README

Run React directly with PHP - No Node.js build step required for development. This template combines React + TypeScript + Vite with PHP backend in a single project, running on the same host.

Installation

composer create-project dconco/phpspa-react project_name

Architecture

This project runs PHP and React on the same host without CORS issues. PHP serves the HTML shell and can pass data directly to React components through the DOM.

Project Structure

phpspa-react/
├── app/              # PHP components (routes)
│   ├── layout.php    # HTML shell with #app div
│   ├── profile.php   # Example route with data
│   └── default.php   # Default route
├── public/
│   └── index.php     # Entry point
├── src/              # React components
│   └── App.tsx       # Main React app
├── config.php        # Vite/asset configuration
└── composer.json

PHP → React Data Passing

Each PHP route component can inject data into the HTML that React reads on mount. This is done using <script type="application/json"> tags inside the #app div.

How It Works

PHP renders HTML with embedded JSON data
React mounts and reads the JSON from the DOM
React knows the route and has the data to initialize state

Example: Profile Route

PHP Component (app/profile.php):

<?php

use PhpSPA\Component;
use PhpSPA\Http\Request;

return new Component(function(Request $request) {
   $name = $request('name', 'Dave Conco');
   $email = $request('email', 'me@dconco.tech');
   $gender = $request('gender', 'Male');

   $userData = json_encode(compact('name', 'email', 'gender'));

   return <<<HTML
      <h2>Profile Page PHP Render</h2>
      <script type="application/json" id="profile-script">{$userData}</script>
   HTML;
})->route('/profile');

React Component (src/App.tsx):

import { useEffect } from 'react'

function App() {
	useEffect(() => {
		const profileScript = document.getElementById('profile-script')

		if (profileScript) {
			// This is Profile Route
			const data = JSON.parse(profileScript.textContent!)
			console.log('Profile data:', data)
			// Initialize state with PHP data
		}
	}, [])

	return <div>...</div>
}

Configuration

Development Mode

In config.php, set mode to 'development' to use Vite dev server:

$config = [
   'mode' => 'development',
   'dev_server_url' => 'http://localhost:5173',
   'dev_url_base' => '/@dev-server'
];

Production Mode

Set mode to 'production' to use built assets from public/dist/:

$config = [
   'mode' => 'production',
   'assets_url' => '/dist/',
   'dist_dir' => __DIR__ . '/public/dist',
   'manifest_file' => __DIR__ . '/public/dist/manifest.json',
   'manifest_entry' => 'src/main.tsx',
];

Security Warning

⚠️ Do not pass sensitive data (passwords, secret keys, tokens) through PHP → React data passing. The JSON data is visible in the page source code and can be inspected by anyone. Safe to pass:

User display names
Public profile information
Route identifiers
Non-sensitive configuration Never pass:
Passwords
API secret keys
Authentication tokens
Database credentials

State Management

Use the @dconco/phpspa package for shared state between PHP and React:

import { setState } from '@dconco/phpspa'

// Update global state
setState('counter', count)

// Read state with callback
setState('counter', prev => {
	setCount(prev ?? 0)
})

License

MIT - Dave Conco (dconco)

dconco / phpspa-react

Maintainers

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