Web:Extend was officially created in 2006. Work began in 2005 on various modules that would lead to the creation of this framework. The goal at the time was to make a form generator to simplify form handling and validation. This form generator has since been rewritten three times, leading to the current implementation that uses XSL stylesheets to transform an XML into HTML, along with SimpleXML for manipulation and validation.
Web:Extend was created because no framework used the full power of PHP5 at the time, and in many respects this remains true today. Most of the power of PHP5 comes from the SPL and from the SimpleXML extensions. Interfaces such as Iterator and ArrayAccess are incorporated to simplify the process. They are frequently used throughout this product when this is considered to be the most sensible option.
The current goals are:
To provide a simple, consistent but also powerful API for common operations
To reduce development time using the framework
To build a high-performance application framework
To allow extensibility through a simple-to-use plugin system
To enhance security through the inclusion of automated prevention mechanisms
To make available extensive resources to accompany the framework, including documentation and tutorials