PHP demo website

This project, showcase the process of web development, using modern PHP without Freameworks. We use the LAMPP stack, the project can be ran with built in PHP server and Mysql server. For Windows the project needs a Vhost so that the routes and the URI will allow the custom router to handle the requests. In linux/macOS the built in PHP server will suffice.

VHOST for XAMPP/Laragon on Windows

<VirtualHost *:80> 
    DocumentRoot "C:/xampp/htdocs/PHP Demo website/public"
    ServerName demo-website.test
    ServerAlias *.demo-website.test
    <Directory "C:/xampp/htdocs/PHP Demo website/public">
        AllowOverride All
        Require all granted
    </Directory>
     Alias /static "C:/xampp/htdocs/PHP Demo website/public/static"
    <Directory "C:/xampp/htdocs/PHP Demo website/public/static">
        Options -Indexes
        AllowOverride None
        Require all granted
    </Directory>
    ErrorDocument 403 /views/error.php
</VirtualHost>

if you're using Laragon you'll need to replace the path from C:/xampp/htdocs/ to C:/laragon/www/, or you can specify your own path if you Root directory isn't placed inside the htdocs or www one.

Run website with built in server

Run this command in the Root directory of the website.

php -S localhost:8000 -t public/

Directory Structrure

By convention, the Static Directory, is placed inside the Public Directory. The static directory has an alias set in the VirtualHostfor easier access among different systems.

root
│
├── public
│   ├── index.php
│   ├── static
│   │   ├── style
│   │   ├── scripts
│   │   └── img
│   └── .htaccess
│
├── src
│   ├── controllers
│   │   ├── home.php
│   │   └── ... (other controllers)
│   ├── config.php
│   └── bootstrap.php
│
├── core
│   ├── router
│   │   ├── routes.php
│   │   └── routing.php
│   ├── Middleware
│   │   └── ... (middleware files)
│   ├── Database.php
│   ├── App.php
│   ├── Container.php
│   └── ... (other core components)
│
├── views
│    ├── home.views.php
│    └── ... (other views)
└── .env

Public Directory

Inside it there's the index.php file and the Static dir. This file will require every needed component from the src files and will manage the requests via the Router function. It contains also a .htaccess file, that makes sure the requests are handleld correctly.

Core Directory

It containse all Core components of the website, such as the Router, the Middleware, the Container and so on.

Src Directory

The Src Directory contains all of the source code that builds the backend of the website: functions, classes, environment configurations, database conncetion and so on. Inside the src Directory There's the Controllers Directory.

Controllers Directory

The Controllers Directory holds the controller files, they are required by the Router in index.php and manage their respective view logic. For example, home.php manages the complex logic for the view home.view.php.

Views Directory

The Views Directory, holds all of the view files of the websites. The view files contain simple logic to generate and display HTML elements. The complex logic and the various kinds requests, are handled by the controllers.

Static Directory

The Static Directory contains all the statics files and assets of the website such as images, css stylesheets and javascipt front end files.

config.php & .env

The config.php file contains an array for environment configurations, it's required in the index.php file. The config.php file loads ,thanks to the dotenv lybrary, environment variables such as API keys, database usernames and psswords and so on. In this project we use the Dotenv library, you can consult required libraries in the composer.json file.

Example of config.php file

if (file_exists(BASE_PATH . '/.env')) {
    $dotenv = Dotenv\Dotenv::createImmutable(BASE_PATH);
    $dotenv->load();
}

return [
    'database' => [
        'host' => $_ENV['DB_HOST'],
        'port' => $_ENV['DB_PORT'],
        'dbname' => $_ENV['DB_NAME'],
        'charset' => 'utf8mb4',
        'user' => $_ENV['DB_USER'],
        'password' => $_ENV['DB_PASSWORD']
    ],

    'services' => [
        'secret_key' = $_ENV['secret_key']
    ]

];

Example of .env file

DB_HOST=localhost
DB_PORT=3306
DB_NAME=your_db_name
DB_USER=your_db_user
DB_PASSWORD=your_db_password
SECRET_KEY=your_secret_key

Testing

In this project we use pestphp/pest framework to handle testing.

Installing required libraries

To install the necessary PHP libraries for the project, run the following command:

composer install

This command will read the composer.json file and install all of the needed libraries.