Hi Guys,
I have a question. I am a beginner SilverStripe developer. i have used SS once as a CMS for a portfolio website and I really enjoyed using it as CMS. i have also used CodeIgniter in the past to develop a php/angular web app. Now i have another upcoming web app project which i was considering learning and using Laravel framework for it. My question is: instead of learning myself Laravel, can i advance my SS knowledge and use it as a PHP framework to create this web app? does SS offers features like other PHP frameworks, allowing the type of development work that can be done with CodeIgniter/Laravel? with my current basic SS knowledge i can only think of SS as a CMS but is SS suitable for web app developments too? thanks

Hi,
I've never just used SilverStripe as a standalone Framework, but - waiting for someone more knowledgable to reply - this is what I think:

Basically I feel you should be able to build anything using DataObjects, custom Controllers, routing and Forms. You'd have to create your own tables and records, but the Dataobject does have functions for that. Sadly there doesn't seem to be too much documentation on actually getting started using SilverStripe as a StandAlone Framework, so in the documentation CMS and Framework do get a bit mixed up...

This is where for instance Laravel differs: al documentation to get started is based on the framework. CMS is seen as 'just' a module, afaik. So if you're only just started on SilverStripe and you need to use a standalone framework-only system, then...

Then again the reason I have not ever used SilverStripe as a standalone framework is because I actually never found a situation where I would be better off dropping the CMS. Because basically what the CMS is, is a system to (1) enter data into and manage a relational database system and (2) have access to a convenient web-page system - if you want it. For instance I once built a simple bookkeeping app, that can be managed totally from within the CMS - no need for pages :) But of course this only applies to web-based applications...

So it would really depend on what you actually want to build...

Hope this helps a bit :)