Solar is a web application framework for PHP 5. It uses concepts derived from the Savant template system, the DB_Table object-relation management package, and the organizational structure of PEAR.

Solar is the brainchild of Paul M. Jones who winkingly calls himself the "Benevolent Dictator" of the Solar system. Other developers are working on additional components for the standard project distribution package, all under the New BSD license.

Why Use Solar?

  • Elegant and consistent: the code base itself is easy to comprehend, adheres to well-documented naming conventions, and exhibits strong conceptual integrity.
  • Full name-spacing: Solar classes have their own PHP 5.2 name-space, and vendors developing to Solar standards also use their own name-space. This makes it easy to mix and match components from other libraries and frameworks.
  • Inheritable configuration by class: Set a value in the config file for one class, and all its children inherit those values by default.
  • Inheritable localization by class: Set the locale strings for a class, and all its children inherit those strings.
  • Easy-to use defense-in-depth against SQL injection, cross-site scripting, and other common exploits.
  • Sane and extensible data filtering to validate and sanitize user input.
  • Authentication adapters for LDAP, TypeKey, database, htpasswd, and other sources.
  • Cache adapters for memcache, APC, XCache, and other systems.
  • View helpers for links, images, stylesheets, localized text, form generation, and more.
  • Active and friendly community: Join the mailing list and IRC where we make it point to be nice.
  • Thorough integration of enterprise development patterns, such as:
    • Data Mapper
    • Dependency Injection and Service Locator
    • Lazy Load
    • Model View Controller
    • Query Object
    • Registry
    • Server Session State

Source: Solar