README

This package provides a minimal framework for web projects.

By "minimal" we mean very minimal. The package provides only a dependency injection container, a configuration system, a router, a dispatcher, a pair of request and response objects, and a logging instance.

This minimal implementation should not be taken as "restrictive". The DI container, with its two-stage configuration system, allows a wide range of programmatic service definitions. The router and dispatcher are built with iterative refactoring in mind, so you can start with micro-framework-like closure controllers, and work your way into more complex controller objects of your own design.

Foreword

Requirements

This project requires PHP 5.4 or later; we recommend using the latest available version of PHP as a matter of principle.

Unlike Aura library packages, this project package has userland dependencies, which themselves may have other dependencies:

• aura/web-kernel
• monolog/monolog

Installation

Install this project via Composer to a {$PROJECT_PATH} of your choosing:

composer create-project aura/web-project {$PROJECT_PATH}

This will create the project skeleton and install all of the necessary packages.

Tests

To run the unit tests at the command line, issue ./phpunit.sh at the package root. This requires PHPUnit to be available as phpunit.

Alternatively, after you have installed the project, start the built-in PHP server with the web/ directory as the document root:

cd {$PROJECT_PATH}
php -S localhost:8000 -t web/

When you browse to http://localhost:8000 you should see "Hello World!" as the output. Terminate the built-in server process thereafter. (Be sure to use the built-in PHP server only for testing, never for production.)

PSR Compliance

This projects attempts to comply with PSR-1, PSR-2, and PSR-4. If you notice compliance oversights, please send a patch via pull request.

Community

To ask questions, provide feedback, or otherwise communicate with the Aura community, please join our Google Group, follow @auraphp on Twitter, or chat with us on #auraphp on Freenode.

Services

This package uses services defined by:

• Aura.Project_Kernel
• Aura.Web_Kernel

This project resets the following services:

• aura/project-kernel:logger: an instance of Monolog\Logger

Getting Started

Component Packages

This project combines a collection of independent Aura packages into a cohesive whole. The operation of each package is documented separately.

The dependency injection Container is absolutely central to the operation of an Aura project. Please be familiar with the Aura.Di docs before continuing.

You should also familiarize yourself with Aura.Router, Aura.Dispatcher, and the Aura.Web Request and Response objects.

Project Configuration

Every Aura project is configured the same way. Please see the shared configuration docs for more information.

Logging

The project automatically logs to {$PROJECT_PATH}/tmp/log/{$mode}.log. If you want to change the logging behaviors for a particular config mode, edit the related config file (e.g., config/Dev.php) file to modify the aura/project-kernel:logger service.

Routing and Dispatching

We configure routing and dispatching via the project-level config/ class files. If a route needs to be available in every config mode, edit the project-level config/Common.php class file. If it only needs to be available in a specific mode, e.g. dev, then edit the config file for that mode.

Here are three different styles of routing and dispatching.

Micro-Framework Style

Aura is the first framework which follows the Action Domain Responder pattern. The following is an example of a micro-framework style route, where the action logic is embedded in the route params. In the modifyWebRouter() config method, we retrieve the shared aura/web-kernel:request and aura/web-kernel:response services, along with the aura/web-kernel:router service. We then add a route names blog.read and embed the action code as a closure.

<?php
namespace Aura\Web_Project\_Config;

use Aura\Di\Config;
use Aura\Di\Container;

class Common extends Config
{
    // ...

    public function modifyWebRouter(Container $di)
    {
        $request = $di->get('aura/web-kernel:request');
        $response = $di->get('aura/web-kernel:response');

        $router = $di->get('aura/web-kernel:router');
        $router
            ->add('blog.read', '/blog/read/{id}')
            ->addValues(array(
                'action' => function ($id) use ($request, $response) {
                    $content = "Reading blog post $id";
                    $response->content->set(htmlspecialchars(
                        $content, ENT_QUOTES|ENT_SUBSTITUTE, 'UTF-8'
                    ));
                }
            ));
    }

    // ...
}
?>

You can now start up the built-in PHP server to get the application running ...

cd {$PROJECT_PATH}
php -S localhost:8000 -t web/

... and browse to http://localhost:8000/blog/read/88 to see the application output.

