Top 10 PHP Framework’s

1.Yii Framework’s
2.CodeIgniter Framework’s
3.Symfony Framework’s
4.PHPDevShell Framework’s
5.CakePHP Framework’s
6.Akolos Framework’s
7.Prado Framework’s
8. zend Framework’s
9.Zoop Framework’s
10.EZ Components Framework’s

PHP Framework’s
1.Yii Framework’s
Yii is a high-performance component-based PHP framework for developing large-scale Web applications. Yii enables maximum reusability in Web programming and can significantly accelerate the development process. The name Yii (pronounced as Yee or [ji:]) stands for easy, efficient and extensible.
Introduction
Yii is a component-based high-performance PHP framework for developing large-scale Web applications. Yii is written in strict OOP and comes with thorough class reference and comprehensive tutorials. From MVC, DAO/ActiveRecord, widgets, caching, hierarchical RBAC, Web services, to theming, I18N and L10N, Yii provides nearly every feature needed by today’s Web 2.0 application development. And all these come without incurring much overhead. As a matter of fact, Yii is one of the most efficient PHP frameworks around.
Why should use Yii
Yii is easy to learn and use. You only need to know PHP and object-oriented programming. You are not forced to learn a new configuration or templating language.
Yii is extremely fast. Its overhead to applications written on top of it is negligible. As a matter of fact, it is one of the most efficient PHP frameworks around.
Yii is highly reusable and extensible. Yii is purely object-oriented. Everything in Yii is a self-contained component which can be configured, reused or extended easily. More importantly, Yii has an ever-increasing extension library consisting of user-contributed components, which may help reduce your development time significantly.
Yii comes with a rich set of features. From MVC, DAO/ActiveRecord, to theming, internationalization and localization, Yii provides nearly every feature needed by today’s Web 2.0 application development.
Yii has very detailed documentation. From the definitive guide to class reference, Yii has every information you need to quickly learn and master it.
Yii is carefully designed from the beginning to fit for serious Web application development. It is neither a byproduct of some project nor a conglomerate of third-party work. It is the result of the authors’ rich experience of Web application development and the investigation and reflection of the most popular Web programming frameworks and applications.
Last but not least, Yii is free! Yii uses the new BSD license, and it also ensures that the third-party work it integrates with use BSD-compatible licenses. This means it is both financially and lawfully free for you to use Yii to develop either open source or proprietary applications.
History
Qiang started the Yii project on January 1, 2008, after developing and maintaining Prado for more than three years and realizing the need of an easy, efficient and extensible framework.
In October 2008 after ten months of private development, Qiang released the first alpha version of Yii which quickly gathered wide attention because Yii beats all other major PHP frameworks in performance while still offering a very rich feature set. On December 3, 2008, Yii 1.0 was formally released.
Credits
Yii incorporates many ideas and work from other well-known Web programming frameworks and applications. Below is a short list.
Prado: This is the major source of ideas for Yii. Yii adopts its component-based and event-driven programming paradigm, database abstraction layers, modular application architecture, internationalization and localization, and many others.
Ruby on Rails: Yii inherits its spirit of conventions over configurations. Yii also referenced its implementation of active record design pattern.
jQuery: This is integrated in Yii as the foundational JavaScript framework.
Symfony: Yii referenced its filter design and plug-in architecture.
Joomla: Yii referenced its modular design and message translation scheme.
License
Yii is released under the BSD License. This means you can use it for free to develop either open source or proprietary Web applications.

2.CodeIgniter Framework’s
Introduction
CodeIgniter is an Application Development Framework – a toolkit – for people who build web sites using PHP. Its goal is to enable you to develop projects much faster than you could if you were writing code from scratch, by providing a rich set of libraries for commonly needed tasks, as well as a simple interface and logical structure to access these libraries. CodeIgniter lets you creatively focus on your project by minimizing the amount of code needed for a given task.

