Top Open Source PHP Projects For Entrepreneurs
Tags frameworks, php, rad, web development
Today, there are many options for people wanting to begin a business online. The best part is that the costs are minimal when starting a small online business and you can always launch a brick-and-mortar business once your online business model has proven itself.. In this article, I will present some open source software that will aide the online entrepreneur in this process.
I'm going to suggest several opensource applications and frameworks that can eliminate or minimize web development time and costs:
For Retailers
Magento: By far the most superior open-source and free shopping cart. Lots of free extensions and very active developer community.
Other Carts
Oscommerce: One of the most popular carts, it supports download delivery and physical products as well. Some drawbacks is that it's very tedious to extend as it the visual layout is not separate from the code.
ZenCart: Based on Oscommerce, Zen Cart intends to make a cleaner and easier to use interface than its predecessor.
Freeway(also based on oscommerce but enhanced): Freeway is useful as it supports membership and service based items. In addition, some widely used oscommerce extensions are already built in such as the ticket support system and the administration login.
If you don't want to host your own site right now, at the very least register a domain and you can host and sell your physical products on a site like Etsy.com. You can then redirect your domain to the outsourced e-commerce site without having to worry about updating your customers when you decide to host your site on your own servers. Please note that there are listing fees attached to using another site's shopping cart.
For Service Providers
You can use the carts of above to launch your service business but you can also use blogging software like Wordpress and Joomla to create information-based websites that helps your target audience with their most pressing problems. From there you may monetize the site in the form of membership fees (for individual attention or advanced content). Paypal is free to sign up and allows membership buttons to be setup that will bill your customers monthly. They will be able to unsubscribe at anytime and you'll have to remove them from your site access manually or construct a system that will interact with PayPal or another payment processor so they are removed systematically.
Many hosts today have a one-click install system for many of the programs mentioned plus many others. The programs I've referenced are all written in PHP while using the relational database management system known as MySQL. Both of these underlying technologies are also open-source and are the most widely used technologies in their respective areas (web programming language and database system).
There are also many open-source frameworks that allow you a higher level of customization should you want to develop a solution from "scratch". Well, not technically from scratch. A framework, as its name suggests, provides a foundation for your custom code and business solutions. For example, Magento, used the Zend Framework as a foundation for their very powerful e-commerce and shopping cart solution.
Frameworks for Developers and Netrepreneurs Looking For More
CakePHP: Cake is arguably one of the most popular frameworks for PHP. Very active community and lots of documentation to get you started.
KohanaPHP: Probably my favorite since it's so lightweight and it uses the latest PHP version exclusively (PHP 5). The development speed for this framework is very fast which can be a drawback for some who are looking for a high level of stabilization and documentation for the frameworks they use. However, as the framework matures the core developers will be better able to address the concerns of those not necessarily looking for a framework that uses bleeding edge technology. Also, another possible drawback is that the community is small right now but it continues to grow steadily as more people discover how powerful it is.
Seagull: Seagull is truly a rapid application development framework (rad) as it sports a modular architecture and is based on existing PEAR libraries (which many developers are already familar with). I really like this framework. Documentation is not great and there are still some things being worked on but even with it's moderately-sized community the core is always being updated. I've contributed a few minor bugfixes myself. Also, it's important to note that it is steadily moving forward towards beging a PHP 5 only framework.
Flourish: Not exactly a framework but a collection of files or libraries that address common concerns of developers. This is an excellent alternative to PHP's official library known as PEAR. Flourish is exclusively PHP 5 and does not adhere to any set architecture. This means you can structure your application any way that makes since for your business which is not the case if you use any of the above frameworks. With Flourish, you simply use only the libraries you need which means your future applications won't be bogged down with unnecessary files. But keep in mind there is always a tradeoff. Frameworks typically subscribe to the convention over customization. Put simply, in exchange for having certain aspects of your application laid out for you, you get a dramatic increase in development speed since you don't provide common functionalities from scratch. With libraries, you also get to use a shortcut but you'll have to structure your application yourself which could possibly increase development time considerably. It's worth it if the needs of your project can't be met with existing frameworks.
There's always coding completly from scratch using PHP (or the open-source language of your choice) and MySQL or PostgreSQL (also open-source but has certain advantages over MySQL).
Customization & Design
This article is for entrepreneurs and developers. Using an existing solution is obviously more cost-efficient but frameworks are also a viable solution for those of us who need a little more flexibility.
In addition, there are many low cost and free templates that can add some customization to the look of your site as well. With many popular solutions, there's a "stock" look that is attached to existing solutions. For example, I can spot many oscommerce a mile away. But even if I couldn't, the included template is usually very generic and you'd want to make sure that you've taken some time to set your implementation apart from the rest of your competition and other e-businesses. Failing to do so could result in your business not being taken as seriously as you'd like it to. So take some time to research and grab some of the great templates that can help you customize your site or set aside your web development budget to have it designed for you. The benefit of having your own designs (instead of a template) is of course exclusivity and the ability to work with a designer to update periodically as the need arises.
Of course, with skills you can also lauch your own framework or ecommerce solutions for your company or community. This is something I'm considering and my projects will also be open-source as well. (If you have an idea that is not currently being addressed and would like to collaborate let me know.)
