CI4 KISS – PLEASE

I've been a long proponent of CI. I love this framework. I have been using it for several years. With that said I have heard some very negative things about it. Specifically v4 in contrast to other frameworks on the market. Frameworks which I have not used in production. Ive heard very similar things about how I should be using the "cloud" and shared hosting is obsolete. CI just like shared hosting has worked fine for me and my clients. I've explored other options in php frameworks like Laravel and Symfony. To be quit honest I don't even understand how to use those frameworks. I spent about a week just trying to install things on my computer and just gave up. I'm just a designer making fairly basic websites with occasional dynamic functionality which I need some php. I don't want to be meddling in installing all these other things like composer, extensions, search databases, etc. I really don't want to have to learn these "modern" design patterns that these frameworks seem to have. I mean I tried to install Laravel and after I had it running had to install some JavaScript thing to bring together my scripts, ect. I was just completely overwhelmed. I just want to make a website. It seems like these new things are just making everything more difficult to understand. I already had a hard time understanding php. I really hope that the next version of CI doesn't follow in the same footsteps as all this modern software stuff. I just want a simple, elegant framework which I'm able to use to deliver websites with some fairly basic content without needing to have a masters degree in computer science. I will have to wee v4 but 2 and 3 have gotten me by. My clients have been happy and I've been able to deliver on time and budget. I don't even know what I'm asking for except to say that v2 and v3 are great and I really hope v4 is the same not requiring me to learn things way outside my expertise.

TLDR; don't worry, be happy.

First off, there are always negative things people say about anything. PHP itself is viewed by many as abomination. It's slow, it doesn't scale, blaa blaa, you name it.

Development is very fast moving industry, and it's very easy to become overwhelmed with all the options and trying to figure out what's the "right" technology to learn and work with.

IMHO, your main goal is to keep your clients happy, regardless what technology you use.

Does the tech deliver what they want with your technology stack?

Are you able to implement it quick enough with features in the framework or your own existing set of plugins?

If you can answer yes to these questions (which I see you did in OP saying your clients are happy), you probably can put less stress on yourself, life is hard as it is.

Learn new things, by all means, but you really need to look changing things around if you have problem delivering results, not because "hey, new fancy tech is here, lets spend next 6 months rewriting everything!".

While Laravel might come with a lot of features built in opinionated way, but if you are still quicker doing the work in CodeIgniter, it makes sense to keep using what you're good at.

One thing you have to take account with Laravel is that the guys building it actually make all their living on side products and conferences, so they have time and energy to push their framework, and CI is no match in marketing department, even when it's actually better framework (in my opinion) for many many cases. Just see how defensive Laravel guys get about performance

Back to CI, I suspect you might find v4 structure slightly more modern than v3 with all the namespacing and autoloading and all, but again, v3 isn't just going to stop working, because v4 came out.

I personally want and will move to v4 as soon as possible, because it has quite few features built in I've had to add on top of v3 myself, but that's not to say that every developer will find upgrade beneficial right away.

Hope you'll find your spark again.

@cilover85,

PHP is evolving, frameworks must also evolve. CI while it is still relevant in its current state must also evolve (along with PHP). It would be nice if things could stay the same but technology does not stand still. Even though CI is evolving, I'm confident that it will maintain its ease of use.

cliover85;
I have been using CI2-CI3 for some years. I still do all my paying work with CI3. It just works.

CI4 is a moving target right now because it is still being written. I test it every once in a while, but am certainly not ready to commit my customers to using it... Not Yet.

Please don't feel that you are alone in facing a learning curve with the new framework structure.

Before CI4 gets a formal release, you can spend some time testing it, as I do, with small designs. The intent is to learn what new features are being introduced and how to work with the namespaced architecture. That way, you'll be ready when it is released, and not feel forced to climb the learning curve in a rush to create a product.

As noted above, CI3 will continue to work and be supported. There is no rush to make the transition to CI4.

CI 3.1 Kubuntu 19.04 Apache 5.x  Mysql 5.x PHP 5.x PHP 7.x
Remember: Obfuscation is a bad thing.
Clarity is desirable over Brevity every time.