To framework or not to framework

A question that i have been asking myself is, “To framework or not to framework?”. In another words should i be using front end or back end frameworks, to carry out my projects.

Has we all probably know the web development has reached a new level, for the past five or so years we have seen applications like youtube, flickr or facebook(just to name a few), reach to a massive audience not to mention devices such as the iphone.

So by saying this, i mean that the environment is developing itself at a fast rate, and we as web designers and web developers have to able to keep up with it, and this is where frameworks come into play.

Jquery, Ruby On Rails, codeigniter or Zend ramework are just a few frameworks in the market, which we as developers can use to save us time and effort, to accomplish some tasks that otherwise would take us extra time, that most of us don\’t have for various reasons.

My conclusion is yes we should use frameworks whenever appropriate and i will give a few reasons why i came to this decision.

Faster development

All frameworks have an api or an user guide with all the rules of the game, which usually are very easy to adapt too.

This rules are based in libraries of code and all of them have functions which are a kind of pre made code, that we implement into our projects and the magic is done, for example zendframework has a Flickr function built in, too which you pass some parameters and in response you get all the pictures from your flickr profile, or all the pictures with the tag “development”.

The logic is if you had to create this function would take more effort to accomplish something that this way it was easier and faster.

Good coding standards

All the programming or development processes are surrounded by best practices, and most of the frameworks have been developed, by the top developers in the market, the named gurus.

Adding to this when you use a framework like jquery for example most of the browser dirty bugs are already covered by the framework so in this case you only need to find div id\’s or classes and add some functionality already provided by the api, so the theory as Jeremy Keith said is find stuff do stuff.

A much easier approach in my perspective.

Better rates in a competitive market

Now we are in business to make profit, and frameworks as you saw can free your time to focus in more details as design, project management, generating more leads, be with your family etc..

I am not saying that frameworks are the salvation of the world but used correctly can help you to achieve something extra. Now that extra is up to you and your goals.

Support for the developer

Most of the frameworks have a huge fan base which, are passionate about it, and you can easily find help online for most of your questions.

When choosing a framework to work with, you have to take in consideration and verify if the framework that you are going choosing have this kind of support and good documentation.

Reusable code

Reusable code is something that we as web developers should be doing but with frameworks you can easily achieve this as for example, you have a controller to check a password and username and then forward the user to correct page.

With MVC frameworks you can keep the same controller and reuse it for another project, now imagine a shopping cart or a guest book script, most of the code can be reused very easily as long as it is based in a MVC structure.

Conclusion

With this post i am not saying that a framework is the answer for any development problems but is something that you should consider when planning for a web design or web development project.