How to Lookup Languages and Frameworks Used for Popular Sites?

[FanIn80]

Is there a relatively simple way to discern which language and framework a site uses? I mean, other than viewing the source code and trying to eyeball certain characteristics.

There must be a website out there that has already compiled this info...

(I found http://langpop.com It's pretty helpful, but still not really what I'm looking for.)

[yads]

It's pretty hard to figure out from generated HTML what the framework that was used to generate it. Some languages have tell tale signs like ASP.NET WebForms will obviously have aspx pages and other stuff like ViewData in the source. Rails apps will have references to prototype, etc.

Try asking this on stackoverflow.com

Out of curiosity why do you want this info?

[photon]

Yeah I can't think of a simple way, once the markup is generated there's no actual code from the server side language or framework left.

As you say, there'll be certain characteristics shared by sites made with the same framework (for example) because they use specific naming conventions, or have specific look if they haven't been radically reskinned (CMSes like Joomla or Drupal, or wikis), and some sites will have specific things like if it was served up by Tomcat you know Java was involved or if it's an IIS webserver .NET is likely, but most non-IIS sites have an Apache or other webserver front-end to them, so even that might be hard to tell.

[FanIn80]

My Senior Project is coming up in a couple months, and my partner and I were discussing which language/framework combination to use...

Since the idea is to conceptualize and complete an entire "real-world" project from beginning to end, we wanted to use technologies that are prevalent in the real-world. The thing is, everyone has different opinions on which way to go and who's using what. It's tough to get an unbiased opinion, since everyone is used to using what they regularly use and are hesitant to suggest something else.

Anyway, this conversation led me to the (so I thought) brilliant idea of compiling a list of sites I use daily, plus the top 10 sites on Alexa, and then list all the techs those sites use. Whichever language/framework is listed most often, that was the one we were going to go with.

Unfortunately, I took for granted that this information was going to be readily accessible.


Edit: I think we're just going to go with Ruby/Rails. PHP/Cake and Python/Django are also on the table, but Ruby excites me more for some reason (and I get the impression they're all fairly transferable, in terms of skillsets). We're learning C#/.NET in class, so that would be the easy way, but I just can't help but wonder how many companies are running IIS instead of Apache.

[yads]

If it's for a school project RoR is a great idea to use. There is a lot of behind the scenes magic and it's quite easy to get a lot with out writing a lot of code. That said, coming from a C# background takes some getting used to when you start learning Ruby and the Rails framework. There is also a lot of outdated info online. You'll find a code snippet that works, but it's for 2 releases earlier.

ASP.NET MVC is another great option especially if you're already familiar with C# and .NET in general. There are a lot of resources out there and a lot of robust frameworks/libraries. One downside is be prepared to write some javascript and learn jQuery, if you want to have AJAX support.

I don't have any experience with Cake or Django frameworks, but my understanding is that they are very similar to Rails.

[photon]

Groovy / Grails!

[FanIn80]

Oh yeah, I keep forgetting about that combo... it's Java-based, no?

[photon]

Yeah, I'm using it for a project right now and am liking it so far. It's based on Spring and Hibernate and other robust established Java stuff, so it's got the support and history I want to see and it's familiar, and you can write Java right in the groovy files if you want, or import other Java stuff.

Let me get into a newfangled framework without abandoning the security blanket of Java

[FanIn80]

Dammit, now I'm looking at Grails too.

Rails vs Django vs Grails... Oh man. I'm back where I started from.

Edit: I just started looking into it. I see something about how Grails is either Rails, or is similar to it? Also, does it require a local VM, or is all the java stuff server side?
Edit: Also, the more I look into this, the more I wonder if RoR really is the way to go. I think it might be between Django and Grails now. I'm really concerned about performance issues with RoR.

[photon]

Grails is very similar to Rails, but it all runs on a Java VM and can interface with and leverage existing Java code.

If you run into performance issues with RoR, you'll be in a position to have the $$ to deal with it

[FanIn80]

Originally Posted by photon

If you run into performance issues with RoR, you'll be in a position to have the $$ to deal with it

Ha! That's actually a pretty good point.

[llama64]

Whatever you do, don't do the PHP/Symfony combo for a school project.
Great framework (based on Rails), but help/documentation was non-existent.

General rule of thumb - pick the language that you and your partner are most comfortable with, then choose the best framework for that language. So if both of you are best with PHP, you'll have an easier time with PHP/Cake then you would trying to develop your project while trying to learn Ruby/Python at the same time. Basically, focus on the project, not the technology. The end user isn't going to care what the platform was, just that it works.

Some advice: a PHP project is ridiculously easy to get going since the technology is baseline everywhere on every host/server right out of the box. Plus, PHP powers the two largest open-source CMS' out there: Wordpress and Drupal. Knowing anything about either of those systems (beyond basic templating) will help you find work.

Plus, Drupal will teach you a fundamentally different approach to development beyond the OO dogma that schools teach.

[calculoso]

Don't forget about Joomla.. the newest version is supposedly much better than previous versions, and it is used on like 3% of sites on the 'net (compared to 1% for Drupal).

[FanIn80]

What's the most popular PHP framework right now? Is it still Cake?