CodeIgniter is a powerful PHP framework with a very small footprint, built for PHP coders who need a simple and elegant toolkit to create full-featured web applications. If you’re a developer who lives in the real world of shared hosting accounts and clients with deadlines, and if you’re tired of ponderously large and thoroughly undocumented frameworks
CodeIgniter is right for you if…
You want a framework with a small footprint.
You need exceptional performance.
You need broad compatibility with standard hosting accounts that run a variety of PHP versions and configurations.
You want a framework that requires nearly zero configuration.
You want a framework that does not require you to use the command line.
You want a framework that does not require you to adhere to restrictive coding rules.
You are not interested in large-scale monolithic libraries like PEAR.
You do not want to be forced to learn a templating language (although a template parser is optionally available if you desire one).
You eschew complexity, favoring simple solutions.
You need clear, thorough documentation.

3.Symfony Framework’s
Introduction
Symfony is a web application framework for PHP5 projects.
It aims to speed up the creation and maintenance of web applications, and to replace the repetitive coding tasks by power, control and pleasure.
The very small number of prerequisites make symfony easy to install on any configuration; you just need Unix or Windows with a web server and PHP 5 installed. It is compatible with almost every database system. In addition, it has a very small overhead, so the benefits of the framework don’t come at the cost of an increase of hosting costs.
Using symfony is so natural and easy for people used to PHP and the design patterns of Internet applications that the learning curve is reduced to less than a day. The clean design and code readability will keep your delays short. Developers can apply agile development principles (such as DRY, KISS or the XP philosophy) and focus on applicative logic without losing time to write endless XML configuration files.
Symfony is aimed at building robust applications in an enterprise context. This means that you have full control over the configuration: from the directory structure to the foreign libraries, almost everything can be customized. To match your enterprise’s development guidelines, symfony is bundled with additional tools helping you to test, debug and document your project.
Last but not least, by choosing symfony you get the benefits of an active open-source community. It is entirely free and published under the MIT license.
What’s symfony?
readability will keep your delays short. Developers can apply agile development principles (such as DRY, KISS or the XP philosophy) and focus on applicative logic without losing time to write endless XML configuration files.
Symfony is aimed at building robust applications in an enterprise context. This means that you have full control over the configuration: from the directory structure to the foreign libraries, almost everything can be customized. To match your enterprise’s development guidelines, symfony is bundled with additional tools helping you to test, debug and document your project.
Last but not least, by choosing symfony you get the benefits of an active open-source community. It is entirely free and published under the MIT license.
Symfony is sponsored by Sensio Labs, a French Web Agency well known for its innovative views on web development.

4.PHPDevShell Framework’s
Introduction

PHPDevShell is an Open Source (GNU/LGPL) Rapid Application Development framework written using only PHP with no Javascript and comes with a complete GUI admin interface. It is aimed at developing admin based applications as plugins, where speed, security, stability and flexibility are essentials. It is designed to have a very easy learning curve without complicated new terms to learn. The need for a light, fully functional GUI with limitless configuration brought forward PHPDevShell. We strive to keep direction and focus in our development according to our moto.

What is PHPDevShell
Tired of complex and heavy PHP based frameworks? Need a web based application to be up and running ASAP? Are you perhaps a sole developer or small team that needs a head start with your new project?
If yes, then PHPDevShell is your answer. PHPDevShell as the name suggests provides a “shell” for your code to run in. It was developed from the ground up to be fast, secure and to provide immediate results for the developer using it. Take your own PHP scripts and simply “plug” it into PHPDevShell’s secure menu system if you want, or take the extra step and develop your own plugin for PHPDevShell. PHPDevShell does not burden the developer with having to have an in-depth understanding of its inner workings, but doesn’t stop you from “digging” into its core if you like too either.
Allot of solutions out there were designed based on the availability of First World resources. However there are countries out there with very low resources in almost all fields, finances, man power, time and education. These Third World countries companies depend on mostly one single developer or very small teams to do absolutely everything, from graphics design right up to the development, frontend, databases for a minimum wage.  We don’t have the luxury to work in a typical “MVC” environment, where each developer gets his part to do. This is where PHPDevShell comes into play, it compensates for the fact that a single developer will need to do everything on it. The developer will most probably have absolutely no time to spare on learning the language of a framework and can’t create everything from scratch.  Their client will most probably want to see results within the first week.

