Write your own PHP MVC Framework (Part 2)

If you haven’t already, please read Part 1 of the PHP MVC tutorial. A lot of changes have been incorporated in this part. Unlike the last tutorial, I have not pasted the code directly here, and I suggest you download the framework before reading on. In the example, we have implemented a simple e-commerce website consisting of categories, subcategories, products and tags (for products). The example will help you understand the various relationships between the tables and most of the new functionality provided by this part of the framework.

What’s New

config/inflection.php
The inflection configuration file enables us to use irregular words i.e. words which do not have a standard plural name. This file is used in conjunction with library/inflection.class.php

config/routing.php
The routing configuration file enables us to specify default controller and action. We can also specify custom redirects using regular expressions. Currently I have specified only one redirect i.e. http://localhost/framework/admin/categories/view will become http://localhost/framework/admin/categories_view where admin is the controller and categories_view is the action. This will enable us to create an administration centre with pretty URLs. You can specify others as per your requirements. For more information on how to use regular expressions have a look at one of these tutorials.

library/cache.class.php
The cache class is in its infancy. Currently there are two simple functions- set and get. The data is stored in a flat text-file in the cache directory. Currently only the describe function of the SQLQuery class uses this cache function.

library/html.class.php
The HTML class is used to aid the template class. It allows you to use a few standard functions for creating links, adding javascript and css. I have also added a function to convert links to tinyurls. This class can be used only in the views e.g. $html->includeJs(‘generic.js’);

library/inflection.class.php
In the previous part, plural of words were created by adding only “s” to the word. However, for a more full-fledged version, we now use the inflection class originally created by Sho Kuwamoto with slight modifications. If you have a look at the class, it makes use of simple regular expressions. It would be nice to add a cache function to this class in future.

library/template.class.php
I have added a new variable called doNotRenderHeader which will enable you to not output headers for a particular action. This can be used in AJAX calls when you do not want to return the headers. It has to be called by the controller e.g. $this->doNotRenderHeader = 1;

library/vanillacontroller.class.php & vanillamodel.class.php
Pretty much unchanged, but I have added a prefix vanilla to them to emphasize on its simplicity 😉

library/sqlquery.class.php
The SQLQuery class is the heart of this framework. This class will enable you to use your tables as objects.

Let us understand the easy functions first – save() and delete()

The save() function must be used from the controller. The save() function can have two options- if an id is set, then it will update the entry; if it is not set, then it will create a new entry. For example let us consider the categories class i.e. application/controllers/categoriescontroller.php. We can have a function like the one below.

function new() {
   $this->Category->id = $_POST['id'];
   $this->Category->name = $_POST['name'];
   $this->Category->save();
}

If $this->Category->id = null; then it will create a new record in the categories table.

The delete() function enables you to delete a record from the table. A sample code could be as below. Although you should use POST instead of GET queries for deleting records. As a rule idempotent operations should use GET. Idempotent operations are those which do not change the state of the database (i.e. do not update/delete/insert rows or modify the database in anyway)

function delete($categoryId) {
   $this->Category->id = $categoryId;
   $this->Category->delete();
}

Now let us look at the search() function. I know it is a bit intimidating at first. But it is pretty straight forward after we break it down. If you are unaware of database table relationships (1:1, 1:Many and Many:Many) have a quick look here. During database design, we use the following convention:

1:1 Relationship
For a one is to one relationship, suppose we have two tables students and mentors and each student hasOne mentor, then in the students table we will have a field called ‘mentor_id’ which will store the id of the mentor from the mentors table.

1:Many Relationship
For a one is to many relationship, suppose we have two tables parents and children and each parent hasMany children, then in the children table we will have a field called ‘parent_id’ which will store the id of the parent from the parents table.

Many:Many Relationship
For a many is to many relationship, suppose we have two tables students and teachers and each student hasManyAndBelongsToMany teachers, then we create a new table called students_teachers with three fields: id, student_id and teacher_id. The naming convention for this table is alphabetical. i.e. if our tables are cars and animals, then the table should be named animals_cars and not cars_animals.

Now once we have created our database as per these conventions, we must tell our framework about their existence. Let us have a look at models/product.php.

class Product extends VanillaModel {
	var $hasOne = array('Category' => 'Category');
	var $hasManyAndBelongsToMany = array('Tag' => 'Tag');
}

The first Category is the alias and the second Category is the actual model. In most cases both will be the same. Let us consider the models/category.php where they are not.

<?php

class Category extends VanillaModel {
		var $hasMany = array('Product' => 'Product');
		var $hasOne = array('Parent' => 'Category');

}

Here each category has a parent category, thus our alias is Parent while model is Category. Thus we will have a field called parent_id in the categories table. To clearly understand these relationships, I suggest you create a couple of tables and test them out for yourself. In order to see the output, use code similar to the following in your controller.

function view() {
   $this->Category->id = 1;
   $this->Category->showHasOne();
   $this->Category->showHasMany();
   $this->Category->showHMABTM();
   $data = $this->Category->search();
   print_r($data);
}

Now let us try and understand the search() function. If there are no relationships, then the function simply does a select * from tableName (tableName is same as controllerName). We can influence this statement, by using the following commands:

where(‘fieldName’,’value’) => Appends WHERE ‘fieldName’ = ‘value’
like(‘fieldName’,’value’) => Appends WHERE ‘fieldName’ LIKE ‘%value%’
setPage(‘pageNumber’) => Enables pagination and display only results for the set page number
setLimit(‘fieldName’,’value’) => Allows you to modify the number of results per page if pageNumber is set. Its default value is the one set in config.php.
orderBy(‘fieldName’,’Order’) => Appends ORDER BY ‘fieldName’ ASC/DESC
id = X => Will display only a single result of the row matching the id

Now let us consider when showHasOne() function has be called, then for each hasOne relationship, a LEFT JOIN is done (see line 91-99).

Now if showHasMany() function has been called, then for each result returned by the above query and for each hasMany relationship, it will find all those records in the second table which match the current result’s id (see line 150). Then it will push all those results in the same array. For example, if teachers hasMany students, then $this->Teacher->showHasMany() will search for teacher_id in the students table.

Finally if showHMABTM() function has been called, then for each result returned by the first query and for each hasManyAndBelongsToMany relationship, it will find all those records which match the current result’s id (see line 200-201). For example, if teachers hasManyAndBelongsToMany students, then $this->Teacher->showHMABTM() will search for teacher_id in students_teachers table.

On line 236, if id is set, then it will return a single result (and not an array), else it will return an array. The function then calls the clear() function which resets all the variables (line 368-380).

Now let us consider an example to enable pagination on products. The code in the controllers/productscontroller.php should look something similar to the following.

function page ($pageNumber = 1) {
  $this->Product->setPage($pageNumber);
  $this->Product->setLimit('10');
  $products = $this->Product->search();
  $totalPages = $this->Product->totalPages();
  $this->set('totalPages',$totalPages);
  $this->set('products',$products);
  $this->set('currentPageNumber',$pageNumber);
}

Now our corresponding view i.e. views/products/page.php will be something like below.

<?php foreach ($products as $product):?>
<div>
<?php echo $product&#91;'Product'&#93;&#91;'name'&#93;?>
</div>
<?php endforeach?>

<?php for ($i = 1; $i <= $totalPages; $i++):?>
<div>
<?php if ($i == $currentPageNumber):?>
<?php echo $currentPageNumber?>
<?php else: ?>
<?php echo $html->link($i,'products/page/'.$i)?>
<?php endif?>
</div>
<?php endfor?>

Thus with a few lines of code we have enabled pagination on our products page with pretty URLs!
(/products/page/1, products/page/2 …)

If you look at the totalPages() function on line 384-397, you will see that it takes the existing query and strips of the LIMIT condition and returns the count. This count/limit gives us the totalPages.

Now suppose that we are in the categories controller and we want to implement a query on the products table. One way to implement this is using a custom query i.e. $this->Category->custom(‘select * from products where ….’);

Alternatively, we can use the performAction function (line 49-57 in shared.php) to call an action of another controller. An example call in categoriescontroller.php would be something like below.

function view($categoryId = null, $categoryName = null) {
  $categories = performAction('products','findProducts',array($categoryId,$categoryName));
}

And the corresponding code in productscontroller.php should be as below.

function findProducts ($categoryId = null, $categoryName = null) {
  $this->Product->where('category_id',$categoryId);
  $this->Product->orderBy('name');
  return $this->Product->search();
}

The above more or less sums up all the functionality of the SQLQuery class. You can easily extend this as per your requirements e.g. to cache results, add conditions to hasMany, hasOne, hasMABTM queries also etc.

I have also laid the foundation for implementing user registration functionality by specifying a beforeAction and afterAction function which will be executed for each controller action. This will enable us to call a function which checks whether the user cookie is set and is a valid user.

One more feature that I have implemented is to have an administration centre. For this purpose we create a dummy model called models/admin.php and set a variable called $abstract = true. This will tell our VanillaModel to not look for a corresponding table in the database. As stated before I have created a routing for admin/X/Y as admin/X_Y. Thus we can have URLs like admin/categories/delete/15 which will actually call the categories_delete(15) function in the controllers/admincontroller.php file.

Where do we go from here?

