Why is it Worth to use the Symfony Framework in your Projects?

Choosing the right framework for a new project is important – using it significantly improves the application development process. Symfony is a framework that's extremely popular among PHP developers. We’ll take a close look at its major features.

Symfony – a flexible PHP solution for your company

By using Symfony, the team of programmers creating the solutions for your company can significantly reduce the production time of your application or make it easier to modify the code and add new functions to the existing solutions. Its many advantages include flexibility, thanks to which programmers can create precisely personalised solutions tailored to the needs of your business.

With the help of this framework, programmers create modern and complex websites, as well as scalable web applications. Symfony can be a great technology, not only when you want to create a completely new application. One of the most important features of applications and websites programmed with Symfony is flexibility and the ability to easily modify or develop the created code. The availability of numerous bundles (libraries) allows for the efficient addition of new functionalities. Using them also guarantees that the subsequent components of your application will work together properly. Regular updates ensure the bundles' security and effectiveness. The code is clear so that new programmers joining the team will have no problem understanding it and continuing the work on the application. Thanks to this, once a business solution has been created, it can be adjusted or enriched with additional functionalities at any time – if the development of the company will result in a demand for new functionalities, while the acquisition of solutions created in Symphony by another company won't be difficult.

Programmers can use this framework to create specific functionalities and build personalised solutions for your existing websites and applications that'll enable them to perform many tasks necessary in the daily management of the company. In short, flexibility means that a programmer can build in Symfony for small, large, simple, or complex projects. Choose this PHP framework if your project requires an individual approach and solving specific problems that your company is struggling with.

Support of a large community and an extensive documentation

There are several reasons why programmers choose Symfony for complex, long-running projects. Users are dynamically developing open-source technologies, and they usually have free access to technical support. A well-developed community of programmers using PHP and Symfony can often answer various questions of the programmers who face difficulties with projects. Sharing knowledge allows you to quickly solve the challenges of creating, modifying, and managing an application.

It's also important that the users of the framework can count on regular updates and support. Symfony's well-prepared documentation also makes the work of programmers easier – not every framework has such good documentation as Symfony.

Ease of code testing

Code development carries the risk of creating bugs, which is why testing the code you write is extremely important. When using this framework, the programmer has at their disposal a debugging panel displaying the information relevant to the work being carried out on the website, which facilitates and speeds up the detection and removal of errors. Symfony makes it easy to create and test code because it includes built-in testing tools. Thanks to these it's possible to create software in accordance with the goals of Test-Driven Development (TDD).

Symfony allows you to efficiently create functional tests that verify the correct operation of a given part of the system by transferring data to it. Such an element of an application can be, e.g., a subpage or a single website. During this type of tests, the developer verifies whether the code fragment fulfils its basic functions. Separate tests are performed on individual functions, methods, or objects to make sure that everything works as expected and make sure that the application will continue to function well in the future – even if it's going to be expanded with additional functionalities.

MVC - advantages of layered architecture

A characteristic feature of Symfony is the MVC (Model-View-Controller) architectural pattern. Of course, it isn't an exclusive feature of Symfony – other popular frameworks such as AngularJS or React also use it – but it's worth explaining what such an architecture is and why it's considered an advantage of Symfony.

Using the MVC pattern divides the application into three independent layers:

• Model – the description of data structures and the relations between them,
• View – the interface that the application user sees,
• Controller – the layer through which the data is exchanged between the model and view layers.

What are the advantages of developing an application or web platform in a framework that uses this pattern? Managing such an application is easier because its every logical part is separated from each other. Introducing changes in one area does not have to cause the need to make numerous modifications in another. Due to the separation of the view layer from the model layer, the changes in the part visible to the user can be made freely and at a lower cost.

The elements used to create applications in Symfony are the so-called bundles. These are packages of files, the installation of which allows for creating various functionalities in a platform or application (e.g., a messenger or a shopping cart). The modular structure of Symfony is a definite advantage – it allows the programmer to use only the bundles that they need in a specific project. This means that the number of unnecessary elements that could reduce the application's performance and security is reduced. Every bundle has its own detailed documentation. It's thanks to these elements that adding new modules is so easy. Therefore, Symfony allows you to create a project ideally suited to any business.

Using Symfony in the Training Realm application

We implement a lot of projects using Symfony. We used this framework to create the Training Realm web application, among others. This product, which allows you to organise a training schedule and adjust the difficulty level of exercises to the user's skills, stands out from other applications of this type. Training Realm was built using Angular and Symfony – the technologies that allow for quick iteration and adaptation of the application to the individual requirements of every user. Symfony was used to create the application's backend because it provides fast and efficient REST APIs.

Training Realm is a PWA (Progressive Web App) – this means that using it ensures a high level of satisfaction, regardless of the operating system used by your device. The application's content is being saved in your phone's memory, so you can see it when you revisit the website offline. More and more Internet users take advantage of this type of services on smartphones, which is why we created the application with these users in mind, but we didn’t forget about the high-quality design adapted to large monitors – especially for those who want to see their current training plan on their computer screens.

Is Symfony the perfect framework for your company?

It's worth to consider choosing this technology, no matter how complicated your project is. Symfony may prove to be a good technology for creating simple and complex web applications or specific functionalities that you need.

There's no doubt that if you need a personalised solution designed specifically for your company, the Symfony development services may be the best choice because it's one of the frameworks that give programmers enormous freedom in building business solutions.