Where would I typically use PHPDevShell?
PHPDevShell would typically be used to develop general web based applications. It is not a CMS (Content Management System) or an MVC Framework nor does it pretend to be one of those solutions. PHPDevShell is essentially a ready made GUI application where you can immediately start with the development work that matters most, your application. For security and usability it already provides you with user registration and management, role management, group management, access rights security, important system settings, templates, control panels, cronjob management, menu management, plugin management etc.
Why would I want to use PHPDevShell?
PHPDevShell provides the ability for you to get a PHP back-end system up and running in an incredibly short amount of time while not taking short cuts on things such as security and resource usage. It’s made as light as possible as to not interfere with your application yet allows you to heavily customise the look and feel if you have the time. Why re-invent the wheel when you can gain months of work instantly by using PHPDevShell?
What PHPDevShell is NOT!
1.PHPDevShell is NOT based on MVC or any other fancy acronyms, everything can be done in one script or just like you want it.
2.PHPDevShell is NOT a Content Management System where you would create websites with, it is a general application management system focusing on business models. There are many of these, please look at Drupal, Joomla, ExpressionEngine or WordPress for good CMS technology.
3.PHPDevShell is NOT in competition with any other framework nor does it provide the same solution, it is for simplicity, small teams with low resources.  I recommend you look at one of these big players; Symphony, CakePHP, Prado, Akelos, Zend Framework, CodeIgniter.
4.PHPDevShell is NOT for the highly educated academically correct, it uses to straight forward approach in accomplishing its tasks.
5.PHPDevShell is NOT a code generator, you still need to be fluent with PHP development.

Features
PHPDevShell features a number of great pre-developed components. Unlike most other frameworks where power was concentrated on the backend, PHPDevShell has concentrated on a balance providing the developer both a backend and a frontend ui.

5.CakePHP Framework’s

Introduction

CakePHP is a rapid development framework for PHP which uses commonly known design patterns like ActiveRecord, Association Data Mapping, Front Controller and MVC. Our primary goal is to provide a structured framework that enables PHP users at all levels to rapidly develop robust web applications, without any loss to flexibility.
Section 1
Introduction
So now you know everything there is to know about the structure and purpose of all the CakePHP libraries, or you have skipped to this part because you don’t care about that stuff and just want to start playing. Either way, you’re ready to get your hands dirty.
This chapter will describe what must be installed on the server, different ways to configure your server, downloading and installing CakePHP, bringing up the default CakePHP page, and some troubleshooting tips just in case everything does not go as planned.
Section 2
Requirements
In order use CakePHP you must first have a server that has all the required libraries and programs to run CakePHP:
Server Requirements:
In order use CakePHP you must first have a server that has all the required libraries and programs to run CakePHP:
Here are the requirements for setting up a server to run CakePHP:
1.An HTTP server (like Apache) with the following enabled: sessions, mod_rewrite (not absolutely necessary but preferred)
2.PHP 4.3.2 or greater. Yes, CakePHP works great in either PHP 4 or 5.
3.A database engine (right now, there is support for MySQL 4+, PostgreSQL and a wrapper for ADODB).

6.Akolos Framework’s

Introduction
The Akelos PHP Framework is a web application development platform based on the MVC (Model View Controller) design pattern. Based on good practices, it allows you to:
Write views using Ajax easily
Control requests and responses through a controller
Manage internationalized applications
Communicate models and the database using simple conventions.
Your Akelos based applications can run on most shared hosting service providers since Akelos only requires that PHP be available at the server. This means that the Akelos PHP Framework is the ideal candidate for distributing standalone web applications as it does not require any non-standard PHP configuration to run.

The Akelos PHP Framework is a web application development platform based on the MVC (Model View Controller) design pattern. Based on good practices, it allows you to:
Write views using Ajax easily
Control requests and responses through a controller
Manage internationalized applications
Communicate models and the database using simple conventions.
Your Akelos based applications can run on most shared hosting service providers since Akelos only requires that PHP be available at the server. This means that the Akelos PHP Framework is the ideal candidate for distributing standalone web applications as it does not require any non-standard PHP configuration to run.