I hope this tutorial is not too complicated. I have tried to break it down as much as possible. A couple of functions that we need to implement include -> redirectAction which will be similar to performAction, but instead redirect. performAction can only return results. redirectAction will perform only the redirected action and display that corresponding view only. This will be helpful during user authentication. If the user is not logged in, then we call a function like -> redirectAction(‘user’,’login’,array($returnUrl));

Various classes are in their infancy like the cache class, HTML class etc. These classes can be expanded to add more functionality.

More scripts can be added like dbimport, clearcache etc. can be added. Currently there is only one script dbexport.php which dumps the entire database. Classes for managing sessions, cookies etc. also need to be developed.

Download link here

Download Framework (Part 2) (ZIP File)

Make sure you edit config/config.php and add your database details. Point your browser to localhost/FRAMEWORKDIR to see output. Also before executing, import the database that I have created in the db folder.

Suggestions?

Do let me know your suggestions on how we can improve this code/any particular features you would like to see implemented/any other unrelated topic you would like a tutorial on.

Spread The Word

If you like what you are reading, then please help spread the word by re-tweeting, blogging and dzone upvoting or use the ShareThis button below. Thank you.

Monkeytail
Brilliant! Keep coming with that good stuff!
Dan Kay
Thanks for posting part-2, and Good job with 2nd tutorial… I have a few questions… Im new to PHP and frameworks and really intrigued. So thanks ahead of time…
I have not implemented the new search() function yet, but does that return multple datasets? OR does it just just assist in performing queries by helping with joins, etc?
Nice job, with the default controller. When you mentioned it in your last reply, I implemented my own and you seem to have done it a bit better.
For the admin center, for function categories_delete(15), wouldnt it make sense to instead load the categories controller and call the member function delete?
How do I route “site.com/items/viewall” to “site.com/items/viewall/”? The extra “/” can cause conflict in specifying the source unless you specify the full path.
When you call the perform action function you specify findProducts, but the function name is findParent.. I think that may be an error..
Thanks and this a great starting point for converting my exsting php apps to mvc & oop.
- Anant Garg
  @Dan Hello,
  The best way to understand the search() function is to use print_r($data) as I have mentioned above. The search function returns multiple datasets and takes into consideration the different table relationships also (1:1, 1:Many, Many:Many).
  For administration centre, although you will be using a function like categories_delete(15), the function will only consist of performAction(‘categories’,’_delete’,array(15));
  If you directly allow the user to call say site.com/categories/delete/15, it will be a major security flaw. For additional security you must obfuscate the name of the delete function, make it private, and make sure that private functions cannot be called directly (using http://site.com/categories/delete/X)
  Regarding the routing issue, you can use .htaccess to redirect. But as a rule, you must always specify absolute/full URL because suppose you decide to send one more parameter to a function, all your relative paths will stop functioning. A simple way to achieve this is using the BASE_PATH. e.g. <img src=”<?php echo BASE_PATH?>/img/test.gif”>
  Thanks for spotting the bug. I’ve fixed it now 🙂
Dan Kay
Thanks anant. OK, i understand search now.. Nevertheless, In most cases for my app, I would be writing complex sql queries joining multiple tables but would still only be returning one dataset. Its nice to know that feaature is available if i need it :)..
As regarding to the admin section, I dont know what I was thinking.. I Should have seen that all you need to do was call performAction(). Thanks
And for the base-path, thats what i currently doing in my app.
Thanks for the quick reply, Im sure i’ll have more comments suggestions as I implement mvc and development more of my app.
Dan Kay
I have been looking over the inflection class and it got me thinking… I think it may get confusing plularizing table names and singularizing model names, etc….
Is there a reason not to name everything the same?
i.e. http://www.site.com/items/showDetail/1
controller name: ItemsController
model name; Items
table name: Items
action/view name: showDetail
Is it just preference?
Thanks again
- Anant Garg
  @Dan Although you can you choose any convention you like, the rationale is simple. Tables consist of a number of objects e.g. cars table consists of a number of cars. When we talk about a model, we consider a single car. e.g. $this->Car->id = 4; Thus the model is singular. The action is a verb e.g. view, delete. The controller is plural because it represents a number of objects. e.g. site.com/cars/view/1 instead of site.com/car/view/1. Also do have a look at these posts. No matter what convention you adopt, make sure you document it (for other developers) and use it consistently site-wide.
J. Lourens
Dear Anant,
First of all let me start by saying that I’ve read your tutorials with much joy.
I’ve just started coding php, and was just starting an MVC “framework style” e-commerce site.
Like you I started out with a front controller, a common configuration file and a data abstraction layer.
I see you redirect your requests through the index $_GET super global and then you unregister all of them without further explanation.
The basic layout I started out with, was to redirect everything through the index front controller.
Then split up the $_SERVER[SCRIPT_URL] for http://www.domain.com/controller/action/param/param
Check if controller exists, if not look up the url in a routing table, then get controller info from there.
The idea was to preserve $_GET and $_POST for forms and online payment and so on.
Could you please give me your opinion on this ?
Thanks before hand,
Jonathan Lourens
p.s. keep up the good work
- Anant Garg
  @Lourens, Hello, the function does not unregister $_GET. If register_globals = on in php.ini, the function removes the corresponding global variables created automatically by PHP. In simpler words, $_GET[‘myvar’] will continue to work, but $myvar will no longer work. You may want to read more about register globals.
  Your basic layout looks fine, but you may not be able to use $_GET in the way you used it before e.g. sample.php?var1=val1&var2=val2 etc. Since now it will be /val1/val2 etc. So you will have to explicitly assign order in your function. I have implemented a sample of this in my code.
Chris Smith
Thanks so much for this framework breakdown! I have been developing PHP for a couple years now but just real started getting into OOP with PHP. This seems like a great starting point to start understanding the relationships between controllers, models and actions I will be looking over the code the next few days to try and truly understand it. I am sure I will be posting some questions soon!
Again, thanks!
Chris Smith
Hey first question!
I have encountered a problem and I am pretty sure it has to do with the .htaccess file. I get a 400 Bad Request error. Everything works fine if I pass the URL directly to public/index.php
example:
/public/index.php?url=products/view/1/Product-A
Any ideas?
Cheers
- Anant Garg
  @Chris, Hello, your htaccess redirection is probably not configured correctly; please check your httpd.conf file. Alternatively, you may want to download a pre-configured LAMP/WAMP stack like Zend Core.
Dan Kay
Thanks, anant…
How would you suggest implementing a user system? I seem to be toying with a few Ideas. Basically, I want a user object to be stored in sessions. If there is an object present, I unserialize and use it.. If not, I instantiate a new user object. I need this User Class on every page in addition to the controller for the respective page (products, portfolio, etc)..
My first thought was to make my Users Class implement the base Controller Class. Therefore I could call http://www.site.com/users/register/ & /users/login/ etc… I modified the shared.php to instantiate this class based on certain conditions right before I instantiate the controller for the page.
But now that doesnt seem to work, The variables in my other views are not being set correctly and the controllers for the other classes (portfolio, products, etc) cannot directly reference my $user class that is needed on every page.
I was thinking maybe i should just make a User class and make it act like a controller but not implement the base class controller… I think I also might need to modify the base controller class to take the $user class as a parameter so the controllers (portfolio, products) can reference $user->_isLoggedIn etc..
Can you give me your thoughts? Thanks
- Anant Garg
  @Dan, Hello again, first create a controller called users for providing functionality of login, registration, profile management etc. As I have mentioned at the end of this part, you have to create a function called redirectAction, which will perform only the action it is being redirected to and not the current action. It is similar to performAction in functionality except it only performs the action that is being called and not the current action. Simply duplicate the performAction function, and place an exit(); at the end of the function and set render to true.
  Once that is done, all you have to do is, create a function like _isloggedin() in the userscontroller.php. Then in whichever controller you require the user to be logged in, simply call performAction(‘users’,’_isloggedin()’,array()); in either beforeAction or at the start of the function. In the _isloggedin() function first you check whether the user is logged in or not, if yes, then return relevant details else redirectAction(‘users’,’login’,array());
J. Lourens
Hi Anant,
Hello again, I’ve been studying your code and it brings some great idea to mind.
just a little something, in shared.php you’ve got the following in callHook():
if (isset($urlArray[0])) {
