Phpfw 0.3 review

Phpfw is a framework for PHP that provides a base on which various database backend applications can be built

License: MIT/X Consortium License File size: 40K Developer: Phpfw Team

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Phpfw is a framework for PHP that provides a base on which various database backend applications can be built. Phpfw project allows for easy creation of CRUD applications - apps where most of the code is focussed on Create Read Update Delete operations on the database. It uses MVC-ish patterns to allow for simpler and cleaner organization of code.

Phpfw leverages popular PHP libraries so as to avoid reinventing the wheel. For example, the database abstraction layer is a thin wrapper that supports ADOdb and ADOdb Lite. Hence, Phpfw is able to support multiple databases thanks to these excellent libraries.
Phpfw requires minimal configuration. All the database information is directly obtained from the database itself. The configuration file is a simple .ini file and is adequately commented to explain the different elements.

Phpfw comes built in with an elementary templating class to generate HTML output. Further it also supports templating frameworks like Smarty and PHPTAL. The combination of these templating facilities provides adequate power to generate simple to complex output.

Phpfw is the result of several PHP projects I undertook over the years. It grew inside active projects and has finally taken a life of its own. It has been written from scratch based on all the code that was written over the years with a focus on simplifying the process of creating new applications with minimal effort. I hope this work proves useful to those of you who would like to put together applications quickly and easily.

What's New in This Release:
Several enhancements that make interacting with templating engines like Smarty easier and more customizable was made.
A simple module generation script that sets up basic scaffolding was included.
The framework can now automatically maintain one-to-many relationships.
Enhancementss were made to allow for user-specific data.
Several minor bugs were fixed.