Modified Micro-Framework Style

We can modify the above example to put the controller logic in the dispatcher instead of the route itself.

Extract the action closure to the dispatcher under the name blog.read. Then, in the route, use a action value that matches the name in the dispatcher.

<?php
namespace Aura\Web_Project\_Config;

use Aura\Di\Config;
use Aura\Di\Container;

class Common extends Config
{
    // ...


    public function modifyWebRouter(Container $di)
    {
        $router = $di->get('aura/web-kernel:router');
        $router
            ->add('blog.read', '/blog/read/{id}')
            ->addValues(array(
                'action' => 'blog.read',
            ));
    }

    public function modifyWebDispatcher(Container $di)
    {
        $request = $di->get('aura/web-kernel:request');
        $response = $di->get('aura/web-kernel:response');

        $dispatcher = $di->get('aura/web-kernel:dispatcher');
        $dispatcher->setObject(
            'blog.read',
            function ($id) use ($request, $response) {
                $content = "Reading blog post $id";
                $response->content->set(htmlspecialchars(
                    $content, ENT_QUOTES|ENT_SUBSTITUTE, 'UTF-8'
                ));
            }
        );

    }

    // ...
}
?>

You can now start up the built-in PHP server to get the application running ...

cd {$PROJECT_PATH}
php -S localhost:8000 -t web/

... and browse to http://localhost:8000/blog/read/88 to see the application output.

Full-Stack Style

You can migrate from a micro style to a full-stack style (or start with full-stack style in the first place).

First, define an action class and place it in the project src/ directory.

<?php
/**
 * {$PROJECT_PATH}/src/App/Actions/BlogReadAction.php
 */
namespace App\Actions;

use Aura\Web\Request;
use Aura\Web\Response;

class BlogReadAction
{
    public function __construct(Request $request, Response $response)
    {
        $this->request = $request;
        $this->response = $response;
    }

    public function __invoke($id)
    {
        $content = "Reading blog post $id";
        $this->response->content->set(htmlspecialchars(
            $content, ENT_QUOTES|ENT_SUBSTITUTE, 'UTF-8'
        ));
    }
}
?>

Next, tell the project how to build the BlogReadAction through the DI Container. Edit the project config/Common.php file to configure the Container to pass the aura/web-kernel:request and aura/web-kernel:response service objects to the BlogReadAction constructor.

<?php
namespace Aura\Web_Project\_Config;

use Aura\Di\Config;
use Aura\Di\Container;

class Common extends Config
{
    public function define(Container $di)
    {
        $di->set('aura/project-kernel:logger', $di->lazyNew('Monolog\Logger'));

        $di->params['App\Actions\BlogReadAction'] = array(
            'request' => $di->lazyGet('aura/web-kernel:request'),
            'response' => $di->lazyGet('aura/web-kernel:response'),
        );
    }

    // ...
}
?>

After that, put the App\Actions\BlogReadAction object in the dispatcher under the name blog.read as a lazy-loaded instantiation ...

<?php
namespace Aura\Web_Project\_Config;

use Aura\Di\Config;
use Aura\Di\Container;

class Common extends Config
{
    // ...

    public function modifyWebDispatcher(Container $di)
    {
        $dispatcher = $di->get('aura/web-kernel:dispatcher');
        $dispatcher->setObject(
            'blog.read',
            $di->lazyNew('App\Actions\BlogReadAction')
        );
    }

    // ...
}
?>

... and finally, point the router to the blog.read action object:

<?php
namespace Aura\Web_Project\_Config;

use Aura\Di\Config;
use Aura\Di\Container;

class Common extends Config
{
    // ...

    public function modifyWebRouter(Container $di)
    {
        $router = $di->get('aura/web-kernel:router');
        $router->add('blog.read', '/blog/read/{id}');
    }

    // ...
}
?>

You can now start up the built-in PHP server to get the application running ...

cd {$PROJECT_PATH}
php -S localhost:8000 -t web/

... then browse to http://localhost:8000/blog/read/88 to see the application output.

Other Variations

These are only some common variations of router and dispatcher interactions; there are many other combinations.