$action = $urlArray[0];
array_shift($urlArray);
} else {
$action = ‘index’; // Default Action
}
I think for consistansy it should be:
if (isset($urlArray[0])) {
$action = $urlArray[0];
array_shift($urlArray);
} else {
$action = $default[‘action’]; // Default Action
}
ümit
how can i include my css for the header?
- Anant Garg
  @umit Hello, you place your css file in the public/css folder and add something like the following in application/views/header.php: <link href=”/css/YOURCSS.css” rel=”stylesheet” />
J. Lourens
Hi all once more,
at the end of the callHook() function, it states:
if ((int)method_exists($controllerName, $action)) {
call_user_func_array(array($dispatch,”beforeAction”),$queryString);
call_user_func_array(array($dispatch,$action),$queryString);
call_user_func_array(array($dispatch,”afterAction”),$queryString);
} else {
/* Error Generation Code Here */
}
This results in $querystring not being an array anymore.
Could anyone elaborate on this ?
Thanks before hand,
Jonathan Lourens
- Anant Garg
  @Lourens Hello, Am not sure what exactly you mean by $querystring not being an array anymore. Once you call the function $action of class $dispatch, we send each element of the $querystring array as parameters to the function. Thus we do not need the $querystring anymore.
J. Lourens
Hi Anant,
If I’m understanding this correct, when the following url is being requested:
http://www.site.com/framework/categories/view/1/Electronics
When callHook() is called urlArray is:
[0] => categories
[1] => view
[2] => 1
[3] => Electronics
After the array shifts urlArray would look like:
[0] => 1
[1] => Electronics
Now $dispatch is created, after this the beforeaction is called with $queryString as a param. Up until now $queryString is still an array if I’m not mistaking, but the view function of the CategoriesController just gets $categoryID which is just the first entry of the array.
Could you please explain this for me.
Thanks in advance,
Jonathan Lourens
- Anant Garg
  @Lourens Hello again, you are correct, the view function of the CategoriesController class only gets $categoryId because we have not requested any more parameters in our view function. Modify the view() function as below and have a look at the output:
  function view($categoryId = null, $categoryName = null) {
  print_r($categoryName);
  …
  }
  Now you will see that the function is also receiving $categoryName. I have not included the same in the current code because the category name is of no use to us (as we are making using of the category id); we are using the category name for SEO & pretty URL purposes.
Greg
I overcome the issue with relative image src’s and anchor href’s by using phpQuery (qJerry may work too but i’ve not used it) to manipulate the DOM before output. You can buffer the entire output to a variable, and then select all HREF’s and SRC’s using jQuery-like code in php – then simply change them using a function that resolves the relative path.
once you’re done, empty the output buffer without flushing to the browser, and print the modified output…
Nice article btw – you’ve made me rip a gaping hole in my current work, and start from scratch 😉
J. Lourens
Hi Anant,
I’ve studied your good quite well, had a lot of problems with the sqlquery class at first. But it seems quite logiscal now.
I hopw you will continue these tut’s
I very much enjoy reading them.
Kind regards,
Jonathan Lourens
Michel van Son
Hi Anant,
I’m trying your framework and I’m loving it so far…however, I did find an error…it’s just a small one….
In your html class you have:
$data = ”;
Which should be:
$data = ”;
nick
These tutorials have been so enlightening. Want to graciously say thank you. I had a great deal of trouble understanding the MVC paradigm until now.
Though busy as we all are I hope to read more from you.
Sumit
Hi Anant.
Thanks for the great tutorial. I was trying to build a flickr application over your framework using phpflickr but I am not able to understand how the application breakup would be. Do the phpflickr includes go in the model and so on?
If you could guide me in this regard it would be really helpful. Thanks again 🙂
- Anant Garg
  @Lourens @nick Hi, have been caught up a bit, I hope to write part 3 soon. Any suggestions on what you’d like to see?
  @Michel Can you please elaborate (line no)? Am unable to find the bug or see the difference between the two.
  @Sumit Hello, you can place the phpFlickr files in the library folder and rename phpflickr.php to phpflickr.class.php. Then in your controller, all you have to do is $f = new phpFlickr(); and it will automatically include the phpflickr class.
Jonathan Lourens
Hi Anant,
It’s understandable your quite busy, and I just like to say
that the time you put in for this writing is greatly appreciated.
Since we’re doing requests 😉
personally I’m quite interested in the way you would approach the following subjects:
– Login (session or cookies ? chap maybe ?)
– Changeable presentation layer (PDF or other view forms)
– Ajax interaction (sort off shopping cart or something ?)
I hope other people agree with my choice.
Looking forward to your next writing.
Kind regards,
Jonathan Lourens
- Anant Garg
  @Jonathan Hello, sure I will talk about the points you have mentioned. I hope to write one before the end of this week. 🙂
Michel van Son
Hi Anant,
In the HTML class, you wrote a function includeCss, hower, the output of that function is wrong…
Please look at http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/present/styles.html
- Anant Garg
  @Michel Oops, it was just a copy paste of the includeJs code in a hurry. It should actually be:
  function includeCss($fileName) {
  $data = ‘<link type=”text/css” rel=”stylesheet” href=”‘.BASE_PATH.’/css/’.$fileName.’.css” />’;
  return $data;
  }
  - N Vo
    Thanks for this.
Nick
Great tutoial, thanks for making it 😉
Would you mind telling me the best way to interact between the controllers?
I want to make an userprofile page with the post posted by that user and some general userinformation. Is it better to just call the article-model from my user-controller or call the whole article-controller from the user-controller?
Thanks!
- Anant Garg
  @Nick Hello, In your users controller, you can use the regualar search function to get all the basic details of the user. If you have set your relationships right, then you will also be able to get the posts posted by that user. But if you are looking to probably get only the latest posts, then simply use the performAction controller to get the details from a function (which takes the user-id as a parameter, and returns an array) in the posts controller.
Michel van Son
Hi Anant,
I wrote a function in the html.class.php for including images…
function includeImg($fileName, $alt) {
$data = ‘<img src=”‘BASE_PATH.’/’.$fileName.'” alt=”‘.$alt.””>’;
return $data;
}
Michel van Son
Hi Anant,
I’ve got a quick question:
On my local development server (Debian, Apache 2, PHP 5) the framework works like a charm…but when I copy the project over to the production server (also Debian, Apache 2, PHP 5) it starts to complain about the inflection class…
This is the error:
Parse error: syntax error, unexpected ‘”‘ in /var/www/pathname/library/inflection.class.php on line 11
Pathname is not the real path ofcourse…changed it for security reasons.
Do you know what’s wrong ?
Thanks very much!
- Anant Garg
  @Michel That’s real strange. Not sure exactly whats going wrong. I will investigate; let me know if you find the problem.
Mehike
can I do this framework with _POST requests? I don’t wan’t use _GET.
- Anant Garg
  @Mehike You can use _GET whenever you want to reflect the same in your browser URL. The framework can use _POST requests using your regular $_POST variable.
Mehike
some questsions:
1.in this framework I don’t must use session_start(); function anymore for a sessions?
2.where I can get (or where is best point for get) my _POST variables for use for next “work”? and right after use variables I must unset them, then I don’t need them in next webpage? (-> I send login name and password and after it I want get userdata from database and after it I must remove that variables, I think…). (my register_globals is set to off) -> All this I must do i think, in my controller class in action method? all work with data in Controlle class?
or all this questsions very stupid questsions? I am beginner in php, but ten years was a java programmer… and want learn php to.
Michel van Son
Hey Anant!
I’m working on a website but I’ve run into a problem:
I need to insert a row into the DB so I’ve set the values like $this->Controller->fieldname = value but then when I do $this->Controller->save it only updates a couple fields but not all…
Do you know what could cause this ?
Michel van Son
Anant!
I solved it! It turned out the tmp describe files are not automatically removed. So as I was working on the database, adding fields and such, the describe tmp file was not updated. Thus, when I ran the save() command, it didn’t know about the new fields. Removing the temp file solved it.
Might be worth mentioning it? 😉
jinx
Hey Anant, very nice tut, but I have a question. How can I modify this framework so that it can support layouts, like cake does? instead of using two different files (header &footer) i’m thinking of having just one and inside of this to have the views rendered (cake style)? I tried to do this, but didn’t succed.
Thanks.
Christiano
Thank you Anant,
I am using your Vanilla framework and appreciating it deeply.
I have extended some of the sql class to meet my needs, adding conditions on the children queries, and adding a function for automatically handling posts that are named in parallel to the models for quick saves.
I have considered working on the sql class to add support for recursive modeling however this has proved beyond me. I am wondering if you have plans to extend the ability to access models recursively or selectively with bt, hm, ho and habtm, and to save to related models, like so:
$this->Model->OtherModel->OtherOtherModel->save();
this would be valuable to me to learn how to do this in your third section.
thanks again.
Christiano
One error I may have discovered exists in the Inflection class – or actually in the sql class that translates custom queries into arrays with inflection:
