I’ve spent a good deal of time this week working on a little project using the Code Igniter framework. This is a liberally licensed PHP framework that does some of the same MVC stuff that Rails does for Ruby and CakePHP also does for PHP, but it’s a bit less rigid – which I like.

I tried setting up a project in CakePHP last year, but got rather frustrated by the difficulty I had linking up a rather involved database schema that I ended up putting the project on hold.

Code Igniter is a bit different. It automates a fair amount, but not everything (which I like). To me it’s a lot more clear where things go and how to go about doing what you want to do. I’ve also found it fairly easy to add in my own little frameworks here and there.

I think most developers fall into two categories, those who want to use a framework and those that want to build their own framework. Since I’ve been using my own psuedo-framework for years, I’m much more in the DIY camp. I’m trying hard to work within Code Igniter, and feel like it still gives me enough room to stretch my legs a bit.

At the moment, I plan to use this with two projects I’m working on. If you’re a PHP developer, it’s worth taking a look at.