selecting a web framework

SELECTING A WEB FRAMEWORKwith Pam Selle (@pamasaur) // thewebivore.com

Tuesday, July 30, 13

Tuesday, July 30, 13

I will not tell you what to do.

SPOILERS!

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But, maybe I can help you approach the decision.

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Agenda

Focus on the outcomes

Criteria for frameworks

Framework cheat sheet

Interactive!

Case studies & Resources

Discussion

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OUTCOMES

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Technical

Ramping up

Maintainable

Iterate

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Operations

Uptime

Speed

Resources

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Team

Productivity

Retainability

Growth

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Business

Solves the business problem

Affordable in the long run

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EVALUATING FRAMEWORKS

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TECHNICAL

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Core

Core capabilities

What do you get?

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Needs vs. Strengths

What do you need most?

Strengths you don’t need are cruft

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Data abstraction

How does it save you time?

ORM

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Testing

Unit testing

Integration testing

Do you like those frameworks, or prefer plug and play?

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Documentation

Well-written and explained

Updated with versions

Sample code, tutorials

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Extension

Plugins

Libraries

The dangers of ugly lamp syndrome

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OPERATIONS

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Servability

Hosting

Speed

Operations cost

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Security

Does it have a standing track record of maintenance/patches?

Are patches accessible and simple to implement?

Does it cover common vulnerabilities (injection, etc.)

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Resources

Can you serve it?

Are there resources available for emergencies?

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TEAM

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Longevity

How long has it been around?

How long will it be around?

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Community

Are there user groups?

Conferences?

Screencasts?

Is there free help to be had?

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Learning Curve

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Hireablility

Do people have this skill, and can you find them?

Do people want to learn this skill, or is it being abandoned?

Can you build your team?

Can you bring in reinforcements?

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BUSINESS

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Licenses

Licensing ups & downs

Impact on longevity

Free isn’t so free

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Audience

What they have to use

What you want them to experience

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Other Business Goals

SEO

Marketing/Sales

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FRAMEWORK CHEAT SHEET

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PHPhttp://www.phpframeworks.com/

Yii, CodeIgniter, Symphony, CakePHP, Zend

Common language, decent performance

Reputation for security issues (unwarranted?)

Viewed as a sunsetting language

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Java, JVMBenefits greatly from the JVM

Spring, Stripes, Tapestry ...

Grails/Groovy, Clojure, Lift/Scala

Common language, Clojure/Scala are growing skill sets

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Python/RubyPython

Django, Pyramid, Pylons, web2py

Strong data and science support

Explicit language, good for new learners

Ruby

Rails by far the most common

Quick to learn, hard to master

“Gems” written for nearly every problem to be solved

Poor security reputation

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JavaScriptNode!

MV* frameworks abound

Build as much or little was you want

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INTERACTIVE

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Game plan

Form teams

Choose a number

Choose [number] “team member” cards

Choose a solution to build

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Activity

Discuss the top 3+ features/requirements for building solution

Based on your requirements and resources, what framework would you use?

Let me know if you need an additional challenge.

(After) Present to the group

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Interactive

Framework criteria list: http://bit.ly/13UueHf

Keep in mind:

How do we reach our outcomes?

Are we appropriately weighing the factors?

Can we see multiple ‘optimal’ solutions?

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DISCUSS!https://frameworks.hackpad.com/

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CASE STUDIES

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AxisPhilly priorities

End user experience (writers)

Extendibility

Future maintenance

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Outcomes

Mobile-friendly

Writers don’t rely in IT

In and out-of-site apps

Common platform makes solution-finding simple

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AdHawk priorities

Hack weekend/Limited time and resources

Team skills and commonalities

Libraries available

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AdHawk NumbersReleased by Sunlight 8/22/2012

12.5k downloads

Identified 4k+ ads

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SURVEY SAYS ...

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Prioritize Concerns

Best tool for the job. Scalability is great -- *if* scalability is a primary concern. Speed is great -- *if* speed is a primary concern. Repeat for team experience, ease of use, avoiding polyglot, etc.

If you're using the same tool for every service in your stack, you're probably letting bias play too big a role.

Tom Shawver, Leadnomics

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What they want

My clients have generally come to me, and said “I want a [Drupal | WordPress | NationBuilder] site”

Marjorie, Spatial Analyst & Freelance Software Developer

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Work within resources

[My top concerns are] compatibility with pre-existing infrastructure, how a given language or framework meets the design requirements, pre-existing knowledge, longer-term scalability concerns

Tuesday, July 30, 13

Common Top Priorities

Experience (6)

Scalability (3)

Use case/Design (3)

Libraries/Tools (2)

“Right tool for the job” (2)

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How to choose a framework

Prioritize your criteria

Work with what you have

Cut away things you can’t control

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COMPARISONS & RESEARCH

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Quantitativehttps://github.com/TechEmpower/FrameworkBenchmarks

Tests on EC2

Results at http://www.techempower.com/benchmarks/

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Java CommunityMatt Raible, presented this year on the topic http://slidesha.re/YOcbTj, http://bit.ly/15pXYvz (PDF)

Good statistics on language trends

Good notes on the history of framework development

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Source: Matt Raible

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JavaScript CommunityCommon interests

Event handling/DOM access

The “Single-Page App”

Client + Server-side combos

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Tuesday, July 30, 13

More Projects

TasteJS, PropertyCross

https://github.com/paulmillr/ostio-apps, TasteStack

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How to choose a framework

Prioritize your criteria

Work with what you have

Cut away things you can’t control

Tuesday, July 30, 13

How to choose a framework

Tuesday, July 30, 13

How to choose a framework

You can’t get it (too) wrong

Tuesday, July 30, 13

How to choose a framework

You can’t get it (too) wrong

Learning the lay of the land helps

Tuesday, July 30, 13

How to choose a framework

You can’t get it (too) wrong

Learning the lay of the land helps

But knowing your team and resources helps more.

Tuesday, July 30, 13

THANK YOU!Pam Selle // @pamasaur // thewebivore.com

Tuesday, July 30, 13

Discussion

Share your name/organization

What’s your decision role in your organization?

What’s your top consideration and why?

Share a story

Tuesday, July 30, 13