The table addresses, used in a custom query resulted in a funny array. Address data was in the first array, but in the second was also Addres, and Addre after that.
I haven’t had a chance to puzzle through it. Any ideas?
google.com/accounts/o8…
I like to keep in the htdocs directory only the index.php, and static layout files like style sheets and images. Is doing this wise?
Joe
nice tutorial!
how to include another php classes like Flickr php class, etc?
is possible to make that php classes autoload?
thanks.
Aneesh
Hello Anand, I like your tutorial very much . But As a beginner to MVC , I have one doubt about that . Can we build more complex queries with the sql_query class. Other ways if we decide to write our sql queries(instead of build with the sql class) where it should be included wisely.
Please mention these
Christiano
it looks like you’re not fielding any more comments, but I have one more to make (that I didn’t see covered), having to do with beforeAction:
If you’re using $this->doNotRenderHeader = 1; in your beforeActions, ie if your actions are primarily used to make ajax calls, then be aware that performAction does not use beforeAction by default in your Controller. You either have to add doNotRenders to each action called by performAction, or else modify the shared scripts to either call beforeAction before your desired action, or add a boolean at the end of perform action to specify this behavior.
I don’t know if by passing beforeAction is the desired behavior of performAction, or if it was overlooked, but for the needs of a mostly AJAX application, the doNotRender in beforeAction needs to be processes in performAction more often than not.
Thanks.
Christiano
I read the article again and I see that my previous comment was mistaken.
beforeAction is meant for login/logout uses, and there are easier ways to handle headers and footers.
For example, a practical way of achieving a default ajax structure is to create an abstract model that has the full header and footer, and make it your default route. Then you can empty the default header and footer and never have to worry about headers and footers again, unless you want them, in which case you add header and footer to the view folder with any html/js you want in them. well, duh.
Hope my mistake helps someone else.
Richard
Hi,
Having read over tutorials 1 and 2 and picked up on some useful ideas regarding creating an MVC framework (which is a lot lighter than ZF, CakePHP etc…) I am curious to know if you did get around to posting a “Part 3” which I noticed you talked about in the comments a while back?
No worries if you have not…just means I’ll keep checking back to your blog every once in a while…anyway thanks for 2 great tutorials 🙂
Pieter Meyvaert
Hi, I’d like to have an overview of some things in my admin area, eg. list of products. What is the best and easy way to do this? Can you help me?
solved.pl
Great tutorials and even more so a awsome framework. Currently I’ve been learning php and checking frameworks and I have to say you blow most away thanks to simplicity.
Almost everything on the web today is overkill(example 4 pages of unnecessary functions for a simple 10 line properly written function). Hope to see a new tutorial soon most intresting I think would be AJAX through JQUERY. Also maybe expanding template options establishing a true frontend/backend cms feel. Thanks again for great tuts, bravo best out there truely.
Shoba
Hi,
I liked this article and I would like to try it out.
Can anybody help to rewrite .htaccess rules for lighttpd
Thanks
solved.pl
Small fix. Originally going from browser ex. localhost/framework/admin/ displays nothing due to the last / generating an empty query. To remove empty query from global $url.
In the callHook() function under
$url = routeURL($url);
add the following line
if( substr($url, strlen($url)-1) == ‘/’ ) $url = substr( $url, 0, strlen($url)-1 );
Also can anyone please post a example how to use routing.
Can’t get admin routing to work. Anyway to do custom alias links? Example localhost/controller/item/1 make it a custom url(from db) localhost/custom_alias ???
Grace Basilio
Hi,
Thanks for the great tutorial, but when I tried testing this, I got error 500 and I did nothing but to unzip your content.
See http://www.gracebasilio.com/framework1/items/viewall
What could possible be causing this?
kiran
nice tut. I want to add module architecture to this framework.
I mean my application built using this framework should allow other to build their own module and plug them in my app. just like it is in wordpress.
Any ideas how to do it?
Jeffery Sharp
Hi Anant,
Love your framework
But I’m trying to figure out how to acces $_GET.
I’m implementing twitter oauth in my framework and everything works fine until i try to set token
$twitterObj->setToken($_GET[‘oauth_token’]);
I placed this in my home controller in function index
and set my twitter callback url to
http://www.mysite.com/home which automatically routes to the index function,
however i get the error
Notice: Undefined index: oauth_token in /home/content/t/w/e/tweealty/html/application/controllers/homecontroller.php on line 13
Heres my home controller index
function index () {
$twitterObj = new EpiTwitter(TWITTER_CONSUMER_KEY, TWITTER_CONSUMER_SECRET);
$twitterObj->setToken($_GET[‘oauth_token’]);
$token = $twitterObj->getAccessToken();
$twitterObj->setToken($token->oauth_token, $token->oauth_token_secret);
// save to cookies
setcookie(‘oauth_token’, $token->oauth_token);
setcookie(‘oauth_token_secret’, $token->oauth_token_secret);
$twitterInfo= $twitterObj->get_accountVerify_credentials();
echo “Your twitter username is {$twitterInfo->screen_name} and your profile picture is profile_image_url}\”>
$this->set(‘title’,’Home’);
}
what am i doing wrong…
plz help thanks
Jeffery Sharp
Hi, all
me again
I think after rewrite $_GET no longer works.
could i write a rewrite rule to fix this.
or change my callback url
or should i use [‘REQUEST-URI]
At this point im confused.
Anil Konsal
Hi Anant,
Nice job you have done by revealing the basics of Framework. I have also developed my own Framework which is based on cakePHP and zend.
One thing i would like to suggest you is you should use PDO instead of plain mysql functions.
Thanks,
Anil
Thomas
hi,
awesome tut !
but I don’t understand how to fill the table products_tags
I’ve to add a tag, and after add an entry to the products_tags table ?
Thanks!
raleigh
when i attempt to use redirect just like you suggested, i get two views stack atop one another. at the top is the view im attempting to redirect to and below is the view i redirected from.
function beforeAction() {
redirectAction(‘controller’,’action’,array(),1);
exit;
}
anyone know what im doing wrong or not doing?
it’s the one feature I really need.
thanks,
raleigh
Arttu Pietarinen
Hi, thanks for great tutorial.
I am planning on implementing Smarty template engine on this mvc. How will that happen? Is it wise to still use template.php class and call necessary classes from there, or just call Smarty classes from controllers? Form controller would be just great to have on this kind of MVC.
netmastan
Nice tutorial. But I wanted to know how this framework can optimise SEO URL like this.
http://anantgarg.com/2009/03/30/write-your-own-php-mvc-framework-part-2/
I think another approach would route everything to index.php file
and query database for url alias write-your-own-php-mvc-framework-part-2/
Fukyo
Thanks for your tutorial. It’s very useful to me.
I’m finish tutorial 1 but I have problem with tutorial 2.
When I access to http://localhost/framework2 i see this message.
Content Encoding Error
The page you are trying to view cannot be shown because it uses an invalid or unsupported form of compression.
Please contact the website owners to inform them of this problem
Would you like to tell me how to fix this problem.
Thanks you very much.
Luke
Hi Anant,
Firstly great tutorial. It has taught me alot about php, especially about OOP practices.
I am having trouble running the second zip file though, I dont know if I did something wrong but the first tutorial I follwed along copying in code as I went, but this one as there is only a zip I dl’d it and I get:
“The page you are trying to view cannot be shown because it uses an invalid or unsupported form of compression.”
Is this a commen problem, I am running ff 3.0.8 on xp pro, i have tried I.E and Chrome and they both fail, I am running the script on WAMP version 2.0.
Thanks for the effort in putting this together, its a great resource.
Regards
Luke
RDF
Hi Anant,
I have coded an small web application with this framework, and after this probe I have an important (for me) question:
How can I manage sessions? I have tried to manage it via $_SESSION, but It isn’t visble in views (am I doing something wrong?).
after the $_SESSION probe, I wrote a session class (taking the cache class as example), but I have had errors too.
Could you write a simple session class? or could you explain how to access &_SESSION from views?
Thanks a lot for your effort!
- Anant Garg
  @RDF you will have to set it in the controller. Say you want to access $_SESSION[‘id’], then in templates
  $this->set(‘id’,$_SESSION[‘id’]);
RDF
Hi Anant,
I have solved the problem of sessions between the controller and its views, but … I’m having a similar problem with sessions between two different controllers.
In the first controller I start the sesion with session_start() and define a session variable as $_SESSION[‘isAdmin’].
This session variable is not visible by another controller (I can’t access to $_SESSION[‘isAdmin’] because $_SESSION is not defined). Any suggestion?
RDF
It works!
The problem with sessions was mine. I didn’t remember to call session_start() in ALL functions that need access to $_SESSION.
Thanks for your patience Anant.
Mehedi
WOW!!! Great Great Great Tutorial. Thanks for sharing..
Lubaka
Very good tutorial. I have one question but first let explain what i have:
i have old working website his articles have very good postions on google and their links are file.php?id=123(id of article) now i want to make new website using this framework but i want to leaves those urls like they are and how to i redirect http://mysite.com/article/view/2/articlename to http://mysite.com/file.php?id=2 in this framework ? I want only this urls to be redirected.
Again this is very good tutorial thank you.
