This is a template web-application (powered by SlimPHP 3), that can be extended to build more complex web applications.

It adds the Model-View-Controller structure to a SlimPHP3 web-application.

It ships with the Foundation 5 template (http://foundation.zurb.com/).

• PHP 5.5+
• Pdo sqlite (3) extension for Authentication in non-production environments
• Composer (https://getcomposer.org)

• Get the most recent development version (creates the project from the master branch in the repo)

  $ composer create-project -n -s dev rotexsoft/slim3-skeleton-mvc-app my-app

• Get the most stable version (creates the project from the most recent tagged release in the repo)

  $ composer create-project -n rotexsoft/slim3-skeleton-mvc-app my-app

1. $ cd my-app

2. $ php -S 0.0.0.0:8888 -t public

3. Browse to http://localhost:8888

• Below are the default links that are available upon installation:

  • http://localhost:8888/base-controller/action-index/ same as http://localhost:8888/base-controller/
  • http://localhost:8888/base-controller/action-login/ comes with 2 default accounts admin:admin and root:root
  • http://localhost:8888/base-controller/action-logout/0
  • http://localhost:8888/base-controller/action-logout/1
  • http://localhost:8888/base-controller/action-login-status/
  • http://localhost:8888/hello/action-index/ same as http://localhost:8888/hello/
  • http://localhost:8888/hello/action-login/ comes with 2 default accounts admin:admin and root:root
  • http://localhost:8888/hello/action-logout/0
  • http://localhost:8888/hello/action-logout/1
  • http://localhost:8888/hello/action-login-status/
  • http://localhost:8888/hello/action-world/{name}/{another_parameter}
    • you can do stuff like http://localhost:8888/hello/action-world/john/doe

• The action- prefix can be omitted from the links above if S3MVC_APP_AUTO_PREPEND_ACTION_TO_ACTION_METHOD_NAMES is set to true

  • For example http://localhost:8888/hello/action-login/ will become http://localhost:8888/hello/login/

• You may need to modify the RewriteBase directive in the public/.htaccess file, if you are using aliases in your apache web server and are getting 404 errors

• config: Contains files for configuring the application

• logs: Log files

• public: Webserver root

• public/css: Your application's css files should be placed here

• public/image: Your application's image files should be placed here

• public/js: Your application's javascript files should be placed here

• src/controllers: Your application's controller classes should be placed here

• src/layout-templates: The layout template(s) for your application should be placed here

• src/models: Your application's model classes should be placed here

• src/views: Should contain view files (associated with each of your controller classes' action) that should be rendered into your application's layout template(s)

• tests: Place files for testing your application (eg. PHPUnit test cases) here

• tmp: Temporary files generated by your application (like session files) should be placed here

• vendor: Composer dependencies

• composer.json: contains your application's composer dependencies

• README.md: Add documentation for your application here.

• config/dependencies.php: Add dependencies to SlimPHP3's dependency injection container (ie. Pimple) here.

  • Below are the objects that are registered in the container:

    • errorHandler: An anonymous function that handles all uncaught PHP exceptions in your application. See http://www.slimframework.com/docs/handlers/error.html for more details.

    • notFoundHandler: An anonymous function that handles all request urls that do not match any of the routes defined in your application (ie. in public/index.php or config/routes.php). See http://www.slimframework.com/docs/handlers/not-found.html for more details.

    • notAllowedHandler: An anonymous function that handles all requests whose HTTP Request Method does not match any of the HTTP Request Methods associated with the routes defined in your application (ie. in public/index.php or config/routes.php). See http://www.slimframework.com/docs/handlers/not-allowed.html for more details.

    • logger: A PSR-3 compliant logger, that can be used for logging in your application. See https://bitbucket.org/jelofson/vespula.log for more details on how to configure this logger to suit your application's needs.

      <?php
          //You can access the logger from within your controller like so:
          $this->app->getContainer()->get('logger');
      ?>

    • namespaces_for_controllers: An array containing a list of the namespaces that your application's controller classes belong to. If all your controllers are in the global namespace (like the Hello controller that ships with this package), then you don't need to update namespaces_for_controllers. The default namespace that ships with this package is '\\Slim3MvcTools\\Controllers\\' (the namespace where BaseController belongs).

    • new_layout_renderer: An object used for rendering layout-template(s) for your application (see the renderLayout method in vendor/rotexsoft/slim3-skeleton-mvc-tools/src/BaseController.php). See https://github.com/rotexsoft/file-renderer for more details on how to configure this object.

      <?php
          //You can access this renderer from within your controller methods like so:
          $this->layout_renderer; //it is automatically set as a property of the controller 
                                  //object, as long as your controller object which should be
                                  //extending \Slim3MvcTools\Controllers\BaseController calls 
                                  //parent::__construct(...) in its own constructor.
      
          //You can also access this renderer from within your controller methods like so:
          $this->app->getContainer()->get('new_layout_renderer'); //keep in mind that accessing it like 
                                                                  //this returns a new instance with 
                                                                  //each call.
      
