overview.md

What is Yii
===========

Yii is a high-performance, component-based PHP framework for developing
large-scale Web applications rapidly. It enables maximum reusability in Web
programming and can significantly accelerate your Web application development
process. The name Yii (pronounced `Yee` or `[ji:]`) is an acronym for
**Yes It Is!**.


Requirements
------------

To run a Yii-powered Web application, you need a Web server that supports
PHP 5.3.?.

For developers who want to use Yii, understanding object-oriented
programming (OOP) is very helpful, because Yii is a pure OOP framework.


What is Yii Best for?
---------------------

Yii is a generic Web programming framework that can be used for developing
virtually any type of Web application.  Because it is light-weight and
equipped with sophisticated caching mechanisms, it is especially suited
to high-traffic applications, such as portals, forums, content
management systems (CMS), e-commerce systems, etc.


How does Yii Compare with Other Frameworks?
-------------------------------------------

- Like most PHP frameworks, Yii is an MVC (Model-View-Controller) framework.
- It is a fullstack framework providing many solutions and components such as logging, session management, caching etc.
- It has a good balance of simplicity and features.
- Syntax and overall development usability are taken seriously.
- Performance is one of the key goals.
- We are constantly watching other web frameworks out there and getting the best ideas in. Initial Yii release was heavily
  influenced by Ruby on Rails. Still, we aren't blindly copying anything.