PHP-Micro-Framework

A PHP Micro Framework i created to help me concentrate on the features of my PHP projects as rather than concentrating on PHP details.

Lets begin with the folder structure:

|--PHP-Micro-framework
    |--env.php
    |--routes.php
    |--app
        |--dirs.php
        |--init.php
        |--core
            |-- Core files needed by the framework
        |--handlers
            |--All controllers are found here
        |--views
            |--All views are found here
    |--public
        |--.htaccess
        |--index.php
        |--css
            |--All css files
        |--js
            |--All js files
        |--images
            |--All image files
        |--fonts
            |--All fonts

START THE SERVER

Let us use php built-in server to start

php -S localhost:8080 -t path\to\PHP-Micro-framework\public will start a serve in the public folder

BASIC HTTP REQUEST LIFE-CYCLE

Assuming localhost:8080\my\request is made, it is converted to localhost:8080\index.php?url="\my\request"
The application then uses the ROUTES variable in /PHP-Micro-framework/routes.php to find an array that its first value matches the url GET value in the request. The second value of the array found is then used to load a handler of the same name in the handlers folder. If the request was a GET request, the getmethod of that handler is called, likewise if the request was a post request, the post method is called.

Example:

Assume there is ["^account\/login\/?$", "Login"] array in ROUTES
If a request localhost:8080\account\login is made, a file named loginhandler.php is required in the project from /PHP-Micro-framework/app/handlers, then an object of class LoginHandler is created. This assumes that the file loginhandler.php contains a class called LoginHandler.
If the request was a GET request then the method get is called in Loginhandler class, the same goes for post requests.

CREATING CUSTOM HANDLERS

A handler handles the logic of the app.

Create the handler file and class

A handler is a class found in a file inside the handlers folder. The filename should be the name of the handler with word handler appended to it.

Example: Assuming you want to create a handler called 'user'

1. Create a file called userhandler.php in handlers folder
2. In the file userhandler.php create a class called UserHandler

    class Userhandler extends requestHandler{
        public function get(){
            //This method is called incase of a get request
        }
        public function post(){
            //This method is called incase of a post request
        }
    }

Notice: The class extends a base class requestHandler which has base functions
These functions include:

Method Name	Description
getVar(name[,default])	return GET variable named name(String), optional default is the default value returned if the named value is not found
getAll([default])	returns an Array of all GET variable if any, and optional default if none available.

A function oncreate is also called on all handlers before any other method is called. This onCreate method can be used for setup. For example, it can be used to restrict a handler to only a logged in user. Actually there is a loggedInHandler in core folder used to restrict a handler from being accessed by a user who is not logged in.

class Userhandler extends LoggedInHandler{
    //Code goes here
}

This redirects to login page if the user is not logged in before any action is performed on the handler.

Register a URL to the handler

After creating a handler, you need to define the URL that is used by the handler.
In routes.php add an Array ["^\/user\/?$","User"]
"^\/user\/?$" is a regular expression that the actual request Url is checked against, if the Url matches the expression, "User" handler is loaded and the appropriate method is called either post or get

Note: you can explicitly declare the method to be called using the @ notation i.e. User@handleRequest calls the handleRequest method in UserHandler irregardless of the request method.

CREATING MODELS

A model is a representation of the MySQL database table.
All the models should be in the models folder

The filename, classname of a model should be the same as the name of the MySQL table its representing

Example: Assuming you have a MySQL table named user with fields id, full_name, user_name, age, password

A model representing that table should look like:

class User extends Model{
    public $id;
    public $full_name;
    public $user_name;
    public $age;
    public $password;
}

Note:

1. The file name and MySQL table name should have the same name as the model class.
2. All attributes should have the same names as the column names of the MySQL table being represented.
3. The MySQL table being represented must have a column named id which is a primary key and auto increments this column is used for query operations.
4. The id attribute in a model MUST NOT be altered.

All user-defined models extend a base class Model. Model contains the necessary methods
These methods include:

Method Name	Description
find(id[,tablename])	A static method. Finds a record by id provided and returns an Object based on the tablename(if provided) or the class name used to invoke the method.
get(name,value)	Gets a record where the value in the column name matches the value provided.
clear()	Deletes the record associated to that object from the database. This action is irreversible.
hasOne(modelname)	This is a one to one relationship where the object which this method was called has one relationship with the model having the model name provided. We will revisit this later.
belongsTo(modelname)	This returns an instance of the modelname provided that owns the object which this method is invoked. We will revisit this later.
hasMany(modelname)	This is a one to many relationship. Returns an Array of objects of type modelname which belongs to the Object this method was invoked. We will revisit this later.
toArray()	Returns an associative array of the attributes of this model as keys and value pairs with their values.
toJSON()	Returns a JSON string of the attributes of this object with their values.

Revisit: hasOne method

Example:

Using the user model created earlier, lets assume that the user can only have a single article in their account. then:

class User extends Model{
    public $id;
    public $full_name;
    public $user_name;
    public $age;
    public $password;
    public $article_id;

    public function article(){
        //This returns an object of type article here article id == $this->article_id
        return $this->hasOne("Article");
    }
}

hasOne method uses the modelname_id attribute in the calling object to fetch the required model.

Revisit: BelongsTo method

Example: Using the user model created earlier, we assume that a user owns an article. We wold have an article model:

class Article extends Model{
    public $id;
    public $title;
    public $content;
    public $created_at;
    public $user_id;

    public function writer(){
        //This returns an object of type user where user id == $this->user_id
        return $this->belongsTo("User");
    }
}

Revisit: hasMany method

Example: Using the user model created earlier, we assume that a user can have many articles. We wold have an article model:

class User extends Model{
    public $id;
    public $full_name;
    public $user_name;
    public $age;
    public $password;

    public function writer(){
        //This returns an array of objects of type articles where articles user_id == $this->id
        return $this->hasMany("Article");
    }
}

Still working on the documentation...

Contribute?

Fork it!
Create your feature branch: git checkout -b my-new-feature
Commit your changes: git commit -m 'Add some feature'
Push to the branch: git push origin my-new-feature
Submit a pull request :D