App

Aplus Framework App Project.

Installation

The installation of this project can be done with Composer:

composer create-project aplus/app

Or, to install the latest LTS version:

composer create-project aplus/app:^22

Structure

The App has a standard structure to organize business logic.
And remember, it's highly customizable. You can adapt it as you like.

This is the basic directory tree:

.
├── app/
│   ├── Commands/
│   │   └── Index.php
│   ├── Controllers/
│   │   └── Home.php
│   ├── Languages/
│   ├── Models/
│   └── Views/
├── App.php
├── bin/
│   └── console
├── boot/
│   ├── app.php
│   ├── constants.php
│   ├── helpers.php
│   ├── init.php
│   └── routes.php
├── composer.json
├── config/
├── preload.php
├── public/
│   └── index.php
├── storage/
├── tests/
└── vendor/

Bootstrap

Inside the boot directory are located files that are part of the application startup.

The app.php file returns the instance of the App class, which is called to run the application in HTTP or CLI.

Init

In the init.php file, initial settings are performed, such as setting the timezone.

Constants

In the constants.php file, the constants that will be available throughout the application are set, such as the ENVIRONMENT and the paths to the different directories.

Helpers

The helpers.php file contains common functions that will always be available in the application.

Routes

In the routes.php file, the application routes are served.

Configuration

Aplus App is organized in such a way that its configuration files are all in the same directory.

By default, the directory is called config. Located in the application's root directory.

Configuration files serve to pre-establish values used by services or routines needed for helpers and libraries.

For more details see the Config and MVC libraries documentation.

Storage

In the storage directory, different types of files are stored in subdirectories:

Cache

Cache files are stored in the cache directory.

Logs

Log files are stored in the logs directory.

Sessions

Session files are stored in the sessions directory.

Uploads

Upload files are stored in the uploads directory.

The global class App

The global class App, whose file is located in the root directory, extends the Framework\MVC\App class.

Through it, it is possible to customize features and services.

The App namespace

Inside the app directory is registered the App namespace.

By default, some files are already inside it:

Commands

In the Commands directory is the App\Commands namespace.

In it, you can add commands that will be available in the console.

Controllers

In the Controllers directory is the App\Controllers namespace.

In it, you can add controllers with methods that will act as routes.

Languages

In the subdirectories of Languages are stored application language files.

Models

In the Models directory is the App\Models namespace.

In it it is possible to add models that represent tables of the application's database schema.

Views

In the Views directory are stored application view files.

Running an Aplus App

The Aplus App project is designed to run on HTTP and CLI.

Run HTTP

Inside the public directory is the front-controller index.php.

The public directory must be the document root configured on the server.

Note that the directory name may vary by server. In some it may be called publichtml and in others web, etc.

In development, you can use PHP server running vendor/bin/php-server or Docker Compose.

Run CLI

Inside the bin directory is the console file.

Through it it is possible to run the various commands of the application, running ./bin/console.

Testing

Unit tests can be created within the tests directory. See the tests that come inside it as an example.

Deployment

We will see how to deploy to a Shared Hosting and a Private Server:

In the following examples, configurations will be made for the domain domain.tld. Replace it with the domain of your application.

Shared Hosting

In shared hosting, it is common that you can upload the project files only by FTP.

Also, typically the document root is a publicly accessible directory called www, web or public_html.

And the server is Apache, which allows configurations through files called .htaccess.

In the following example the settings can be made locally and then sent to the hosting server.

URL Origin

Make sure that the URL Origin has the correct domain in the boot/routes.php file:

App::router()->serve('http://domain.tld', ...);

Install Dependencies

Install dependencies with Composer:

composer install --no-dev

.htaccess files

In the document root and in the public directory of the application has .htaccess files that can be configured as needed.

For example, redirecting insecure requests to HTTPS or redirecting to the www subdomain.

Finishing

Upload the files to the public directory of your hosting.

Access the domain through the browser: http://domain.tld

It should open the home page of your project.

