What is CodeIgniter Framework?

CodeIgniter is a powerful PHP framework with a very small footprint, built for developers who need a simple and elegant toolkit to create full-featured web applications.

How does CodeIgniter Work?

CodeIgniter is an MVC framework. MVC stands for Model View Controller. When a user requests a resource, the controller responds first. The controller understands the user request and then requests the necessary data if necessary.

For example, if you want to retrieve a customer with the id= 3, the controller will receive your request, then request the CodeIgniter models to retrieve the record with the id of 3. The CodeIgniter models will return the record to the controller. The controller then forwards the result to the view which formats it into a human-readable format. Then the results are returned to the user in the browser.

CodeIgniter Features:

Let’s see some of the features that make CodeIgniter great. The following list is not exhaustive but gives you an idea of what to expect when working with CodeIgniter.

• Small footprint
  • The entire source code for the CodeIgniter framework is close to 2MB. This makes it easy to master CodeIgniter and how it works. It also simplifies deploying and updating it.

• Blazing fast
  • Users tend to favor applications that load very fast. If you have worked with some of the modern frameworks, then you will realize that they take less than one second to load just after installation. CodeIgniter, you can load on average around less than 50ms. The extra time spent optimizing is the case in another framework is freed up when you are working with the CodeIgniter framework.

• Loosely coupled
  • The built-in features are designed to work independently without relying too much on other components. This makes it easy to maintain and make upgrades

• MVC Architecture
  • The PHP CodeIgniter framework uses the Model-View-Controller architectural design. It is industry standard practice when working with web applications. MVC separates the data, business logic, and presentation.

• Excellent documentation:
  • The framework is well documented, and there are good books, tutorials, and answered forum questions on CodeIgniter. This means whatever challenge that you have, chances are someone has already encountered the problem, solved it and the solution is out there for you.

• Application-specific built-in components:
  • CodeIgniter has components for sending email, database management, session management, and many more as you will discover as we continue with the tutorials.

• Extendable:
  • CodeIgniter comes with some libraries, and helpers out of the box. If what you want is not there or you would like to implement an existing feature your way. Then you can do so easily by creating your libraries, helpers, packages, etc. You can also create REST API in CodeIgniter.

• Short learning curve:
  • CodeIgniter is easy to master for anyone who is already familiar with PHP. Within a very short time, the student can Learn CodeIgniter and start developing professional applications using CodeIgniter.

Sources: CodeIgniter – Guru99