Nikolay Traykov
Hi Anant,
Thank you for this wonderful tutorial. I complitely agree with you – there are many great frameworks, but if you want to learn how to make good oop design and to see what’s inside this frameworks, you have to start working hard. That’s why I’ve started working on one framework and saw your tutorial :).
I have two questions to you and to everyone, who wants to answer:
1) I’ve created one front controller for my site, which acts as an entry point to it. The problem is that I have to put ajax, but I don’t think, it would be good practise to invoke other php scipts as an entry point to my site, because of security reasons. Do you agree with me? Should I use the front controller for ajax too and after that create something like strategy pattern, which decides, whether it should invoke either classes which serves ajax requests or other classes, which serves to the non-ajax requests?
2) I think to put any configurations in conf directory in xml files (or .properties files). Would it be safe for the website, because xml can be opened through browser? I will write a redirect to index.php in htaccess, but anyway I don’t know that this is enough.
Thank you and good luck 🙂
Nikolay
sam
Hey Anant,
i am using WAMP server 2, php3.0
i am getting this error on opening the site:
Notice: Undefined index: url in D:\wamp\www\todo-2\public\index.php on line 6
thats this line: $url = $_GET[‘url’];
Deprecated: Assigning the return value of new by reference is deprecated in D:\wamp\www\todo-2\library\shared.php on line 148
Deprecated: Assigning the return value of new by reference is deprecated in D:\wamp\www\todo-2\library\shared.php on line 149
the url variable doesn’t exist.
i get the same error in the part-1 also.
also i get the list of folders & not redirected to the index.php in part-1.
PLZ tell me how do i proceed.
David
This is great tutorial for undestuding php framework and MVC programming.
Grat thanks !!
Traxk
Hopefully, after almost a year, you’ll be up for writing Part III which covers the user section of the framework…
I’ve been tinkering with the framework to get the user capability, but I seem to be doing something wrong… Any suggestions?
User->uname = $user;
$this->User->pass = $pass;
$loginData = $this->User->search();
if(isset($loginData[‘User’][‘user_id’]) && $isset($loginData[‘User’][‘power_level’])){
$_SESSION[‘v’] = “55a5ef54093e50c9d480bbeb254e4eaa”;
setSessionInfo($loginData, $_SESSION[‘v’]);
redirectAction(‘users’,’loginForm’,array($returnHomeUrl)); /*redirect to home cp.*/
}
redirectAction(‘user’,’loginForm’,array($returnUrl)); /*to the login page*/
}
private function setSessionInfo($loginData = null, $v = null){
if($loginData == null || $v == null){
redirectAction(‘users’,’loginForm’,array($returnUrl)); /*to the login page*/
}
$_SESSION[‘logged’]=true;
$_SESSION[‘level’]=$loginData[‘User’][‘level’];
$_SESSION[‘uid’]=$loginData[‘User’][‘level’];
}
function view($uid = null) {
}
function afterAction() {
}
}
Thanks!
Jade
Thank you! I like this tut so much! xxx
Tominated
Great tutorials that you’ve written! just a quick question: how would I go about including things like a login box or a dynamically generated menu in the header template for instance?
Thanks in advance!
muxcmux
Both parts of your tutorial are very inspirational! Very CakePHP-ish by the way “hasManyAndBelongsToMany” :))) Can’t wait for part 3. Keep it up!!!
krnel
Thank you for the great tut. Can you explain why this condition is here?
sqlquery.class.php
line 87
$conditions = ‘\’1\’=\’1\’ AND ‘;
Doesn’t seem to make sense to make a condition where 1=1…
Thanks.
krnel
Sorry, but another Q:
in shared.php
with the url containing: categories/view/1/Electronics
the queryString has 2 values, ‘1’, ‘Electronics’
later in shared.php
call_user_func_array(array($dispatch,$action),$queryString);
it calls as CategoriesController->view($queryString)
in categoriescontroller.php
the parameters queryString is received as categoryId.
when checking the value of categoryId it is not the same as queryString, there is only the value ‘1’ remaining. ‘Electronics’ is no longer there.
How is it that passing in an array with two values, is received not as an array, but as one single value?
I do not understand how this is happening.
Thanks again 🙂
sendipad
Good tut, Thank u.
I have installed the framwork and i got this erro :
Notice: Undefined index: _SESSION in E:\AppServ1\www\framework\library\shared.php on line 38
Warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in E:\AppServ1\www\framework\library\shared.php on line 38
Notice: Undefined index: url in E:\AppServ1\www\framework\library\shared.php on line 39
Notice: Undefined index: hd_sid in E:\AppServ1\www\framework\library\shared.php on line 39
Notice: Undefined index: hd_auth in E:\AppServ1\www\framework\library\shared.php on line 39
Notice: Undefined index: hd_searchtime in E:\AppServ1\www\framework\library\shared.php on line 39
Notice: Undefined index: PATHEXT in E:\AppServ1\www\framework\library\shared.php on line 39
Notice: Undefined index: SystemRoot in E:\AppServ1\www\framework\library\shared.php on line 39
My E-Commerce Website
Please select a category
Electronics
Toys & Games
i am just a newbie ,so could u pls tell me what’s the problem !
Pent
@Fukyo: I had to comment out the line:
gzipOutput() || ob_start(“ob_gzhandler”);
in “shared.php” to get the app to function at all
In retrospect it’s probably because I don’t have gzip enabled.
Great tutorial none the less, gonna spend a couple days reading this :S
Dennis
Hello.. I don’t understand how to use CSS with the $html->includeCss !
When I write the following in the index.php-view file i dont return any stylesheet in the head-section of my template:
includeCss(‘style’);
?>
Nirmal Tailor
I got this error when i install this mvc on local host how can i manage this error please help me
Notice: Undefined index: _SESSION in D:\Projects\Web\framework\library\shared.php on line 38
Warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in D:\Projects\Web\framework\library\shared.php on line 38
Notice: Undefined index: ja_purity_tpl in D:\Projects\Web\framework\library\shared.php on line 39
Notice: Undefined index: fontSize in D:\Projects\Web\framework\library\shared.php on line 39
Notice: Undefined index: SESS29af1facda0a866a687d5055f2fade2c in D:\Projects\Web\framework\library\shared.php on line 39
Notice: Undefined index: PATHEXT in D:\Projects\Web\framework\library\shared.php on line 39
Notice: Undefined index: SystemRoot in D:\Projects\Web\framework\library\shared.php on line 39
Warning: mysql_fetch_row(): supplied argument is not a valid MySQL result resource in D:\Projects\Web\framework\library\sqlquery.class.php on line 298
Warning: mysql_free_result(): supplied argument is not a valid MySQL result resource in D:\Projects\Web\framework\library\sqlquery.class.php on line 302
Notice: Undefined property: Category::$id in D:\Projects\Web\framework\library\sqlquery.class.php on line 101
Warning: mysql_num_fields(): supplied argument is not a valid MySQL result resource in D:\Projects\Web\framework\library\sqlquery.class.php on line 127
Warning: mysql_num_rows(): supplied argument is not a valid MySQL result resource in D:\Projects\Web\framework\library\sqlquery.class.php on line 132
Warning: mysql_free_result(): supplied argument is not a valid MySQL result resource in D:\Projects\Web\framework\library\sqlquery.class.php on line 246
Thanks in advance
Nirmal Tailor
Hello,
http://localhost/framework/categories/view/1/Electronics
this is the URL when i click on any category
then i have an error
The requested URL /framework/categories/view/1/Electronics was not found on this server.
can u help me which type of error this and how can i solve this.
Thanks in advance
cbar
Very good practical tutorial material. I have downloaded your part2 sample codes and I notice that every folder has a .DS_Shop with gibberish. What is that all about?
Nima
Which file can be said “helper”? 🙂
payam
coooooollll
I enjoyed…
thomas
Thanx alot for these tutorials, I’ve learned alot from them 🙂
Johny
Hi Anant,
I was very comfortable using your framework structure but now I have little confuse.
Is there any possible to use third party application like php open chat, because they have their own structure, and if I add the whole directory and to excute the .php in that directory is not possible by creating a controllers for every .php files. is there a way to integrate any third party library.
Thanks & Regards
Johny.
jorge
Hi there Anant,
Thanks for the lovely tutorial, i have one little doubt.
And if we want to use objects on the header.
I tried to change my menu automaticly when some1 login, but i just cant use any class on the header.php,
How can we make our header.php more dynamic?
Best Regards
tn][zera
Very nice tutorials…. Thank Anant !
@Nirmal Tailor
Your mod_rewrite maybe didn’t load in your apache server so the SEO link doesn’t work. Google for more information.
@Johny
For importing an exist class, Anant already mentioned it in some post before this. please do search. Adding 3rd component like a chatting one, I think you need to implements the controller instead of just placing the whole directory since the calling of this Vanilla framework has it own way to get and push data.
abed almonem Fatafta
i faced a problem when i setup the MVC on local and remote server
Notice: Undefined index: _SESSION in /home/ttawo/public_html/framework/library/shared.php on line 39
Warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in /home/ttawo/public_html/framework/library/shared.php on line 39
Notice: Undefined index: url in /home/ttawo/public_html/framework/library/shared.php on line 40
Notice: Undefined index: PHPSESSID in /home/ttawo/public_html/framework/library/shared.php on line 40
Notice: Undefined index: DOCUMENT_ROOT in /home/ttawo/public_html/framework/library/shared.php on line 40
Notice: Undefined index: GATEWAY_INTERFACE in /home/ttawo/public_html/framework/library/shared.php on line 40
Notice: Undefined index: HTTP_ACCEPT in /home/ttawo/public_html/framework/library/shared.php on line 40
Notice: Undefined index: HTTP_ACCEPT_CHARSET in /home/ttawo/public_html/framework/library/shared.php on line 40
Notice: Undefined index: HTTP_ACCEPT_ENCODING in /home/ttawo/public_html/framework/library/shared.php on line 40
