuskov 12y ago
        I found CodeIgniter to be really useful for a self-taught, spaghetti-style PHP programmer. It is the only framework that most such programmers can grasp by themselves using tutorials and docs available online. Any other framework, and they would require a lot of hand-holding. Switching from CI to something better later is really not that hard and it's much, much easier that learning one of the modern frameworks from scratch. I'm talking about self-taught begginers without CS degree or working-in-a-large-team experience.
krumiro79 12y ago
Even though CodeIgniter is indeed an easy framework to start with, I would not recommend it as it's quite an old concept and it's not being developed anymore. Laravel is more recent and not too difficult if you follow the nice docs. There's also plenty of nice articles online (especially in Tutsplus - code.tutsplus.com/search?utf8=✓&view=&search%5Bkeywords%5D=laravel&button=).
dscrd 12y ago
What you mean by resource heavy? Symphony at least is one of the heaviest frameworks, and not just for PHP.
- dutchbrit 12y ago
  I haven't used Symphony personally but always thought it was less heavy, I stand corrected!
onion2k 12y ago
There's a lot of money in Magento because it's so utterly horrible to work with.
- dutchbrit 12y ago
  Indeed, it has a steep learning curve. I have been working with Magento from day 1, and I'm still learning new things. But additionally, another main reason why it pays more, is that the client is willing to pay more + will actively pay for updates since it's not just a regular boring website, but an actual online business.
troels 12y ago
Resource heavy? That's not the problem with ZF. The problem with ZF is that is was designed by committee. And it is built in a very class-centric style. Symfony also has a much larger community around it.

babuskov 12y ago

I agree. Learn CodeIgniter first because it is easy. Once you create a couple of projects with CI, switch to Laravel (or Yii framework). CI is really good to get a grasp on MVC way of thinking, and learning Laravel later will make you appreciate all the features is has (and CI is missing).

JonoBB 12y ago

No, don't even think of learning CodeIgniter. Besides being pretty much dead (version 3 has been coming out for, what, about 2 years now?), it has terrible architecture. The superglobal singleton is just awful and will kill you slowly.

ZoFreX 12y ago
This. I don't understand why CodeIgniter gets mentioned in the same breath as Zend or Symphony, or any other fully-fledged framework. CI is, to start with, much smaller: it's tiny, the sort of thing you could knock out in a week. It also has deep-rooted architectural issues that are preventing some of the longest standing bugs being fixed (for example, take a look at the router). Lastly it's not anywhere near as modular as it purports to be, and the code and architecture quality is rather poor.
- dutchbrit 12y ago
  The only reason why I mentioned it is because it's extremely easy - for a beginner, it's not a bad choice because it doesn't overwhelm you. Take baby steps.
  - adamors 12y ago
    But then you're better off with something like Silex. It's tiny and easy to pick up, but you're using a solid software and along the way get familiar with Symfony components as well.
    - dutchbrit 12y ago
      I'm not familiar with Silex, I'll check it out!!
  - JonoBB 12y ago
    Just because something it easy does not make it the right choice. Conversely, it is a bad choice because it teaches you bad practices and you will be forced to implement so many hacks on any reasonable sized project. Just don't use it.
    - babuskov 12y ago
      I found CodeIgniter to be really useful for a self-taught, spaghetti-style PHP programmer. It is the only framework that most such programmers can grasp by themselves using tutorials and docs available online. Any other framework, and they would require a lot of hand-holding. Switching from CI to something better later is really not that hard and it's much, much easier that learning one of the modern frameworks from scratch. I'm talking about self-taught begginers without CS degree or working-in-a-large-team experience.

krumiro79 12y ago

Even though CodeIgniter is indeed an easy framework to start with, I would not recommend it as it's quite an old concept and it's not being developed anymore. Laravel is more recent and not too difficult if you follow the nice docs. There's also plenty of nice articles online (especially in Tutsplus - code.tutsplus.com/search?utf8=✓&view=&search%5Bkeywords%5D=laravel&button=).

dscrd 12y ago

What you mean by resource heavy? Symphony at least is one of the heaviest frameworks, and not just for PHP.

dutchbrit 12y ago
I haven't used Symphony personally but always thought it was less heavy, I stand corrected!

onion2k 12y ago

There's a lot of money in Magento because it's so utterly horrible to work with.

dutchbrit 12y ago
Indeed, it has a steep learning curve. I have been working with Magento from day 1, and I'm still learning new things. But additionally, another main reason why it pays more, is that the client is willing to pay more + will actively pay for updates since it's not just a regular boring website, but an actual online business.

troels 12y ago

Resource heavy? That's not the problem with ZF. The problem with ZF is that is was designed by committee. And it is built in a very class-centric style. Symfony also has a much larger community around it.