8/30/2015 Flight ­ An extensible micro­framework for PHP

Flight
An extensible micro-framework for PHP

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User Guide
Routing
Extending
Overriding
Filtering
Variables
Views
Error Handling
Redirects
Requests
HTTP Caching
JSON
Configuration
Framework Methods

Routing
Routing in Flight is done by matching a URL pattern with a callback function.

Flight::route('/', function(){
    echo 'hello world!';
});

The callback can be any object that is callable. So you can use a regular function:

function hello(){
    echo 'hello world!';
}

Flight::route('/', 'hello');

Or a class method:

class Greeting {
    public static function hello() {
        echo 'hello world!';
    }
}

Flight::route('/', array('Greeting','hello'));

Routes are matched in the order they are defined. The first route to match a request will be invoked.

Method Routing
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By default, route patterns are matched against all request methods. You can respond to specific methods by
placing an identifier before the URL.

Flight::route('GET /', function(){
    echo 'I received a GET request.';
});

Flight::route('POST /', function(){
    echo 'I received a POST request.';
});

You can also map multiple methods to a single callback by using a | delimiter:

Flight::route('GET|POST /', function(){
    echo 'I received either a GET or a POST request.';
});

Regular Expressions
You can use regular expressions in your routes:

Flight::route('/user/[0‐9]+', function(){
    // This will match /user/1234
});

Named Parameters
You can specify named parameters in your routes which will be passed along to your callback function.

Flight::route('/@name/@id', function($name, $id){
    echo "hello, $name ($id)!";
});

You can also include regular expressions with your named parameters by using the : delimiter:

Flight::route('/@name/@id:[0‐9]{3}', function($name, $id){
    // This will match /bob/123
    // But will not match /bob/12345
});

Optional Parameters
You can specify named parameters that are optional for matching by wrapping segments in parentheses.

Flight::route('/blog(/@year(/@month(/@day)))', function($year, $month, $day){
    // This will match the following URLS:
    // /blog/2012/12/10
    // /blog/2012/12
    // /blog/2012
    // /blog
});

Any optional parameters that are not matched will be passed in as NULL.

Wildcards
Matching is only done on individual URL segments. If you want to match multiple segments you can use the *
wildcard.

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Flight::route('/blog/*', function(){
    // This will match /blog/2000/02/01
});

To route all requests to a single callback, you can do:

Flight::route('*', function(){
    // Do something
});

Passing
You can pass execution on to the next matching route by returning true from your callback function.

Flight::route('/user/@name', function($name){
    // Check some condition
    if ($name != "Bob") {
        // Continue to next route
        return true;
    }
});

Flight::route('/user/*', function(){
    // This will get called
});

Route Info
If you want to inspect the matching route information, you can request for the route object to be passed to
your callback by passing in true as the third parameter in the route method. The route object will always be
the last parameter passed to your callback function.

Flight::route('/', function($route){
    // Array of HTTP methods matched against
    $route‐>methods;

    // Array of named parameters
    $route‐>params;

    // Matching regular expression
    $route‐>regex;

    // Contains the contents of any '*' used in the URL pattern
    $route‐>splat;
}, true);

Extending
Flight is designed to be an extensible framework. The framework comes with a set of default methods and
components, but it allows you to map your own methods, register your own classes, or even override
existing classes and methods.

Mapping Methods
To map your own custom method, you use the map function:

// Map your method
Flight::map('hello', function($name){
    echo "hello $name!";
});

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// Call your custom method
Flight::hello('Bob');

Registering Classes
To register your own class, you use the register function:

// Register your class
Flight::register('user', 'User');

// Get an instance of your class
$user = Flight::user();

The register method also allows you to pass along parameters to your class constructor. So when you load
your custom class, it will come pre-initialized. You can define the constructor parameters by passing in an
additional array. Here's an example of loading a database connection:

// Register class with constructor parameters
Flight::register('db', 'PDO', array('mysql:host=localhost;dnbname=test','user','pass'));

// Get an instance of your class
// This will create an object with the defined parameters
//
//     new PDO('mysql:host=localhost;dnbname=test','user','pass');
//
$db = Flight::db();

If you pass in an additional callback parameter, it will be executed immediately after class construction. This
allows you to perform any set up procedures for your new object. The callback function takes one
parameter, an instance of the new object.

