Book Image

Instant Yii 1.1 Application Development Starter

Book Image

Instant Yii 1.1 Application Development Starter

Overview of this book

PHP is one of the most popular languages for building web sites and applications. While the Yii framework came a little bit later to the PHP scene, it has taken a lot of the best practices from around the Web and put it all into a single, awesome framework for making custom web apps. Yii 1.1 Application Development Starter is a straightforward, hands-on look at what is rapidly becoming one of the most revered frameworks for custom web application development. The Yii framework follows a tried and true object-oriented software development pattern called Model-View-Controller, making it quick and easy to build database driven applications. This book takes you through everything you need to know to get set up and rolling with the Yii framework. You will learn how to plan and start your application and how to take it where you want to go with the tools and extensions available with the Yii framework. This book will teach you how to build an application from the ground up, how to make sure you have everything you need in your hosting environment and get the Yii framework installed, how to create a strong relational database design, and how to set up model classes for your tables. You will also learn how to generate CRUD code to add/remove, view, and list records from your tables, then add custom routes, widgets, and extensions to make a robust application. Additionally, you will learn how to integrate authentication and role-based access permissions throughout your site. With this book, you will learn everything you need to get started with web application development using the Yii PHP framework.
Table of Contents (7 chapters)

People and places you should get to know


Finally, let's see where we can find more information about the Yii framework, as well as its community.

Yii website

The framework website is, quite simply, the number one place to read more about Yii. Its URL is http://www.yiiframework.com. As with any software tool, the API documentation section will be invaluable as you work through your development. The forums provide an excellent resource for getting help with specific issues you run into. There are a number of tutorials, as well as a wiki with examples to look at. The best outside resources are listed on the website as well, so this should absolutely be your first stop.

API

The Yii API documentation is probably the most beautiful and easy to use documentation ever published on the World Wide Web. The URL is http://www.yiiframework.com/doc/api/. If you are going to seriously use Yii, you definitely should add it to your bookmarks, because you'll need it a lot.

Tutorials and guides

  • The Yii website has a number of tutorials that are excellent. One of the best resources beyond the API itself is the Definitive Guide found at http://www.yiiframework.com/doc/guide/. This guide is very thorough, covers all the important topics, and has a lot of important tips and code samples packed in.

  • The blog demo we based the book on is discussed in great length in the tutorials section of the Yii website. The URL is http://www.yiiframework.com/doc/blog/.

  • The wiki holds a lot of independent examples and code snippets that should come in handy (http://www.yiiframework.com/wiki/).

  • If you can't find an example of what you're trying to do in the wiki, the forums are also a great resource to search for previously solved solutions to problems. With Yii's popularity on the rise, the forums are increasingly active. This is an excellent place to get your questions answered.

  • One of the most comprehensive tutorials for Yii was done by Larry Ullman. He has written an excellent book on Yii, and has chosen to release much of the content publicly on his website http://www.larryullman.com/series/learning-the-yii-framework/.

  • There's another set of excellent screencasts produced by Jeffrey Winesett to help you get started at http://www.yiiframework.com/screencasts/

IRC

You can find the Yii community on Freenode in the #Yii channel.

Twitter

Follow updates and changes to the framework by following @YiiFramework.

Facebook

Yii has even entered the Facebook world with a group for everything Yii-related (https://www.facebook.com/groups/61355672149/).

At the time of writing, there were several thousands of members.