php-microframework

A minimal, dependency-light PHP microframework skeleton. This repository provides a tiny core (Container, App, Router, Database, Validator, Session, etc.), a simple bootstrap that wires a Database binding into the container, a place for route definitions, and folders for HTTP abstractions, views and tests.

Table of contents

• Project structure
• Requirements
• Installation
• Bootstrapping
• App container API
• Accessing the Database
• Routes and Router
• Configuration
• Testing
• Contributing
• License
• Where to look in the code

Project structure

Top-level files and folders in the repository:

• .gitignore
• Core/ — core framework classes (App, Container, Database, Router, Validator, Session, Response, Authenticator, exceptions, helpers)
  • Core/App.php
  • Core/Container.php
  • Core/Database.php
  • Core/Router.php
  • Core/Validator.php
  • Core/Session.php
  • Core/Response.php
  • Core/Authenticator.php
  • Core/ValidationException.php
  • Core/functions.php
  • Core/Middleware/ (middleware hooks)
• Http/ — HTTP layer (request/response helpers, middleware, adapters)
• bootstrap.php — bootstraps the Container and binds Database into it
• composer.json
• config.php — returns an array with the configuration for db and api keys (do not push into prod)
• public/ — document root / front controller (not populated in the repo root)
• routes.php — application route declarations
• tests/ — test cases
• views/ — templates

Requirements

• PHP 8.0+ (check composer.json for any platform constraints)
• Composer for autoloading and installing dependencies
• Typical PHP extensions (json, mbstring, etc.)

Installation

Clone the repository and install dependencies:

git clone https://github.com/skiupace/php-microframework.git && \
cd php-microframework && \
composer install && \
php -S localhost:8888 -t public

Bootstrapping

The repository includes bootstrap.php which creates a Container, binds the Core\Database implementation using the database key from config.php, and registers the container with Core\App.

Current bootstrap.php contents:

<?php

use Core\App;
use Core\Container;
use Core\Database;

$container = new Container();

$container->bind(Database::class, function () {
  $config = require base_path('config.php');
  return new Database($config['database']);
});

App::setContainer($container);

Notes:

• bootstrap.php expects a helper function base_path() to resolve the project root (see Core/functions.php).
• config.php must return a PHP array and include at least a top-level database key that is passed to Core\Database.

App container API

Core/App exposes a minimal static API for working with the application container:

• App::setContainer(Container $container): void
• App::container(): Container
• App::bind(string $key, callable $resolver): void
• App::resolve(string $key): mixed

These methods delegate to the underlying Container implementation (Core/Container.php). The bootstrap uses this API to provide the Database binding to the app.

Example: resolving a binding

$db = App::resolve(Core\Database::class);

Accessing the Database

The bootstrap binds Core\Database::class to a resolver that constructs the Database from the database config. After bootstrap, resolve the Database from the container anywhere in application code:

/** @var \Core\Database $db */
$db = App::resolve(\Core\Database::class);

Adjust usage based on the public methods exposed by Core\Database (see Core/Database.php for implementation details).

Routes & Router

• routes.php is the location to declare your application routes.
• Core/Router.php implements the router logic; inspect that file to learn the supported route patterns, parameter extraction, and dispatch behavior.

Place route definitions in routes.php and ensure your front controller requires it after bootstrapping.

Configuration

config.php should return an associative array. bootstrap.php expects the following structure at minimum:

<?php
return [
    'database' => [
        // keys expected by Core\Database (driver, dsn, host, user, pass, etc.)
    ],
    // other configuration keys...
];

Edit config.php to match the connection options required by Core\Database.

Testing

write you tests in /tests/Unit for single unit tests, or in /tests/Feature for feature tests, then run tests with:

./vendor/bin/pest

Or you can run:

composer test

Contributing

• Open an issue to discuss larger changes.
• Fork the repository and create a feature branch for pull requests.
• Include tests and documentation for new behavior.

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License. See the included LICENSE file for full terms and copyright information.

Where to look in the code

• Core/App.php: static container API (setContainer, container, bind, resolve)
• Core/Container.php: container implementation (bind/resolve)
• Core/Database.php: database adapter used by bootstrap
• Core/Router.php: router implementation
• Core/functions.php: helper functions (e.g., base_path)
• Core/Middleware/: middleware hooks for the core
• Http/: HTTP layer (request/response, middleware adapters)
• routes.php: to define your application routes
• bootstrap.php: actual bootstrap code that wires Database into the container