PHP Framework

A simple mvc framework for building web applications.
The framework, written using php8, has the basic features to create web applications, such as a routing system, a complete authentication system, a session management system and other features you can read about below.
The framework is made entirely from scratch. I started this project to understand how various frameworks work (eg Laravel).
It only uses two packages: PHPmailer to manage the sending of emails, and vlucas/phpdotenv, a package to manage environment variables.
Also, tailwind css cdn was used to style the project, but it can be safely removed as it is not necessarily needed.

 

⚠️ This is not production ready yet.
The project lacks tests, and also lacks some security features (csrf protection), which I intend to add anyway.

 

Installation

• Clone the project with "git clone https://github.com/Jordan-Bianco/mvc_framework.git"
• Run the command composer install
• Create the .env file and copy the contents of the .env-example file by entering your credentials
• Run the php migrations.php command in the terminal to create all the tables in your database
• Optionally you can run the command php seed.php to seed the database with a dummy user
• Enter the public folder
• Launch the server with the command php -S localhost:8888

 

🔒 Authentication

The framework has a complete authentication system. From user registration, to password recovery, to account deletion.
All authentication-related routes can be found in the routes folder, in the auth.php file

note The email for the account verification, and the check whether the user is verified or not (in the LoginController), are disabled by default.

• User registration

  • Password hash
  • Send email to verify account
  • Password reset

• Login

  • Session regeneration

• Logout

• Delete account

 

📍 Router

Each route consists of two parameters. The first parameter is the url, the second parameter can be an array, a string or a callback. Depending on the case, the router will call the correct method.
To register a route, (both get and post) the following syntax is used:

$app->router->get('/', [PageController::class, 'home']);
$app->router->post('/login', [LoginController::class, 'login']);
$app->router->get('/', 'home');
$app->router->get('/', function() {
  return 'homepage';
});

To define a route with parameters, just define the parameter name in curly brackets.

$app->router->get('/users/{id}', [UserController::class, 'show']);

 

✔️ Data validation

To validate the data from a form, the Validation class (which is extended by the Request class) is used.
The array containing the form data, the rules specified for the various fields, and a string that refers to the view to be loaded in case of validation errors, are passed to the validate method.

$rules = [
  'email' => ['required', 'email'],
  'password' => ['required'],
];
$validated = $request->validate($_POST, $rules, '/login');

If there are no validation errors, the $validated variable will contain the sanitized and validated data entered by the user.
The list that refers to the validation rules, and related messages, is contained in the Validation class, in the $availableRules array.

protected $availableRules = [
  'required' => 'Il campo :field: è obbligatorio.',
  'email' => 'Il campo :field: deve contenere un indirizzo email valido.',
  'alpha_dash' => 'Il campo :field: può contenere solo lettere, numeri, trattini e underscore.',
  ...
];

The rules where placeholders are contained, are specified as follows:

'password_confirm' => ['required', 'match:password'],

 

🔄 Migrations

Each class inside the migrations folder contains an up method, through which it is possible to interact with the database.
It is possible to create or delete tables, as well as add or remove fields from existing tables.
The migrations system is managed within the core\database folder, in the Database.php file.
To apply the various migrations, the migrations.php file is called from the terminal, to which one of the following flags can be passed:

• drop, which drops all the tables.
• truncate, which removes all data within the tables.

 

🚫 Middleware

Each middleware is registered inside the core\middlewares folder and must extend the BaseMiddleware class.
Each new middleware must implement the execute method, within which the logic is implemented.

public function execute()
  {
    if (!Application::$app->session->isLoggedIn()) {
      Application::$app->response->redirect('/login');
    }
  }

To apply middleware to a controller, pass it in the constructor, and call the registerMiddleware method.
It is also necessary to pass into the middleware constructor an array containing the methods on which to apply the middleware.

public function __construct()
  {
    parent::__construct();

    $this->registerMiddleware(new GuestMiddleware(['login']));
  }

 

👷 Query Builder

The Query Builder class is used to interact with the database and perform operations on it. This class has access to the PDO instance.
To run a query, you call the builder method on the app instance. Then you can chain the methods to create queries, from the simplest to the most complex.

note Occasionally it is possible to pass raw queries, using the raw method.

$user = $this->app->builder
  ->select()
  ->from('users')
  ->get();


$usersCount = Application::$app->builder
  ->count()
  ->from('users')
  ->getCount();


$users = Application::$app->builder
  ->select(['id', 'username'])
  ->from('users')
  ->where('id', $id)
  ->andWhere('verified', true)
  ->first();


$users = Application::$app->builder
  ->select(['users.id, users.username, count(posts.id) as post_count',])
  ->from('users')
  ->join('posts', 'user_id', 'users', 'id')
  ->groupBy('users.id')
  ->get();

 

⚡ Flash messages

The withValidationErrors() method is used to save flash messages in the session.
This method accepts an array of errors. The following code is located in the Validation.php class.

Application::$app->response->redirect($url)
  ->withValidationErrors($this->errors)
  ->withOldData($data);

The getValidationErrors() method is used to show the errors to the user. If no parameter is passed, the function will return all errors.

<?php foreach (Application::$app->session->getValidationErrors() as $error) : ?>

If a parameter is passed, only the error relating to the passed parameter will be returned.

<?= Application::$app->session->getValidationErrors('email') ?>

The withOldData() method, on the other hand, returns the user's inputs in case of an error.
To return the data entered by the user in the form, in the event of an error, the following syntax is used.

value = "<?= Application::$app->session->getOldData('email') >"