CodeIgniter

CodeIgniter is a popular PHP framework that is based on the MVC (Model-View-Controller) development pattern.  It is very light as far as download size is concerned so performance wise, it is faster than many other PHP frameworks. CodeIgniter helps developers do large or common tasks easily. With this framework, you can apply form validation, CRUD (Create-Retrieve-Update-Delete), database configurations and more. Unlike other frameworks, you don’t need to have a lot of experience or a thorough skill–set in PHP just to learn this technology. You just need to know the basics of PHP coding with an OOP (Object Oriented Programming) approach.

Here are a few reason why CodeIgniter may be advantageous over other frameworks when building web applications.

Easy to Learn – CodeIgniter provides a set of libraries for commonly needed task in web development. It also provides concrete ideas on how MVC really works and how to implement an application with an MVC architectural pattern.

Easy Configuration – One of the most difficult parts in learning new technology is configuration. In procedural coding, configuration involves a lot of files from scratch like Dbclass, config, and database files to get the process started. This is where frameworks comes into play. While many frameworks offers easy configuration, CodeIgniter works with almost zero configuration.  You just have to download the file, edit the database configuration (config.php and database.php files) and you’re ready to go. With CodeIgniter's well organized folder structure and easily understandable classes, you'll be off and running with your application in no time at all.

Example

Under application/config/database.php

$db['default']['hostname'] = "localhost";

$db['default']['username'] = "root";

$db['default']['password'] = "";

$db['default']['database'] = "database_name";

$db['default']['dbdriver'] = "mysql";

$db['default']['dbprefix'] = "";

$db['default']['pconnect'] = TRUE;

$db['default']['db_debug'] = FALSE;

$db['default']['cache_on'] = FALSE;

$db['default']['cachedir'] = "";

$db['default']['char_set'] = "utf8";

$db['default']['dbcollat'] = "utf8_general_ci";

$db['default']['swap_pre'] = "";

$db['default']['autoinit'] = TRUE;

$db['default']['stricton'] = FALSE;

This is where you store database connection values like hostname, username, password, database name, some cache settings, etc.

Easy Template Application – CodeIgniter uses a template system that separates PHP and HTML files to make your application files looks cleaner.

Have Built-in Helpers and Libraries – One of CodeIgniter’s advantages and one of the reasons why so many developers chose to use it is its built-in helpers and libraries. This not only cuts down on the effort needed but also saves a lot of your time—especially when building website from scratch. It also provides many how-to guides and sample code about the helpers and libraries included in the download.

Example

Add this file under \application\config\autoload.php

$autoload['helper'] = array('my_helper');

This enables the use of a helper.

You can load helpers on your controller/ model or even view by

$this->load->helper('my_helper');.

Database Support/Server Requirements – Obviously, building applications requires a database. CodeIgniter supports most of today's popular databases used in web development thus enabling the developer to meet various client’s specific requests. The databases that CodeIgniter supports are PostgreSQL, MySql, Cubrid, ODBC, MS SQL, Firebird, SQLite, and Oracle. It also works with different versions of PHP (depending on the version of CodeIgniter is being used).

Cache system – CodeIgniter also has a cache feature. As we all know cache helps web application in terms of serving requests faster. Simply put, it will reduce load on the web server and database making pages render faster.

Example

Controller

class Cache_controller extends CI_Controller {
             
      public function index()
      {
         $this->output->cache(5);
         $this->load->view('index');
      }
                              
      public function cache_delete()
      {
         $this->output->delete_cache('cachecontroller');
      }
}

View(index.php)

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang = "en">
   <head>
      <meta charset = "utf-8">
   </head>              
   <body>
      <div class=”container”>Hello World!</div>
   </body>             
</html>

Routes (Routes.php)

$route['cachecontroller'] = 'Cache_controller';

$route['cachecontroller/delete'] = 'Cache_controller/cache_delete';

In the example above, the number 5 in the line $this->output->cache(5) refers to how often the page will be cached in minutes. We will target the index file of the page that we want our cache function to execute on. By the help of the routes that we customized, assuming our application was named mySite.com, when you visit mySite.com/index.php /cachecontroller a cache file will be created on cache folder (application/cache). If you want to remove cache, just visit mySite.com/index.php /delete.

Support – Like other popular PHP frameworks such as Laravel, CakePHP, Symfony etc, CodeIgniter is one of the frameworks that has an active community. Questions will usually be addressed in just a matter of minutes. There are also many forums and even a wiki that can be found on its website whenever you are looking for answers or stuck on something.

Documentation – One way to learn a new technology is via its documentation and by working through detailed code snippet. CodeIgniter has been very good about providing understandable information about the framework. It provides step by step tutorials and detailed information ranging from easy to more complicated aspects of building web applications. CodeIgniter is not just a community but also backed by a company called EllisLab whose main goal is to take the framework to the next level of web application development.    

Security – Security is one of the biggest concerns in web development and is the crucial component in how reliable and secured your web application is. One of the biggest threats in web development is an Sql Injection. Sql injections are very common on the web especially in today's environment where most transactions are done online. Its main target is to get or exploit secured data from a database by posting data on the front end side of a web application. CodeIgniter offers a secured way to protect data. Through its Security Filtering feature, data is automatically filtered when a new controller is invoked. It can pre-processes input data and also provides helper functions for fetching input data and pre-processing it.  CodeIgniter also has an XSS filtering system that will automatically prevent cross-site scripting attacks.

Example -

 $this->input->post(‘data’);

• Will return false automatically if the data you want to retrieve does not exist.

$this->input->post(‘data’, TRUE)

• By adding the value TRUE as the second parameter, it means you want to run the XSS filter feature of CodeIgniter

Conclusion

When building an application we have to consider what technology to use and study its ins and outs so that in the future, we will not be surprised when something goes wrong during implementation. CodeIgniter may not be as big or as costly as other web application technologies but it offers high end functionalities enabling web developers to produce high quality and world class applications with minimum effort.