Symfony and Its Best Features that Help in Web Development

As an open source PHP framework, Symfony is being used widely for creating websites and web application. The framework is designed with the features to accelerate the development and maintenance of internet applications. Along with the Model-View-Controller (MVC) architecture, Symfony also comes with a set of decoupled and reusable components. So many enterprises avail the best features of Symfony to accelerate the development and maintenance of complex and enterprise-level web applications.

Why Is PHP A Better Option For Web Design?

When it comes to web designing, PHP is one of the most favored tools owing to a number of reasons. PHP comes up with certain unique features that make it one of the most adored, preferred as well as appropriate options for the purpose of web designing. The language itself thus, has made PHP developers highly sought-after professionals in the fraternity of web development as well as designing companies. Let us discuss the efficacy of PHP as a web designing tool.

First of all, PHP development does not take much of a time when compared with other tools as the language requires a much lesser number of coding, thus making the task less tedious. The language also proves to be extremely useful as well as effective, especially when it comes to CMSs like WordPress, Drupal, Joomla and so on, which are of late so much popular among the customers.

There is stiff competition out there in the market in the world of website designing or development, especially with so many companies joining the bandwagon. Hence, in order to survive this rigid competition and to make things in a bit different way, companies are coming up with sites that are not only visually appealing but SEO friendly as well. This is to make sure that these sites help in bringing more and more business leads along with greater revenue. Here is where PHO scores over other languages. The language is astoundingly compatible with SEO when compared to other designing methods or languages.

The language is designed to seamlessly integrate as well as coordinate with various visible applications and this is a very pertinent dynamics, especially taking into view today’s business requirements. The language is also great when it comes to building its own memory, for an efficient and prompt use down the line.

PHP is also capable of working on a wide range of operating platforms as well as environments, including the MS Window, Linux, etc. and this makes the language extremely desirable in today’s context.

You will be able to find a fairly large community of PHP supporters as well as discussion groups and these groups help in solving issues whenever they crop up. The issues these groups sort out include bugs, problems with codes as well as information. All these increase the credibility of the language, making it a safe as well as a stable platform to use, especially for the beginners.

In PHP, you get a language that is designed specifically for the purpose of web designing with an inbuilt integration option with one of the most popular open source MySQL database. PHP has the following unique features that make the language, such an indomitable web designing language:

It is easy for the beginners:
PHP is the most ideal language for the beginners, who will just have to add some tags with the already existing HTML files, and follow it up by uploading them to the server and see the end results. Besides, the dynamic typing and the associative arrays make the language easier for the beginners.

It is user friendly
When compared to other solutions, there is no need of compilation in PHP. Hence, all that is needed is writing the script and uploading the script to the server and then updating the browser.

Besides, PHP comes up with an integrated support for databases of MySQL and that makes it easier to use the database with MySQL functions with no need to install additional drivers. Since it is a much older language, there are a number of web-oriented frameworks as well libraries available. Also, since it has been round the corner for such a long period (since as early as 1995), it performs seamlessly on Linux as well as Windows along with a wide range of other web servers. Also, when it comes to finding hosting with pre-installed PHP, there is no problem.

You can hire developers from top php web development companies in India who can help you build web application within allocated budgets and time schedules.

We provide php application development services. If you would like to hire php programmer from our team, please get in touch with us at Mindfire Solutions.

Steps to Migrate PHP Intranet site into SharePoint 2013

Today, SharePoint has possibly emerged as one of the best tools in the world of technology. However, there has still been an increase in the number of poor as well as unusable Intranets of the application. Most often, enterprises looking forward to migrate a PHP intranet to SharePoint often face issues in the endeavor of executing a successful migration.

So, how to achieve a successful migration and develop a good Intranet? Well, here is a quick look at the three steps to a successful migration that is sure to set the right path:

Always work with SharePoint 2010

It is understandable that you want to migrate to the 2013 version of the application software; after all, being an advanced product it comes with the goodness of cloud. However, for a successful execution, you must take it easy. The 2010 version, which was released in May 2010, obtained a service pack in June 2011. The latest 2013 version, which has just released might not be able to offer a stable experience. On the other hand, the 2010 version has been tested to provide a valid experience. Truly, there exists some limitations, but not without exact workarounds along with solutions. When it comes to using 2013, it is always wiser to give it a year for better development as well as improvement.

Avoid customizing the look and feel
Well, it is quite known that every organizations wants it logo to appear at the top left corner of every page. Additionally, you also want all the links to appear in a similar manner as against the PHP intranet alongside the header featuring a navigation communicating something about your brand. You want it to look as well as feel good. However, it must be noted that such aspects rarely matters in the case. After all, it is being developed for employee use and they already know you alongside being familiar to your logo along with brand values.

