How different is Ruby on Rails from Yii really?

Yii 1.1 General Discussion
1

I’ve tried to search a lot about this topic lately. I have not worked with Ruby on Rails before, but I’d like to work on it in future. It would really make sense to learn it only if it does have any advantages, or at least differences compared to Yii. So, i’d request all the experienced developers who have worked with both these frameworks to shed some light on this. How different is Ruby on Rails from Yii? Is it more advantageous to use it instead of Yii (in any sense)? Which one is better in your opinion and why?

P.S. Lets stick to talking about core concepts of the both the frameworks and avoid discussing hosting and deployment stuff.

2

I suggest you to try it out. It couldn’t make any harm :). The 2 framework is similar but the language behind them is not the same and I like a lot more Ruby than PHP. In many cases in ruby you can do more with less code and it lets you less chance to make a mistake etc.

I am a PHP developer for 5 years but in 2 years ago I had a part time Rails job and the only reason I sticked with PHP is, at my current job that’s the language we use. So I am pretty glad to found Yii, because it is very similar.

3

PHP is closer to the metal than RoR.

Ruby is more elegant than PHP.

PHP runs on anything, anywhere.

RoR does not.

PHP is almost impossible to crash, RoR does it all the time…

In the end, you have to give each a spin.

It depends on what kind of guy you are.

I am a C++ guy, so choosing PHP was a natural choice for me.

4

Does make sense. What you said is interesting, but isn’t the topic more about Yii vs RoR? :) Would like to know your thoughts on this.

5

I found it to be a chore compared to PHP to deploy.

6

I don’t know RoR, but I have been working with Symfony framework for several years and I know that Symfony is inspired by RoR (see wikipedia).

I have not worked very much with Yii yet, but I notice one big difference - the database model seem to be more elegant in Symfony, IMHO.

I assume that it is with Yii as with Symfony - the better you know it the better it is… and the better you see it’s weak points.

7

I read the same about Symfony when I tried to find a Rails like framework in PHP so I tried it. And it was a very big disappointment. I think the principles of Yii and how Yii is working is a lot closer to Rails.

It is funny because at the first glance Symfony looked good for me. So I started to build a real-life app with it and as I started to know more about the framework I started to dislike it. It uses so many unneeded files, it is very hard to navigate inside your app, etc. But with Yii or Rails the more I know them, the more I like them.

8

No real answer yet. :(

It’s even moving to Symphony now.

I guess, as many of you suggested, I would have to work on RoR myself to get the real answer.

9

It’s difficult to answer since I haven’t used RoR, but from what I’ve heard: if you prefer rapid development without looking too much at the code, then use RoR.

If you prefer to get your hands dirty, use Yii.

If you like to program by scaffolding/raking/generating code using the command line, use RoR.

Yii does this too, but nowhere near as much as RoR.

One thing you need to decide for yourself is what language you like the better. Ruby or PHP.

What I really like about Yii is that you can break almost all the rules - you can’t do that using RoR - conventions must prevail.(AFAIK).