revIgniter* is a wonderful framework, and one of most well-managed open
source projects in our community. Ralf has delivered a faithful
re-envisioning of the popular WebIgniter framework for PHP, with some
very savvy twists that make it a joy for LiveCode scripters.
But WebIgniter is far from PHP's only server framework, and I'd guess
Ralf would agree that as valuable as revIgniter is, it isn't the only
possible solution for every conceivable type of web site, app, or service.
Reproducing many well-established PHP packages in LC is more possible
with frameworks like revIgniter than without.
But if the PHP package is sophisticated enough it'll be a lot of work.
And in many cases we're asked to extend systems we have no control over.
There are many good reasons to pursue integration with existing services
rather than replacing the entire service from scratch.
With my interest in Nextcloud as a backend, for example, I could save a
lot of time using revIgniter to build out self-signup. user permissions
groups, password reset, WebDAV support, OAuth in both directions,
headless REST, even federation, and an admin UI to manage it all. But
with Nextcloud I get all that with one Snap command, so I can jump right
into the client-side functionality which is my main interest on this
project.
Similarly, some of my work these days has me integrating LC apps with
popular CRMs - the good CRMs are very expensive to produce and not
easily replicated, even with a great framework like revIgniter.
Like anything else in development, it's just another case of choosing
the best tool for the task at hand.
For a wide range of projects, revIgniter is a perfect choice.
And when you need to integrate LC with an existing PHP system, we can do
that too.
* For those of you who haven't seen Ralf's recent work on the revIgniter
site, in addition to offering truly exemplary documentation I also
appreciate the little touches he puts in, like the SVG intro animation
for the top banner:
https://revigniter.com/
--
Richard Gaskin
Fourth World Systems
Erik Beugelaar wrote:
We do have revIgniter or am I missing the clue?
-----Original Message-----
Richard Gaskin via use-livecode
Rick Harrison wrote:
> Why are you still using PHP when LC is better?
I agree of course that LC is a strong contender against any popular
server-side language, as LC's chunk expressions and self-documenting style
make clear.
But it isn't nearly as popular.
LC is where Ruby was before Rails: an interesting and useful language
largely underappreciated for server work.
We don't even have a single generalized user management library for LC, let
alone any of the CMSes, CRMs, LMSes, or hundreds of other categories where
PHP is well established.
So one way LC can play a growing role in server development is through
integration with existing services.
And odds are those existing services are written in PHP.
So Neville's question is one we might all ask ourselves:
How can we use LC to add new capabilities to the PHP-based systems that run
most of the online world?
For my own part I've been exploring ways LC can be usefully integrated
with the breadth of services provided with Nextcloud, which like most
server systems is written in PHP.
I could theoretically reinvent everything in Nextcloud using LC, but
given the countless thousands of hours that have gone into the vast
suite of apps that community provides, why would I?
Right out of the box I get an API for user management, with access to
arbitrary user-specific storage via WebDAV. One line of install code
gives me a ready-to-go backend for a wide range of apps, letting me
focus on the client side.
Lately I've begun taking that further, poking around the server side
similar to whatever Neville's working on, looking for ways to integrate
LC services with the services already built into Nextcloud.
Rewriting Nextcloud from scratch would be doable but prohibitively
expensive. But building on top of the Nextcloud platform lets me stand
on the shoulders of giants, to see much further than I could on my own.
Integration is increasingly a core part of what my clients ask me to do
as well.
The days of monolithic one-size-fits-all systems are passing, if they
haven't passed already.
From here forward, the biggest opportunities are in integration with
well established services.
This not only lets us focus on the specific functionality we enjoy
building, but also carries the additional benefit for all of us in the
LC community in introducing our favorite language into the communities
for those systems.
--
Richard Gaskin
Fourth World Systems
Software Design and Development for the Desktop, Mobile, and the Web
____________________________________________________________________
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