Top 9 Reasons Why CodeIgniter Is A Rocking PHP Framework!

In the world of PHP, CodeIgniter is one of the most famous framework that is relied by a number of web developers for website, mobile app creation. So, the future of this PHP framework CodeIgniter is very much clear. Though few people have started believing that the rise of the rival PHP framework like Laraval has affected the popularity of CodeIgniter at a great extent, but it is not actually true. There are many web-developers who still prefer to create website using CodeIgniter for their client’s projects. Thus, you can easily see people in large number are choosing CodeIgniter PHP web application development services considering several advantages and great features of PHP framework CodeIgniter.

The new version of this PHP framework Codeigniter has come up with great changes and several new advancements that encourage web developers to use it on other PHP frameworks. There are multiple reasons to choose CodeIgniter, but before that, let us help you understanding CodeIgniter in the best way.

What Is CodeIgniter

CodeIgniter is basically an MVC framework which came in the market in February 2006 by EllisLab. Since the introduction, it was adopted by a number of developers and, hence it received immense popularity due to easy learning and easy implementation set up for beginners. In 2013, the maker of this PHP framework CodeIgniter let this framework unsupported and thus, a search for a new prospect was started for CodeIgniter. Buzz created in the entire Open-Source segment about the future of this PHP framework. Everyone was curious to know if this PHP framework CodeIgniter will enjoy a bright future or not.

So, at that time, it was being assumed as the future of this open PHP framework is near to end, but soon after 1 year, British Columbia Institute of Technology came up as the new team who agreed to maintain this framework. So, the entire PHP community showed their appreciation for this result.

Now, CodeIgniter is owned by BCIT and they have already launched a newer version which is called CI 3.0. In this version, several new changes have taken place. So, if you have used earlier versions CI 2, then you will surely be surprised on seeing CI3.0 for new and great features.

Discussing Top 9 Reasons To Call CodeIgniter The Future Of Web Development

The PHP framework had always been a matter of discussion in web community. People take a great interest in discussing new and existing frameworks and their features on multiple online platforms like blog posts and forums. Every web-developer has an individual view about the best PHP framework. Though the real answer of this query lies with the web programmer itself. It depends on the web requirements and style of the web-programmer to choose a PHP framework to build apps and websites. Just like other PHP frameworks, CodeIgniter has its own reasons to be a preferred choice for web developers. Here, we will describe top 9 reasons to call PHP framework CodeIgniter a real future of web development.

Reason 1- Very Less Serve Requirements

The best thing about CodeIgniter is; it works with PHP 4 as well as PHP 5 both. Though all other frameworks do not support them. So, this feature makes things easier in two environments to create website using CodeIgniter. It works at less server requirements that make website creation simply easier.

Reason 2 – Easily Understandable & Easy To Extend

This PHP Framework CodeIgniter is the first such framework that is so easy to understand. In comparison to other frameworks like Cake PHP, Symfony, Zend Framework and others, CI is the fastest as it takes very less time to run or start. CodeIgniter is simple to be added in new libraries. Thus, you can easily change environment and trends of current libraries and you need very less effort to alter entire framework behaviour.

Reason 3 – All Required Tools Come In A Single Small Package

The in built library of CodeIgniter brings several tools to make website and app development an easy process. Zip encoding, calendar, uploading, unit testing, validation, sessions, e-mail etc. are only a few of the characteristics of CI libraries. In addition, it comprises of several default helpers to work on elements like arrays, cookies, strings, directories, forms, file handlings and much more. Besides them, if you want more, then it allows developers to create a personalized library as well as helpers by using code which are developed by CI community.

Reason 4 – Installation Is Not Mandatory

Whether you believe or not, but it is true that installing a new framework is the most complex and hard thing that most of the programmers do not want to engage in. So, if you are among those programmers who hate installing a framework on the system, then CI is the best option to work with. Having this PHP framework CodeIgniter, you can get and start it without making any server modifications or taking PEAR packagers. You just have to upload your files in the server and that’s all to start it.

Reason 5 – In Built Security Tools

Security is the foremost requirement for every web development project. With CI framework, you can easily implement your web security howsoever you require. According to the requirement of your application, you can implement security in this framework. Few of things related to security like breaking global variables, and switching off a directive magic_quotes_runtime while initializing a system are handled by it automatically. Therefore, it eliminates the need to eradicate slashes while retrieving information or data from the database. You can enable many other elements like session data handling with the database, cookie encryption and escaping from SQL queries automatically.

Reason 6 – Abstraction Of Database

Every good PHP framework comes with an abstraction layer for database; so CodeIgniter is no exemption to that. So, with this framework, you can conveniently create, update, insert or delete statements without requiring to add raw SQL. Managing connections to different databases in single application and switching to any database types like MySQLi, Postgre, MySQL (4.1+), Oracle, MS SQL, ODBC, or SQLite. Moreover, this framework allows the users to easily make changes in the database like creating tables, removing old tables, add or removing columns etc. with the new forge library in database.

Reason 7 – A Vast User Community

There are more than 57 thousand active and verified users in CI forums that makes the community such a big for CodeIgniter users. So, having any sort of problem during working on this framework, you can get your queries resolved from this forum with expert assistance.

Reason 8 – MVC Architecture

Though MVC architecture is not a new in PHP framework as almost every modern coding framework follows MVC architecture these days. In CodeIgniter, you will see same MVC architecture which allows programmers to have great code separation and thus, keeps things clearer. A number of frameworks encourage programmers to do multiple things using books; however CodeIgniter encourages users to use MVC pattern that really makes a sense.

Reason 9 – Great Documentation

The best advantages of CodeIgniter framework is the documentation that is really great. The documentation in this framework is a way better than the documentation made by many other frameworks. The reason for such a strong documentation is because; it does not only get support from the CI community, but also from the company – EllisLab.

Conclusion

CodeIgniter is one of the most powerful framework of this time that has true potential to reign over the open-source market in future. The reasons mentioned above are quite enough to prove the effectiveness of this PHP framework. So, using this framework, the developers can find a great solution while making apps or websites on PHP.

Author bio – Jack Calder is a passionate blogger and experienced Codeigniter developer. He works for Stellen Infotech, a custom CodeIgniter development company. Jack loves sharing insightful posts and tricks, covering web development & design industry.