22 September, 2010
By Lauris Veips
Slim is a miniature PHP framework that weighs a mere 38 kilobytes.
Slim supports RESTful routing, and associates each one of these routes with HTTP requests (GET, POST, etc), and has additional features such as extensive error handling.
Slim has quite a few solid core features for its small size.
The framework eases coding significantly, but does miss out on the functionality possessed by more popular frameworks.
For other small PHP frameworks, check out our awesome post on them!
thought it important to mention for those reading that slim:: isn’t just for 5.3+’rs… as it’s completely compatible with php <5.3 as well…
one doesn't get to take advantage of inline function calls, but nonetheless, can take the extra few seconds to create a sep. function and replace the inline function (lambda) to call the function resting outside of the inline Slim:: command. :)
Slim … ok the name is great and the system looks interesting. However, one big major draw back that I see is that nowhere does it state how to use a database. I read the docs and least what I can find you setup a controller and a view. Where’s the model in this? Where’s the interaction with a database or at least an abstraction layer of some form? Where’s the ability to create components and add-on’s?
Maybe I’m too ingrained with CakePHP, CodeIgniter, and Zend Framework. But this just doesn’t seem like a viable option to build large applications on. For small sites sure that’s great, but then again why use a framework to begin with for that instance?
Chad, you should take a look at idiorm (https://github.com/j4mie/idiorm). Perfect supplement to Slim. But you’re right, even with both of them – it’s probably best for smaller sites. Just like Sinatra, which it’s inspired by.