README

DressAPI is an open source PHP 8.x framework that automatically maps your database schema to a RESTful API. It uses a dynamic ORM — it reads the DB structure at runtime — so you rarely need to write model code. The architecture is MVC but without the boilerplate: add a table to your database and the endpoint is immediately available.

The name "DressAPI" means it dresses up your database and exposes it as a REST API.

License: Apache 2.0 · Author: Tufano Pasquale · Version: 3.0.6

Features

Zero-config ORM — reads table structure, types and relations directly from the DB at runtime
Automatic relation resolution — foreign keys (e.g. id_user) are resolved to meaningful values without writing JOINs
Full CRUD over HTTP — GET, POST, PUT, PATCH, DELETE, OPTIONS, HEAD
JWT authentication — via Authorization: Bearer <token> header
ACL system — per-role, per-table CRUD permissions stored in DB
Filtering, ordering and pagination — via URL parameters, no query string needed
Multiple output formats — JSON (default), XML, HTML, plain text
File/Redis cache — auto-invalidated when related data changes
Lazy DB connection — connects only when actually needed
Mail support — via PHPMailer and Symfony Mailer
Multilingual support — translator module with DB-stored translations
Strict input validation — based on DB column types; regex per-field is supported
Highly extensible — create custom modules or override any default behaviour

Requirements

Component	Minimum	Notes
PHP	8.1	Extensions: pdo_mysql, curl, mbstring, json
MySQL	5.7	Primary supported DBMS
MariaDB	10.3	Alternative to MySQL
Apache	2.4	mod_rewrite required
Composer	2.x

Other DBMS: Driver code exists for PostgreSQL, MS SQL Server and Oracle, but these are experimental and not officially supported in v3.0.

Installation

Via Composer (recommended)

composer require dressapi/core

Via Git

git clone https://git.dressapi.com/dressapi/core.git
cd core
composer install

Quick Start

DressAPI Core is a library — it is included by an application (such as dressapi/api or dressapi/cms). To bootstrap it in your own www/index.php:

<?php
require_once __DIR__ . '/../../config.php';          // your app config
require_once __DIR__ . '/../../vendor/autoload.php'; // composer autoload
require_once __DIR__ . '/../../vendor/dressapi/core/bootstrap.php'; // framework bootstrap

The bootstrap.php handles the full request lifecycle:

DB connection
Logger and cache setup
URL parsing (CRequest)
JWT authentication (CUser)
ACL loading
Controller dispatch
Response output

Configuration

Copy vendor/dressapi/core/default-config.php as a reference and create your own config.php in the application root. Override only the constants you need:

<?php
define('DOMAIN_NAME', 'yourdomain.com');
define('APP_NAME',    'myapp');
define('APP_ENV',     'production'); // develop | stage | production

// IMPORTANT: change these two keys before going to production
define('TOKEN_SECRET_KEY', 'your-unique-jwt-secret');
define('PWD_CRYPT',        'your-unique-crypt-key');

// Database
define('DB_HOST',     'localhost');
define('DB_PORT',     3306);
define('DB_NAME',     'mydb');
define('DB_USERNAME', 'myuser');
define('DB_PASSWORD', 'mypassword');
define('DBMS_TYPE',   'MySql');

// User table (change only if your schema differs)
define('USER_TABLE',          '_user');
define('USER_ITEM_USERNAME',  'username');
define('USER_ITEM_PASSWORD',  'pwd');

Database Conventions

DressAPI infers relationships from naming conventions:

Convention	Description	Example
`id`	Primary key	`id`
`id_{table}`	Foreign key to `{table}`	`id_user`, `id_category`
`_` prefix	Framework-managed tables	`_user`, `_role`, `_acl`

Framework Tables

Table	Purpose
`_user`	Users
`_role`	Roles
`_acl`	Per-role, per-table CRUD permissions
`_user_role`	User–role associations
`_module`	Module/endpoint definitions
`_route`	Custom routes
`_translation`	UI string translations

Authentication

Login

curl -X POST https://yourapi.com/sign \
     -d "dusername=admin&dpassword=yourpassword"

A successful response returns a JWT token:

{
  "token": "eyJ0eXAiOiJKV1Qi..."
}

Authenticated requests

Pass the token in the Authorization header:

curl -H "Authorization: Bearer <token>" \
     -X GET https://yourapi.com/article

API URL Reference

HTTP Methods

Method	Action
`GET`	Read one or more records
`POST`	Insert a new record
`PUT`	Full update of a record
`PATCH`	Partial update of a record
`DELETE`	Delete a record
`OPTIONS`	Return field types and allowed methods
`HEAD`	Like GET but returns headers only

URL Parameters

Parameter	Short	Example	Description
`full`	`full`	`/article/full`	Resolve foreign keys to human-readable values
`page`	`p`	`/article/p/2`	Page number
`/p/{page},{per_page}`		`/article/p/2,10`	Page number and items per page
`order-by`	`ob`	`/article/ob/title`	Order by field (default ASC)
		`/article/ob/id-DESC`	Order descending

Filters

Append {field}{operator}{value} to the URL path:

Operator	Meaning	Example
`=`	Equals	`/article/id_user=5`
`<`	Less than	`/article/views<100`
`>`	Greater than	`/article/views>100`
`>=`	Greater or equal	`/article/id>=10`
`<=`	Less or equal	`/article/id<=10`
`~`	Contains (LIKE)	`/article/title~Welcome`

Filters can be combined:

curl -H "Authorization: Bearer <token>" \
     -X GET "https://yourapi.com/article/id_user=1/ob/id-DESC/p/1,10"

Output Formats

Set via the Accept header (default: JSON):

-H 'Accept: application/json'
-H 'Accept: application/xml'
-H 'Accept: text/plain'
-H 'Accept: text/html'

Examples

# Read all articles (page 1, 20 per page by default)
curl -H "Authorization: Bearer <token>" -X GET https://yourapi.com/article

# Read article with id=1
curl -H "Authorization: Bearer <token>" -X GET https://yourapi.com/article/1

# Read with resolved relations
curl -H "Authorization: Bearer <token>" -X GET https://yourapi.com/article/1/full

# Insert
curl -H "Authorization: Bearer <token>" -X POST https://yourapi.com/article \
     -d "title=Hello World&body=Content here&id_user=1"

# Partial update
curl -H "Authorization: Bearer <token>" -X PATCH https://yourapi.com/article/1 \
     -d "title=Updated Title"

# Delete
curl -H "Authorization: Bearer <token>" -X DELETE https://yourapi.com/article/1

Module System

The framework ships with built-in modules:

Module	Endpoint	Description
`base`	`/{table}`	Generic CRUD for any DB table
`sign`	`/sign`	Login, registration, password reset
`admin`	`/admin`	Administration panel
`pages`	`/pages`	CMS page management
`menu`	`/menu`	Navigation menu management
`repository`	`/repository`	File/document repository
`scheduler`	`/scheduler`	Task scheduling
`translator`	`/translator`	Translation management
`info`	`/info`	System information

Custom modules extend CBaseController and are automatically routed.

Related Projects

Project	Description
dressapi/cms	Full CMS with server-side HTML rendering
dressapi/api	Pure REST API for decoupled frontends
dressapi/vue	Vue 3 frontend
dressapi/react	React frontend
dressapi/angular	Angular frontend
dressapi/ajax	Vanilla JS frontend

License

Apache 2.0 — free for personal and commercial use.

Official site

dressapi.com

dressapi / core

Maintainers

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