Akelos PHP Framework Goals
Improve developer happiness.
Speed up the creation of complex web applications writing less code.
Provide all the means for creating applications that can run on cheap PHP4/PHP5 hosts and in the developer desktop without complex configurations.
Help on the hard task of creating and maintaining applications with data and views in multiple languages.
Favor conventions over configurations

7.Prado Framework’s
Introduction
The PRADO group is a team of PRADO enthusiasts who develop and promote the PRADO framework and the related projects.
Team Members
Qiang Xue – founder of PRADO framework, core development
Xiang Wei Zhuo – core development (javascripts, active controls, DB controls, tests)
Jason Ragsdale – site and forum administration
Knut Urdalen – test, marketing
Marcus Nyeholt – component development, test
Carl G. Mathisen – design and document comment system
Alban Hanry – component development
Christophe Boulain – component development, test
Past Team Members
Alex Flint, Brian Luft, John Teague, Todd Patrick, Pim van der Zwet, Tim Evans

History of PRADO
The very original inspiration of PRADO came from Apache Tapestry. During the design and implementation, I borrowed many ideas from Borland Delphi and Microsoft ASP.NET. The first version of PRADO came out in June 2004 and was written in PHP 4. Driven by the Zend PHP 5 coding contest, I rewrote PRADO in PHP 5, which proved to be a wise move, thanks to the new object model provided by PHP 5. PRADO won the grand prize in the Zend contest, earning high votes both from the public and from the judges’ panel.
In August 2004, PRADO was hosted on SourceForge as an open source project. Soon after, the project site xisc.com was announced to public. With the fantastic support of PRADO developer team and PRADO users, PRADO evolved to version 2.0 in mid 2005. In this version, Wei Zhuo contributed to PRADO with the excellent I18 and L10N support.
In May 2005, we decided to completely rewrite the PRADO framework to resolve a few fundamental issues found in version 2.0 and to catch up with some cool features available in Microsoft ASP.NET 2.0. After nearly a year’s hard work with over 50,000 lines of new code, version 3.0 was finally made available in April 2006.
Starting from version 3.0, significant efforts are allocated to ensure the quality and stability of PRADO. If we say PRADO v2.x and v1.x are proof-of-concept work, we can say PRADO 3.x has grown up to a serious project that is suitable for business application development.
What is PRADO?
PRADOTM is a component-based and event-driven programming framework for developing Web applications in PHP 5. PRADO stands for PHP Rapid Application Development Object-oriented.

What does PRADO require?
The sole requirement to run PRADO-based applications is a Web server supporting PHP 5.1.0 or higher. PRADO is free. You can use it to develop either open source or commercial applications.

8. zend Framework

Extending the art & spirit of PHP, Zend Framework is based on simplicity, object-oriented best practices, corporate friendly licensing, and a rigorously tested agile codebase. Zend Framework is focused on building more secure, reliable, and modern Web 2.0 applications & web services, and consuming widely available APIs from leading vendors like Google, Amazon, Yahoo!, Flickr, as well as API providers and cataloguers like StrikeIron and ProgrammableWeb.
Expanding on these core themes, we have implemented Zend Framework to embody extreme simplicity & productivity, the latest Web 2.0 features, simple corporate-friendly licensing, and an agile well-tested code base that your enterprise can depend upon.

Extreme Simplicity & Productivity
We designed Zend Framework with simplicity in mind. To provide a lightweight, loosely-coupled component library simplified to provide 4/5s of the functionality everyone needs and that lets you customize the other 20% to meet your specific business needs. By focusing on the most commonly needed functionality, we retain the simplified spirit of PHP programming, dramatically lower the learning curve, and your training costs – so developers get up-to-speed quickly. We do this with:
factors in adoption decisions. Built so you can pick and choose just the pieces you need to turbocharge your web applications – all your developers know where to find their PHP / Zend Framework code, speeding new development and reducing maintenance costs.
Latest Web Development Features
AJAX support through JSON – meet the ease-of-use requirements your users have come to expect
Search – a native PHP edition of the industry-standard Lucene search engine
Syndication – the data formats & easy access to them your Web 2.0 applications need
Web Services – Zend Framework aims to be the premier place to consume & publish web services
High-quality, object-oriented PHP 5 class library – attention to best practices like design patterns, unit testing, & loose coupling

Friendly & Simple Licensing, Safe for the Enterprise
Based on the simple and safe new BSD license, with Zend Framework’s License, you rest assured that your code is compliant, unimpeachable, and protected as you see fit. We also require all contributors to the open source Zend Framework to complete and sign a Contributor License Agreement (CLA) — which is based on the standard open-source Apache license — protecting your own intellectual property (that is, your added-value) built on Zend Framework.
Fully Tested – Extend Safely and Easily
Tested. Thoroughly. Enterprise-ready and built with agile methods, Zend Framework has been unit-tested from the start, with stringent code coverage requirements to ensure that all code contributed has not only been thoroughly unit-tested, but also remains stable and easy for you to extend, re-test with your extensions, and further maintain.

