- PHP backend: I know PHP is only a scripting language, but I want to sell this app to end-users who will self-host, and I don't want to make it too hard for them. PHP is cross-platform, ubiquitous, fast and dead-easy to deploy. It lacks strong typing, full-featured OOP and code compilation, but it meets my needs for this project.
- Database independence: I'm happy with MySQL, but end-users might prefer SQL Server or something else.
- Smart schema and data deployment: From experience, deploying schema upgrades and data updates safely and with minimal user involvement can be problematic. I particularly wanted a framework that could auto-detect pending schema changes and apply them, regardless of the age of the installed schema.
- Simple persistence: Persistence frameworks tend to be code and metadata-heavy. I wanted to write SQL to retrieve object data and have the framework handle the rest, with optional hooks for validation and business rules available as needed. Most importantly, I wanted the persistence framework to play nice over RPC with JSON serialization.
- Tight Dojo integration: There are many AJAX toolkits, but Dojo seems to be the most robust and mature when you're looking to move most of your view/controller code to the client-side. Its widget library, modular code, data handling and custom builds make it much more suitable for serious front-end development than jQuery etc., which are great for pretty effects and discrete code snippets, but not much more. Ideally, I wanted a server-side persistence framework with Dojo integration built-in.
Too much to ask? Yes, apparently.
None of the web application frameworks I found ticked enough boxes; most were too heavy on the server-side and too weak on the client side. Symfony2 was the best I could find.
So, I'm writing my own framework. More as I proceed.
