Archives For Learning the Yii Framework

A longer series on installing, using, and customizing the Yii framework for PHP-based Web development. If you like the series, you’ll love “The Yii Book”.

This entry is part 1 of 8 in the series Learning the Yii Framework

In 2009, I had three decent-size Web sites to develop, so I thought I might try using a PHP framework for the first time, instead of coding everything from scratch. I’ve used Ruby on Rails for Web development before, so I’m comfortable with frameworks and the MVC architecture, but I wanted to educate myself on PHP frameworks. After researching a handful of frameworks, and after an unsatisfying attempt to use Zend Framework, I finally settled on, and really came to appreciate the Yii Framework. At the time, the Yii Framework was still quite new, and there are still bugs to be worked out (for the more advanced stuff), but Yii works so well that it’s very easy to use. In this first of several posts on the Yii Framework, I just discuss setting up and testing Yii.

(Note: In October 2010, I’ve updated this entire series to reflect changes in Yii since this series was written, and to take into account feedback provided through the comments. Some outdated material will be crossed out, but left in to reflect how things have changed since the series was begun in June 2009.)

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This entry is part 2 of 8 in the series Learning the Yii Framework

Many, many moons ago I wrote [intlink id=”473″ type=”post”]a post introducing the Yii framework[/intlink]. It’s a framework for creating Web applications using PHP 5 (or greater) that I’ve really liked since I originally started with it. Ruby on Rails was the first Web development framework I personally used (back in 2005) and Zend was the first PHP framework. I love the former, and Yii is quite like it in many ways, but I never really took to Zend. In that first post, I discussed just downloading and testing Yii; here I’ll walk through creating the beginnings of a Web application.

(Note: In October 2010, I’ve updated this entire series to reflect changes in Yii since this series was written, and to take into account feedback provided through the comments. Some outdated material will be crossed out, but left in to reflect how things have changed since the series was begun in June 2009.)

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Configuring Yii

November 3, 2009
This entry is part 3 of 8 in the series Learning the Yii Framework

This is the third post in my series on Yii, my favorite PHP framework. [intlink id=”473″ type=”post”]In the first[/intlink], I show how to download and test the framework itself. [intlink id=”563″ type=”post”]In the second[/intlink], I show how to create a basic Web application. The end of that post also discusses the files and folders in the application directory. You’ll want to be familiar with those as you go forward. In this post, I discuss how you’ll want to configure your Yii-based application, including handling errors, adding components, and establishing a database connection. This post does assume you have an existing application to work with; if you don’t, follow the steps in the previous two posts.

(Note: In October 2010, I’ve updated this entire series to reflect changes in Yii since this series was written, and to take into account feedback provided through the comments. Some outdated material will be crossed out, but left in to reflect how things have changed since the series was begun in June 2009.)

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This entry is part 4 of 8 in the series Learning the Yii Framework

This is the fourth post in my series on Yii, my favorite PHP framework. [intlink id=”473″ type=”post”]In the first[/intlink], I show how to download and test the framework itself. [intlink id=”563″ type=”post”]In the second[/intlink], I show how to create a basic Web application. [intlink id=”583″ type=”post”]In the third[/intlink], I walk through some configuration options. In this post, I want to discuss the database design that will be the foundation for the Yii application I’m demonstrating (in the subsequent four posts). The specific example will be a classic employees-departments application, with each employee in one department. This post does assume you have an existing Yii application to work with, most likely by following the steps in my previous posts.

(Note: In October 2010, I’ve updated this entire series to reflect changes in Yii since this series was written, and to take into account feedback provided through the comments. Some outdated material will be crossed out, but left in to reflect how things have changed since the series was begun in June 2009.)

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This entry is part 5 of 8 in the series Learning the Yii Framework

This is the fifth post in my series on Yii, my favorite PHP framework. [intlink id=”473″ type=”post”]In the first[/intlink], I show how to download and test the framework itself. [intlink id=”563″ type=”post”]In the second[/intlink], I show how to create a basic Web application.[intlink id=”583″ type=”post”] In the third[/intlink], I walk through some configuration options. [intlink id=”607″ type=”post”]In the fourth[/intlink], I explain the database design to be used by the sample application that this and the subsequent posts discuss. In this post, I show how to use Yii’s Gii tool to create Models, Views, and Controllers in your Yii application. This post does assume you have an existing application to work with, most likely by following the steps in my previous posts.

(Note: In October 2010, I’ve updated this entire series to reflect changes in Yii since this series was written, and to take into account feedback provided through the comments. Some outdated material will be crossed out, but left in to reflect how things have changed since the series was begun in June 2009. This post had the heaviest revisions, as the command-line tools were replaced by the Web-based Gii.)

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