20 Years of ThinkPHP—A Chronicle of Chinese Web Development

Table of Contents

1. Milestones of Key Versions
2. ThinkPHP 8.1.3: The "Meticulous" Routing System
3. Logging System: From "Can Record" to "Easy to Analyze"
4. Other Important Updates
5. Upgrade Tips for 8.1.3
6. Personal Insights: The Unique Charm of ThinkPHP
7. Practical Advice: How to Make the Most of ThinkPHP 8.1.3
8. ThinkPHP's Real Impact on the Chinese Internet Industry
9. Comparison with Other Mainstream PHP Frameworks
10. Future Outlook and Suggestions

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Milestones of Key Versions

Initial Stage: The Birth of ThinkPHP (2006-2010)

• In 2006, FCS (the predecessor of ThinkPHP) was born, compatible with PHP4.*.
• On New Year's Day 2007, it was officially renamed ThinkPHP and released under the Apache2 license.
• Borrowed ideas from Java Web framework Struts, introduced the MVC pattern, and lowered the threshold for PHP web development.
• Chinese documentation, active community, and low entry barrier made it the first choice for beginners and small projects.

Golden Age: The Glory of the 3.x Series (2010-2015)

• Version 3.0 introduced the CBD (Core+Behavior+Driver) architecture, enhancing flexibility and scalability.
• 3.x became the "standard configuration" for PHP development in China, reaching its market share peak.

Transformation Era: The Disruptive 5.x Series (2015-2020)

• 5.0 was a complete rewrite, designed for API development, introducing many new PHP features.
• Greatly improved performance and modernization, meeting the needs of APIs and microservices.

Maturity: Continuous Evolution of 6.x-8.x (2020-2025)

• PHP 7/8 brought performance leaps, ThinkPHP continued to optimize its core, becoming more modular and ecosystem-oriented.
• Official extensions support Swoole/Workerman, entering the high-performance field.
• Version 8.0 introduced many new features, consolidating its leading position in China.

ThinkPHP's Real Impact on the Chinese Internet Industry

ThinkPHP is not just a technical framework, but also a witness to the rapid development of China's internet industry. Countless startups, government websites, and SMEs have chosen ThinkPHP as their preferred development framework. Its low threshold and high efficiency have helped generations of developers quickly realize product prototypes, promoting the popularization and innovation of web applications in China.

For example, many well-known O2O platforms, educational websites, and content management systems (CMS) were initially developed based on ThinkPHP. Even today, many projects still use ThinkPHP for rapid iteration and launch.

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ThinkPHP 8.1.3: The "Meticulous" Routing System

1. Routing Parsing Speed Increased by 30%

• Introduced the prefix tree (Trie Tree) algorithm, reducing the use of regular expressions.
• In complex applications, response time dropped from 8ms to 5.6ms.

// Example of route definition in 8.1.3
Route::get('user/:id', 'User/read')
    ->where('id', '\d+')
    ->cache(3600); // New route cache mechanism

2. "Smart Compilation" of Dynamic Routes

• Complex route expressions are automatically compiled into reusable closures, avoiding repeated parsing.

// Before optimization
Route::get('article/:cat/:id', 'Article/read')
    ->where(['cat' => '\w+', 'id' => '\d+']);
// After 8.1.3: automatic cache of compiled results

3. Subdirectory Grouping for Routes

• New support for subdirectory grouping, automatically scans and registers groups, making large project management easier.

// Example of subdirectory route grouping
group('admin', function () {
    // Automatically loads all route files under route/admin
})->prefix('admin/');

// Manually specify subdirectories
group('admin', function () {
    Route::load(__DIR__ . '/admin/user.php');
    Route::load(__DIR__ . '/admin/order.php');
})->middleware('AdminAuth');

Advantages:

• Routes are split by module, facilitating team collaboration
• Automatic scanning reduces manual registration
• Subdirectory structure matches URL, easy to maintain

4. Route Version Detection: Easier API Version Management

// Example of route version detection
Route::group('api', function () {
    Route::get('user', 'Api/User/index');
})->version('v1')->header('Accept', '/v1/');

// Multiple versions coexist
Route::group('api', function () {
    Route::get('user', 'Api/V2/User/index');
})->version('v2')->header('Accept', '/v2/');

• Automatically routes to the corresponding version controller based on request headers or URL, solving API compatibility issues.

5. Other Routing Optimizations

• Support for MISS route binding in groups
• More flexible group method
• Automatic, more standardized route name generation
• Middleware inheritance issue fixed

Best Practices:

• Use static routes for high-frequency addresses
• Enable ->cache() for routes with complex parameter constraints
• Avoid overly complex regular expressions in route rules
• Enable app_route_optimize = true in production
• Use subdirectory grouping for large projects
• Use the version method for API projects
• Regularly run php think route:list to check for redundant routes

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Logging System: From "Can Record" to "Easy to Analyze"

1. "Precise Delivery" of Graded Logs

• New channel filtering mechanism, automatically distributes logs to different storage based on level.

