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What is Yii2? It is a PHP framework. We have covered what the framework is earlier. Now, you should understand why we use Yii2 and why it’s the best PHP framework to build progressive web apps or anything else.
Yii is short for “Yes, It Is” and it was released in 2008. For those wondering how it is pronounced (as I was) the right answer is Yee or Jii which also translates as “evolutionary” or “simple” from Chinese (because it was created by a Chinese)
Yii2 was the first stable version released in 2014. It gained attention because it made it faster and easier to build web applications and because the documentation was clearly written. Let’s further discuss the pros and cons of Yii2 framework.
The Benefits of Yii2 Development
Like Symphony and Laravel, Yii2 is an open-source framework for both back-end and front-end programming. A lot of explanatory documentation helps to sort out many issues and the framework is also supported by a community of significant size.
Yii also supports Object-Relational Mapping. ORM is a technique that makes possible converting data between incompatible type systems in object-oriented languages like PHP.
Why Yii is the best framework? Yii has a low-entry barrier. In other words, it is really easy to learn. Developers describe it as a PHP framework that is most simple. It is partly because the documentation is written in a very understandable way. And should some issue arise, there’s a huge open-source community to seek answers from. A programmer can start coding with Yii in a matter of days. From business perspective, your team can adopt Yii fairly quickly to rush the development.
Reduced Hand Coding – Increased Speed
Working with Yii2, the developers can use the extension called Gii. It generates code automatically because repetitive work is sin and should take no time from intelligent people. Gii provides developers with blocks and pieces of code that are used often (a lot like autocomplete feature when texting) and which are called snippets. With Gii a developer can also make customized controllers, modules, extensions and forms semi-automatically, issuing simple commands.
From a business point of view that means super-fast development because hand coding is a tedious thing that takes a lot of time and, though boring, needs a developer to be focused. It is also true that automation makes a job more pleasant for developers since monotonous repetitive work can easily kill enthusiasm and creativity, putting the developers to sleep. To have less of such kind of work is definitely better. Is Yii Framework good in this regard? For sure.It is simply great when code writes itself. Moreover, all completed blocks and pieces are reusable, so they allow scaling and making forecasts in regard to your product development cycle.
Easy Testing
Testing an app with Yii2 is easy thanks to Codeception. This is a very useful tool for automated testing. Developers can customize tests to suit their needs on every specific occasion.
From a business point of view quick and error-free testing allows faster release and improves code quality.
Model View Controller (MVC) Architecture
Thanks to MVC programming design pattern the development of an app becomes easier.
- Model – represents application data
- View – conveys representation of data. In other words, this is user interface
- Controllers – represent the business logic of your app
Each of these components can be edited separately which makes the development overall very comfortable.
Security
Security of your future app is very important, especially today when users noticed they’d like keeping their privacy to themselves. Yii2 application development solutions have a variety of different security features that come in handy very often. For example, automated audits protect web app’s cookies and clear the code of its vulnerabilities. Yii2 has many validation features performed through rules and scenarios that are tied to models or conditions, deciding in which manner the validation can proceed.
RESTful API
RESTful API (application program interface) is used to connect a website to the cloud or a mobile app. It connects the functionality and data without interaction with source code. REST is short for Representational State Transfer. It is, in its turn, a style in software architecture that describes the conditions for creating inter-operable web-services (to integrate different third-party services). Here is REST API Tutorial Tutorial.
From a business point of view, RESTful API makes connectivity and scalability easier. Developers can fairly quickly set-up a mobile app for your landing page or make a new landing page to promote your service.
How Do You Benefit From Yii2?
You can drive an old car to seem retro. You can listen to Beatles and watch Colombo. Oldschool is cool. But you should never ever rely on outdated technologies. It is in your best interest to search Yii2 developer for hire and have a development team that works with the latest software production tools. Yii2 is one of such tools. It is proven to be very ergonomic cost-wise and, therefore, business-friendly.
You can make projections, scale and rescale, upgrade, update and improve your project or develop it from scratch in less time with less effort. Speaking in broad terms, that is simply precious, since any software development cycle could always use a little simplification but only if it doesn’t hurt productivity. Because of that the demand for remote Yii2 Developers is at all time high.
Conclusion
The inventor of Yii2, Qiang Xue, said in his “Philosophies that Shaped Successful Frameworks” that “Building a successful framework is all about striking the right balance between power and simplicity”. The framework does exactly that. It reduces the amount of routine hand coding to a minimum, leaving the developer to deal with design, architecture, and logic of an app.
Thanks to simple logic and light syntax (the way the code is exhibited) Yii2 is what any young business needs because with the software environment established in Yii2 there are less simulated problems and artificial issues that appear because of complexity.
Although the underlying engineering often seems as gibberish for business owners, the more they understand it, the better. It allows to reach mutual understanding between the developers and business executives to reach the objectives of business with software most optimally. I hope we helped you understand Yii2 a little bit better.