// The callback will be passed the object that was constructed
Flight::register('db', 'PDO', array('mysql:host=localhost;dnbname=test','user','pass'), function($db){
    $db‐>setAttribute(PDO::ATTR_ERRMODE, PDO::ERRMODE_EXCEPTION);
});

By default, every time you load your class you will get a shared instance. To get a new instance of a class,
simply pass in false as a parameter:

// Shared instance of the class
$shared = Flight::db();

// New instance of the class
$new = Flight::db(false);

Keep in mind that mapped methods have precedence over registered classes. If you declare both using the
same name, only the mapped method will be invoked.

Overriding
Flight allows you to override its default functionality to suit your own needs, without having to modify any
code.

For example, when Flight cannot match a URL to a route, it invokes the notFound method which sends a
generic HTTP 404 response. You can override this behavior by using the map method:

Flight::map('notFound', function(){
    // Display custom 404 page

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    include 'errors/404.html';
});

Flight also allows you to replace core components of the framework. For example you can replace the
default Router class with your own custom class:

// Register your custom class
Flight::register('router', 'MyRouter');

// When Flight loads the Router instance, it will load your class
$myrouter = Flight::router();

Framework methods like map and register however cannot be overridden. You will get an error if you try to
do so.

Filtering
Flight allows you to filter methods before and after they are called. There are no predefined hooks you need
to memorize. You can filter any of the default framework methods as well as any custom methods that
you've mapped.

A filter function looks like this:

function(&$params, &$output) {
    // Filter code
}

Using the passed in variables you can manipulate the input parameters and/or the output.

You can have a filter run before a method by doing:

Flight::before('start', function(&$params, &$output){
    // Do something
});

You can have a filter run after a method by doing:

Flight::after('start', function(&$params, &$output){
    // Do something
});

You can add as many filters as you want to any method. They will be called in the order that they are
declared.

Here's an example of the filtering process:

// Map a custom method
Flight::map('hello', function($name){
    return "Hello, $name!";
});

// Add a before filter
Flight::before('hello', function(&$params, &$output){
    // Manipulate the parameter
    $params[0] = 'Fred';
});

// Add an after filter

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Flight::after('hello', function(&$params, &$output){
    // Manipulate the output
    $output .= " Have a nice day!";
}

// Invoke the custom method
echo Flight::hello('Bob');

This should display:

Hello Fred! Have a nice day! 

If you have defined multiple filters, you can break the chain by returning false in any of your filter functions:

Flight::before('start', function(&$params, &$output){
    echo 'one';
});

Flight::before('start', function(&$params, &$output){
    echo 'two';

    // This will end the chain
    return false;
});

// This will not get called
Flight::before('start', function(&$params, &$output){
    echo 'three';
});

Note, core methods such as map and register cannot be filtered because they are called directly and not
invoked dynamically.

Variables
Flight allows you to save variables so that they can be used anywhere in your application.

// Save your variable
Flight::set('id', 123);

// Elsewhere in your application
$id = Flight::get('id');

To see if a variable has been set you can do:

if (Flight::has('id')) {
     // Do something
}

You can clear a variable by doing:

// Clears the id variable
Flight::clear('id');

// Clears all variables
Flight::clear();

Flight also uses variables for configuration purposes.

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Flight::set('flight.log_errors', true);

Views
Flight provides some basic templating functionality by default. To display a view template call the render
method with the name of the template file and optional template data:

Flight::render('hello.php', array('name' => 'Bob'));

The template data you pass in is automatically injected into the template and can be reference like a local
variable. Template files are simply PHP files. If the content of the hello.php template file is:

Hello, '<?php echo $name; ?>'!

The output would be:

Hello, Bob!

You can also manually set view variables by using the set method:

Flight::view()‐>set('name', 'Bob');

The variable name is now available across all your views. So you can simply do:

Flight::render('hello');

Note that when specifying the name of the template in the render method, you can leave out the .php
extension.

