Updated July 5, 2023

introduction to Phalcon

A group of developers have come up with a new framework in PHP recently called Phalcon that treats the objects like glue components depending on the requirements of the application and It is an open-source framework and also a full-stack framework, and a very minimal amount of coding is necessary to make use of several components using Phalcon. An independent framework as per the requirement can be created using Phalcon. Those developers who have knowledge on Object Relational Modelling or ORM and Model View Controller or MVC can work with Phalcon in a very easier manner.

Necessity to use Phalcon

It provides greater performance when compared to other traditional frameworks of PHP.
The combination of both PHP programming language and C programming language makes Phalcon and both the programming languages PHP and C can be used like standalone modules.
Phalcon framework is compatible with the C programming language.
The rate of compilation increases because the Phalcon framework is compatible with the C programming language.
Because the Phalcon framework is compatible with the C programming language, an Object Relational Mapping or ORM is provided by Phalcon that improves the consistency with the created models.
Web applications can be developed using developer tools.
Scaffold applications can be developed using developer tools.
Scaffold applications developed using developer tools have a combination of features like Read or R, Update or U, Delete or D and Create or C.
The third-party libraries that are to be implemented Phalcon are provided extensible support by the developer tools.
It supports a wide range of databases.
It supports both relational and non-relational databases.

Working of Phalcon

The web based applications can be developed using Model View Controller or MVC, which is a software design and structural pattern.
The web application is defined by Model View Controller or MVC model consisting of three layers, namely Model, View and Controller.
Knowledge is represented by objects called models.
A one to one relationship should be maintained between the model and its parts.
The logic for database connection and performing CRUD operations are all included in the one to one connection between the model and its parts.
The visual representation of the model is called a view.
The view gets the data required for the presentation by interacting with the model.
The interaction of the view with the model happens by sending requests and receiving responses.
All the data seen by the end-user is included in the view.
The intermediary between the model and the view or the user and the system is the controller.
The requests from the user are received by the controller through the view and sent to the model.
The model manipulates the request sent to the model, and the response is sent to the controller.
The response sent by the model to the controller is displayed as the output through the view.
The output received by the controller is translated in to appropriate messages by the controller.
The translated messages by the controller are displayed as appropriate responses by the view.
To summarize, the first step is when the user makes interaction with a view, which is maintained with the help of some event or method.
The controller does the maintained events or methods handling.
The controller accesses the model by updating the actions of the user.
The view generates the appropriate output by making use of a model.
The data is fetched from the model by the view.
The user’s further interactions start a new cycle of requests and responses for which the user interface waits.

Advantages

A wide variety of projects can be designed using Phalcon.
It supports both relational databases and non-relational databases.
The combination of PHP programming language and C programming language is Phalcon framework.
The framework suits better for medium size projects.
The performance of the framework is good when compared to other traditional frameworks.
This framework is compatible with the C programming language.
The rate of compilation increases because the Phalcon framework is compatible with the C programming language.
Because the framework is compatible with the C programming language, an Object Relational Mapping or ORM is provided by Phalcon that improves the consistency with the models that are created.
Web applications can be developed using developer tools.
Scaffold applications can be developed using developer tools.
Scaffold applications developed using developer tools have a combination of features like Read or R, Update or U, Delete or D and Create or C.
The third-party libraries that are to be implemented Phalcon are provided extensible support by the developer tools.
Phalcon supports a wide range of databases.

Disadvantages

Large scale projects like portals, CMS etc., cannot be created using Phalcom.
Phalcom does not have sophisticated syntax.
Phalcom is not scalable for small projects and large projects. It is scalable only for medium projects.

Several applications of Phalcon

There is no necessity for the developers to learn C programming language to be able to use Phalcon because the interface of Phalcon is exposed as classes of PHP under the namespace, which is ready to use the namespace.
The coupling of Phalcon is very loose, which allows the developers to use only the necessary objects like glue components depending on the requirements of the application.
Web applications can be developed using developer tools.
Scaffold applications can be developed using developer tools.
Scaffold applications developed using developer tools have a combination of features like Read or R, Update or U, Delete or D and Create or C.

Conclusion

In this article, we have learned the concept of Phalcon through definition, the need, the working, advantages and disadvantages of working with Phalcon, and the applications.