Yii: PHP Framework Tutorial

Introduction

An open-source, lightweight PHP framework called Yii creates an entire web application significantly more quickly. A web development application is accelerated rapidly by it. The Yii is a Chinese name that is an acronym for Yes It Is and denotes simple and evolutionary (pronounce it Yee or Jii).

It is appropriate for projects of all sizes and provides highly optimized performance. It follows the model-view-controller methodology. It has a time-saving code generator called Gii that writes the code for you. So, in this article, we will discuss the yii framework in detail. Let’s get started!

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What is Yii Framework?

Yii is a high-performance PHP framework designed for rapid web application development, offering extensive reuse and speeding up complex application creation. Suited for various applications, especially high-traffic ones, it's lightweight with robust caching.

Yii follows the MVC pattern and stands out for its effectiveness, rich features, and thorough documentation, making it ideal for significant web applications. It's purpose-built, not derived from other projects, based on extensive research and experience.

History of Yii Framework

One of the oldest PHP frameworks available, Yii is continually improving as PHP gets better and better. The initial release of the PRADO framework was made by Qiang Xue in June 2004. At the PRADO forums in October 2006, Qiang revealed an alpha version of Yii. Yii version 1.0.0 was made available on December 3rd, 2008. PRADO was the source of many concepts and some code. The community quickly expanded because Yii 1.0.0 was significantly faster than other frameworks with comparable functionality. Released in January 2010 was Yii 1.1. Yii 2.0 and its source code were released to the public in May 2013. The initial stable version was released in October 2014.

Yii Licensing

Yii is a free software framework. It is distributed in accordance with the following BSD License.
All rights reserved. Copyright 2008-2023 by Yii Software.
If the following prerequisites are satisfied, redistribution and use in source and binary versions, with or without modification, are allowed:

The aforementioned copyright notice, this list of restrictions, and the following disclaimer must all remain in place when the source code is redistributed.
Binary redistributions must include the aforementioned copyright notice, this list of terms, and the following disclaimer in the accompanying documentation and/or supplementary materials.
Without express prior written consent, neither the name of Yii Software LLC nor the names of its contributors may be used to endorse or promote items made using this program.

Yii Version

The versions of Yii are provided below:

Version	Release date	End of active support
1.0	December 3, 2008	December 31, 2010
1.1	January 10, 2010	December 31, 2016
2.0	October 12, 2014	TBD
3.0	TBD	TBD

Prerequisites

You might want to check that your server complies with Yii's requirements after installing Yii. PHP 5.1 or above must be installed on the server and accessible to the web server because Yii requires it. In Linux and Windows, Yii has been tested with the Apache HTTP server. If PHP 5.1 is supported, it can also run on other Web servers and operating systems.

Audience

Yii PHP framework primarily targets web developers seeking a high-performance and feature-rich tool for efficiently building web applications, including complex projects like portals, forums, CMS, and e-commerce systems. It's suitable for both novice and experienced developers due to its extensive documentation and robust toolset.

Features of Yii Framework

There are many frameworks for PHP. One of them is Yii. There are several new features in the latest version, Yii2. Here, a few of the features are discussed.

Simple Installation: Yii can be downloaded manually or using Composer. It is suggested to utilize Composer because it saves so much time.
Use of Modern Technologies: Yii framework leverages several sophisticated PHP technologies and is entirely based on OOPS concepts. Yii allows for the benefit of all classes' autoloaders because all types are namespaced.
Highly Extensive: The Yii framework's components can all be easily extended. Installing third-party libraries using Composer, configuring them, and adding them to the autoloader also permits their use.
Testing Feature: Codecepetition has been merged with Yii2. A PHP testing framework called Codeception makes writing unit, functional, and acceptance tests for your application more accessible. Testing an application's settings is made easy via deception.
Security: An application's security is crucial, and Yii has excellent security features. It has several security components in various ways, which contributes to developing a more secure application.
Less Developmental Time: numerous procedures are repeated repeatedly when developing an application. Yii offers solutions to help you spend less time on these chores. Yii is a tool that quickly produces a web template for CRUD, Models, Controllers, Extensions, and Forms.
Performance: Delivering excellent performance is the goal of Yii's creator, which they have explicitly stated. It offers several options to improve application speed. Yii provides a higher rate for requests received each second. And uses less memory at its peak.
MVC Framework: To segregate the codes, it supports the model-view-controller pattern.
Modeling Database: Database data can be represented as objects rather than intricate SQL statements.
Error Handling: Messages logged can be sorted and forwarded to various locations.
Form Input and Validation: It makes the process easier by collecting validators and a tonne of assistance functions.
Security It has various security features to guard against outside assaults.
Automatic Code Generation: It provides highly extensible code generation tools, such as CRUD and form, that will quickly generate the code for you.
Detailed Documentation: It helps get detailed documentation stating every method or property used in Yii.
Skinning and Themeing: It provides a skinning and theming mechanism that allows you to quickly switch the outlook of a Yii-generated website.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Why is the Yii framework used for?

Yii is a component-based PHP framework with high performance for building complex Web applications quickly. The development of your Web application can be significantly sped up, allowing for the most reuse in Web programming.

What is the full form of Yii?

Yii is an acronym for "Yes, it is". It is a PHP web application framework that follows an object-oriented, component-based MVC architecture. It's open source and is pronounced as "Yee" or [ji:], with its Chinese meaning being "simple and evolutionary."

Who uses the Yii framework?

The Yii framework is utilized by a wide range of organizations and developers for building web applications. It's commonly employed in industries like e-commerce, content management, finance, and more.

Is Yii an MVC framework?

Yes, Yii follows the Model-View-Controller (MVC) framework. It follows the MVC architectural pattern ich states that the application logic should be divided into three interconnected components that are the model, the view, and the controller. This framework significantly sped up the development of the web application.

Is Laravel better than Yii?

Comparing Laravel and Yii depends on specific project requirements. Laravel is known for its elegant syntax and developer-friendly features, while Yii is recognized for its performance and efficiency. The choice between them hinges on project needs.

Is Yii outdated?

Yii is not outdated; it continues to be actively maintained and updated, with a strong community of users and developers. It remains a viable choice for modern web application development.

Conclusion

This blog discussed the yii framework in detail. We started with an introduction about yii, why yii is the best framework, the features of yii, and why we compare yii with another framework.