          //There is also a helper method available in all your controllers that
          //extend \Slim3MvcTools\Controllers\BaseController called renderLayout 
          //via which you can interact with $this->layout_renderer
      ?>

    • new_view_renderer: An object used for rendering view file(s) associated with each action method in the controller(s) for your application (see the renderView method in vendor/rotexsoft/slim3-skeleton-mvc-tools/src/BaseController.php). See https://github.com/rotexsoft/file-renderer for more details on how to configure this object.

      <?php
          //You can access this renderer from within your controller methods like so:
          $this->view_renderer; //it is automatically set as a property of the controller 
                                //object, as long as your controller object which should be
                                //extending \Slim3MvcTools\Controllers\BaseController calls 
                                //parent::__construct(...) in its own constructor.
      
          //You can also access this renderer from within your controller methods like so:
          $this->app->getContainer()->get('new_view_renderer'); //keep in mind that accessing it like
                                                                //this returns a new instance with 
                                                                //each call.
      
          //There is also a helper method available in all your controllers that
          //extend \Slim3MvcTools\Controllers\BaseController called renderView 
          //via which you can interact with $this->view_renderer
      ?>

    • vespula_auth: An object used by the BaseController to implement authentication functionality (see the isLoggedIn, actionLogin, actionLogout and actionLoginStatus methods in vendor/rotexsoft/slim3-skeleton-mvc-tools/src/BaseController.php). See https://bitbucket.org/jelofson/vespula.auth for more details on how to configure this object.

      <?php
          //You can access the auth object from within your controller like so:
          $this->app->getContainer()->get('vespula_auth');
      ?>

• config/env.php: Edit it to define your application's environment. It should return one of S3MVC_APP_ENV_DEV, S3MVC_APP_ENV_PRODUCTION, S3MVC_APP_ENV_STAGING or S3MVC_APP_ENV_TESTING relevant to the environment you are installing your web-app.

• config/ini-settings.php: Modify ini settings via ini_set(..) here. Remember to update date.timezone in this file to match your timezone (see http://php.net/manual/en/timezones.php).

• config/routes.php: Add additional routes for your application here (if needed). You can decide to define all the routes for your application here (in this case set the S3MVC_APP_USE_MVC_ROUTES constant in public/index.php to false). A default / route is defined in this file and will be active if S3MVC_APP_USE_MVC_ROUTES has a value of false.

• public/.htaccess: Apache web-server settings.

• public/index.php: Entry point to application.

  • Below are some constants (some of which you may edit to suit your needs) and functions defined in this file:

    • S3MVC_APP_AUTO_PREPEND_ACTION_TO_ACTION_METHOD_NAMES: A boolean value. If true, the string 'action' will be prepended to action method names (if the method name does not already start with the string 'action'). The resulting method name will be converted to camel case before being executed. If false, then action method names will only be converted to camel case before being executed. This setting does not apply to S3MVC_APP_DEFAULT_ACTION_NAME. It only applies to the following routes '/{controller}/{action}[/{parameters:.+}]' and '/{controller}/{action}/'.

    • S3MVC_APP_DEFAULT_ACTION_NAME: A string value. This is the name of the action or method to be called on the default controller to handle the default / route. This method should return a response string (ie. valid html) or a PSR 7 response object containing valid html in its body. This default action or method should accept no arguments or parameters.

    • S3MVC_APP_DEFAULT_CONTROLLER_CLASS_NAME: A string value. This is used to create a controller object to handle the default / route. Must be prefixed with the namespace if the controller class is in a namespace.

    • s3MVC_GetCurrentAppEnvironment(): This function detects which environment your web-app is running in (i.e. one of Production, Development, Staging or Testing). Below are its possible return values. You define your application's environment inside config/env.php.

      • S3MVC_APP_ENV_DEV: A string value representing that your application is running in development mode.

      • S3MVC_APP_ENV_PRODUCTION: A string value representing that your application is running in production / live mode.

      • S3MVC_APP_ENV_STAGING: A string value representing that your application is running in staging mode.

      • S3MVC_APP_ENV_TESTING: A string value representing that your application is running in testing mode.

    • S3MVC_APP_PUBLIC_PATH: A string value. The absolute path to the public folder in your application.

    • S3MVC_APP_ROOT_PATH: A string value. The absolute path the topmost level folder in your application (ie. the folder containing all your apps folders like src, config, etc).

    • S3MVC_APP_USE_MVC_ROUTES: A boolean value. If true, the mvc routes will be enabled. If false, then you must explicitly define all the routes for your application inside config/routes.php (like working with pure Slim 3).

• src/controllers/Hello.php: Example Controller class.

• src/layout-templates/main-template.php: Default site template based on Foundation 5.

• src/views/base/index.php: View file associated with the actionIndex method in vendor/rotexsoft/slim3-skeleton-mvc-tools/src/BaseController.php.

• src/views/base/login.php: View file associated with the actionLogin method in vendor/rotexsoft/slim3-skeleton-mvc-tools/src/BaseController.php.

• src/views/base/login-status.php: View file associated with the actionLoginStatus method in vendor/rotexsoft/slim3-skeleton-mvc-tools/src/BaseController.php.

• src/views/hello/world.php: View file associated with the actionWorld method in src/controllers/Hello.php.

