The original article was written by SoftFormance https://www.softformance.com/blog/things-to-know-about-web-frameworks/
Suppose, your time and resources are limited, but you desperately need to build a house to live in.
Building it from scratch is a tried and trusted solution, but it will take too much time. Also, it is very challenging to anticipate the precise amount of resources and money you should invest.
Fortunately, there’s a solution that helps you save much time and effort.
A prefab house, which consists of the walls and other construction parts that have been prepared in advance, might become your time-saving choice.
Building such a house may take you around 24 hours, and you will not have to overspend on resources.
So, you may decide between steadily constructing a building from scratch or using some ready solutions.
The situation is quite similar in software development.
Here you may also build an app from scratch, thoroughly developing it part-by-part. Or you may rely on a software development framework that provides some ready solutions in a specific programming language.
In this case, a framework becomes your prefab house solution, as it helps you save time, effort, and costs. Besides, contrary to the situation with a prefab house, a framework will not necessarily imply a lower quality of your app.
Do you have plans on web application development and wonder how a software development framework can come in handy?
Read our material to know more about what are frameworks, their benefits, types of frameworks, and how you should (or shouldn’t) apply web frameworks.
What is a web framework?
So, let’s start by clarifying what a web framework is.
The definition
Basically, it’s a software tool that provides you with ready code parts and ways for building and running a web app.
It helps developers save time because they no longer need to write various parts of the code from scratch and waste time reviewing them for possible miscalculations and inconsistencies.
Just imagine that, before 1995, almost all apps were hand-coded. Instead of spending just a few months developing an application, the developers of the 1990s could spend years building products that don’t seem to be very challenging nowadays.
Web framework vs CMS
Don’t confuse web frameworks with CMS systems, such as WordPress.
CMSs (Content Management Systems) provide pre-set features for web development.
As a result, even a person without any strong software development expertise can use an already styled theme to develop a website. The key point is to add some features and install plugins.
On the contrary, a web framework is about using numerous code parts, architectural elements, and tools to create a web platform from scratch.
CMSs will never provide you with the functionality of a web framework because their features and customizability are severely limited. You can’t introduce unique features on a web platform built with a CMS. Also, there are strong limitations on how you can adjust your product and develop it.
In general, using a CMS for building a dynamic app with a solid set of functionalities is like trying to win the Dakar Rally on a Volkswagen Beetle.
Architecture
What are the basic components of a web framework?
Well, not to overload you with sophisticated technical definitions, we’ll try to explain this question with a relevant parallel.
A web framework architecture is quite similar to the architecture of a book involving the three basic elements.
Model. It is the book’s content. The model includes all the data, business logic layers, functions, and guidelines of your app.
View. It is the graphical representation of your application. The view is about your “book’s” visuals (illustrations, letters, etc.).
Controller. The controller is something with which the user can interact to get views from the model. It is about your “book’s” pages that the reader turns to read or observe visual representations of its content.
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