I really like the idea of using a development framework for my own internal purposes, as it makes things a lot easier for managing a big project. However, for smaller, more focused projects, it might not make as much sense.
The problem with a framework is that it takes a lot to set it up. Once its setup, no problem, but for most people who only want one area of functionality, like a blog, a wiki, or an accounting system, they may not want to have to setup the framework just to get access to the specific application.
I’ve had pretty good luck with Wordpress, because it does what it is supposed to extremely well. That experience has led me to believe that not all parts of a program need to be easily and fully customizable. In addition, any open source project is ultimately fully customizable, but they may not be architected to be easily changed in every manner of speaking.
For a bookkeeping (or any web-based system) program, the interface needs to be customizable. What else? The database table names.
I think what I will ultimately end up doing is using the framework to build an independent web application which can be installed on its own, without the need for the framework. It will bloat the code, but also make it more portable. The use of XSL makes the installation of PBooks a little tough, but it might be doable. For now, I might want to simply include Nexista along with the PBooks distribution - aka a “monolithic” distribution. That is obviously not the best way to architect PBooks, but it will hopefully facilitate the introduction of new developers to the project.
This is how I currently have my development environment setup (will be copied to wiki):
/usr/share/php/nexista/
/usr/share/php/metabase/
/usr/share/pbooks/
/usr/share/pbooks/apps/pbooks/
I will expand upon this more in the wiki page “Pbooks Development“.
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