By default Flight will look for a views directory for template files. You can set an alternate path for your
templates by setting the following config:

Flight::set('flight.views.path', '/path/to/views');

Layouts
It is common for websites to have a single layout template file with interchanging content. To render content
to be used in a layout, you can pass in an optional parameter to the render method.

Flight::render('header', array('heading' => 'Hello'), 'header_content');
Flight::render('body', array('body' => 'World'), 'body_content');

Your view will then have saved variables called header_content and body_content. You can then render
your layout by doing:

Flight::render('layout', array('title' => 'Home Page'));

If the template files looks like this:

header.php:
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<h1><?php echo $heading; ?></h1>

body.php:

<div><?php echo $body; ?></div>

layout.php:

<html>
<head>
<title><?php echo $title; ?></title>
</head>
<body>
<?php echo $header_content; ?>
<?php echo $body_content; ?>
</body>
</html>

The output would be:

<html>
<head>
<title>Home Page</title>
</head>
<body>
<h1>Hello</h1>
<div>World</div>
</body>
</html>

Custom Views
Flight allows you to swap out the default view engine simply by registering your own view class. Here's how
you would use the Smarty template engine for your views:

// Load Smarty library
require './Smarty/libs/Smarty.class.php';

// Register Smarty as the view class
// Also pass a callback function to configure Smarty on load
Flight::register('view', 'Smarty', array(), function($smarty){
    $smarty‐>template_dir = './templates/';
    $smarty‐>compile_dir = './templates_c/';
    $smarty‐>config_dir = './config/';
    $smarty‐>cache_dir = './cache/';
});

// Assign template data
Flight::view()‐>assign('name', 'Bob');

// Display the template
Flight::view()‐>display('hello.tpl');

For completeness, you should also override Flight's default render method:

Flight::map('render', function($template, $data){
    Flight::view()‐>assign($data);
    Flight::view()‐>display($template);
});

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Error Handling
Errors and Exceptions
All errors and exceptions are caught by Flight and passed to the error method. The default behavior is to
send a generic HTTP 500 Internal Server Error response with some error information.

You can override this behavior for your own needs:

Flight::map('error', function(Exception $ex){
    // Handle error
    echo $ex‐>getTraceAsString();
});

By default errors are not logged to the web server. You can enable this by changing the config:

Flight::set('flight.log_errors', true);

Not Found
When a URL can't be found, Flight calls the notFound method. The default behavior is to send an HTTP 404
Not Found response with a simple message.

You can override this behavior for your own needs:

Flight::map('notFound', function(){
    // Handle not found
});

Redirects
You can redirect the current request by using the redirect method and passing in a new URL:

Flight::redirect('/new/location');

By default Flight sends a HTTP 303 status code. You can optionally set a custom code:

Flight::redirect('/new/location', 401);

Requests
Flight encapsulates the HTTP request into a single object, which can be accessed by doing:

$request = Flight::request();

The request object provides the following properties:

url ‐ The URL being requested
base ‐ The parent subdirectory of the URL
method ‐ The request method (GET, POST, PUT, DELETE)
referrer ‐ The referrer URL
ip ‐ IP address of the client

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ajax ‐ Whether the request is an AJAX request
scheme ‐ The server protocol (http, https)
user_agent ‐ Browser information
type ‐ The content type
length ‐ The content length
query ‐ Query string parameters
data ‐ Post data or JSON data
cookies ‐ Cookie parameters
files ‐ Uploaded files
secure ‐ Whether the connection is secure
accept ‐ HTTP accept parameters
proxy_ip ‐ Proxy IP address of the client

You can access the query, data, cookies, and files properties as arrays or objects.

So, to get a query string parameter, you can do:

$id = Flight::request()‐>query['id'];

Or you can do:

$id = Flight::request()‐>query‐>id;

RAW Request Body

To get the raw HTTP request body, for example when dealing with PUT requests, you can do:

$body = Flight::request()‐>getBody();

JSON Input
If you send request with the type application/json and the data {"id": 123} it will be availabe from the
data property:

$id = Flight::request()‐>data‐>id;

HTTP Caching
Flight provides built-in support for HTTP level caching. If the caching condition is met, Flight will return an
HTTP 304 Not Modified response. The next time the client requests the same resource, they will be
prompted to use their locally cached version.