Over 10 Million Downloads
Over 500 Contributors
Over 1000 pages in our Reference Guide
Over 500 Examples in our Reference Guide
Almost 6 million hits on Google
Over 900 hits currently on Technorati
Over 120 projects based on, extending, or supporting Zend Framework at SourceForge
Over 280 projects based on, extending, or supporting Zend Framework at Google Code
Over 4000 resolved issues in our Issue Tracker
ZF and MVC introduction
Zend Framework is an open source, object oriented web application framework for PHP 5. ZF is often called a ‘component library’, because it has many loosely coupled components that you can use more or less independently. But Zend Framework also provides an advanced Model-View-Controller (MVC) implementation that can be used to establish a basic structure for your ZF applications. A full list of Zend Framework components along with short descriptions may be found in the components overview. This QuickStart will introduce you to some of ZF’s most commonly used components, including Zend_Controller, Zend_Layout, Zend_Config, Zend_Db, Zend_Db_Table, Zend_Registry, along with a few view helpers.

Using these components, we will build a simple database-driven guest book application within minutes. The complete source code for this application is available in the following archives:

Model-View-Controller
So what exactly is this MVC pattern everyone keeps talking about, and why should you care? MVC is much more than just a three-letter acronym (TLA) that you can whip out anytime you want to sound smart; it has become something of a standard in the design of modern web applications. And for good reason. Most web application code falls under one of the following three categories: presentation, business logic, and data access. The MVC pattern models this separation of concerns well. The end result is that your presentation code can be consolidated in one part of your application with your business logic in another and your data access code in yet another. Many developers have found this well-defined separation indispensable for keeping their code organized, especially when more than one developer is working on the same application.

Let’s break down the pattern and take a look at the individual pieces:
Model – This is the part of your application that defines its basic functionality behind a set of abstractions. Data access routines and some business logic can be defined in the model.
View – Views define exactly what is presented to the user. Usually controllers pass data to each view to render in some format. Views will often collect data from the user, as well. This is where you’re likely to find HTML markup in your MVC applications.
Controller – Controllers bind the whole pattern together. They manipulate models, decide which view to display based on the user’s request and other factors, pass along the data that each view will need, or hand off control to another controller entirely. Most MVC experts recommend keeping controllers as skinny as possible.
Of course there is more to be said about this critical pattern, but this should give you enough background to understand the guestbook application we’ll be building.

About zend Framework

Extending the art & spirit of PHP, Zend Framework is based on simplicity, object-oriented best practices, corporate friendly licensing, and a rigorously tested agile codebase. Zend Framework is focused on building more secure, reliable, and modern Web 2.0 applications & web services, and consuming widely available APIs from leading vendors like Google, Amazon, Yahoo!, Flickr, as well as API providers and cataloguers like StrikeIron and ProgrammableWeb.
Expanding on these core themes, we have implemented Zend Framework to embody extreme simplicity & productivity, the latest Web 2.0 features, simple corporate-friendly licensing, and an agile well-tested code base that your enterprise can depend upon.

9.Zoop Framework’s

Introduction
The Zoop Object Oriented Php Framework (The Zoop PHP Framework for short). A framework written in and for php.

The Zoop PHP Framework is stable, scalable and portable. It has been in production use for the last 5 years and has been used in many production environments. The Zoop PHP Framework is designed to be fast, efficient and clean. It is easily extendable and you choose to include only the functionality you use.

With Zoop an inexperienced coder can make secure web applications quickly. A more experienced coder will really appreciate how flexible The Zoop PHP Framework is. Both experienced and inexperienced coders alike will appreciate the automations that are at his/her disposal to handle mundane tasks.

The Zoop PHP Framework encourages separation of display, logic and data layers(MVC).

