I would like to gently suggest or point out that FuelPHP lacks of a tutorials for starters, especially for absolute beginners. I tried to find something like "getting started ..." and I found it really hard. I came across this tutorial regarding MVC 4 on ASP.NET:
The presenter explains, right from the beginning, every single details regarding MVC on ASP.NET. I hate to say that but after watching just two modules (the web side is currently not working), I could say I feel confident, or ready to design my simple application with my own controllers and actions, assign views to actions, and begin with models. I am afraid I hardly can say it about FuelPHP after spending some time with Documentation and tutorials trying to look for anything related to beginners--there is one but heavily criticised tutorial which somehow appears at the top of all google results which I tried to follow and failed. I would love to see something similar for FuelPHP. This would just brought plenty of new users :)--I'd do it by myself. I understand the aforementioned video tutorial is commercial with one purpose to sell it but it's really does fulfil its purpose. I am sure something similar can be made for FuelPHP.
My story is that I came to FuelPHP forum due to two reasons, (1) I am a home(ish) programmer and I think I can say I passionate programming with OOP applications, and (2) I find MVC such a great framework for designing web applications. Sometimes I use my skills at work to improve my and my colleagues' life :) Recently, I have been asked to design a database driven web application. I found FuelPHP because I am looking for a MVC framework for PHP/MySQL to apply.
Again, the problem I find is lack of proper tutorials for beginners. It is really hard to kick off. Even though I understand the concept of the Model/View/Controller framework, it is really hard to get started with FuelPHP. Documentation says something about it but reading it is not enough. I barely managed to install FuelPHP and I feel like have it worked by chance. Even installing is not clearly explained to me.
Please indicate what your problems were, and we can improve it. As experienced users, it is sometimes easy to overlook something, that we find easy, but which is a struggle for beginners.
I am really interested what your problems were, for me installing Fuel is a piece of cake: copy the files, create the virtual host, works. ;-)
Installing is only the example. I was trying to point out that it is difficult to start with FuelPHP at all. But regarding installing, it's not been clear to me if I should put my project into "public" folder that comes when unpacked FuelPHP or is it the public folder I have on server, for instance. I assume VirtualHost is something you change when you run Apache. I have a space hosted on remote server, that is x10hosting. I don't know how to change it in cPanel.
A lot is written about Oil, Auth, Orm. Some tutorials expect me to use it right at the beginning. It has not appear to me that there is an explanation.
It's hard to be specific here because it's quite difficult to start. I assume because the tutorial I pointed out has not been even mentioned in your answer so I guess I, and I think I can also speak on behalf of plenty of others, should not expect anything like this at all.
The docs state that you unpack the zip, or clone the repo, run composer, and then point the DocumentRoot of your virtualhost to the public folder.
FuelPHP was never written with beginners in mind, it's mainly used in large (corporate) applications. So in the beginning there was never a need to take people without any PHP/OO experience into account.
The setup a VirtualHost is beyond the scope of this framework and it's documentation. You find that info in the Apache or Nginx or IIS documentation (or whatever webserver you use). We assume that someone that develops websites knows or has someone that knows how to setup webservers.
We also don't have the people available to spend a lot of time working on docs. FuelPHP is a community framework, people work on it in their spare time, and time is scarce, which affects the quality of the documentation.
Given the above, the docs tend to be quite technical and in-depth. Also, given our userbase, there aren't that many people available that are willing to make (video) tutorials. The ones that did, and that reported back they have done so, are listed in the documentation.
It also happened to me when I tried to install FuelPHP (v1.6) manually for the very first time. the docs says run "php composer.phar update" and when I run it.., an error occured.., then I realized that I should run "c:\xampp\php\php composer.phar update". he..he..he..
to Ziko.., maybe you can try to search in Youtube and search "FuelPHP from scartch series".., at least those video can become a refference how to build an app from zero..,
@Harro Verton Thanks for your answers. I do expect things of this matter come with effort and not easily. I was trying to point out that it massively helps if fundamentals are well explained. I am sorry to hear that the project is only maintained by people in their spare time. It looks like great work for little time available. I will try to have a go anyway and see where I can come.
@kenjis I will look at this later. Thanks for this.
@satriawae I haven't looked for video in Youtube. I'll see what I can find. Thanks
If you're willing to keep track of your problems, we can see where the docs are lacking in information and clarity. Which we need to make improvements.
Alternatively, if you want to help, you can fork the docs repository, make changes you think are needed, and send a pull request.
Donate