The job of the intranet is much bigger than just reinforcing the brand. It plays a better role in storing the document templates and helps in smart presentation of data related to employee performance. Furthermore, it also stands as the major engine of workflow behind your organization processes. Now, the brand is definitely important and your Intranet must exude a look and feel representing the same. However, it is more important for the intranet to function right. The focus must always rest with making a functional as well as rich intranet alongside focusing on the branding of the same.

Never completely end the project
You must always remember that developing an Intranet is not just a matter of few days or months. Indeed, organizations need to work on the same continuously. Disbanding the project team will never help in determining the success of the project. Starting with the development of Intranet is just the beginning and there is a lot of work that the enterprise needs to do with time. From placing fresh content to training the users concerning the refreshing courses, the application needs to accelerate the growth of your business as well as adapt to the changing requirements of the same.

You can achieve all these functionality along with benefits through SharePoint. The application not only helps in creating the front-end of your Intranet, but the back-end as well. For better execution of the migration process, the focus must rest on creating an Intranet team for ensuring better functionality of the same. The application software comes with task lists, email alerts, calendars, and special project site templates. You have a knowledge of all these because you are constantly telling your end users about all the features. The key lies in starting to use all the features for a better experience.

Therefore, to execute a successful migration during SharePoint website development process, you must focus on the long-term end of the project and follow the above-mentioned stapes carefully for experiencing the best of SharePoint, 2013.

We provide custom SharePoint development services. If you would like to know more about the expertise of our expert SharePoint programmers, please get in touch with us at Mindfire Solutions.

The 5 Most Relevant PHP Frameworks in 2013

Most developers use PHP frameworks to build robust web applications without putting extra time and effort. Each framework also comes with a set of classes and functions to help programmers in writing code in a quicker and structured way. Also, the PHP frameworks make it easier to implement specific design patterns. For instance, a programmer can use the Model-View-Control (MVC) architecture to separate the database-talking-code from the code related to the look and feel of the application.

As a developer has option to choose from a variety of frameworks, he often chooses the one that complements the specific requirements of the project. It is also important for a programmer to evaluate the pros and cons of each framework to take the best decision. However, each web application developer can avail some additional advantages by switching to some of the most popular PHP frameworks. So programmers must keep track of the most relevant PHP frameworks.

5 Most Relevant PHP Frameworks in 2013

Symfony: As free software, Symfony is popular among web developers across the world to build and maintain robust internet applications at a rapid pace. The framework is further effective in replacing the repetitive coding tasks with speed, flexibility and reusable components. Along with supporting the MVC system, Symfony also comes with a set of PHP code classes. A programmer also has option to use specific software building blocks like forms management, translation management and dependency injector.

Yii: The component based PHP framework is designed with the features and tools required to build web 2.0 applications. The combination of powerful caching system and features to work seamlessly with AJAX enables developers to build the application at a rapid pace. At the same time, Yii also enable programmers to use the MVC pattern to separate presentation and business logic. The framework also makes it easier for programmers to optimize the security of the website by availing features like output filtering, input validation, SQL injection and option to prevent cross-site scripting.

CakePHP: As an open source web application development framework, CakePHP is designed based on some of the widely used software design patterns and software engineering concepts. The framework is further written in PHP, and supports MVC architecture. CakePHP further makes it easier for programmers to set up the database, and start developing the website without using any complex XML or YAML files. Also, a programmer can avoid writing longer lines of code by availing features like database access, caching, translation, authentication and validation.

Laravel: Laravel is hugely popular among PHP developers as a classy and clean framework that does not require spaghetti coding. In addition to supporting a variety of databases including SQL Server, MySQL, SQLite and Postgres, the framework also allows programmers to create templates using the Blade templating engine. As Laravel is developed based on key Symfony components, it provides a solid foundation to the website through code that is reliable and well-tested. It is also powered by a composer that allows seamless integration of third-party applications into a website.

Zend: PHP programmers across the world use Zend as a PHP-based and object oriented web application development framework. The framework also has many open source contributors who are passionate about making coding easier. The framework is popular due to its effectiveness in building high-traffic websites and business-critical web applications at a rapid pace. It also allows users to secure the application by using a set of cryptographic and secure coding tools. At the same time, the programmers have option to adapt Zend according to the specific needs of the project, along with integrating seamlessly with other applications and frameworks.

