How To Learn Yii Framework

Dear All,

I am a java developer and want to study to work Yi framework, however, I have not studied any php framework or php code,would you share for me what is the advancetage and disadvantage about Yii Framework? and what would websites or books I can start to study.

thankyou very much

Wow, enterprise is moving to php :)

Here’s the Guide: http://www.yiiframework.com/doc/guide/

Some tutorials and books: http://www.yiiframework.com/tutorials/

And API reference: http://www.yiiframework.com/doc/api/ (since you’re already experienced developer, I think you’ll like it the most).

I think this should be enough for the first bite.

And of course, the forum. The docs say this, you done that, it doesn’t work, you go to the forum and get the answer.

Yii has the best community among other php frameworks, so you’ll not be alone.

PS. Yii 2 is almost out, but documentation for it is still incomplete, so you can start from version 1 and move to v2 after getting some experience.

I would also recommend finding a good PHP tutorial (or book) first. PHP has many gotchas which will catch you out unless you spend some time learning the details of the language.

An example is using the === operator when you want to make sure that two variables have the same type and value. If you use the == operator without understanding it, PHPs implicit type conversion will cause you problems at some point. The coercion means that the == operator isn’t even transitive.

The page I’ve linked to above has lots of useful information about the risks and caveats in using PHP, so it’s worth reading through.

Some demo and examples : http://www.yiiplayground.com

I find getting stuck in with a project - perhaps based on something you’ve already done with Java (if it was web based) - is a much better learning experience than following tutorials/books for hours on end.

Books and tutorials are great for giving a quick overview of best practices etc. but, if you know what you want to achieve, just go for it, Google anything you get stuck on and make notes as you go.

Someone I recently worked with is a Java developer and didn’t know much about PHP but still managed to use Yii competently for a project within a week or two, so you should be fine.