December 5, 2019
PHP has had better days, for sure. But is it really dead? On a forums like Stack Overflow people are suggesting that PHP is dead. Do they have a valid point, or could it be that they just don’t like PHP? Let’s take a look at PHP and see if there is a future for this programming language.
PHP Is Still Dominating The Web
If you take a simple look at the numbers PHP is definitely not dead. PHP is the most used server-side programming language by far. Approximately 75 percent of all webpages are powered by PHP. It is fair to conclude that PHP isn’t dead based on this statistic since 75 percent is far too high number for a dead language!
One of the reasons that PHP is used by so many websites is because WordPress uses PHP. The market share of WordPress is approximately 34 percent of all websites. That’s 75 million websites using WordPress.
Furthermore, there are some other CMS’s like Drupal (3%) and Joomla(2%) which also have a significant share of the market. And there are some popular shop management systems, like Magento, which have around 1 percent of the total market share.
A lot of big content and shop management systems are using PHP, which makes PHP important and relevant.
Building Websites From Scratch
I can see the argument about building websites from scratch since a lot of people, who use WordPress for example, don’t know how to code. Making a website in WordPress does not require you to know how to code. A lot of people who have a WordPress website probably don’t even know that it’s powered by PHP. So is PHP still used by people who build websites from scratch?
PHP was and still is a very popular language. One of the reasons for this is that it’s a really easy programming language to learn. That makes it an excellent language for people new to building websites. PHP can be learned without any prior knowledge. I think it’s fair to say that most web developers that have been around for a while probably started out with PHP, or at least have worked with PHP at some point.
Programming
Since PHP has been around since 1994 the language has got a little cluttered over time. There are a lot of ways to build the same functionality and a lot of these ways are pretty hacky. This makes it easier to write bad code in PHP. Obviously, it’s possible to write bad code in any language but PHP makes it a little easier because of the way it has grown.
PHP has been around so long it also has a lot of old stuff. This makes it easy to get started with PHP, but if you stick to the old solution you end up with suboptimal code that doesn’t follow best practices. And this is something that you should really try to avoid. Not following the best practice is something that will happen when you’re inexperienced with PHP since it is not always clear what the best solution is. This is because there are a lot of ways to solve the same problem. This is one of the reasons why PHP is hated by some developers.
On the other hand, you could argue that most web developers don’t write raw PHP. Most of the times you will be using some sort of framework that does a lot of things for you. A popular PHP framework that is very clean is Laravel. The advantage of working with a framework is that a lot of the dirty work is done under the hood. The framework forces you into writing cleaner code.
PHP 7
Since the release of PHP 7 a lot of new features and improvements have been introduced. The two most significant improvements are improved speed and better memory usage. This means that websites that use PHP 7 load faster than websites that use an older version of PHP and can handle more users at the same time.
Code wise, type declarations and new operators have been introduced. Error handling has also been improved.
Jobs
Since 75 percent of the web is powered by PHP there will obviously be a lot of jobs involving some sort of PHP coding. All these websites need to be maintained and there are PHP developers needed for that. The enormous market share of PHP won’t be gone overnight, so jobs involving PHP will be around in the future.
If you take a look at this link to the jobs section of Stack Overflow you will find a lot of jobs that require PHP.
Conclusion
Although there is a lot of discussion about the future of PHP, it is clear that PHP does have a future. It is by far the most used programming language for websites.
PHP has been around for a while now and this is reflected in the code. There’s a lot of old stuff that means the best solution is not always clear. Code wise you could use a framework that does a lot of the dirty work for you and forces you to write cleaner code. However, since the introduction of PHP 7, a lot of things have improved.
If you want to start a career as a PHP developer you won’t run out of options when it comes to finding a job. There are plenty of jobs involving PHP skills and this will stay the same in the near future.
So what do you think about PHP? Do you think there is a future for this programming language? Or is it dead?
Thanks for reading!
<3 koolreport team
October 8, 2019
We would like to inform that we have released new version KoolReport 4.3.0 ready for your upgrade. This is a worth upgrading version containing many improvements and important bug fixes.
Details
For further details of the changes in this new version, please follow these links:
This upgrade is backward compatible so feel free to upgrade now!
Some more good news
On further update, we have released a new chart package called D3. The package is built on top of D3JS (Data-Driven Documents) to provide visualization strength for KoolReport. D3JS is very famous Javascript library which is behind many beautiful charts and graphs. Except for the most common charts like Line or Pie, we have added Waterfall and FunnelChart to extend choices for your data visualization. IT IS JUST THE BEGINNING! More and more stunning charts will be added to D3 package.
KoolReport Pro 4.3.1 has been released as well with new core and the upgrades of 14 packages including Pivot, DataGrid, Export and more.. If you have KoolReport Pro license, you may upgrade now via manual download or composer installation. If you have not owned a license yet, please consider to get one now. You will love it!
P.S: KoolReport team wish you have a great day and do not forget to support us. We are and will work hard to bring you to best product saving you time & effort. That's our promise.
<koolreport team
August 20, 2019
Building great data reports has never been easier with KoolReport Pro. Equipped with all commercial packages, KoolReport Pro will power your creativity to make stunning reports and dashboards.
On this occasion, we offer a special discount 20% for both Developer License and Enterprise License. This promotion will last until 31st AUGUST, 2019.
