SoFunction
Updated on 2025-04-12

20 very useful PHP class libraries to accelerate php development

Chart library

The following class library allows you to create complex charts and images in a simple way. Of course, they require support from the GD library.

pChart- A library that can create statistics graphs.

Libchart- This is also a simple statistical gallery.

JpGraph- An object-oriented image creation class.

Open Flash Chart- This is a Flash-based statistical graph.

RSS Analysis

Explaining RSS is not a very monotonous thing, but fortunately you have the following class library that can help you read RSS feeds easily.

MagpieRSS- Open source PHP version of RSS parser, said to be powerful and unverified.

SimplePie- This is a very fast and easy-to-use RSS and Atom parsing library.

Thumbnail generation

phpThumb- The function is very powerful, you should experience it yourself.

Pay

Your website needs to handle payments? Need a program with payment gateway? The following program can help you.

PHP Payment Library- Supports Paypal, and 2Checkout (2CO)

OpenID

PHP-OpenID- A PHP library that supports OpenID. OpenID is a solution to help you log in to different websites with the same username and password. If you are not familiar with OpenID, you can check it out here:/

Data is an abstract/object relationship mapped ORM

ADOdb- Database Abstraction

Doctrine- Object relational mapper (ORM) , requiring version 5.2.3+, a very powerful database abstraction layer (DBAL).

Propel- Object Relationship Mapping Framework - PHP5

Outlet- Also a tool about object relational mapping.

Note: Object Relational Mapping (ORM) is a technology to solve the phenomenon of mismatch between object-oriented and relational databases. Simply put, ORM automatically persists objects in the program into a relational database by using metadata that describes the mapping between the object and the database. Essentially, it is to convert data from one form to another. This also implies additional execution overhead; however, if ORM is implemented as a middleware, there will be many opportunities to optimize, which does not exist in the handwritten persistence layer. More importantly, the metadata used to control the transformation needs to be provided and managed; but again, these costs are less than maintaining handwritten solutions; and even object databases that comply with ODMG specifications still require class-level metadata.

PDF Generator

FPDF- This amount is a pure PHP class library that allows you to generate PDFs.

Excel Related

Your site needs to generate Excel? No problem, the following two library libraries can make it easy for you to do this.

php-excel- This is a very simple Excel file generation class.

PHP Excel Reader- Can parse and read data in XLS files.

E-Mail Related

Don't like PHP's mail function? Feeling not strong enough? The following PHP email-related libraries will definitely not disappoint you.

Swift Mailer- Free super versatile PHP mail library.

PHPMailer - Super powerful mail sending class.

Unit Testing

If you are developing your program using test-driven methods, the following class libraries and frameworks are absolutely helpful for you to develop.

SimpleTest- A framework for PHP unit testing and web testing.

PHPUnit- From the xUnit family, it provides a framework that allows you to easily perform unit testing case development. And it can be analyzed very easily.