The PHP frameworks are further being upgraded at regular intervals. The latest version of the framework also comes with a set of innovative tools and features to complement the current trends in php application development. So businesses must monitor the fluctuations in the popularity of these frameworks among PHP developers, because of the updates happening in the frameworks and choose one for their needs after precise validation and matching against their needs.

We provide php web development services. If you would like to speak to a certified php developer from our team, please get in touch with us at Mindfire Solutions.

How Outsourcing PHP Developers Will Save Time and Value?

Considering all the different categories of marketing techniques, internet technology is taking the population towards a magnanimous growth which has not been realized by any other form of marketing. Leveraging online resources for establishment of businesses proves immensely beneficial to owners as well as users. For instance, there are a number of websites which have been developed to render an exceptional shopping experience with a user friendly viewpoint. Present day business websites need to get revamped as well as republished to keep in line with the latest internet trends and technologies. With respect to this, an informative, appealing web design which is done across PHP or HTML platforms is appropriate for profit generation through a strong online presence.

Importance

PHP is among the most sought after scripting languages which a majority of website developers prefer to adopt. With the help of this programming language, the navigation and layout part of the sites can be quite effectively augmented. If you are looking for a web page layout that is dynamic, then PHP remains a very good choice. For the creation of custom web design solutions, almost every programmer prefers to make use of this scripting language. This language consists of user friendly applications, techniques as well as formats; it is convenient for programmers to leverage the applications in an effortless manner.

Benefits

In order to go for efficient web design, PHP, Java and ASP.NET are regarded as appropriate and important programming languages. With regards to the use of PHP, there are some specific benefits such as the following:

• Usability: With the help of this programming language, the programmer is able to experience exceptional usability as well as come up with professional web design solutions.
• Quick data processing: When a programmer is working with PHP, it enables him or her to process data in a rapid manner.
• Appropriately matched: This language is very good at getting along with well-accepted operating systems such as UNIX, Windows, and so on.
• Compatible: One of the striking advantages of making use of PHP programming language is the adaptability towards the HTML version.
• Cost: PHP development services are quite affordable and can be conveniently availed.

The growth of PHP

So far as PHP programmers are concerned, the demand is always experiencing a rise. The convenience and adaptability of this programming language enables the programmers to come up with custom web designs for the website requirements of their clients. Owing to this, expert programmers are largely acclaimed across the globe. So, a number of companies look forward to outsource developers from other countries. India is one of the most recognized countries in the domain of software as well as programming languages. The educational system and infrastructure of this country has been laying considerable focus on the significance of computer education. The scope for expansion in the field of knowledge enhancement in computer programming languages and software is growing at an equal rate. As a consequence of this, it has indeed become very convenient to outsource developers from this country. In addition to this, PHP services come at a very cost-effective rate in India. Considering these factors, outsourcing developers with lead to unique results and would also bring down the cost of formation of a development infrastructure comprising expert professionals.

Along with the other benefits, outsourcing PHP application development services go a long way in saving considerable amount of time with respect to the development of the website. Hence, more focus can be directed towards the different other marketing areas of the services. A team of professional developers can be hired from India in order to render the website development process convenient and swift.

We provide php web development services. If you would like to speak to a certified php developer from our team, please get in touch with us at Mindfire Solutions.

8 Rocking Tips for Scaling PHP to 25000 Concurrent Users Per Server

Scalability is the ability of a system, network or process to get enlarged or handle huge amounts of work in an effective manner. Web platforms or languages like PHP become scalable when it manages growing traffic with additional resources and without any software changes.

With the growing preference for PHP as the language used in web development, it would be rather necessary to look into few tips on scaling PHP to allow it serve large numbers of concurrent users per server. Things as these below would exponentially increase confidence in php development.

1. Clustering the Web Servers

The very first step towards scaling PHP needs to be taken in the form of moving the database to a separate server, configuration syncing (rysync, rmp/deb, svn), deploying application code and ZSCM.

2. Using the APC Feature of PHP

Enabling the APC feature is an essential way of boosting the performance of any particular website. This feature, therefore, plays an important role in scaling PHP as well as enabling it serve huge number of users.

3. Placing Things which are not PHP Requests on a CDN

Gone are the days when one would be required to get stuck at the origin server with static file requests. Serving the static files from the web server is no longer a necessity. Instead, everything is put on S3 while CloudFront is used as the CDN. However, the recent problems in CloudFront often make it a more feasible option to serve directly from S3.

