My apologies.

Brian

1. Wordpress (I use it) may have horrible code but it’s a global success, and you can’t argue with that.

2. @Stefan Mischook - re: Dreamweaver. Stefan, I have just redeveloped a church website, that I originally constructed using Dreamweaver 8. It’s only a small site, but I managed to cut the code base from 21,483,176 bytes to 11,939,547 bytes. All the content is the same. I simply employed my own framework and redeveloped using a text editor.

3. Do I detect PHP procedural detractors here, perhaps even turning up the nose? I use both methods, I employ good structure (as much as my ability allows), and it’s always well commented. There is nothing wrong with PHP procedural coding, don’t forget most websites and user interaction thereof, is done in a procedural fashion, plus, Drupal, particularly v6 is procedural and it’s code is clean and organised for the most part.

@Stefan (again) - thanks for a great website.

Drupal 6.2 has been released and it looks to be a really solid upgrade. I wrote a little about it here:

http://www.killersites.com/blog/2008/drupal-6-looks-pretty-cool/

CIAO,

Stefan

Dreamweaver CS3 has a reasonable environment for point-and-click PHP use. Dreamweaver includes a bunch of packaged up php scripts that will allow you to connect to databases, bind database records into HTML tables, create master-detail page sets etc …

I would NOT try to use the Dreamweaver code generator tools to build complex applications, but for prototyping and smaller projects, it maybe the best solution for web designers wanting to get into dynamic database driven websites. Something I highly recommend.

I should also point out that Dreamweaver CS3 does have a basic code editor (code view) for PHP as well.

That all said, Dreamweaver CS4 will be coming out soon and I get the feeling it’s support for PHP could be stepped up a little.

… I will comment about that when I know.

Stefan

So, I want to learn PHP and have worked with it a little bit and MySQL. Can anybody recommend a good programming interface to work with…something like Dreamweaver and/or something that lets you do more “visual” building of websites, forms, applications…like a visual toolkit…that sort of thing. I will never be a great programmer, but I’m good with concepts, interfaces, etc. I will start looking at the Zend Framework.

A lot of the PHP stuff I have looked at have tons of procedures and includes…serious code for a light coder like myself. VBScript and ASP seemed pretty straightforward. PHP not so much. All the PHP people I know are serious coders. I just like to get things done.

Seems like a lot of open source stuff is pretty hard to make work at times or needs lots of mods…documentation quality varies. Don’t mind buying software if it is good. OpenX seems good. Didn’t like Drupal back when I tried it. A lot of people like Joomla…I don’t get it personally. phpMyAdmin is a killer app.

As for Code Ignitor, I’ve quickly become a huge fan after reading the site’s AMAZING documentation, which was a real pleasure. I kept saying, “Holy shit, it does this? Damn!!” Or I’d say “Wow, they make doing this feature soooooo damn easy!!” I haven’t used it on a project yet, but I’m ready to roll. What really made me have orgasms with CI was how they implemented Active Record for database queries. Wow!!!!

All in all, I’m really impressed at where PHP is heading. I sense the community has stepped up to plate in terms of code quality along with a determination to make high quality web apps. The language itself truly is a killer application.

I’m happy to hear you find the list useful. One of my motivations of this article was to get others to contribute their suggestions (of favorite PHP projects) along with getting feedback about the suggestions I and others have made.

Stefan

@Wordpress: Very useful! I use it too. But the code is ugly! I don’t want to make code for it… For luck, nearly every kind of plugin already exists. So what^^
Good Alternative: Serendipity

@Zend Framework: This is very good! Nothing to say.

@Drupal: Current version 6.1. I installed it and tried some plugins, but even the standart plugins are only for version 5.1 (Guestbook for example). I don’t know anything about the code.
Good Alternative: Do not know one At the moment I’m searching for one.

@PUNBB: Very lightweight Forum. I installed it once, I don’t know anything about the code.
Good Alternative: WBBlite i think.

All in all, very useful list. Thanks for this

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- Mike

I’m also really liking Plogger as a photo gallery application these days.