Absolutely, Dave. 

_PROJECTS

_We are a research center for /Environmental Health Sciences/ under the 
/School of Public Health/. The projects are mostly secure, web-based 
forms and reports as well as some client applications.  Ideally, we 
would like to have all of our applications web-based. Examples of common 
projects we have are:

    * generation of letters, forms, etc for mass mailing
    * dynamic reports in which one can enter criteria for selection
      (e.g., date range, month, year, group, etc.) and select multiple
      sorting
    * LOTS of data entry applications

We're starting to create open-source applications that can be shared 
with other study centers. 

_DATABASE

_We use both MySQL and MSSQL, depending on the study although we would 
like to move to MySQL for all.

_USERS

_We're almost done with converting to Active Directory(AD) so that would 
be our means of authenticating users. Everyone who needs access our 
secure site -- that's most of our users -- must have an AD account.

_OTHERS_

Also, we've recently been building web applications in Groovy and Grails.

Does this help?

David Peterson wrote:
> Hi Simone:
>
> Could you be a bit more specific with the scope of your project? The 
> framework to chose would depend upon what exactly you are trying to 
> accomplish.
>
> Thanks,
>
> Dave
>
> On Wed, Sep 15, 2010 at 2:35 PM, Simone Q. Vuong <[log in to unmask] 
> <mailto:[log in to unmask]>> wrote:
>
>     Has anyone explored using *PHP* with a framework -- I'm
>     considering the *Yii* framework for PHP -- and/or *Ruby on Rails*?
>
>     Could you tell me:
>
>         * what you are using it for,
>         * your pros and cons for using either,
>         * easy of use,
>         * the availability of resources for learning and
>           trouble-shooting,
>         * references you highly recommend, and
>         * anything else you find relevant.
>
>
>     Thank you kindly.
>
>     Simone Vuong
>     Health Studies Section
>
>
>
>
> -- 
> David Peterson
> IT Professional
> Office of Institutional Research
> University of Minnesota
> http://www.oir.umn.edu
>
> 612-625-0914
> [log in to unmask] <mailto:[log in to unmask]>