• Controller classes must extend \Slim3MvcTools\Controllers\BaseController

• Action methods in Controller classes MUST either return a string (ie. containing the output to display to the client) or an instance of Psr\Http\Message\ResponseInterface (e.g. $response, that has the output to be displayed to the client, injected into it via $response->getBody()->write($data) );

• The default route with default controller and default action route handler: The default route handler responds to the / route by creating an instance of the default controller (defined via S3MVC_APP_DEFAULT_CONTROLLER_CLASS_NAME:) and calling the default action method (defined via S3MVC_APP_DEFAULT_ACTION_NAME:) on the controller object and returning the result as a response object (if the method returns a string the default route handler will write the string into a response object and return that object).

• The controller with action and optional params route handler: The mvc route handler responsds to the /{controller}/{action}[/{parameters:.+}] and /{controller}/{action}/ routes by going through the steps below:

  • extracting the {controller}, {action} and {parameters} segments of a request uri. Eg. http://localhost:8888/hello/action-world/john/doe will lead to hello being extracted as the value of the {controller} segment, action-world being extracted as the value of the {action} segment and ['john', 'doe'] as the value of the {parameters} segment. It then converts the value of the {action} segment to camel case; in this case from action-world to actionWorld. If S3MVC_APP_AUTO_PREPEND_ACTION_TO_ACTION_METHOD_NAMES is set to true then the handler will try to prepend the string 'action' to the camel-cased value of the {action} segment; however in this case it will not prepend the string 'action' to actionWorld since it already starts with the string action. It then goes on to validate that actionWorld is a valid name for a php class' method name, if it's an invalid name it will invoke the notFoundHandler which will lead to a 404 not found response. If it's avalid method name it tries to create an instance of a controller class by first converting the value of the {controller} segment, in this case hello, to studly case which will lead to hello being converted to Hello and it then goes on to validate that Hello is a valid name for a php class, if it's an invalid name it will invoke the notFoundHandler which will lead to a 404 not found response. If it's a valid class name, it then goes on to check if the class exists in the gloabal namespace first, and if not, then it continues checking in the namespaces registered in the container (namespaces_for_controllers). If the class does not exist, it will invoke the notFoundHandler which will lead to a 404 not found response. Else if the class exists, an instance will be created. The handler then goes on to check if the method named actionWorld exists in the instance of the controller class just created. If the method doesn't exist, the handler will invoke the notFoundHandler which will lead to a 404 not found response. Else if the method exists it will be called on the created controller object with the values of the {parameters} segment (in this case ['john', 'doe']) as arguments (ie. $instance_of_hello_controller->actionWorld('john', 'doe')) and the result will be returned as a response object (if the method returns a string the handler will write the string into a response object and return that object). Note that if there are no values supplied for the {parameters} segment, the action method will be called on the controller with no parameter ($instance_of_hello_controller->actionWorld()) this happens when the /{controller}/{action}/ route is matched.

• The controller with no action and params route handler: /{controller}[/]: works in a similar manner that the handler that handles the /{controller}/{action}[/{parameters:.+}] and /{controller}/{action}/ routes. Except that the value of S3MVC_APP_DEFAULT_ACTION_NAME is used for the method name and the method will always be invoke with no parameters.

• s3MVC_CreateController(\Slim\App $app, $controller_name_from_url, $action_name_from_url, \Psr\Http\Message\ServerRequestInterface $request, \Psr\Http\Message\ResponseInterface $response): used by the route handlers to create controllers to handle mvc routes. You should not really need to call this function.

• s3MVC_DumpVar($v): for dumping variables during development for debugging purposes.

• s3MVC_GetBaseUrlPath(): performs the same function as \Slim\Http\Uri::getBasePath()

• s3MVC_GetSuperGlobal($global_name='', $key='', $default_val=''): a helper function for accessing super globals.

• Helper script for creating controller classes and a default index view:

    `php ./vendor/rotexsoft/slim3-skeleton-mvc-tools/src/scripts/create-controller.php`
  

• Make sure to validate / sanitize the password value posted to \Slim3MvcTools\Controllers\BaseController::actionLogin() in your Controller(s). It is deliberately left un-sanitized and un-validated because each application should define which characters are allowed in passwords and validation / sanitization should be based on the allowed characters.

• SlimPHP 3 http://www.slimframework.com/docs/
• Slim3 Skeleton MVC Tools https://github.com/rotexsoft/slim3-skeleton-mvc-tools contains BaseController.php and other Slim3 Skeleton MVC specific classes and functions
• Vespula.Log https://bitbucket.org/jelofson/vespula.log (a PSR-3 compliant logger)
• Vespula.Auth for Authentication https://bitbucket.org/jelofson/vespula.auth
• File-Renderer https://github.com/rotexsoft/file-renderer for rendering the template and view files
• See http://pimple.sensiolabs.org/ for more information on how the dependency injection container used by SlimPHP 3 works

• https://getcomposer.org/doc/articles/scripts.md
• https://devedge.wordpress.com/2014/11/05/building-better-project-skeletons-with-composer-2/
• http://www.binpress.com/tutorial/better-project-skeletons-with-composer/157