4. Avoiding Connection to Other Servers in the PHP Code

Other servers such as the database or memcache servers should not be connected to unless it is either a dire necessity or there is no other way. A clear majority of the PHP web apps use the MySQL database for managing the backend session and the memcache tool for caching. During the flow of the execution, connecting to other servers lowers the efficiency quotient. For instance, it blocks and runs up the CPU apart from holding up the line often. It is here that using the APC is more recommended for storing data in PHP.

5. Using Varnish

Varnish is actually the Memcache/ModRewrite of web server caching. A majority of the pages on the website do not change. Putting Varnish on the web server makes a huge difference to the web app and this is quite visible right at the time of load testing.

6. Using a c1.xlarge

Upgrading to a c1.xlarge version is a welcome option as the m1.medium has a single CPU to handle all the requests. The c1.xlarge version had 8 CPU’s and even during the app test, one would get an apt-get install nmon, run nmon and at the same time, monitor the CPU. The server actually uses all the 8 cores to churn out the pages.

7. Using the Right Techniques

Whenever it comes to scaling PHP, the appropriate techniques must be implemented for the best results. These techniques include replication, functional separation as well as sharding. Other ways in which the scaling can be done effectively encompass using of schemaless databases such as MongoDB. Considering a column-oriented database like Infobright is more preferred for the analytics.

8. Optimizing Applications with the Desired Tools

Application optimization is intricately linked to the scaling of PHP and selecting the right tools is necessary for this. The tools that are generally used are Xdebug, Zend Server Code tracing and Profiling. Other efficient ways of optimization are monitoring the execution time, memory usage, designing intelligently and being aware of the respective hardware and its operation. The higher the knowledge, the better is the app created.

Once the scaling is carried out using the above- mentioned tips and techniques, the effectiveness of the app can be judged. Google Analytics helps in showing the numbers of seconds an average user spends on an average page.

We provide php application development services. If you would like to discuss with an certified php developer from our team, please get in touch with us at Mindfire Solutions.

Laravel: Is It Really Clean and Classy?

Undoubtedly, one of the most popular languages used for web development is PHP, powering 20 million web domains. It is the best suited language which suffices the needs of all kinds of businesses. Developers enjoy using this open-source general-purpose scripting language. They choose PHP because it has a large and robust community where they are assured that their programming questions, issues and problems will have definite solutions from blogs, online forums and other expert opinion. In addition, frequent and regular updates in versions ensure that the bugs of the previous versions are removed and refined newer versions are born. PHP powers an absolutely vast, almost cosmic number of websites including mammoth websites like Wikipedia and Facebook!

How cool is that to learn and master over such languages where great sites depend on. One can blindly believe PHP can make their websites richer, customized and creative using PHP frameworks. PHP frameworks are a great way to increase programming efficiency, as per the requirements of the project. It is in the hands of the PHP programmers to choose a PHP framework that would work best for their project.

Let us discuss in detail about a new PHP framework – Laravel. Laravel gives a standardized platform for building web applications. It is young, promising, but it uses a lot of patterns & best practices one needs for its business use. Laravel has a well fabricated toolbox which allows to write less code, with less risk of error. And using this framework, developers can build websites with greater value and productivity, such as managing guiding principles, side effects, etc. A structured approach is followed using this framework, using best practices and standards where complex websites can be efficiently deployed. It is well said that Laravel is for web artisans and creative craftsman where wonderful applications can be built with less code and expressive syntax which gets easier for programmers who build complex apps with cleaner and understandable code.

Laravel is a starting to become a buzzword among professional developers and beginners as it builds with less repetitive code. Its high-level abstractions of common web development patterns, convenient shortcuts for frequent programming tasks, and clear conventions for problem solving makes it easy to use and maintain.

Features of PHP Laravel Framework:
 

• The MVC architecture: The model is the component which is responsible for communicating with the database. The View uses its own Blade templating engine which gives us clean and readable code. The controller retrieves all of the entries in the table to list them, information of a specific entry with a given id, deletes an entry with a given id, compose sa form to add a new entry and adds the new entry to the database and compose a message to confirm the addition.
• Routing system: It allows to create links to named routes. When creating links just use the route's name and Laravel will automatically insert the correct URI. This allows to change routes at a later time and Laravel will update all of the relevant links site-wide. Making it more clean and simple.
• Eloquent ORM: It is the most advanced PHP ActiveRecord implementation available. With the capacity to easily apply constraints to both relationships and nested eager-loading having control over data with all of the conveniences of ActiveRecord. Eloquent natively supports all of the methods from Laravel's Fluent query-builder.
• Unit Testing: Laravel comes with PHPUnit testing out of the box testing help. It is widely considered to have some of the most stable releases in the industry. Laravel also makes it easy for anyone to write unit-tests for their own code.
• Authentication: It has a basic library that need to configure before using. Having various lib functions and details which help many programmers to render clean and simple applications quickly.
• Caching: Laravel on the other hand supports those and also database tables and Redis. It also has filters.
• Configuration: Configuration is done via predefined arrays stored in config files which support multiple environments in both frameworks.
• Migrations: Database migrations are specific for Laravel, a concept borrow from Ruby on Rails which is versioning at the database level.
• Auto Pagination: Laravel's pagination system was designed to be easy to implement and easy to change. It's also important to note that just because Laravel can handle these things automatically.