PURCHASE NOW WITH 20% OFF!
If you have any question regarding our promotion or features of KoolReport Pro, please do not hesitate to contact us.
Looking forward to serving you as our customer.
<3 koolreport team
June 7, 2019
LET PARTY! We are very happy to let you know that KoolReport 4.0.0 has been released. There are many enhancements in this version that worth your upgrade.
Composer Friendly
Now all our packages both free and paid can be installed through Composer. The free packages are hosted with famous Packagist and the commercial packages are hosted with our self-built private repository.
Core Enhancement
Since we moved our GitHub repository from koolphp/koolreport to koolreport/core, we have adjusted our folder structure a little bit for unity between manual installation and composer installation.
The core itself has been improved so much from datasources to data processes and the visualization. Those existed bugs from version 3.x has been solved completely in this version.
We added a new widget added called Card to the core. The Card allows us to show the important KPI value in our report. If you aim at constructing a dashboard, Card widget is very useful.
Template Engine
KoolReport 4.0.0 is extended capability to work with other template engines rather than just default and boring .view file. To support this feature, we have released 3 new template engine packages:
- Blade: You are in love with Blade in Laravel? Now you can use blade for your report view
- PlatesPHP: You just want to use native PHP template? PlatesPHP is your best choice.
- Twig: Another famous and proven template engine. Fast and secure.
All of them are free. You can download those packages via our website or install them with composer.
New Package
Planning to release in previous version but we are only able to perfect and release our Amazing theme package now. The Amazing theme allows us to make our report look new and modern. Built on top of Bootstrap 4, the amazing theme inherits all cool features of Bootstrap 4 together with new look and feel. We also added some cool widgets for this theme package as well. Say no more, you can have a look at this new package here
Amazing Theme Introduction - Amazing's ChartCard
Other Packages' Enhancements
- Pivot: New
Pivot2D has been added. Algorithm change for better and faster data summarization.
- Excel: Able to create Excel charts using template, more widgets are added.
- Cube: Improve efficiency.
- CloudExport: Update ChromeHeadlessio service
- DataGrid: Improve security for server processing feature.
- ..and many others.
KoolReport Pro
If you have owned KoolReport Pro license, you can upgrade via composer with package name koolreport/pro. You may login to our website, heading to My Licenses page and generate token key to upgrade. If you have not, please consider getting KoolReport Pro as it is the most valuable package that we offered.
Summary
KoolReport 4.0.0 is a must-upgraded version as it contains many important improvements and bug fixes. We are working hard to make KoolReport better and better day by day.
Enjoy!!
<3 koolreport team
February 13, 2019
We are very glad to let you know that we have released new version 3.25.3 of KoolReport. This version is our continuous effort to ensure the product quality and improvement. The update is completely backward compatible so you feel free to upgrade without worrying about your current works. Upgrade Now.
Enhancements
We have made a number of enhancements to the core. The first one is conversion of code base to comply with PSR Code Standard. This standard is accepted and adopted by wide range of developers all the world because it will help code look cleaner, easier to read and avoid potential code mistakes. Furthermore, by following this standard, our code base could be parsed by intellisense extensions in modern IDEs like Visual Studio Code or PHPStorm.
We have continued to improve the most used widget, Table. In previous version, we have new feature Row Grouping. In this version, we add more flexibility to Table's grouping template and style. We also add new sorting property to let you sort data on the table.
Google has updated the its charting library so we have update our Google Charts in KoolReport as well. If you use old version of KoolReport, it will not be possible to load multiple type of charts (coming from different chart packages). We have spent days to analyze the issues and make it work. If you have this issue, please upgrade to the newest version.
Bug fixes
We have fixed a big issue in Widget when we define data source by function. We also fixed the error related to grouping feature of Table when there is no data. We fixed the data duplication in KoolReport's run() methods. There are some other minor fixes as well that we could not list all here.
New package
The CloudExport is a new added package. The CloudExport will be a service hub to connect to online service provider to export your report to PDF, JPG, PNG or other formats. The package is totally free and available to download. The first cloud service that we implemented is ChromeHeadless.io. CloudExport will be alternative solution for Export package if you find difficulty to install PhantomJs or if you want to off-load the export function to cloud service and save your server's resources for other crucial tasks.
KoolReport Pro
KoolReport Pro 3.25.3 is also released together with new core. This release contains some new package releases: DataGrid 2.5.0, Excel 5.0.0, Inputs 4.5.0, Instant 3.5.0, DrillDown 3.0.0 and Pivot 4.3.0.
As you may aware, KoolReport Pro is yearly subscription based product. To add more flexibility in term of license, we added the Perpetual Usage badge which can be purchased together with KoolReport Pro license. This badge allows you to use KoolReport Pro forever even after subscription is expired. However it does not cover the Priority Support and Free Upgrade privilege.
In addition, we provide the Perpetual Usage, Support and Upgrade badge. If you purchased this badge together with your license, you will own the life-time usage for KoolReport Pro plus you will be entitled Life-Time Priority Support and Life-Time Upgrade privilege.
Summary
The KoolReport 3.25.3 is a must-upgraded version as it contains important enhancements and bug fixes. The update is backward compatible and you can upgrade without any changes to your current reports.
Enjoy!!
<3 koolreport team
