MooTools is a Web Framework object oriented for JavaScript. It is opensource, compact and modular. Its aim is to provide a single way of JavaScript development for all web browsers in an elegant way.

MooTools gives a well documented API, focused to implement all the standards supported by all web browsers.

Taken from Desarrolloweb.com, January 2011

PHP is an interpreted programming language, originally designed to create dynamic web pages. Its main use is server-side scripting, but today it can also be used on a command line or alogn with graphic interface software using libraries such as Qt or GTK+. It can be deployed on most web servers and operating systems without cost. PHP is already installed in more than 20 million websites and a million servers. Since august 2005, PHP has shared this preponderant place with other new but not so powerful languages. Sites that trust this language go from Wikipedia to Facebook. It is also the most popular Apache module. The latest version released is the 5.3.4 on December 10, 2010.

Highlights:

• It's a multi platform language. Completeley oriented to the development of dynamic web applications with access to a database.
• The source code is invisible to the browser and to the client since the server executes the code and sends an HTML result to the browser. This makes PHP safe and trusted.
• It can be connected to most databases used nowadays. Specially with MySQL and PostgreSQL.
• It can be widely expanded using all the available modules called extensions.
• There is a lot of documentation at its official website. All functions are explained with examples within a single help file
• It's free, which makes it a great choice for everyone
• Supports object oriented programming
• A wide native library of useful functions.
• Does not require variable type definition even though its variables can be evaluated by the value they are carrying at execution time.
• Supports exception handling (begins with PHP5).
• Even though PHP does not force the programmer to follow a determined methodology, it is still oriented to be used with one. The developer can apply any technique he wants keeping an organized environment with a structured and manageable code. An example of this is MVC oriented development using PHP

Taken from Wikipedia, February 2010

MySQLis a relational database manager. Multithread and multiuser, it has more than six millions of installations worldwide. MySQL AB — since January 2008 is part of Sun Microsystems and this is in turn part of the Oracle Corporation since April 2009.

One of the licensing types is the GNU GPL for any use compatible with this licensing. But for those companies who want to incorporate it inside privatibe products, there is a specific type of licensing special for this purpose. It is developed mostly on ANSI C.

In contrast with projects like Apache, where software is developed by a public community and the copyright is owned by each developer. MySQL is propietary and is sponsored by a private company who owns most of the code. This is what makes the previous mentioned licensing scheme possible. In addition, the company offers support and services. For their operations, they hire people from around the world who collaborate via internet. MySQL AB was initially started by David Axmark, Allan Larsson and Michael Widenius.

Taken from Wikipedia, February 2010

Smarty is a template engine for PHP. It divides the PHP as the business logic from the HTML code as the frontend logic. Generates web contents through the use of tags inside each document. It is licensed under LGPL for free use.

It is common that in big projects, the graphic designer and the developer are different people. Nevertheless, PHP tends to combine these two roles into a single developer bringing some difficulties to the process of modifying the page design since the code is all mixed up with the design. Smarty is focused on solving precisely this problem.

Smarty allows to develop templates with a great amount of functionalities such as: regular expressions while and foreach loops if, elseif, else variable modifiers - {$variable|nl2br} user defined functions math expressions evaluation

Taken from Wikipedia, February 2010

Prototype is a framework developed in JavaScript oriented to the development of small and dynamic web applications. This tool implements AJAX techniques and its potential is maximized by Ruby On Rails.

With the onset of Web 2.0, the development techniques for websites demanded a big step. Having this in mind, AJAX was born. Thanks to Prototype, agile and simpler development was possible. On the client side, it is faster to access the required services. This framework is based on JavasScript and is focused on the development of AJAX techniques ready to use.

Before Prototype can be used, first the AJAX concept must be clear. It derives from Ashyncronous JavaScript And XML. Putting it simple, AJAX is a technique on web development where the browser can submit specific requests to the server without sending and receiving the whole page. It requests specific data from the server and allows for dynamic display without refreshing the whole page.

Taken from Wikipedia, February 2010