What can be the best Practice for a Rapid Web Application Development?

I am coming up with a web application which will be primarily based on PHP. I would like to know some of the best practices and technologies that I can make use of to come out with the app as fast as possible. My team will be working remotely, so I want to know the best ways of collaborating through web resources too. I’m expecting in here, the options or a framework of technologies that can get me a great app in a shorter time. I’ve given a small example out here. Please extend my plan and give me suggestions…

1. Server Side Scripting – PHP (CakePHP for rapid development)
2. Client Side Scripting – JS (JQuery – A JS framework for rapid development and compatibility)
3. Authentication – OpenId
4. Database – MySQL (Stable and OpenSource)

I want more to be added to this list so that I code less and reuse more. Please help me out.

Reusability is the key factor. How do I leverage already available classes, frameworks, etc in an efficient way? I want to know my options.

Answer

• Try to find a framework that suit your needs. If you want reusability, make sure you learn/understand the concept of the MVC pattern (OOP). I personally work with Zend-Framework which has a very big community.

  (However, a good practice is building your own framework. Look at other frameworks and learn about the pro’s and cons.)

• Every project starts with an UML design: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unified_Modeling_Language

• Don’t try to invent the wheel again, for example: learn/play with the 960 css grid http://960.gs, jQuery and different database-types.

• Documentate everything!

• Test everything http://simpletest.org

• use subversion for easy access of previous versions of your project http://subversion.net

Good luck!!