This is for the developers on the site that write mainly in PHP and mySQL (the concepts are and can be used for other languages as well) or people looking to learn how to program.

I've always found that the most time consuming part of developing a dynamic web site or even an application that requires a data access layer, is creating the data access layer so that the business logic can use it and then allowing the interface to use the business logic. Three tiered development is something that takes a lot of time to think about and a lot of time to develop, but at the end of the day, the interfaces are TOTALLY independent from the business logic and the business logic independent of the data access. At the end of the day this allows the same database structure to be implemented in mySQL, MSSQL, etc, etc without screwing up the interface.

At work we are going to be using a code generator for the re-architecture we are doing on our software. It's a very cool tool that handles the whole data abstraction. So I thought to myself, "self, wouldn't it be cool if you could find one for PHP and mySQL to speed up web site development?". Well it turns out there are quite a few out there and found one that runs directly through your web server and spits out generate code for you to work with.

Anyways, this isn't a shameless plug for one product or another, but I was just curious if anyone else has played with code generators to speed up their development? and if so which ones have you found that you like?

I haven't used one myself but finding the cakePHP framework good for speeding things up for me. I think it's along the same lines - creates a CRUD (create/read/update/delete) application based on your database schema. For me it works fine because I'm only developing applications for myself so I don't need the prettiest smoking GUI for doing data updates. I just implement the database, create two files and it's done.

One of the guys I work with has written one for .NET - don't think it's too difficult to write if you have a grasp on what you're doing.

Originally Posted by jacob

I haven't used one myself but finding the cakePHP framework good for speeding things up for me. I think it's along the same lines - creates a CRUD (create/read/update/delete) application based on your database schema. For me it works fine because I'm only developing applications for myself so I don't need the prettiest smoking GUI for doing data updates. I just implement the database, create two files and it's done.

One of the guys I work with has written one for .NET - don't think it's too difficult to write if you have a grasp on what you're doing.

The guy I work with wrote one for .NET as well.

cakePHP is a generator. The basis behind it is to create CRUD code for the data access layer, which is the simplest kind, some will create some of the business logic as well (sanity checks and such) and some will do almost full apps. I think it's an interesting subject but I worry about being at the hands of the coder who wrote the generator, lots of code to look through if there's a little bug. The one I used last night was phpCodeGenie and looked through the interface code it created and I can't believe how easy it's going to be to finish this site... the worst part is going to be the interface which I never have trouble with.

Ruby on Rails is phenomenal when it comes to development speed. I saw a video of a guy coding a full-fledged blog in less 15 minutes...(However Ruby on Rails has nothing to do with PHP. It is a separate programming language and framework.)

Originally Posted by Lucas

Ruby on Rails is phenomenal when it comes to development speed. I saw a video of a guy coding a full-fledged blog in less 15 minutes...(However Ruby on Rails has nothing to do with PHP. It is a separate programming language and framework.)

I think Ruby on Rails is something I know I need to look into as well as everyone else, seen quite a few good things about it. Perl for web apps in my mind is still #1, but these new ones coming out are making quite a scene. Also PHP or not, I'm curious how many other people use Code Generators. Kind of a new thing for me and pretty cool if you ask me, and maybe just might help others who have never heard of them or seen what they can do.

I primarily am a .NET developer and have some decent PHP chops. I tend to get nervous around code generators. As with the controls that Microsoft gives me in ASP.NET, they do enough, but not exactly what I want them to do.

Multi-tier architecture is a must these days. I have built my own layers (presentation, business, data) and stick to those for my php development. I'm also curious to hear about anything out there for code generation.

Originally Posted by cayetano25

I primarily am a .NET developer and have some decent PHP chops. I tend to get nervous around code generators. As with the controls that Microsoft gives me in ASP.NET, they do enough, but not exactly what I want them to do.

Multi-tier architecture is a must these days. I have built my own layers (presentation, business, data) and stick to those for my php development. I'm also curious to hear about anything out there for code generation.

I do .NET for work (C#, VB and ASP) but ASM/C/C++ and Perl are my favorite (I'm a hardware guy before Internet). From what I've seen so far .NET has a few generators available but you most definitely are better off writing your own if you can.

The reason I brought up this topic is because I have been writing all my own code so far (except for things like osCommerce, etc) but I found an application called PhpCodeGenie that I figured I'd try out for a new site that I'm developing. I have to say, it's pretty slick! I still have yet to dive into actually using the different layers it provides (still working on the interface) but from the example interface code it generated it looks really cool. Just like you I'm curious about other peoples experiences because this site is going to be the first I've actually used a code generator on. If someone has used PhpCodeGenie before and has found something better I'd CERTAINLY be interested to hear about it.

Right now I really wished I could use .NET on this site (can't though) because just ASP.NET and the features .NET 2.0 has would REALLY make development easier. Just too bad I have a problem running Windows servers

Yeah, have you checked out Mono? I've been interested in running and creating .NET-esque apps on linux. Since C# is public, you can write the same code.

I think I would have an ego too if I wrote a code generation tool.. That would be worth some bucks.

Originally Posted by cayetano25

Yeah, have you checked out Mono? I've been interested in running and creating .NET-esque apps on linux. Since C# is public, you can write the same code.

I think I would have an ego too if I wrote a code generation tool.. That would be worth some bucks.

I've looked at mono a couple of times but haven't played with it yet. For some things it would definitely be nice to have things like generics to play with as well as being able to use Interfaces and create a really nice provide model based web app. You can kind of do that with PHP but it's definitely not as powerful as the .NET platform.

Anyways, have you used mono yet? curious to know what kind of time and effort is required to get it installed and working.

Not yet. I killed my last Linux box after watching "An Inconvenient Truth" a couple of weeks ago. I live in a Microsoft world for now. I'm not a fanboy by any means, but it pays my bills. I would love to use MySql and .NET because it would be cheaper. But I'm not sure where MySql is with stored procs...