If you are a software, web or app developer then you don’t need to create or design your project from scratch by writing your own code for every functionality like database calls, security features, etc. A framework is a software which provides facility to develop applications in a faster way.
In this tutorial, I am going to share with you what is Framework and difference between library and framework with an example? Let’s see…
What is framework?
A framework is a software or tool that is developed and tested by several experienced developers to build an application quickly. A software framework is used by developers to create a project in a very easy way and for better security features.
As we all know that software development is a very complex process and framework makes it easier to develop software applications. Framework knows what to do but they don’t know how to do it?
Let’s see a real-life example of a framework. A juice machine knows what to do with items but they don’t know how to do it? It totally depends on the juice man that how they can make juice of any fruits with the help of that machine.
A man could make juice without juice machine but they choose a machine to make juice because the juice machine will squeeze the fruit and make the juice quickly and easily. Machine saved time of juice man and also kept secure their juice because the juice machine has security features to keep secure juice.
In the same way, frameworks are used to develop applications. Developers could write their own code to develop all low level and high-level functionality of the project but they choose framework because it has already developed low-level functionality. So, they need to focus only on high-level functionality and this saves time and effort of the developer.
Why do we use the framework?
As I already told, the developer can develop an application without using any framework. They choose a framework option to develop an application because the framework has already low-level functionality or abstraction features code like security features, database calls, URL SEO features, etc.
There are following advantages of using a framework to develop an application:
- We can develop applications quickly
- We don’t need to focus on low-level functionality
- Code is more secure
- Duplicate code is avoided.
- Writing code is very easy and easy to understand
- It makes URL SEO Friendly
Difference between Library and Framework
There are some people who understand that the Library and Framework both are the same but both are not the same. Some people tell that the framework is a collection of libraries and the library is a collection of pre-compiled routines. However, that is not true because all software framework does not contain only libraries. Let’s see the real difference.
The library is a collection of pre-compiled routines (functions, procedures, etc.) which is used to perform a specific task. Its function is called from external code. It doesn’t control the workflow of any project. While the framework is a tool that provides the facility to write code in an organized way internally. It controls the whole structure of the project.
In simple language, we can say that there is no any restriction to use a library but there is a restriction to use a framework that means there are pre-defined sections in a framework where we need to write code. We cannot write code anywhere in the framework.
Let’s see with an example. A student can throw their T-shirt, books anywhere in their own home but if he/she goes to school then there are some restrictions to sit in the school, keep books in the proper way, etc.
In the above example, a student will call T-shirt, books when it will require but the school will call a student and manage those students according to their rule.
In the same way, our code calls the library function. Here, our code is caller and library codes are callee, and this process is called in control. While in the case of a framework, the process gets inverted which means framework code calls user functions, this reverts the traditional control flow that’s why it is called IoC (Inversion of Control).
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Conclusion
To use the framework, you must have some basic knowledge of programming knowledge. For example, if you want to use the Laravel framework, you must have knowledge of the PHP programming language.
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