gustocoder/dorguzen

Powerful PHP Framework. No Black Box. A full-featured PHP MVC framework that keeps abstraction low by design — so you ship fast and actually understand every line of your application.

v1.0.0 2020-08-13 00:06 UTC

MIT

• Gustav Ndamukong

README

Powerful PHP Framework. No Black Box.

Dorguzen is a full-featured PHP MVC framework designed to give you everything you need to build fast, secure, and scalable web applications — without hiding how any of it works.

Most frameworks make development easier by wrapping PHP in layers of abstraction so thick that you end up learning the framework's own language (DSL) instead of PHP itself. Dorguzen takes a different approach: it keeps the ease, but strips away the abstraction. Every feature is built on straightforward PHP patterns with clear, teachable documentation that explains not just what to do, but why. The result is that a Dorguzen developer genuinely understands the architecture behind what they are building. That understanding is transferable — skills learned here apply directly to any PHP application, framework or not.

Dorguzen does not just help you ship faster. It makes you a better PHP developer.

Out of the box you get routing, controllers, models, views, an ORM, migrations, seeders, a CLI tool, built-in authentication, an admin dashboard, a REST API layer with interactive Swagger documentation, queues, events, scheduled tasks, and more.

Requirements

• PHP >= 8.0
• Composer
• MySQL / MariaDB (or PostgreSQL / SQLite for alternative drivers)
• Apache with mod_rewrite enabled (or use the built-in development server — see below)

Installation

1. Clone the repository

git clone https://github.com/gustavNdamukong/Dorguzen.git
cd Dorguzen

2. Install PHP dependencies

composer install

3. Set up your environment file

Dorguzen ships with .env.example as a template listing every variable the framework expects.

cp .env.example .env

Open .env and fill in the values for your local setup. At minimum, set:

APP_NAME=yourAppName
APP_URL=http://localhost/yourAppName

LOCAL_URL=http://localhost/yourAppName/
FILE_ROOT_PATH_LOCAL=/yourAppName/

DB_CONNECTION=mysqli
DB_HOST=127.0.0.1
DB_DATABASE=your_database_name
DB_USERNAME=your_db_user
DB_PASSWORD=your_db_password
DB_KEY=a-random-encryption-key

DB_KEY is used to AES-encrypt password fields in the database. Choose any random string and keep it consistent — changing it after data has been inserted will break password verification.

See the Setup & Config section of docs/dgzDocs.md for the full list of available variables including mail, JWT, Stripe, Twilio, and module flags.

4. Create the database

Create a MySQL database matching the name you set in DB_DATABASE, then run the migrations:

php dgz migrate

This creates all the core tables (users, logs, jobs, SEO, contact form messages, etc.).

5. Seed the database

php dgz db:seed

This seeds the default super-admin account (see credentials below).

6. Point your web server at the project root

Apache (MAMP / XAMPP / Laragon)

Set the document root (or virtual host) so that http://localhost/yourAppName points to the project root directory containing index.php. Apache's mod_rewrite must be enabled and AllowOverride All must be set for the directory so that .htaccess is processed.

Built-in PHP development server

If you prefer not to configure Apache, Dorguzen ships with a serve command:

php dgz serve

This starts the app on http://localhost:8000 by default. You can customise the port:

php dgz serve --port=9000

The built-in server is suitable for local development only. Use Apache or Nginx in production.

The dorguzapp Sample Application

Out of the box Dorguzen ships with dorguzapp — a ready-made application skeleton you can use as the starting point for your own project. All controllers, models, views, and routes are already wired up and working.

A standard user account is pre-configured in the sample app so you can log in immediately:

Field	Value
Email	[e-mail]
Password	dorguzen

Change these credentials once you start customising the app for your own project.

Admin Dashboard

Dorguzen includes a built-in admin dashboard available at /admin/dashboard once you are logged in as a super-admin.

Out of the box the dashboard lets you:

• Manage users — view all registered accounts, change user roles, activate or deactivate accounts
• Change your own username and password — update your admin credentials from the profile screen
• View contact form messages — all messages submitted through your site's contact form are stored in the database and readable from the dashboard

The default super-admin account created by the seeder is:

Field	Value
Email	[e-mail]
Password	Admin123

Change these credentials immediately after your first login.

Testing the API in the Browser

Dorguzen ships with interactive API documentation powered by OpenAPI and Swagger UI. No external tool is needed — visit the docs URL in any browser and you can read the full spec and fire live requests directly from the page.

URL:

http://localhost/yourAppName/api/v1/docs

Replace yourAppName with the value you set for APP_NAME in your .env.

The docs page lists every API endpoint, shows required inputs and expected responses, and includes an Authorize button where you can paste a JWT token to test protected routes.

To enable the docs, make sure your .env contains:

API_DOCS_ENABLED=true

This is the default for local development. For production, set it to false if your API is private, or leave it true if you are building a public developer-facing API.

Running Tests

Dorguzen includes a PHPUnit test suite with a dedicated SQLite in-memory database so tests run fully isolated from your development database.

vendor/bin/phpunit

No separate database setup is needed — the test bootstrap handles everything automatically.

CLI Reference

The dgz CLI tool handles migrations, seeders, code generation, the development server, and more. Run any command from your project root:

php dgz <command>

Common commands:

Command	Description
php dgz migrate	Run all pending migrations
php dgz migrate:rollback	Roll back the last batch
php dgz migrate:fresh	Drop all tables and re-run migrations
php dgz migrate:status	Show migration state
php dgz db:seed	Run the database seeder
php dgz make:model Name	Generate a model class
php dgz make:migration name	Generate a migration file
php dgz serve	Start the built-in development server

To see the full list of available commands:

php dgz list

Documentation

Full developer documentation is in docs/dgzDocs.md. It covers routing, controllers, models, views, authentication, the ORM, migrations, seeders, queues, events, the REST API, SEO module, payments, and more.

License

MIT