'channels' => [
    'file' => [
        'type' => 'file',
        'levels' => ['debug', 'info', 'notice', 'warning', 'error']
    ],
    'elk' => [
        'type' => 'socket',
        'levels' => ['error', 'critical', 'alert', 'emergency']
    ]
]

2. 60% Reduction in Performance Overhead

• Asynchronous writing and buffering mechanism solve blocking under high concurrency.

QPS	Before Optimization	Version 8.1.3
100	120ms	48ms
500	580ms	230ms

3. Enhanced Observability

• Built-in trace_id, easily associate logs throughout the request lifecycle.

Log::info('User login', ['user_id' => 123]);
// Log output contains trace_id

4. Log Writing Optimization

• Accurate log time, buffering reduces IO, improves performance.

[
    'time' => '2025-07-16 10:30:15.123',
    'type' => 'info',
    'message' => 'User login',
    'trace_id' => '8f7d6c5b-4a3b-2c1d-0e9f-8a7b6c5d4e3f',
    'user_id' => 123
]

Best Practices:

• Write important logs to both local and remote
• Enable log_async = true in production
• Use trace_id for distributed tracing
• Regularly clean up expired logs
• Use php think optimize:config to optimize log configuration

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Other Important Updates

1. Core Exception Class Adjustment: Unified exception handling mechanism.
2. ModelService Compatible with orm4.0: Paves the way for future upgrades.
3. Middleware Optimization: More flexible control of middleware execution.

$this->withoutMiddleware(\app\middleware\Check::class)
     ->get('user', 'User/index');

4. New Optimization Commands:
   • php think optimize:config to optimize config loading
   • php think route:list/php think optimize:route support subdirectory grouping

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Upgrade Tips for 8.1.3

1. Route Compatibility Issues
   Some complex regex routes need adjustment:

// Old way
Route::get('news-<year:\d{4}>-<month:\d{2}>', 'News/archive');
// Recommended way
Route::get('news-:year-:month', 'News/archive')
    ->where(['year' => '\d{4}', 'month' => '\d{2}']);

2. Log Configuration Migration
   Old configuration needs to be split into channels:

php think log:migrate

3. Performance Tuning Parameters

// config/app.php recommended configuration
'app_route_optimize' => true,    // Route precompilation
'log_async' => true,             // Asynchronous logging
'log_buffer_size' => 100,        // Log buffer size

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Personal Insights: The Unique Charm of ThinkPHP

As a developer who has used ThinkPHP for nearly ten years, I deeply feel its unique quality: balance.
It is not as feature-rich but bloated as Laravel, nor as lightweight as CodeIgniter.
It finds a sweet spot between simplicity and functionality, especially suitable for the habits of Chinese developers—quick to get started and practical.

For example, in a recent project, we used ThinkPHP 8.1.3 to build an enterprise-level API for user authentication and order management. The optimized route grouping made our URL structure clear, and log grading allowed the operations team to quickly locate problems. Compared to Laravel, ThinkPHP's lightweight design allows us to maintain high performance even on small and medium servers.

But ThinkPHP is not perfect.

• Weak international documentation, limited English community, making it difficult for overseas developers to get started.
• Past security vulnerabilities (such as CVE-2018-20062) remind us to turn off debug mode and update versions promptly in production.

Comparison with Other Mainstream PHP Frameworks

Framework	Ease of Use	Community Activity	Performance	Ecosystem	Internationalization
ThinkPHP	★★	★★★★	★★★	★★★	★
Laravel	★★★	★★★★★	★★★	★★★★★	★★★★★
CodeIgniter	★	★★	★★	★★	★★★
Yii2	★★★	★★★	★★★	★★★	★★★★

ThinkPHP is more suitable for Chinese developers, while Laravel has more advantages in the international market and large projects.

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Practical Advice: How to Make the Most of ThinkPHP 8.1.3

• Make good use of route caching: Run php think optimize:route in production to reduce route parsing time.
• Log grading and monitoring: Configure log levels as needed, and use ELK or Sentry for real-time monitoring.
• Security first: Turn off debug mode (APP_DEBUG = false) and regularly check for official updates.
• Embrace PHP 8.x: Use JIT compilation and type system to improve code performance and maintainability.
• Community resources: Join the official forum or QQ group to communicate with other developers.

Future Outlook and Suggestions

With the popularization of PHP 8.x and the continuous evolution of web development models, ThinkPHP is also actively adapting to new technologies such as Swoole coroutines and cloud-native architecture. In the future, ThinkPHP is expected to maintain its leading position in the Chinese market, and we also look forward to greater breakthroughs in internationalization and ecosystem construction.

Suggestions for developers:

• Follow official documentation and community updates to stay informed about new features.
• Make good use of modern PHP tools such as Composer to improve development efficiency.
• Actively participate in the open-source community, contribute code or documentation, and promote the prosperity of the ThinkPHP ecosystem.

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