How do web frameworks..work?

I keep seeing all these cool new frameworks for web dev, but am very开发者_开发知识库 confused, because 95% of the info I read is all just hype, how do they work?

Is it as simple as providing a link in your html to a server that hosts the framework? Or do you have to download the framework, and install it on your own server?

Do web frameworks work with Winhost.com (windows-based hosting with php), or the many other windows-based hosting providers? Sorry if this is a stupid question, but the pages I have visited are very confusing!

Most of the frameworks would require you to download them and re upload them to your hosting.

Since having some crazy requirements would hit the popularity of such framework, most of the populars one tends to have as less as possible requirements. I.e. you don't need to have specific PHP extensions or PHP settings, so it would be possible to use them on any hosting(PHP5 hosting, zf, symphony and other don't play well with PHP4).

In term of what a framework brings you, you can see a framework as a big code base the you can use to make your development faster. You don't have to reinvent the wheel. Plus a framework would force you to code more cleanly.

Generally speaking and in a nutshell, they allow you to generate HTML (with code) instead of providing static pages to the users. This also means you get to code less and don't repeat yourself.

PHP and Ruby on Rails are examples of web frameworks. You have to get them installed on a server.

Here's how it works.

Static HTML page is the oldest type of webpage. You write some HTML code, and when the server receive request from browser it parses the URL and determine which HTML file corresponds to the URL.

Dynamic page, is similar to static HTML page; but instead of writing HTML code, you write PHP/ASP/Python/CGI/etc code that writes HTML code.

As it happens, a lot of dynamic websites shares a large chunk of similar PHP/ASP/Python/CGI/etc code. A web framework is a set of pre-written code someone else have written; so instead of you writing the code, you offload half of the code-writing to the web framework's authors.

Different framework have different requirements. The simplest are just several simple PHP pages you can include() into your own codes (i.e. installing is a matter of copying the PHP pages into the same directory as your own code). The more complex one might reverse the role, they take control how the page is processed (i.e. installation is more involved, they might need to tweak the server's configurations).