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What is Yii
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===========
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Yii is a high performance, component-based PHP framework for rapidly developing modern Web applications.
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The name Yii (pronounced `Yee` or `[ji:]`) means simple and evolutionary in Chinese. It can also
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be considered as the acronym for **Yes It Is**!
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What is Yii Best for?
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---------------------
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Yii is a generic Web programming framework, meaning that it can be used for developing all kinds
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of Web applications based on PHP. Because of its component-based architecture and sophisticated caching
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support, it is especially suitable for developing large-scale applications such as portals, forums, content
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management systems (CMS), e-commerce projects, RESTful Web services, and so on.
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How does Yii Compare with Other Frameworks?
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-------------------------------------------
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- Like most PHP frameworks, Yii implements the MVC (Model-View-Controller) design pattern and promotes code
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organization based on this pattern.
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- Yii takes the philosophy that code should be written in a simple yet elegant way. It will never try to
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over-design things mainly for the purpose of following some design pattern.
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- Yii is a full-stack framework providing many proven and ready-to-use features, such as query builders
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and ActiveRecord supporting relational and NoSQL databases, RESTful API development support, multi-tier
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caching support, etc.
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- Yii is extremely extensible. You can customize or replace nearly every piece of core code. You can also
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take advantage of its solid extension architecture, use or develop redistributable extensions.
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- High performance is always a primary goal of Yii.
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Yii is not a one-man show, it is backed up by a [strong core developer team][] as well as a large community
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with many professionals who are constantly contributing to the development of Yii. The Yii developer team
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is keeping a close eye on the latest trends of Web development and the best practices and features
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found in other frameworks and projects. They are being carefully incorporated into the core framework and exposed
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via simple and elegant interfaces.
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[strong core developer team]: http://www.yiiframework.com/about/
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Yii Versions
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Yii has two major versions available currently: 1.1 and 2.0. Version 1.1 is the old generation and is
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currently under maintenance mode. Version 2.0 is a complete rewrite of Yii by adopting the latest
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technologies and protocols, such as Composer, PSR, namespaces, traits, etc. Version 2.0 represents the latest
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generation of the framework and will receive our main development efforts in the next few years.
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This guide is mainly about version 2.0.
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Requirements and Prerequisites
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------------------------------
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Yii 2.0 requires PHP 5.4.0 or above. You may find out more detailed requirements for individual features
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by running the requirement checker included in every release.
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Using Yii requires basic knowledge about object-oriented programming (OOP), as Yii is a pure OOP-based framework.
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Yii 2.0 also makes use of the latest features of PHP, such as [namespaces](http://www.php.net/manual/en/language.namespaces.php),
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[traits](http://www.php.net/manual/en/language.oop5.traits.php). Understanding these concepts will help
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you pick up Yii 2.0 more easily.
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