Please vote in the poll.
For your reference, here are the links to the videos and books mentioned in the poll:
The DoingITeasyChannel videos:
The Luke Briner videos:
Bill Keck’s Yii2 for Beginners:
Larry Ullman’s Yii book:
This is not a complete list. Please feel free to mention any other Yii2 books or videos etc that you’ve found helpful.
Can I just add another option for the "How can the yiiframework.com website be improved?" section:
"Complete all the still missing sections in The Definitive Guide to Yii 2.0"
An example, amongst several, would be "Using GridView with Pjax" which has said "Note: This section is under development." since I started with Yii2. (http://www.yiiframework.com/doc-2.0/guide-output-data-widgets.html#using-gridview-with-pjax)
Good point. However, there is no way to modify the poll, now that voting has started.
[Oops, I’m wrong. I just added the option you suggested!]
I also should mention that the poll is biased in favor of books and videos that people already know about. Obviously, if you didn’t know a book existed, you cannot have found it useful. But anyway, the poll results do show what resources people have in fact used and found effective.
Thanks to everyone for voting.
Let’s evaluate the poll results:
So far, 169 people have viewed the poll, but only 6 have voted. Why have so few people voted? Probably because not many forum members are beginners. In other words, most forum members have not voted because they are already intermediate or advanced users who have no use for introductory videos and books, and so the poll is irrelevant to them. This is not good news. If there are not many beginners, then the Yii2 community is not growing very much.
Of those who did vote, most agreed that, “It’s important to attract new users to Yii2, to make it a widely-used standard”. Obviously, if Yii2 is not attracting new users, then it is in danger of gradually becoming insignificant. Face it, there is, or will soon be, plenty of competition from Symfony 3, Zend 3, Cakephp 3, CodeIgniter 3, and of course that other one that starts with an L. But it’s not just a matter of which framework is “the best”. Also vitally important is whether Yii2 seems easy to learn.
What can be done? According to the poll results, "New users will adopt Yii2 only if they believe they can learn it fairly quickly and easily". Therefore, again according to the poll results:
[list=1]
[*]"The documentation should provide examples to show how each item can be used."
[*]"The documentation should allow user comments, the way that php.net does."
[*]"There should be links to more Yii2 learning resources, such as videos and books." This will make Yii2 seem easier to learn. But in addition, publicly recognizing the work of Yii2 authors and video producers will encourage more such contributions.
[*]"Any missing sections in The Definitive Guide to Yii 2 should be completed."
[*]There should be links to any IDEs that offer Yii2 code completion – if and when they become available. Code Lobster perhaps?
[/list]
One last thing. I’m puzzled that only 2 respondents agreed that “Yii2 has the best framework concept”. It would be helpful if someone could suggest what specific improvements should be made to the framework itself. Anyone care to comment?
Think I agree with most of what you said. And to answer the question…
I don’t think there is a framework with “the best” concept. Each framework has its own strengths and weaknesses and I personally use the one that’s best suited to the project at hand.
That may be true, especially for an experienced professional who has the knowledge and skill to easily learn several frameworks. But for people who are new to frameworks altogether, the situation is different. Every new framework programmer must start somewhere. They must decide which framework will be their first. Hence, they must decide which is "the best".
That decision is difficult, because it is practically impossible for a beginner to accurately evaluate something as complex and foreign as a framework. So they will likely base their decision on other factors, such as
what learning resources are available,
how helpful the reference material seems to be, and
whether the user community is active and growing.
A person’s very first choice of framework is especially important because the learning curve for any framework is steep. Hence, once a framework is adopted, the user may not be inclined to learn another framework for years, if ever.
It is only the serious pros who will learn more than one or two frameworks. But if that relatively small group are the main source of new adopters of Yii2, then Yii2 will not grow very fast. Consequently, other more popular frameworks will attract larger development teams. This will ensure that those frameworks will lead the way, while the rest gradually fall behind.
Anyway, whether I’m right or wrong, it would still be interesting to hear any suggestions for how Yii2 should be improved.
[Edit: Yes, the wording of that poll question assumes that there is such a thing as "the best", which is debatable. Perhaps I should have written, "Yii2 has the best framework concept overall". On the other hand, many posters in other forums seem quite comfortable saying that Laravel is the best. In contrast, not many on this forum have been willing to pay Yii2 the same enthusiastic compliment – at least not so far.]
All of this "the best" talk - about any technology - is garbage. Complete garbage. The fact that Laravel users are more given to this kind of nonsense is irrelevant. I personally prefer Yii and there are reasons. Why a developer prefers Yii is a discussion worth having.
Wow. Thanks for interesting poll and links (I wasn’t aware of some)! Points made should be improved, of course… and we need help. Especially with PJAX docs.