exPHPress

A lightweight express-like router for PHP with minimal setup required

Features

• Static and dynamic routing with redirect support
• Send files, json data, or HTML output
• Set HTTP headers & status codes

Example

<?php

require_once 'exPHPress.php';
$app = new exPHPress;

$app->get('/', function($req, $res) {
    $res->sendFile('home.php');
});

$app->get('/profile/:id', function($req, $res) {
    $res->sendFile('profile.php', [
        'user_id' => $req['id']
    ]);
});

$app->get('/api/users/:id', function($req, $res) {
    $user = getUser($req['id']);
    $res->json($user);
});

Getting Started

Preparing the server (Apache)

Add the following settings to the document root block in your httpd.conf file:

<Directory "/var/www/html">
    AllowOverride All
    Require all granted
</Directory>

Note: Be sure to restart the server afterwards

Then add the following .htaccess file to your app's directory:

RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !\.(js|css|png|jpg|jpeg|gif|svg)$
RewriteRule ^ app.php [L,QSA]

This will forward all non-resource requests to app.php

Setting up your app

1. Create an app.php file in your app directory
2. Download exPHPress.php and put it in the same directory
3. Add the following to app.php:

<?php
require_once 'exPHPress.php';
$app = new exPHPress;

And that's it!

How to Use

Simple routing

$app->get('/', function() {
    echo 'Hello world!';
});

• $app->get() defines a route using the http GET request method
  • You can also use put(), post(), patch(), delete(), or any()
• '/' is the URL/pattern to be tested against the requested route
• function() is the function to be called if the requested route matches '/'

Accessing request parameters

$app->get('/greet/:name', function($req) {
    $name = $req['name'];
    echo "Hello $name!";
});

• :name is a parameter we want to retrieve from the requested route
  • Request parameters are defined by prepending them with a colon (:)
• $req is an associative array containing the request parameters and their values
  • The value of a request parameter can be accessed by referencing it in $req, such as $req['name']

Sending a file

$app->get('/profile', function($req, $res) {
    $res->sendFile('profile.php');
});

• $res is the response object, containing some useful built-in functions
• $res->sendFile() is the response function for sending a file to the client
  • Accepts either a PHP or HTML file

Passing variables to a file

$app->get('/profile/:id', function($req, $res) {
    $res->sendFile('profile.php', [
        'user_id' => $req['id']
    ]);
});

• $res->sendFile() accepts an optional second parameter - an associative array of variables to be extracted to the file being sent
  • In profile.php, the variable $user_id would be equal to the request parameter :id, because it is passed via $req['id']

Setting a static directory

$app->static('public/views');

• $app->static() defines a default directory for $res->sendFile() to send files from
  • File paths starting with /, ./, or ../ will ignore the static directory
• public/views is the new directory in which $res->sendFile() will look for files

Sending JSON data

$app->get('/api/users/123', function($req, $res) {
    $res->json([
        'name' => 'John',
        'age' => 35
    ], 200);
});

• $res->json() is the response function for sending json data to the client
  • Accepts either a PHP associative array or a valid json string
• 200 is an optional second parameter for sending an HTTP status code along with the json data

Sending an HTTP status code

$app->get('/', function($req, $res) {
    $res->sendStatus(201);
});

• $res->sendStatus() is the response function for sending an http status code
  • This route will respond with http 201

Setting HTTP headers

$app->get('/', function($req, $res) {
    $res->setHeader('Content-Type', 'application/json');
});

• $res->setHeader() is the response function for setting http headers
  • Accepts either (key, value) or an associative array of multiple keys and values

Redirecting a route

$app->get('/profile', function($req, $res) {
    $res->redirect('/profile/nifte');
});

• $res->redirect() is the response function for redirecting one route to another
  • The redirected route will keep the same http request method

Handling invalid routes

$app->error(function($req, $res) {
    $res->sendStatus(404);
    $res->sendFile('404.php');
});

• $app->error() defines the function to be run when the requested route does not match any defined routes
  • If the $app->error() function is not defined, invalid routes will simply return http 404 with the message 'Page not found.'