Last-Modified
You can use the lastModified method and pass in a UNIX timestamp to set the date and time a page was
last modified. The client will continue to use their cache until the last modified value is changed.

Flight::route('/news', function(){
    Flight::lastModified(1234567890);
    echo 'This content will be cached.';
});

ETag
ETag caching is similar to Last‐Modified, except you can specify any id you want for the resource:

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Flight::route('/news', function(){
    Flight::etag('my‐unique‐id');
    echo 'This content will be cached.';
});

Keep in mind that calling either lastModified or etag will both set and check the cache value. If the cache
value is the same between requests, Flight will immediately send an HTTP 304 response and stop processing.

Stopping
You can stop the framework at any point by calling the halt method:

Flight::halt();

You can also specify an optional HTTP status code and message:

Flight::halt(200, 'Be right back...');

Calling halt will discard any response content up to that point. If you want to stop the framework and output
the current response, use the stop method:

Flight::stop();

JSON
Flight provides support for sending JSON and JSONP responses. To send a JSON response you pass some
data to be JSON encoded:

Flight::json(array('id' => 123));

For JSONP requests you would use the jsonp method. You can optionally pass in the query parameter name
you are using to define your callback function:

Flight::jsonp(array('id' => 123), 'q');

So, when making a GET request using ?q=my_func, you should receive the output:

my_func({"id":123});

If you don't pass in a query parameter name it will default to jsonp.

Configuration
You can customize certain behaviors of Flight by setting configuration values through the set method.

Flight::set('flight.log_errors', true);

The following is a list of all the available configuration settings.

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flight.base_url ‐ Override the base url of the request. (default: null)
flight.handle_errors ‐ Allow Flight to handle all errors internally. (default: true)
flight.log_errors ‐ Log errors to the web server's error log file. (default: false)
flight.views.path ‐ Directory containing view template files (default: ./views)

Framework Methods
Flight is designed to be easy to use and understand. The following is the complete set of methods for the
framework. It consists of core methods, which are regular static methods, and extensible methods, which
can be filtered or overridden.

Core Methods

Flight::map($name, $callback) // Creates a custom framework method.
Flight::register($name, $class, [$params], [$callback]) // Registers a class to a framework method.
Flight::before($name, $callback) // Adds a filter before a framework method.
Flight::after($name, $callback) // Adds a filter after a framework method.
Flight::path($path) // Adds a path for autoloading classes.
Flight::get($key) // Gets a variable.
Flight::set($key, $value) // Sets a variable.
Flight::has($key) // Checks if a variable is set.
Flight::clear([$key]) // Clears a variable.

Extensible Methods

Flight::start() // Starts the framework.
Flight::stop() // Stops the framework and sends a response.
Flight::halt([$code], [$message]) // Stop the framework with an optional status code and message.
Flight::route($pattern, $callback) // Maps a URL pattern to a callback.
Flight::redirect($url, [$code]) // Redirects to another URL.
Flight::render($file, [$data], [$key]) // Renders a template file.
Flight::error($exception) // Sends an HTTP 500 response.
Flight::notFound() // Sends an HTTP 404 response.
Flight::etag($id, [$type]) // Performs ETag HTTP caching.
Flight::lastModified($time) // Performs last modified HTTP caching.
Flight::json($data, [$code], [$encode]) // Sends a JSON response.
Flight::jsonp($data, [$param], [$code], [$encode]) // Sends a JSONP response.

Any custom methods added with map and register can also be filtered.

Framework Instance
Instead of running Flight as a global static class, you can optionally run it as an object instance.

require 'flight/autoload.php';

use flight\Engine;

$app = new Engine();

$app‐>route('/', function(){
    echo 'hello world!';
});

$app‐>start();

All of the existing static methods are available as regular class methods.

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Copyright © 2011-2015 Mike Cao

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