MVC Architecture Overview

PHP MVC architecture

Bootstrapping Application

Webroot: /public

Use <?php echo WEBROOT; ?> to retrieve the webroot from within views

Entry point for the whole application: /public/index.php

The index.php file will require all the components from /app/bootstrap.php which will load all necessary libraries and helpers

index.php file will then create a new Router object which will handle all URL rerouting requests, this object is reloaded each time there is a change in URL(see below)

Core components

URL rerouting

• url will look similar to: "http://localhost/infs3202project", then any other sections appended form the url request separated by '/'
• "http://localhost/infs3202project/$1/$2/$3"
  • $1 = controller (located in /app/controllers)
  • $2 = method (function contained in controller object)
  • $3 onwards = parameters to method

bootstrap.php

• will load /app/config/config.php which defines all global variables for db connection, and root and url paths
• Autoload classes instantiated (only classes from /app/core)

/controllers

• Must extend Controllers class in /app/libraries
• Should be named with capital for first letter and class name must be same as file name e.g. "Users"
• First entry point for loading a module, controller then loads view and model(if required)

/models

• Should be named with capital for first letter and class name must be same as file name e.g. "UsersModel"
• If model required database connection, create new Database() in constructor and save as property to object
• For queries on db, create method in model, and within that call $this->db->query($sql) then bind any necessary values (sanitizes query) then call resultSet() or single() both of which will execute then return the query. (default fetch mode is object)

/views

• separated into sub folders based on name of controller (must be all lowercase for folder name), this allows for multiple views for a single controller (use different methods to load views)
• To change to a different view/page use URL rerouting add href="/controller/method/params"