Notice: Undefined index: HTTP_ACCEPT_LANGUAGE in /home/ttawo/public_html/framework/library/shared.php on line 40
Notice: Undefined index: HTTP_CACHE_CONTROL in /home/ttawo/public_html/framework/library/shared.php on line 40
Notice: Undefined index: HTTP_CONNECTION in /home/ttawo/public_html/framework/library/shared.php on line 40
Notice: Undefined index: HTTP_COOKIE in /home/ttawo/public_html/framework/library/shared.php on line 40
Notice: Undefined index: HTTP_HOST in /home/ttawo/public_html/framework/library/shared.php on line 40
Notice: Undefined index: HTTP_REFERER in /home/ttawo/public_html/framework/library/shared.php on line 40
Notice: Undefined index: HTTP_USER_AGENT in /home/ttawo/public_html/framework/library/shared.php on line 40
Notice: Undefined index: PATH in /home/ttawo/public_html/framework/library/shared.php on line 40
Notice: Undefined index: QUERY_STRING in /home/ttawo/public_html/framework/library/shared.php on line 40
Notice: Undefined index: REDIRECT_QUERY_STRING in /home/ttawo/public_html/framework/library/shared.php on line 40
Notice: Undefined index: REDIRECT_REDIRECT_STATUS in /home/ttawo/public_html/framework/library/shared.php on line 40
Notice: Undefined index: REDIRECT_REDIRECT_UNIQUE_ID in /home/ttawo/public_html/framework/library/shared.php on line 40
Notice: Undefined index: REDIRECT_STATUS in /home/ttawo/public_html/framework/library/shared.php on line 40
Notice: Undefined index: REDIRECT_UNIQUE_ID in /home/ttawo/public_html/framework/library/shared.php on line 40
Notice: Undefined index: REDIRECT_URL in /home/ttawo/public_html/framework/library/shared.php on line 40
Notice: Undefined index: REMOTE_ADDR in /home/ttawo/public_html/framework/library/shared.php on line 40
Notice: Undefined index: REMOTE_PORT in /home/ttawo/public_html/framework/library/shared.php on line 40
Notice: Undefined index: REQUEST_METHOD in /home/ttawo/public_html/framework/library/shared.php on line 40
Notice: Undefined index: REQUEST_URI in /home/ttawo/public_html/framework/library/shared.php on line 40
Notice: Undefined index: SCRIPT_FILENAME in /home/ttawo/public_html/framework/library/shared.php on line 40
Notice: Undefined index: SCRIPT_NAME in /home/ttawo/public_html/framework/library/shared.php on line 40
Notice: Undefined index: SERVER_ADDR in /home/ttawo/public_html/framework/library/shared.php on line 40
Notice: Undefined index: SERVER_ADMIN in /home/ttawo/public_html/framework/library/shared.php on line 40
Notice: Undefined index: SERVER_NAME in /home/ttawo/public_html/framework/library/shared.php on line 40
Notice: Undefined index: SERVER_PORT in /home/ttawo/public_html/framework/library/shared.php on line 40
Notice: Undefined index: SERVER_PROTOCOL in /home/ttawo/public_html/framework/library/shared.php on line 40
Notice: Undefined index: SERVER_SIGNATURE in /home/ttawo/public_html/framework/library/shared.php on line 40
Notice: Undefined index: SERVER_SOFTWARE in /home/ttawo/public_html/framework/library/shared.php on line 40
Notice: Undefined index: UNIQUE_ID in /home/ttawo/public_html/framework/library/shared.php on line 40
MY E-COMMERCE WEBSITE
PLEASE SELECT A CATEGORY
Electronics
Toys & Games
How i can resolve this problem Please urgent
sanjeet jha
Sir,
plz, say me how I insert data in database by using sqlquery class, I don’t know how i use this in app
thanks you
vsree
Hi All,
Can you tell me any one how to Insert data into database. Please give me one example also. Because I am unable to send the data into database.
Thanks,
VSREE
tuffo
hi! I am using MAMP and having .htaccess (i guess) problems.
I can see the index, but if I click on a category (e.g. electronics) it says this address:
http://localhost:8888/framework2/categories/view/1/Electronics
does not exist (error 404 not found).
any suggestion?
Yanko
i get this error
Deprecated: Assigning the return value of new by reference is deprecated in C:\xampp\htdocs\framework\library\vanillacontroller.class.php on line 22
Deprecated: Assigning the return value of new by reference is deprecated in C:\xampp\htdocs\framework\library\vanillacontroller.class.php on line 23
Fero
Hi tuffo,
Enable mod_rewrite in your apache server. Hope this will solve ur problem
Manuel Bitto
Ther is an ugly check in save() function of sqlquery.class.php:
function save() {
$query = ”;
$id = null;
if (isset($this->id)) {
$updates = ”;
foreach ($this->_describe as $field) {
if ($this->$field) {
$updates .= ‘`’.$field.’` = \”.mysql_real_escape_string($this->$field).’\’,’;
}
}
…
When it checks if ($this->$field), if $field value is == 0, (for example a value in DB that needs to be false) it will skip the if and it will not added to query.
So it should be:
if(null != $this->$field)
Manuel
Destramic
an awesome tutorial…but i am having problems with viewing the admin side of things?
http://localhost/framework/admin/categories/view
if you could please tell me what i am doing wrong…also i’d love to see a part 3 with a user login etc…thanks
Ken
Yanko
Guessing you are running PHP 5.2 or higher. It is the attempt to return by reference that is kicking up the warning.
Lose the & (reference) in lines 22 and 23 and the warning will vanish
waseem
Warning: ob_start() [ref.outcontrol]: output handler ‘ob_gzhandler’ conflicts with ‘zlib output compression’ in /var/www/html/Projects/waseem/admin_console/framework-2/framework/library/shared.php on line 145
Parse error: syntax error, unexpected ‘”‘ in /var/www/html/Projects/waseem/admin_console/framework-2/framework/library/inflection.class.php on line 11
I got the above error when tried ur framework
andrew
if you get this error: Notice: Undefined index: url in D:\wamp\www\todo-2\public\index.php on line 6
replace line 6 with this:
if(isset($_GET[‘url’]))
$url = $_GET[‘url’];
Cheers.
Mel
Thanks for this tutorial.
Can you please teach us how to update the database from a form please?
John Mayer
I want to use jquery ajax functions can you please give me an example how would I achieve this?
Luke Jordan
Hi this is a quote from you in an above reply….
Once you call the function $action of class $dispatch, we send each element of the $querystring array as parameters to the function.
I really don’t understand where the function $action is? i am new to this please could you help me to understand these lines….
$dispatch = new $controllerName($controller,$action);
if ((int)method_exists($controllerName, $action)) {
call_user_func_array(array($dispatch,”beforeAction”),$queryString);
call_user_func_array(array($dispatch,$action),$queryString);
call_user_func_array(array($dispatch,”afterAction”),$queryString);
and where do u get the “beforeAction” and “afterAction” from. And when i looked call_user_func_array() up it said… call_user_func_array(array($class, “$function/$method”), array(“param1”, “param2”)); why does it not say array($queryString) ….. is it because $queryString is an array already? Why is it called call_user_func_array when a function inside a class is a method?
Please HELP ME 😉
Luke Jordan
Warning: mysql_fetch_row() expects parameter 1 to be resource, boolean given in C:\wamp\www\framework\library\sqlquery.class.php on line 298
Warning: mysql_free_result() expects parameter 1 to be resource, boolean given in C:\wamp\www\framework\library\sqlquery.class.php on line 302
Warning: mysql_num_fields() expects parameter 1 to be resource, boolean given in C:\wamp\www\framework\library\sqlquery.class.php on line 127
Warning: mysql_num_rows() expects parameter 1 to be resource, boolean given in C:\wamp\www\framework\library\sqlquery.class.php on line 132
Warning: mysql_free_result() expects parameter 1 to be resource, boolean given in C:\wamp\www\framework\library\sqlquery.class.php on line 246
My E-Commerce Website
i unziped the file and filled in my database with relevant sql that you provided but get these errors…
Notice: Undefined index: Product in C:\wamp\www\framework\application\views\products\view.php on line 1
Price: $
Notice: Undefined index: Product in C:\wamp\www\framework\application\views\products\view.php on line 4
Rakesh Saini
Dear Mr. Anant ,
i want to learn advance php classes
do u provide me for the same ?
nikmauro
it possible to use “themes” with [header, footer, css and images]?
pink/red/black/ etc
the page product return ‘black theme’
the page category return ‘pink them’
vsree
How can i use Ajax functions in this Frame work. Actually i need to load some tables and text boxes dynamically in my Application with using the Ajax and Jquery. Can you give me one example please.
Thanks in Advance.
subhash
how to use ajax in own php framework?
Tamer
First, I would like to say thank you for a great article and the simple yet powerful framework. It would be great if you could keep this series going and evolve the framework.
It would be great if you could go into a bit more detail regarding the admin routing.
Khoa
Dear,
Thanks for your great works.
Could you please guide me how to work with master page in your framework.
Thanks in advance,
Jens
Hi,
thanks for the tutorial.
But when I want to access the sample I get the following error:
When I access to http://localhost/framework2 i see this message.
Content Encoding Error
The page you are trying to view cannot be shown because it uses an invalid or unsupported form of compression.
Please contact the website owners to inform them of this problem
Have yout got any idea how to solve this?
Jasmine Richee
Hi Anant,
Both part I and part II awesome tutorial. Thanks for your time and sharing. Can’t wait to see part III.
Thank you.
mrDUTA
I have a question for admin, how to create system administrator, i put directory “admin” on dir “framework” but run localhost/framework/admin not working and display error “Fatal error: Class ‘AdminController’ not found in C:\AppServ\www\framework\library\shared.php on line 99”.
Please help me create system administrator, thanks!
April
I’m trying to convert my rather large site to the MVC format so that it’s easier to move forward with development and just all around more organized and stable. Your tutorials have really helped me understand the MVC structure but I’m having a hard time incorporating some things.
My site as is currently has links such as:
http://www.domain.com/category_name which displays general info about the category and all the pages under it.
http://www.domain.com/category_name/page_id which is specific to each page.
How can I convert with mod rewrite your URLs to match my previous ones…