Private Server

We will be using Ubuntu 22.04 LTS which is supported until 2027 and already comes with PHP 8.1.

Replace domain.tld with your domain.

Installing PHP and required packages:

sudo apt-get -y install \
composer \
curl \
git \
php8.1-apcu \
php8.1-cli \
php8.1-curl \
php8.1-fpm \
php8.1-gd \
php8.1-igbinary \
php8.1-imap \
php8.1-intl \
php8.1-mbstring \
php8.1-memcached \
php8.1-msgpack \
php8.1-mysql \
php8.1-opcache \
php8.1-readline \
php8.1-redis \
php8.1-xdebug \
php8.1-xml \
php8.1-yaml \
php8.1-zip \
unzip

Make the application directory:

sudo mkdir -p /var/www/domain.tld

Set directory ownership. Replace "username" with your username:

sudo chown username:username /var/www/domain.tld

Enter the application directory...

cd /var/www/domain.tld

... and clone or download your project.

As an example, we'll install a new app:

git clone https://github.com/aplus-framework/app.git .

Set storage directory permissions:

chmod -R 777 storage/*

Edit the URL Origin of your project in the routes file, boot/routes.php:

App::router()->serve('http://domain.tld', ...);

Install the necessary PHP packages through Composer:

composer install --no-dev

Web Servers

In these examples, we will see how to install and configure two web servers:

Apache

Install required packages:

sudo apt install apache2 libapache2-mod-php

Enable modules:

sudo a2enmod rewrite

Create the file /etc/apache2/sites-available/domain.tld.conf:

<Directory /var/www/domain.tld/public>
    Options Indexes FollowSymLinks
    AllowOverride All
    Require all granted
</Directory>
<VirtualHost *:80>
    ServerName domain.tld
    SetEnv ENVIRONMENT production
    DocumentRoot /var/www/domain.tld/public
</VirtualHost>

Enable the site:

sudo a2ensite domain.tld

Reload the server:

sudo systemctl reload apache2

Access the domain through the browser: http://domain.tld

It should open the home page of your project.

Nginx (recommended)

Edit the php.ini file:

sudo sed -i 's/;cgi.fix_pathinfo=1/cgi.fix_pathinfo=0/g' /etc/php/8.1/fpm/php.ini

Restart PHP-FPM:

sudo systemctl restart php8.1-fpm

Install required packages:

sudo apt install nginx

Create the file /etc/nginx/sites-available/domain.tld.conf:

server {
    listen 80;

    root /var/www/domain.tld/public;

    index index.php;

    server_name domain.tld;

    location / {
        try_files $uri $uri/ /index.php?$args;
    }

    location ~ \.php$ {
        include snippets/fastcgi-php.conf;
        fastcgi_param ENVIRONMENT production;
        fastcgi_pass unix:/var/run/php/php8.1-fpm.sock;
    }

    location ~ /\. {
        deny all;
    }
}

Enable the site:

sudo ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/domain.tld.conf /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/

Test Nginx configurations:

sudo nginx -t

Restart Nginx:

sudo systemctl restart nginx

Access the domain through the browser: http://domain.tld

It should open the home page of your project.

Conclusion

Aplus App Project is an easy-to-use tool for, beginners and experienced, PHP developers.
It is perfect for building powerful, high-performance applications.
The more you use it, the more you will learn.

Did you find something wrong?
Be sure to let us know about it with an issue.
Thank you!

Aplus Framework Docs

App

Installation

Structure

Bootstrap

Init

Constants

Helpers

Routes

Configuration

Storage

Cache

Logs

Sessions

Uploads

The global class App

The App namespace

Commands

Controllers

Languages

Models

Views

Running an Aplus App

Run HTTP

Run CLI

Testing

Deployment

Shared Hosting

URL Origin

Install Dependencies

.htaccess files

Finishing

Private Server

Web Servers

Apache

Nginx (recommended)

Conclusion

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