Re: Web application architecture (subdomain vs. sub directory)

On Wed, 2010-08-25 at 13:45 -0500, Tim Martens wrote: > Hi Everyone, > > New to the list. Hello! > > I'm in the customer discovery phase for a Health IT web application concept > I have. My programmer is new to web apps, but not to programming and is set > up with LAM(PHP). We're still debating weather to use a framework or to go > with Rasmus's "no framework framework" approach. > > Language/Framework decisions aside... my main question is about subdomain ( > customerx.appname.com vs subdirectory (appname.com/customerx/) models for > instances of individual customers' accounts. > > It seems most people are opting for the former -- is this but a trebd? -- > but I see flickr use the latter. The guys at Particletree (i.e., Wufoo) > wrote a blog post about it ( > http://particletree.com/notebook/subdomains-development-sucks/) > years ago to > which they still attest. > > They say the subdirectory model is much easier and faster to develop and > deploy. We are developing locally on our macs and will be using > Mecurial/Bitbucket for CVS. > > I'm really lost on this issue as all my searches turn up stuff on SEO/SEM. > Is one approach easier that the other? What about security and scalability > considerations? I would very much appreciate your opinions as to the pros > and cons of each approach. > > As an aside, does anyone have some advice about rapid PHP deployment, i.e., > pushing new features to production daily in micro iterations vs the typical > milestone approach? Are there any good tools for this? What about hosts? > > Thanks all, > > Tim If you're new to PHP, I would recommend not using a framework for the experience you will gain with the language, as a framework will tend to hide away certain caveats and peculiarities of PHP which could lead to issues further down the line. Most people I know who are great PHP programmers have tended to start without frameworks at first. Having said that, if you're looking for a rapid deployment with a shorter learning curve, then a framework might be better in this situation. Thanks, Ash http://www.ashleysheridan.co.uk