Should You Still Use YII Framework?

Yii is a popular framework released in 2006, also known as Yes It Is. It remained in versions 1.0 and 1.1 for a while before Yii 2.0 was finally released in 2014. Its popularity has declined since then. However, many developers continue to use it for deeper security configurations, handier routing, and CRUD generation. When it comes to developing high-performance applications, it is the fastest PHP framework.

It is one of several frameworks that significantly accelerate the web development process. To know better whether to use it or not, you can go through the advantages and disadvantages of the framework. This article will discuss it, so you can decide whether you should still use it for your web development projects.

Features of Yii

The various features of the framework include the high performance offered, its security features, third-party library support, and many others. As said earlier, a new version named Yii2 was released, which has a lot of new features, including the following:

It can be easily downloaded and installed either using Composer, which saves a lot of time, or manually.
It makes extensive use of PHP’s advanced features and is entirely based on OOPS concepts.
Because it uses namespacing for all of its classes, you can benefit from its autoloader.
It is well known for being highly extensible and permits the use of third-party libraries by installing them using Composer, configuring them, and adding them to the autoloader.
Yii2 is compatible with Codeception which is a testing feature that makes the testing configuration of an application simple and easier.
It has several security components that help in creating secure applications and have various security measures taken to prevent external attacks.
It requires less time for development of applications because it has many tools that help to reduce your time on many repetitive tasks. One of tools, for example, include Gii.
It delivers high performance with several tools to enhance the speed of application.
It also supports the MVC (Model View Controller) pattern to separate the codes.
Instead of using lengthy SQL statements, database data can be modelled in terms of objects.
It has a multi-layered caching architecture that supports data caching, fragment caching, dynamic content caching, and page caching. Without altering the application code, you can also change the cache storage medium.
With the help of the automatic code generation feature, you can quickly and easily generate code using tools like CRUD and forms that are very extensible.
It offers detailed documentation that states every method or property used in Yii.
It offers a skinning and theming mechanism that enables you to quickly change a Yii-generated website’s appearance.

Just like any other framework, it has certain advantages over others: high efficiency, a wide range of features, and a high quality of documentation. But it has become an older framework, with its initial versions, 1.0 and 1.1, no longer in use. Its position in the industry is slowly fading. There are still many qualified Yii developers in the industry with a large amount of experience in the development of web applications.

Why Should You Not Use It?

The Yii creators made the effort to develop it in response to the alleged flaws in the PRADO. Currently, the open source, object-oriented, component-based MVC PHP web application framework serves as the primary technology for a number of applications in many companies. But due to the introduction of many other technologies like Laravel and Symfony, it is slowly losing its importance in the software development industry.

Many developers are shifting their focus to the new ones, leaving Yii behind. There are a few reasons why developers do not use the framework. It includes the following.

It has an overly dependent static system that makes the developers uncomfortable working with it.
Its Ajax features are not well drafted as the developers are meant to use Java wherever necessary.
It is a PHP framework that does not allow to build up multiple relations and AR queries.
It necessitates more attention to design because if the developers make a mistake, the entire program may become over-sized.
Beginners will find it difficult because they need to know more about the PHP programming language, as well as other add-ons that are necessary.
Also, it has a steep learning curve making it difficult for the new developers to start with.
It has very specific tools and requires a basic knowledge that takes time to learn.
The main components of their sites, such as jQuery or Bootstrap, could possibly be updated. But it’s too attached with the included versions.
It has a simple template engine that does not support better options like competition.

So the disadvantages of the framework mentioned may influence your decision on whether to use it or not. If you are wondering whether you should continue using Yii, you can use the information in this article to help you decide. While it is true that there are some flaws, seasoned developers will be able to fully utilise this framework to produce excellent apps.

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More information about YII Framework

What is YII Framework