http://www.domain.com/categories/view/category_id/category_name
— >http://www.domain.com/category_name (with all lowercase letter)
http://www.domain.com/pages/view/page_id/page_name
— >http://www.domain.com/category_name/page_id (again, category name with all lowercase letters)
The most I have been able to accomplish is get the urls to go from
http://www.domain.com/pages/view/page_id/page_name —> http://www.domain.com/pages/view/page_id
and the same with categories (just removing the title after the id)
Also, my site has various modules none of which I have started converting to the MVC format. The links to those are
http://www.domain.com/category_name/page_id/module_name/module_page/module_post
example:
http://www.domain.com/books/1/forum/category/12
or
http://www.domain.com/books/1/downloads/5
Will the controller file be able to read these type of links or does it strictly have to be
http://www.domain.com/downloads/view/5
feel free to email me
Sizwe
Nice framework
Tom
I am stuck on a problem with the redirectAction that raleigh asked about a long time ago. I like this code but when I use the redirectAction like it’s suggested I also end up with the redirected view and the current view stacked on top of each other. Has anyone solved this?
Kipip
( ! ) Fatal error: Class ‘Controller’ not found in C:\wamp\www\eshop\mvc2\library\shared.php on line 99
any help with this error ? 🙂
Piyush Aggarwal
Hi Anant
Actually I want to implement one website on PHP mvc framework and I am using your code for its development part.but due to some resaon I am not able to see my website.It is showing webpage not available error on my localhost.
To verify that I have done all correct changes I even downloaded the framework file unzip it made corresponding changes in config.php and also imported the database.Here also it is showing the same error.
Please help me and tell what can be the reason tht your code is not working on my laptp(i.e) my localhost
It’s urgent.So it would be be helpful if you can reply me as soon as possible
Regards
Piyush
nik
question: it possible to parse from views something to header or footer? example
Archana Sriram
Anant, awesome stuff.
I have been using your framework for a couple of years now, and I’ve integrated it well with added features. I love that it is so simple and efficient, it makes for enjoyable elaboration. Despite what many people have been saying about it being too lightweight for serious site building, I have found it to go far. I have been using it (+ a bunch of minor modifications to suit my applications) exclusively on all my sites!
I recently added a simple version control in the mysqlquery class. Basically I added a private variable to model.class called _backupTable, which is just the table name plus ‘_history’, YMMV. Then In mysqlquery.class I make sure to describe both tables. In the delete() function, instead of only deleting the row, I first search for it in the backup table, if I find it, I increment the revision number, and then insert the row. I’ve done the two table solution (history table apart from regular table), but it could be done however you like.
I’ve also added a whole javascript framework using your html class to call the scripts. That part has been really fun. I don’t understand why there are so many comments from people about how to add ajax, and all that jazz. It is not the topic of this article, and if you wanted to add it, you so easily could, given the tools already provided.
I’ve learned a lot from using what you’ve provided, and I extend my thanks to you.
robin
really nice framework, thank you very much for making this.
but I stumbled onto some troubles (PHP/5.3.8 using xamp), the first was that I got a “Content Encoding Error” using firefox and “unable to connect” using chrome and ie9. I quickly found out this was about the line “error_reporting = E_ALL | E_STRICT” in the php.ini file, just change it into “error_reporting = E_ALL^ E_DEPRECATED | E_STRICT” and I got my website up and running.
the second problem was that there were messages on the site saying stuff was depricated on line 22 and 23 of the vanillacontroller.class.php, just remove the & in front of the new $model; and new template(); and eveything is fine.
I thought I should mention it because I learned a lot from this. Thank you
wfc
Hey 🙂
i’m trying to make a simple notification sistem on this framework
so the code in the header.php looks like this:
if (!empty($template_notification))
{
foreach ($template_notification as $subject => $message){echo ”.$message.”;
}
}
and it works fine when i do this in the controller
$this->set(‘template_notification’, array(‘error’ => ‘some error like-password is too short’));
but i need this in the model and this doesn’t work
so please help 🙂
Erik ?erpnjak
Dear Anant!
Thank you very much for your tutorial on the MVC approach of writing applications.
From your example i have build a framework that supports integration of multiple languages with a change of a flag in the DB, total abstraction of functions and behavior. I have made 3 different controllers, each for a different datatype: one for text (like a about us page), one for lists (like partners or banners) and for tree structures. All the functionality is pushed back into the main model class, so no matter what type of controller I create it can use all functions a model has.
I had to change the hook function to my needs and also the save function of the sqlquery class, because of the languages.
I cant thank you enought, because you have helped me cut down development times to the minimun. Now it takes me about an hour to copy/paste the whole framework and to add different contollers and model. All my models have a build-in files support and to enable file uploads I have to change a flag in the DB and thats it.
The system is also aware of AJAX calls so it handles them automaticaly. A javascript function that I have written enables me to send parameters the way the framework understands it.
Keep up the good work
Yours truly
Erik
MRF
I’m using XAMPP, pointed my httpd.conf at the downloaded framework subdirectory, and like many others, am seeing “Content Encoding Error : The page you are trying to view cannot be shown because it uses an invalid or unsupported form of compression.”. Any help?
- Anant Garg
  @MRF You may have to switch of the GZIP feature.
MRF
I just figured out XAMPP must have compression turned on also, so it’s getting compressed twice?
comment out this line in shared.php:
// gzipOutput() || ob_start(“ob_gzhandler”);
MRF
Anant, good stuff. I’m trying to do user auth using your redirectAction plan, but getting stacked views just like raleigh, traxk, and Tom. I’ve tried adding a beforeAction to a controller, calling redirectAction(‘users’,’_isloggedin’,array()); my users controller has
function _isloggedin() {
// let’s assume false here for testing, redirect
performAction(‘users’,’login’,array(),1); }
Since you’ve got a lot of interest in your framework and we’re hitting this wall, could you give us more guidance here? Thanks! Good Stuff, keep up the good work.
}
- James Trotter
  comment out the contents of __destructor in the vanillacontroller. then always render the view if you need a view rendered. ($this->_template->render())
robin
@MRF
try experimenting with these :
$this->render=1;(no page visible)
$this->doNotRenderHeader=0;(header and footer not visible)
and if you want to have a different page view, try setting these to another view :
$this->_template->setController(“”);
$this->_template->setAction(“”);
@Anant or somebody else
I get how the relations work with teachers and students but I want more, I want to be able to have a relation between teachers,students and pencils for example. So if I look for a teacher, I am able to view the pencils and students. Is this possible with current sql.class or do I have to expand it? Or if it’s possible to work around it I would be happy to hear 😉
yours truly,
Robin
MRF
Part 1 and Part 2 have been very informative, and going through them with Anant and playing with the code trying to get it to work has taught me some good basic concepts. I initially looked at CodeIgniter and thought “sheesh, another framework to learn which will take time” so came here and started rolling my own.
Guess what? After working through Anant’s code, and realizing you can’t depend on a mostly dead blog for something you want to get done anytime soon, I went back to CodeIgniter and understand it much better now, it follows these exact concepts and is very well done (and with very responsive user support). Credit to these two parts! Thanks Anant.
- gallowaygrumblefield
  I don’t see Anant supporting or answering any of these questions.
supperbas
Great Framework, I would really love to see a part 3 =] I don’t know if you plan on making a part 3?
I found an typo in html.class.php (line 42) The closing tag is a script-tag and it should close a style tag.
Other than that great work!
Shawn
Thanks Anant. I realize this post is pretty dated, but I came across it while looking for a skeletal framework with which to begin the creation of a simple but powerful MVC structure, which I plan to use for multiple websites. Thus far I’ve been able to implement new classes, models, controllers, views, etc…
I do have a question about AJAX and JSON though. When calling a controller / action, is it simply a matter of setting and getting a url variable to determine whether to render a page or just return an object? Then maybe in beforeAction check for that variable and instead of returning a view, return the object?
Obviously a lot of people have found this article very helpful. Any plans to expand on what you already have here? I’d love to see something like helpers, AJAX, elements (which I’ve already implemented but would love to see your take on implementing these), and other front-end (DOM) creation / manipulation.
sgb
Notice: Undefined index: url in C:\xampp\htdocs\php_test\framework1\framework\public\index.php on line 6
Notice: Undefined offset: 0 in C:\xampp\htdocs\php_test\framework1\framework\library\shared.php on line 57
Deprecated: Assigning the return value of new by reference is deprecated in C:\xampp\htdocs\php_test\framework1\framework\library\controller.class.php on line 15
sir,
i downloaded framework part1, part2 sepratly and tried to run it from xamp folder path where all php are stored .
