Latest trends in PHP development

The recent years have brought many noticeable changes to PHP industry. The latest news in the PHP world was a release of PHP 7. The new version of the language enables to increase performance and provides memory usage optimization. Alongside with PHP 7, developers widely discuss the appearance of PSR-7, a standard for HTTP messaging. Thanks to its features, we see a rise of asynchronous programming and realize the convenience of using the middleware based on frameworks. Due to its improved nature, PHP also becomes more suitable for Internet of Things solutions. To find out how these trends can impact on PHP application development, let us consider each of them.

1. Faster and leaner PHP 7

Ten years have passed before the modern version of PHP was released. PHP 7 looks familiar for developers, but it is especially focused on high performance. Experts predict the growth of PHP 7 adoption rate, and they have several reasons for verifying such forecast.

• The performance of applications using PHP 7 has gained up twice comparing with previous PHP 5.6 version.
• The test showed that the consumption of RAM was decreased by 50% during the request processing.
• Many errors that earlier were reasons of application stop working can be processed now as exceptions.
• The major popular frameworks are ready for PHP 7. There are the most popular CMS among them such as WordPress, Magento and Symphony.

All these improvements of the PHP language enable to increase application speed and to reduce an amount of needed resources.

2. Flexible and interoperable web development

Asking experts of any respected PHP web development company about the breakthrough in PHP sphere last years, they will certainly name PSR-7. It is a standard that defines interfaces for HTTP messages. Though HTTP messages are mostly abstracted from the average Internet user, they are the foundation of web development. PSR-7 improves work with HTTP requests that, in its turn, allows to make PHP and MySQL web development more flexible.

1. It enables to achieve more interoperability between frameworks and provide more effective solutions in many different ways.
2. It brought the convenience of using the middleware patterns for expanding web applications functionality.

The middleware plays a role of a bridge between an application and a database. With the help of this framework, developers can assess any component of any PHP framework and ‘borrow’ any of its features.

3. PHP and Internet of Things solutions

Analysts claim that an amount of connected devices will reach the mark of 6.5 billion till the end of 2016. In this way, PHP and IoT go well together.

Thanks to Icicle, one can write asynchronous code using synchronous coding techniques in PHP. It means that now the PHP code is able to run several tasks by using the same script. Methods of asynchronous programming provide better data exchange between connected gadgets.

Some hardware platforms such as Arduino already support PHP, and you can control Arduino board with your PHP-based script.

There is also a possibility to build a PHP application that uses GPS data gathered from an IoT device. For example, the GPS sensor on your Android phone can send its location to the Bluemix cloud, and the PHP application is able to publish this data on your website.

4. Market forecast and further trends

Experts predict by 2025 that a half of American enterprises will run more than 10 applications. Though PHP cannot be the best choice for any web solutions, it is still holding the lead positions in the development of tech startups. With PHP, one can quickly build a viable application in a short-term period to see which way a project should move forward.

Another observed trend is a growth of global outsourcing IT market and PHP development in particular. Many web development companies can hire PHP developers from all over the world to reduce the costs on keeping its own PHP-department.

PHP is a well-known technology used for web development services. Firstly, it is an open source. Secondly, it is a cost effective one and many developers around the world use it. Thirdly, it is one of the most efficient means of modern web development. The way PHP has changed with the time could be traced. Some changes were abandoned just after their introduction, but some stayed with the technology for some time. These are the 5 trends that help developers to get hold of the attractiveness of the front-end pages and at the same time make it user-friendly.

5. Responsive Web Design

In our everyday life, we rely on the ability to get access to such top world web services as Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, etc. and even e-mails. The developers should make sure that the platforms are satisfying the customers’ needs. The required services should be synchronized with the latest updates on the web and mobile industries. The PHP development tends to provide the seamless service of the web applications running on various devices.

6. Flash

Flash is not a new thing in the web development but it is not likely to leave the stage. It is the best tool to create eye-catching banner ads, Facebook modules, games etc. Of course, if the development part is heavy, Flash products could slow down the work of the website but anyway, I’m absolutely positive it will survive in the world of PHP web development.

7. Online Presentation

Web development provides the opportunity for efficient online presentation when a user visits the website and is captivated at first sight. Front-end PHP developers know how to make the website look engaging and professional. The use of clever infographics also helps to let users spend more time on the website.

8. Other Special Effects

For some users special effects are quite an important segment no matter are they visiting the website or just playing a game and PHP technology is used to bring these features into life. One of the examples of such experience is Parallax scrolling. Once it is introduced it gives the website a more animated look. Using this method we have banners and images placed and scrolled in a way to give a 3D effect.

9. Header Bar should be fixed

The glued bar is a necessity because if you do so, the most important information and the services provided will stay with the visitor of your website. There is no need to scroll all the way to get the access to the required service. Don’t forget to stick your brand’s name onto the header, so the users always have it in from of their eyes. The most important factor is that it provides you with more chances that they will remember it in the future.

Conclusion

The PHP industry is growing and changing from year to year. The main trends show that the most significant changes were aimed at increasing the performance and interoperability of web applications. This enables to implement more effective solutions in both ambitious (such as Internet of Things) and usual projects built with using this flexible and compatible programming language.