Posts from — August 2008

Like many folks with a software background, I’ve developed a few frameworks in my day.  My most recent framework, which I developed for LAMP sites, was the basis for Motosport’s current platform and several of eBags’ marketing websites (though not the main site).  Called iSkins, it was lean, mean and effective.  And I could whip up a marketing site in a day and a commerce site in a few days using it.

But like any other person whose day job is NOT developing frameworks, who has a small child at home and a lake house to take care of on the weekends, it was time to look elsewhere when asked to evaluate frameworks for a new in-house application we are developing here at Enexity.

Enter symfony!  Wow, what a great platform.  Every time I look for a feature that I had in iSkins, it’s there.  But it’s usually better thought out, more extensible, has a way better OO model and generally kicks the crud out of what I developed.

Symfony (from their website) is:

“…a full-stack framework, a library of cohesive classes written in PHP5.

It provides an architecture, components and tools for developers to build complex web applications faster. Choosing symfony allows you to release your applications earlier, host and scale them without problem, and maintain them over time with no surprise…”

 Some of the advantages of symfony, as I see them, include:

• good object model
• MVC separation
• caching
• scaffolding
• Ajax
• ORM
• database abstraction
• a solid plugin architecture
• localization and internationalization
• the admin generator (WOW)
• the routing system
• form development and validation
• debugging

That’s a lot of strengths!

The one big weakness I see is the learning curve – the online symfony book is great, and there are lots of good tutorials floating around, but it’s still one heck of a big framework.

I intend, time willing, to someday write about how I came up to speed on the framework.  Instead of diving in to ORM and CRUD like many of the tutorials want you to do, I started with the site layout so I could understand the DNRY possibilities in the view layer.  In this manner, I was able to really learn about all the parts of the architecture without worry about some of the more esoteric matters – and, when I finally started doing “real” work with it, it looked nice right out of the gate.

Although the project we’re working on won’t be publicly available anytime soon, when I find time I just might upgrade devineville.com, parkeranne.com and a few other sites to symfony.

Ok, so I know they had a well publicized outage last week, but I finally converted my company over to the free version of google apps.  Shared calendar, great email with awesome spam protection, and it’s free.  We’re not an internet company, so having a nice partner like google to “get our back” on a mission critical service (as opposed to paying a ton for it with perhaps not even as much reliability) was a great deal.

 Love it.  Google rocks.

So we’ve been in Austin almost three months now, and every week it seems like I am liking it more.

Yes, it was 106 degrees yesterday.

But other than that, I live close to work, in a great neighborhood, I am loving the job and I am getting in shape.

Part of the reason I am getting in shape is the awesome nature hike right in my neighborhood.  Just walk down the street about ten houses and you’re in a hill country paradise – four plus miles of rocky hills, scrub flats, streams and rivers nestled right up against Lake Austin.

I call the whole loop (about 4.5 miles) the “Death Hike” – the first time I did it I was around 220 pounds, it was 90 degrees, took me pretty much two hours, I had to stop to rest three times and it still almost killed me.  Now I am a little better prepared for what to expect, a little lighter (just under 200 pounds last I checked), and in a little better shape.  A trip around the loop now takes me about eighty five minutes, I don’t have to stop to rest, and I run up most of the hills (the notorious heart rate hill below notwithstanding).

Along the way there are some awesome waterfalls, great hill country views (you can see Mansfield Dam, for example) and lots of sun and shade.

If you look closely, you can spot the heart rate monitor strapped under my shirt – heart rate hill can definitely max out your heart rate if you go fast enough.  For now, I am happy just making it up the hill without stopping.  That picture above is only about 1/3 of the hill, it twists and turns twice more as you make your ascent.  It may not look like much but I assure you it’s a chore.

Come visit and I will take you on the Death Hike in 100 degree weather, and you’ll love Austin!