i changed config accordingly.
i got folllowing error.
Deprecated: Assigning the return value of new by reference is deprecated in C:\xampp\htdocs\php_test\framework1\framework\library\controller.class.php on line 16
Fatal error: Class ” not found in C:\xampp\htdocs\php_test\framework1\framework\library\controller.class.php on line 15
Tutorial Website PHP
Nice stuff. I’ve been developing my own mvc framework too. But, I’m stuck in framework routing. How to make routing using regex is like Codeigniter do? Example using :any, :number, etc. Thank you in advance.
Suneel Kumar
Hi Ananat,
Great tutorial and I really loved it.
I downloaded the tutorial and copied the files to wamp/www folder and i am getting “Content Encoding Error The page you are trying to view cannot be shown because it uses an invalid or unsupported form of compression.”
Please suggest.
jay-arth
Having problem the part 2. I unzip the files inside localhost which should be http://localhost/framwork. Change the config and import the database. Then after going the browers with the url http://localhost/framwork nothing happened the page is just blank or simply IE error
Internet Explorer cannot display the webpage. Kindly let me know what I did wrong
Mickel
Hi there Anant. I have started creating an admin panel but when I want to display customers I cant do it.
For example if my url was ‘http://localhost/admin/customers’
I would want to display all my customers but I cant get the function to retrieve data from the customers table and how to display it on the view/ file customers_view.php
Secondly, can you explain the custom() function which is in the sqlquery.class.php?
TJ Martin
I know this is an old post but for anyone that would still like to use this in php5 you will have to eliminate the & statement in the vanillacontroller.class on line 22 and 23. Should look like:
$this->$model = new $model;
$this->_template = new Template($controller,$action);
this will fix any depreciation errors you might get
Gustav
Hello I really appreciated part1 but can’t get work part2 :
Erreur 330 (net::ERR_CONTENT_DECODING_FAILED)
Any suggestions ?
Thanks !
Michelangelo Beggiato
For all people have problem:
http://xxx/categories/view/1/Electronics
does not exist (error 404 not found).
change .htaccess position from /public to root site
Peter
If you a get :
Error Message: Error 330 (net::ERR_CONTENT_DECODING_FAILED)/
You will need to add zlib output compression in you php configuration.
- Charlotte Core drill
  I have found a fairly simple solution to this (net;error content_decoding_failed) by adding a new php.ini in public folder
  - gallowaygrumblefield
    When I turn on zlib output compression (either by using your suggestion of placing it inside the .htaccess or by turning it on in the php.ini), it throws a new error, “Warning: ob_start(): output handler ‘ob_gzhandler’ conflicts with ‘zlib output compression’ in C:xampphtdocsframeworklibraryshared.php on line 145”
Romario
Hi Anant. I hope you can help me with this:
Error 330 (net::ERR_CONTENT_DECODING_FAILED).
I’m using chrome, and I don’t know what to do.
Thank you.
- anudeep
  same here..
Christian Kvasny
Hi All.
Nice Tutorial, Thx
Has anyone added some Stuff, Pluginsystem, User Role Auth or other Apps?
Will come Out any Tutorial Part 3?
Thx Chris
Damian
Hi, i have a question, where you define BASE_PATH?
Thanks!
Damian
- Sizwe Langa
  Hi Damian
  For consistency, it should be in config.php file.
  Thanks
Rachel
Hello! Quick question. Say I have a front end and a back end on my website. Lets say the front end is a sales page. Then there’s an admin section that shows everyone who’s signed up. Currently we’re using .htpasswd to password protect the admin directory. How would I use .htpasswd when everything is running through the bootstrap file? Thanks a bunch for this great tutorial!
- George Garchagudashvili
  hi there
  - George Garchagudashvili
    I would not do it with .htpasswd but making my own authorization system with some user levels admin, moderator etc…
Japjap
This is what my teacher is trying to teach me for half a year now loooooool
Skyblue
I added design to the header and footer, but it is not showing to other pages, header and footer only appears at the default page.
Skyblue
Also, how can I save data from a
- Skyblue
  Been stuck with the save() function, its not adding or updating data in db 🙁
  - apalah
    add function to your model class
    function save() {
    $this->Category->id = $_POST[‘id’];
    $this->Category->name = $_POST[‘name’];
    //add below your sql command like insert into tablename or update tablename set whatrow
    }
    views/products/save.php
    - Skyblue
      Thanks 🙂
    - Sizwe Langa
      Hi apalah
      Im trying to insert data to three different tables link by a primary key.
      Any idea?
      Thanks in advance
Naveed Ramzan
Hi,
Thanks for this tutorial and It is really helpful to me.
Here I have two questions :
1- I write the localhost/cms/ and it should be redirected to default controller/default action such as categories/index as we have defined in routing but its not. Showing error “Content Encoding Error”
2- What if I want to make this structure HMVC such as in application I want to change like this.
– application
– categories
– – controllers
– – – categoriescontroller.php
– – models
– – – category.php
– – views
– – – index.php
– – – list.php
in this way, it will be easy to copy categories module to some other same MVC structure instead of copying each file one by one from separatly controller, model and views.
Whats your suggestion regarding 2nd question ?
Waiting for your prompt and positive reply.
thanks
- J Crenshaw
  Naveed if you are running WAMP, then you need to turn on the php extension zlib compression, turn on the Apache mod mod_rewrite, and remove ob_start from the If statement in shared.php.
  - Naveed Ramzan
    Hi, thanks for your reply.
    OK I will update you soon after this changing.
    Thanks
Skyblue
I have a one to many relationship and I’m using hasMany function. Question is, I have two tables, book and borrower. In borrower table there is a field book_id, how can I display the book title in the listing instead of book_id?
- Sizwe Langa
  Hi Skyblue
  Make sure your table names are plural like books and borrowers so that they are compatible with the application.
  In your model class create two array.
  $hasMany = array(‘Book’ => ‘Book’);
  $hasOne = array(‘Borrower’ => ‘Borrower’);
  In your controller, call showHasOne() and showHasMany();
  In your view you can run a loop to pull out the book title.
  Hope it helps
  Thanks
ARUN SANKAR
Hai.. The first tutorial worked well… but the part 2 didnt work for me.. it shows error “The webpage at http://localhost/FirstFrameWork/ might be temporarily down or it may have moved permanently to a new web address.”.. why this is happening??? my php version is PHP 5.5.12
Reza Khalafi
hi
i cant use this mvc . i configured DB and config.php but when type localhost/framework in addressbar show me
Content Encoding Error
how can i fix it.
tnx for attention.
Jan Haesen
How would I set the title for a page in this newer version? I am absolutely digging your tutorial!!
EDIT: nevermind, I got it 😉
Diego A.
Great tutorial, is there any chance that you make part 3 ?
We would learn even more new cool stuffs
Diego A.
One more question, is this Framework save enough to use for development ?
Has almost everything I need
Rahul
I read first part of tutorial, it would have helped me sure. thanks for sharing this. I would continue to ask if i get anything need to ask !
naser
hello
i got this when write in my url http://localhost/php-mvc/ what am doin??
Notice: Undefined index: url in C:xampphtdocsphp-mvcpublicindex.php on line 26
N Vo
Thanks for a great tutorial and taking the time to give us a learning curve on creating PHP MVC framework from scratch. I find it very useful. I do have a question if anyone is willing to offer help:
Say if I’m on the Categories page, how do I do a call to the database to query against a different table? Say if I need to do a SELECT * FROM MENUS?
vanbumi
Sound great, it will be so useful, I will try this soon…. thanks for share
SND
Hi Anant,
We really look forward for your Part 3 tutorial. Helps us a lot. Thanks.
chandu
hi friend,
These tutorial are so nice I followed the concept u explained but I getting problem when I am using ajax call .If I am trying to return any json data in controller it is not retuning to the ajax call
chandu
just it is printing the json data but returning to ajax call. can u help me.
Slim Comar
oh god, how i love you… thank you for part1 and 2
Willian Serpas
how load css files??
i try on header.php but i recieve http://localhost//login/login/css/bootstrap.min.css no se cargó porque su tipo MIME, “text/html”, no es “text/css”.
any suggestion???
- Dominic
  because you have “//login/login/” its a clue that you’re pretty urls aren’t enabled. I believe he had something in here about modrwrite in the apache .conf file or .htacess that will tailor to your needs. look into the mod_rewrite package for php
Krishna Paul
Deprecated: Assigning the return value of new by reference is deprecated in /home/u389925510/public_html/framework/library/shared.php on line 148
Warning: ob_start(): output handler ‘ob_gzhandler’ conflicts with ‘zlib output compression’ in /home/u389925510/public_html/framework/library/shared.php on line 145
Deprecated: Assigning the return value of new by reference is deprecated in /home/u389925510/public_html/framework/library/vanillacontroller.class.php on line 22
I have got this errors.
Nilesh Pande
Hiii
Nice framework
But it giving lots of errors on my system.
plz can you give me complete demo for that . with db and example ?
tiontux
Appreciate the work you dedicate to put this together. This is a really good exercise to learn how MVC structure works. The code is a bit outdated but still a very good base to start from. Its a good exercise to now take it apart and make it work.
Thank you for sharing.
Fredrik Brandt
Hi,
I get the following error:
“The webpage at http://localhost/framework/ might be temporarily down or it may have moved permanently to a new web address.”.. Why do I get this and how can I fix it? My php version is PHP 5.6.35. It seems to be something with .htaccess.