Need your help deciding...

[Karlos94]

I have a few ORMs in mind that I wish to use for a project I have in mind, however I am not sure which one to use. I am asking you to name an ORM that you would personally use which works well with MySQL.

Some current ORMs I have in mind

 

• Doctrine 1.1.5
• Propel 1.4.0
• RedBean 0.8.2

 

Don't worry about repling quickly because I'll be off in 4/5 hours and won't be back till Sunday, but if you can contribute I will be most thankful.

(Mainly targeted at more experienced website developers.)

[a_bertrand]

To be used from MySQL? Honestly I never needed a ORM even from strongly related languages like C# as I do the DB serialization and de-serialization myself.

[Karlos94]

Not from MySQL, but with MySQL.

I normally like to do it myself, but I want a change and see if it can make my life eaiser.. It's nothing permanent, just something I'd like to try out.

[a_bertrand]

Sorry my mistake, I was meaning from PHP.

[Toppy]

Would help to know what the project is. RedBean is a lot different than say Doctrine and Propel. Different philosophies.

Seeing as you mentioned making your life easier I can concentrate on that. For me I think its debatable if adding a third party db interface will make things easier. Every time you have to learn something new and work around it you lose time and generally flexibility (in ease of use, application speed, time, various requirements). Still, I understand the attraction to an ORM and I've dabbled in a few include Propel, Doctrine and several frameworks that use them.

Of the three you listed I would lean towards Doctrine. My reasoning: Doctrine's track record. The project is really on the ball with good documentation, strong releases and release schedule, feature rich and has a good active following. All of which will make things easier for you. Doctine is arguably the big boy now so if you want a good watermark on PHP ORM's then its a place to start. Big bonus is if you end up liking it you won't have to worry about the project falling out from under you.

Of course, as mentioned it depends a lot on the project and the various requirements and parameters related to it.