Indeed with all the above features, Laravel framework is awesome and has a huge community which grows with the craze of the technology. It is becoming popular for its classic, unique architecture, where developers create their own infrastructure that is specifically designed for their application. This may be most beneficial to large projects such as content-management-systems.

Are you looking at using Laravel web application development framework to save time and effort on your next web development project? Finding top php development India companies can be a daunting task.

We provide PHP development services. Discuss with us today to know about the advantages of Laravel and how can it help reduce development time. To talk to one of our certified PHP developers, please contact us at Mindfire Solutions.

The Growing Trend of Offshore PHP Development

Recently there has been tremendous growth in the trend of offshore web development and India is one of the major IT hubs offering offshore development of sites at an economic rate. Once businesses think of creating a website for their organization, the prime thing to be considered is the technology which is being leveraged to develop the site and whether it is cost-effective, efficient and makes room for fast development. Considering all these factors, PHP is one of the widely used and most popular scripting language that web developers use for building any web application, be it a simple website or intricate applications such as social networking sites, forums, e-commerce websites and so on.

PHP is highly suitable for web development because it provides great deal of security and renders support to all databases. Considering the present scenario, the client wants to have web applications built of the software applications that incorporate feasible licensing fees, are strong in nature, offers copyright and are capable of being operated across a range of operating systems. Services are required at reasonable prices wherein the developers do not need to consider any external source for writing codes.

Advantages of PHP Web Development

As compared to the other programming languages, like Java and ASP.Net, web development using PHP has a number of benefits, a few of which are discussed below:

• Increased usability and efficiency: PHP offers unparalleled efficiency and usability so far as web development is concerned.
  
• Data processing: A website when developed using PHP operates conveniently and incorporates rapid data processing capabilities.
  
• Compatible: PHP based websites are compatible with every OS system such as UNIX, Windows and so on.
  
• HTML: PHP is capable of being uploaded into HTML and this is one of the greatest benefits.
  
• Cost-effectiveness: Design, development, modification and customization of PHP based sites are quite feasible with respect to the cost involved. Almost all the web development service providers offer PHP-oriented services such as web application development, CMS development, website design and the like.
  
• Easy to Understand: As compared to other available scripting languages, PHP offers convenient comprehension owing to its simple techniques and features.
  
• Integration: This scripting language can be easily integrated with the major web applications.

Going for Offshore PHP Web Development

Today a large number of companies prefer to opt for offshore PHP development as it brings in many benefits.

• Talented and Skilled Resources: Developers belonging to countries such as India are immensely talented and are well acclaimed for coming up with interactive and eye-catchy websites. Outsourcing of PHP development in such countries delivers world-class solutions for all project requisites. Web marketing solutions are also offered in order to further boost the website’s visibility on search engines.
  
• Reasonable prices: Developing countries such as India are going through revolutionary changes and are capable of providing IT services at a highly affordable rate. Since the cost of labor is comparatively cheap, this enables the companies to deliver outstanding solutions at lucrative prices. There are companies which even allow you to outsource PHP developer working for long-term or short-term for your project.
  
• Outstanding Tailor-made Solutions: Through offshore PHP development, you can avail services from PHP developers with years of experience in the domain, which empowers them to comprehend your business needs in an efficient manner and deliver suitable solutions.
  
• Timely Solutions: By outsourcing your web development process to a company offering offshore PHP development services, you will be able to save a lot of time. Since they work with a team of talented and experienced professionals, they would be able to render high quality solutions within time.

Offshore PHP development is indeed a rage nowadays and outsourcing your PHP projects to leading organizations can offer you exceptional web solutions without a great deal of in-house effort. A good company will always ensure effective and clear communication with the project developer and manager to understand every requirement and deliver the project successfully.

We provide PHP development services. If you would like to know more about the expertise of our expert PHP developers, please visit Mindfire Solutions.