Development of web applications using the full-stack PHP method: advantages and disadvantages

About the author: Serhiy Stepanchenko, an experienced backend developer who has been working in the Aviva team since 2019. During this time, he participated in many complex eCommerce projects that bring good profits to their owners.

Quite often in the automation of your business or startup, non-standard solutions and approaches may arise, which must be solved efficiently and qualitatively with the help of a regular website or CRM system. In this case, a reasonable solution is to develop your own web application using Full- stack PHP.
Full- stack PHP web application development is the process of creating software in which PHP is used both on the server side and on the client side. This method allows you to effectively solve your business tasks, which cannot be solved with the help of ready-made CMS (content management systems) due to their limited functionality.

One of our works for the Avivi company, where we used the Full-stack PHP approach, was the implementation of the network marketing functionality for the eCcommerce project. The customer stated special and, to some extent, unique requirements for the automation of network marketing processes. After a detailed analysis of business processes, we created a system that was integrated into the main eCcommerce site with fully automated processes, such as:

• Accrual to leaders;

• Reporting;

• Notification of downloading lists to Excel, etc.

The algorithms implemented by us worked 100%, which helped customers achieve maximum results in the sale of their goods and build their own network of partners completely automatically.

For example, I will show how the code of one of the account elements looks like, namely, checking the status and calculating the network reward:

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function regPremium($ID_USER, $user_new_status, $filter_date, $options)
{
    if (isset($ID_USER)) {

        /*New user status */
        $userStatusLevel = $user_new_status["UF_STATUS_LEVEL"];
        /* Condition for Status Award */
        $confirm_new_status = explode("-", $user_new_status["UF_COMFIRM_STATUS"]);
        $confirm_status = getConfirmPremium($ID_USER, $userStatusLevel, $options);
        /* We check whether the consultant goes up - we determine the max. level and compare with the current one */
        /* We get data from the table ConfirmStatus */
        $entity_data_class = GetEntityDataClass(HLID_CONFIRM_STATUS);
        $rsData = $entity_data_class::getList(array(
            'select' => array("UF_NEW_LEVEL_STATUS"),
            'filter' => array("UF_ID_USER" => $ID_USER)
        ));
        while ($el_result_confirm = $rsData->fetch()) {
            $result_confirm[] = $el_result_confirm;
            $max[] = $el_result_confirm['UF_NEW_LEVEL_STATUS'];
        }
        $maxLevel = max($max);
        /* We charge only when the user climbs the status ladder */
        if ($userStatusLevel >= $maxLevel) {

            /* We select data about the current status */
            $rsData_nex = $entity_data_class::getList(array(
                'select' => array("*"),
                'filter' => array("UF_ID_USER" => $ID_USER, "UF_PERIOD_CUT" => $filter_date[0] . '-' . $filter_date[1])
            ));
            while ($el_result__status = $rsData_nex->fetch()) {
                $result_status = $el_result__status;
            }

Advantages and disadvantages of the technique

Now let's look at the main pros and cons of developing custom web applications using the Full- stack PHP methodology.

Advantages:

1. Flexibility and scalability
With this approach, we get a high level of flexibility when developing Full- stack PHP, which allows us to adapt to your business processes as efficiently as possible. Provide exactly the functionality you need to automate your business, with a convenient and adaptive design for all devices, a convenient control panel.

2. Full control over development
Using the Full-stack approach, we developers get full control over the entire development process and code optimization. This allows you to optimize every part of your web application, from the database architecture to the user interface. This approach greatly simplifies debugging and testing.

3. Rapid development of prototypes

Full-stack PHP allows you to quickly create prototypes of your projects and MVPs (minimum viable products). The simplicity of the language and the availability of powerful frameworks accelerate the development of the first versions of applications, which is especially important for startups to quickly test the operation of the application on the market.

4. Wide integration possibilities

When developing applications on PHP using the Full- stack approach, it is possible to easily implement integrations with various APIs and third-party services, when using a CMS, there are additional moments with functional limitations and the implementation of such integrations. This includes integration with payment systems, social networks, analytical services and many others.

5. Support of various types of databases
When developing Full-stack PHP applications, we do not limit ourselves to these solutions dictated by the CMS, but have the opportunity to work with various types of databases, such as MySQL, PostgreSQL, SQLite, Oracle and others. This allows you to choose the optimal data storage solution depending on the specifics of the application and performance requirements.

Disadvantages

Taking into account the experience, we can attribute only the time of implementation of such projects using the Full- stack PHP method to the minuses. With this approach, even with the use of modern frameworks such as Laravel and CodeIgniter, the project is created from scratch: development of the database structure, common functions such as authorization and registration, and other standard procedures have to be implemented from the very beginning, which takes additional time. Accordingly, in ready-made CMS systems, these basic functions already exist and can be used in the project. But in the process of developing such web applications with unique business logic, we may encounter limitations of the CMS itself, and the time that can be spent on bypassing such limitations and finding solutions can increase many times. However, the time we spend on development with the intended result will be much less using the Full-stack PHP methodology.

Results

So, based on everything written above and my own experience, I can summarize. The development of web applications using the Full-stack PHP methodology is a powerful tool for creating non-standard solutions that require unique business logic. This approach provides high flexibility, control over the code and access to a large community and support.

However, when choosing a technology, it is always important to consider the specific requirements of the project. Full-stack PHP can be an ideal solution for many tasks of your projects, especially those that require flexibility, speed of development and wide integration possibilities. Avivi specialists will be happy to help you in the development of any complexity, so that your business is always on top!