The Zoop PHP Framework is made up of many components and integrates many different projects including smarty (http://smarty.php.net) and the prototype AJAX framework. It also makes use of PEAR modules (http://pear.php.net).   The efficient core components handle many of the functions you would have to code yourselves. Zoop’s integrated error handling can be configured to log errors for production environments, and is highly informative and readable which makes bugs easy to find and squash.

Zoop has been designed to make the developers life easier by providing tools to make efficient use of his/her time. On of our more unique and notable features is our implementation of GuiControls, a revolutionary idea in PHP  that provides many form widgets with validation completely integrated, as well as a framework to develop your own guiControls extremely easily.
Zoop Features
The Zoop framework features GuiControls (a PHP implementation of .net’s webcontrols), AJAX support and integration, automatic form validation and creation (including db integration), a Smarty templating system, PDF creation, session handling, and SMTP template-based email sending, and integrated caching.

Zoop features:
1.A well-organized, fully-featured front controller.
2.A Smarty based view layer, enhanced with form generation and rich UI controls.
3.Several integrated data model access styles.
4.Automation of common mundane tasks.
5.Great native libraries and friendly integration with many third-party projects.
About Zoop
Zoop is a recursive acronym which stands for Zoop Object Oriented PHP Framework.
The Zoop Framework is stable, scalable, and portable. Far from being Yet Another PHP Framework or Rails clone, it’s been in development since 2001 and in production use for the last 6 years in a number of different environments. It’s designed to be fast, efficient, modular, and extensible. Although it predates the recent proliferation of PHP MVC frameworks, it not only supports but encourages separation of display, logic and data layers.
With Zoop an inexperienced coder can make secure web applications quickly. More experienced coders will appreciate the design and flexibility. Both will benefit from the shortcuts it provides to handle common and mundane tasks.
Zoop’s integrated error handling can be configured to log errors for production environments, and is highly informative and readable which makes bugs easy to find and squash.
The Zoop Framework is inclusive, cooperating with and containing components integrated from some existing projects including Smarty, the Prototype JS Framework, and a number of Pear Modules. We’re not content just to cobble pieces together, however — for example, we’ve combined the above into an implementation that brings GuiControls to PHP, providing developers with easy access to rich form widgets with client-side validation completely integrated. We’re also working to include support for pieces from some of the latest and greatest PHP and Javascript projects, including the Zend Framework, PHP Doctrine, and jQuery, among others.

10.EZ Components Framework’s
Introduction

eZ Components is an enterprise ready, general purpose PHP components library. It is used independently or together for PHP application development. As a collection of high quality independent building blocks, eZ Components will both speed up development and reduce risks. An application can use one or more components effortlessly as they all adhere to the same naming conventions and follow the same structure. All components require atleast PHP 5.1.1.
Why eZ Components?
eZ Components is a high-quality library of independent components that aid in the development of Web-centric applications.
Powerful and Independent
eZ Components is engineered with a full feature set in mind, providing you with powerful building blocks for your application.

Each component is also completely independent from the other components, which allows you to choose exactly which parts of the library you want to use in your application. The eZ Components library does not dictate how you organize your application; instead, it provides you with the flexibility to decide how and when to use each component. In addition, all of the components’ APIs are engineered in a similar way, making them as consistent as possible.
Effective and High Quality
A library’s usefulness stems from its individual components. Each eZ Component focuses its attention on solving important parts of Web application development. The components are lean and effective, created to solve specific recurring issues that developers face.
Quality is of utmost importance. The eZ Components development team uses a test-driven development methodology that maximizes API usability. This results in a robust and reliable API.
Easily Accessible, Open Source, Company-Backed
Documentation is what makes working with a components library such as eZ Components accessible. Good documentation is extremely valuable because it enables developers to get the most out of the library. For each of the components, the documentation includes a tutorial that introduces the API and gives an overview of the functionality, as well as a thorough API reference specification. Additionally, articles build on top of the documentation to provide more in-depth information about specific components.
eZ Components is published under an open license model. The New BSD license is very permissive and opens up the use of the library to as many developers as possible. An open source license also facilitates stronger community involvement.
All of the development processes are well-documented and made as transparent as possible for users and external contributors. The eZ Components team is responsible for code and project maintenance and oversees that the development processes are followed. Users are thus assured that eZ Components can be counted on for ongoing quality, relevance, and usefulness.