blog posts

PHP is very popular with programmers and is currently the best sever-side language in the world. The PHP language alone perfectly meets the needs of programmers, but sometimes programmers turn to them for the benefits of PHP frameworks. One of the most PHP framework is Codeigniter. It is very powerful and helps PHP programmers to design and program a web application with a wide variety of capabilities in a short time and without much complexity. In this article, we examined what this framework is and what its uses are.

History of the Codeigniter framework

The well-known software company EllisLab released it for the first time on February 28, 2006. The initial version of this service was nothing more than a few general-purpose classes taken from the Expression Engine project. ( A content management system built by EllisLab). But over time, Codeigniter got bigger and new features. Although the PHP framework market is hot today. Codeigniter has long demonstrated the power of the PHP programming language and its potential for building frameworks.

Ellislab announced in July 2013 that it did not have the necessary conditions to maintain and develop Codeigniter and decided to transfer ownership of Codeigniter. Less than a year later, on October 6. 2014, ownership of the framework was transferred from EllisLab to the British Columbia Institute of Technology.

Introducing the released version of Codeigniter to date

CodeIgniter 2

Its 2.x series officially came in January 2011 and its latest version was 2.2.6. which came in October 2015 to mark the end of Codeigniter 2. On October31, 2015, this version of Codeigniter expired and it they announced there is no update for it anymore.

Codeigniter 3

It is the current version of this framework intended for use in PHP 5.6 and above. This version underwent major improvements to Codeigniter, especially in working with databases, session management, encryption, and more. Development of this version is still ongoing.

CodeIgniter 4

 It is the next and unpublished version of this framework, which is for compatibility and proper use in PHP 7.2 and later. This version is  4.0.0 and is under development. This version of CodeIgniter, although downloadable, has not yet reached a stable state.

What is the Codeigniter framework?

CodeIgniter is a PHP framework using the MVC (model – view – controller) model with a focus on the rapid development of web services. Codeigniter is free and open source, helping developers build dynamic and powerful sites with the PHP language and framework that this framework specifies. The CodeIgniter source is available at GateHub and is licensed under the MIT. In 2011, there were rumors that CodeIgniter was changing its license to OSL (Open Software License), but this did not happen.

Which companies use CodeIgniter?

Nearly 46,000 companies use the CodeIgniter framework. Most of these companies are in the United States. They are active in the field of information technology and Internet services. Most of these companies employ between 10 and 50 people and have an average annual income of $ 1 to $ 10 million. Nissan is one of the most famous car brands in the world and has used it on its sites to introduce and sell its products. Another popular site built with CodeIgniter is Buffer, which is active in the field of social media.

Is CodeIgniter difficult to learn?

If you are familiar with PHP, it will be very easy for you to get started with Codeigniter. It can be a good choice for those who are just starting out in PHP programming. Unlike Laravel, installing Codeigniter is very easy and does not require any complicated work. But in Laravel you need to know the Composer and be able to work with it. This framework is powerful in documentation. There are many training courses for it. The functions, classes, and libraries in CodeIgniter are very simple and easy to use. If you run into a complex problem while working, you can solve your problem by searching forums or sites like Stack Overflow with the help of other programmers.

Advantages

It has many advantages to convince most PHP programmers to use this framework in their various projects. It was faster in some tests than Zend, Symphony and CakePHP. This framework has a logical and orderly structure and is has a complete set of libraries. Common operations that are in web applications, such as working with databases, sending emails, validating forms, managing sessions, working with images, etc., are in this framework. Here are some of the most important benefits of it:

• It is easy to learn
• Free and open source
• Supports object orientation
• Supports MVC template
• It is safe, flexible and user-friendly

Disadvantages

Although it has many advantages, like all services in the world, it has its own disadvantages. Of course, these disadvantages are not so great or important that you should stop using this framework. One of the problems with it is code retention. Clean and modular coding is very important for software companies today. This way they can easily update their product in the future or add new features to it. Unlike other modern PHP frameworks, it does not support module separation by default. That’s why other developers who want to work on our project later may get into trouble. Another drawback is related to the libraries of this framework, which has less number and variety than its competitors.

Size and Security

Codeigniter is a lightweight and compact framework. The download file of Codeigniter version 3 is less than three MB in size. CodeIgniter has a high level of security, for example this framework comes with an XSS security filter to prevent XSS attacks or cross-site scripting. Or another common Web attack is SQL Injection, which targets a database. In PHP, a function called mysql_real_escape_string () is defined to address this, but CodeIgniter uses libraries and built-in functions to prevent SQL Injection attacks.

Conclusion

In this article, we examined what a codeigniter is and what its uses are. It is a PHP framework for the rapid development of web applications. If you are interested in the PHP language and are a little familiar with it, you can start working with this framework and learn other topics later. You do not need to worry about the job market because there is always work to be done for PHP and its framework. It is easy to learn and learning Syntax does not take much time, but you have a long way to go to specialize in this framework and you need to practice and gain experience regularly.