"Which framework are you going to use? It is a challenging question", Wolfgang Drews writes. You are exposed to an umpteen number of frameworks. Drews mentions that the number of frameworks listed are 46. "Probably all frameworks have some strengths and weaknesses, but how long does it take you to evaluate them? You need some faster criteria to decide", Wolfgang writes.

Questions to ask while evaluating frameworks, according to Wolfgang, include:

Is the framework well documented?

Drews asks you to think about where PHP would be today without its documentation. Many packages supply only an auto generated 'Developer API-documentation' and forget about the developer. So a framework should supply many snippets and demonstrations to help people get started fast.

Does the community support the framework?

According to Drews, a framework that no one uses is useless. The community decides which one fits best. "You probably do not see at first, if a framework is used and accepted widely, but you can get a clue by looking at change logs, release-cycles and community-based wikis/documentations", Drews writes.

Does a well-known company back the framework?

Wolfgang argues that frameworks supported by companies have better racing conditions than frameworks developed in a one-man-show. He says that big companies have better market-power and reach more people with their products than one alone could.

Is the framework under an acceptable license?

Some of the many licenses available are 'MIT', 'BSD-Style', and 'LGPL'. In any case "The license must fit into your strategy", Wolfgang writes.

Does the framework fit into your IT-landscape?

If you are using PHP4 only, your choices are much fewer than if you are using PHP 5. "Which database are you using? Do you use an abstraction layer like 'pear::db, mdb', 'ADOdb' or 'creole'? Are you even using an O/R-Mapper like Propel? Which framework fits best now and will cause the lowest adaptation-rate?" Wolfgang questions.