Codeigniter and complex functionality

[eluser]viisik[/eluser]
Is it fair to say that Codeigniter is used a lot for simple web sites and also there are several CMS built on Codeigniter,

but in case you need a complex database application with many tables , user management and payment management, and advanced search features from many tables..

then Codeigniter is not used very often in real life , but CakePHP is rather in preferred in these cases. Anyone who has used both frameworks comment ?

[eluser]HdotNET[/eluser]
I wouldn't say CakePHP is necessarily preferred for applications that you describe. I haven't used it much but I'll give you my 2p anyway as I have had to evaluate it for similar reasons that I think you are.

CI is more often chosen because it is fast, lightweight and simple/easy to learn. If you are building complicated applications then it can be just as handy to have a more simple framework that requires less configuration and understanding than, say, CakePHP.

Building complex queries using the active record features of CI isn't fun. But then if you're building such queries then active record may not be of much use. I certainly don't use it by default.

There is also KohanaPHP, a fork of CI, which ended up being the choice for the venerable gallery3. There's some interesting thoughts about it over there:

Gallery3 framework FAQ

HTH

[eluser]rogierb[/eluser]
I got to disagree.
We use CI for many very complex and demanding application. It all comes down to coding and setup.

As for AR, methods with 30-40 lines and > 15 join are very common. So far only a few complex queries (> 100 lines) I could not do in AR (probably could but no time).

Tha fact that it seems CI is only used for simple websites is that larger ones don't advocate their use of CI for obvious reasons.

[eluser]viisik[/eluser]
Tha fact that it seems CI is only used for simple websites is that larger ones don't advocate their use of CI for obvious reasons.[/quote]

what are these obvious reasons why they dont advocate CI use, security ? Isnt it possible to recognize any codeigniter site by just tyiping www.site.com/welcome and see if front page pumps up ..(nooby question) ?

I am not programmer myself but have been on the client side - so - having the beginners knowledge of each main framework and read some reviews - I am hesitating to order some CI site for a classified portal with images, for example.

You have to consider that complex sites have different needs and functionality which is may be covered better by Zend for example ..

There just arent any convincing CI websites shown yet, may be you can show some serious ones, as you say you have used CI for serious work .. ?

[eluser]n0xie[/eluser]
[quote author="viisik" date="1264532928"]You have to consider that complex sites have different needs and functionality which is may be covered better by Zend for example.[/quote]
Like I have answered you numerous times, there is no distinction (or it is very hard to make) between a complex and a simple site. It's just PHP. It might be wiser to do you your own research instead of asking the same question over and over again formulated differently.

[eluser]HdotNET[/eluser]
cough

US$39,142,206,664.86

Feeds realtime figures to stock exchanges and blue chips around the world. DB getting on for only 0.5tb or so. Served from load balanced servers, DB cluster and CDN.

CI.

splutter

250k+ users, internal SSO with remote MS Sharepoint system.

CI.

Complex/serious enough for you?

[eluser]HdotNET[/eluser]
And while on the subject of Zend...

"On the downside, it took me about 10-12 hours to learn how to build this
sample app."

Bharat Mediratta, author of something slightly more complex than a 'classified portal with images'...


You are very much missing our point, its the simplicity of a framework, and thus its ease of use, that makes it just as useful for a complex/serious site as a simple blog.

[eluser]rogierb[/eluser]
[quote author="viisik" date="1264532928"]
what are these obvious reasons why they dont advocate CI use, security ? Isnt it possible to recognize any codeigniter site by just tyiping www.site.com/welcome and see if front page pumps up ..(nooby question) ?

[/quote]

Yes, security is one of the obvious reasons.
And no, the first thing I do is remove the welcome controller and view. Similar with the 404 and other error reporting.

[eluser]HdotNET[/eluser]
viisik....

what are these obvious reasons why they dont advocate CI use, security ?

....who are 'they'? If you care to provide a link to back this up then perhaps we could help you out.

Could've sworn security would entirely depend on how you built your application, whatever language or framework is used.

[eluser]stef25[/eluser]
As mentioned before "a classified portal with images" is by no means a complex application, but I do understand why you are asking the question. There are not that many "high profile" sites out there that openly admit to being built on CI, the list that CI publishes is not that impressive and an outsider / non-developer may therefore mistakenly think it is on par with a little known CMS.

Let me assure you this is not the case and that CI is a very very capable piece of code. All independent tests and benchmarks (and Rasmus himself!) only praise CI - not that the number of operations CI can complete per sec will matter for your classifieds project.