Conclusion
The best way to begin this process is to begin with market research on your ideas. This is a step that many people miss. Conducting research regarding your new idea is the best way to create an in-demand product or service. Write out a basic business plan and define the budget for your new business and web development.
Adwoa
Yosis Development
I'm going to suggest several opensource applications and frameworks that can eliminate or minimize web development time and costs:
For Retailers
Magento: By far the most superior open-source and free shopping cart. Lots of free extensions and very active developer community.
Other Carts
Oscommerce: One of the most popular carts, it supports download delivery and physical products as well. Some drawbacks is that it's very tedious to extend as it the visual layout is not separate from the code.
ZenCart: Based on Oscommerce, Zen Cart intends to make a cleaner and easier to use interface than its predecessor.
Freeway(also based on oscommerce but enhanced): Freeway is useful as it supports membership and service based items. In addition, some widely used oscommerce extensions are already built in such as the ticket support system and the administration login.
If you don't want to host your own site right now, at the very least register a domain and you can host and sell your physical products on a site like Etsy.com. You can then redirect your domain to the outsourced e-commerce site without having to worry about updating your customers when you decide to host your site on your own servers. Please note that there are listing fees attached to using another site's shopping cart.
For Service Providers
You can use the carts of above to launch your service business but you can also use blogging software like Wordpress and Joomla to create information-based websites that helps your target audience with their most pressing problems. From there you may monetize the site in the form of membership fees (for individual attention or advanced content). Paypal is free to sign up and allows membership buttons to be setup that will bill your customers monthly. They will be able to unsubscribe at anytime and you'll have to remove them from your site access manually or construct a system that will interact with PayPal or another payment processor so they are removed systematically.
Many hosts today have a one-click install system for many of the programs mentioned plus many others. The programs I've referenced are all written in PHP while using the relational database management system known as MySQL. Both of these underlying technologies are also open-source and are the most widely used technologies in their respective areas (web programming language and database system).
There are also many open-source frameworks that allow you a higher level of customization should you want to develop a solution from "scratch". Well, not technically from scratch. A framework, as its name suggests, provides a foundation for your custom code and business solutions. For example, Magento, used the Zend Framework as a foundation for their very powerful e-commerce and shopping cart solution.
Frameworks for Developers and Netrepreneurs Looking For More
CakePHP: Cake is arguably one of the most popular frameworks for PHP. Very active community and lots of documentation to get you started.
KohanaPHP: Probably my favorite since it's so lightweight and it uses the latest PHP version exclusively (PHP 5). The development speed for this framework is very fast which can be a drawback for some who are looking for a high level of stabilization and documentation for the frameworks they use. However, as the framework matures the core developers will be better able to address the concerns of those not necessarily looking for a framework that uses bleeding edge technology. Also, another possible drawback is that the community is small right now but it continues to grow steadily as more people discover how powerful it is.
Seagull: Seagull is truly a rapid application development framework (rad) as it sports a modular architecture and is based on existing PEAR libraries (which many developers are already familar with). I really like this framework. Documentation is not great and there are still some things being worked on but even with it's moderately-sized community the core is always being updated. I've contributed a few minor bugfixes myself. Also, it's important to note that it is steadily moving forward towards beging a PHP 5 only framework.
Flourish: Not exactly a framework but a collection of files or libraries that address common concerns of developers. This is an excellent alternative to PHP's official library known as PEAR. Flourish is exclusively PHP 5 and does not adhere to any set architecture. This means you can structure your application any way that makes since for your business which is not the case if you use any of the above frameworks. With Flourish, you simply use only the libraries you need which means your future applications won't be bogged down with unnecessary files. But keep in mind there is always a tradeoff. Frameworks typically subscribe to the convention over customization. Put simply, in exchange for having certain aspects of your application laid out for you, you get a dramatic increase in development speed since you don't provide common functionalities from scratch. With libraries, you also get to use a shortcut but you'll have to structure your application yourself which could possibly increase development time considerably. It's worth it if the needs of your project can't be met with existing frameworks.
There's always coding completly from scratch using PHP (or the open-source language of your choice) and MySQL or PostgreSQL (also open-source but has certain advantages over MySQL).
Customization & Design
This article is for entrepreneurs and developers. Using an existing solution is obviously more cost-efficient but frameworks are also a viable solution for those of us who need a little more flexibility.
In addition, there are many low cost and free templates that can add some customization to the look of your site as well. With many popular solutions, there's a "stock" look that is attached to existing solutions. For example, I can spot many oscommerce a mile away. But even if I couldn't, the included template is usually very generic and you'd want to make sure that you've taken some time to set your implementation apart from the rest of your competition and other e-businesses. Failing to do so could result in your business not being taken as seriously as you'd like it to. So take some time to research and grab some of the great templates that can help you customize your site or set aside your web development budget to have it designed for you. The benefit of having your own designs (instead of a template) is of course exclusivity and the ability to work with a designer to update periodically as the need arises.
Of course, with skills you can also lauch your own framework or ecommerce solutions for your company or community. This is something I'm considering and my projects will also be open-source as well. (If you have an idea that is not currently being addressed and would like to collaborate let me know.)
Conclusion
The best way to begin this process is to begin with market research on your ideas. This is a step that many people miss. Conducting research regarding your new idea is the best way to create an in-demand product or service. Write out a basic business plan and define the budget for your new business and web development.
Adwoa
Yosis Development
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