README

This package provides the core building blocks of the ImpulsePHP framework. It contains the component system, rendering engines and utility classes. The framework entry point is defined by the ImpulseKernelInterface implemented by the default Kernel\Impulse class.

HTTP layer

A lightweight HTTP layer is available under Impulse\Core\Http. It exposes a Request object able to parse GET/POST parameters from globals. The PageRouter uses this layer to resolve pages from incoming requests.

Router component

The <router> component generates standard <a> links using page names. It handles AJAX navigation and updates the browser history seamlessly.

Components, pages and layouts can access the current HTTP request through the getRequest() method inherited from AbstractComponent. At each navigation, HtmlResponse stores the page render time and size in $_SERVER['IMPULSE_PAGE_TIME'] and $_SERVER['IMPULSE_PAGE_WEIGHT'].

Pages are identified via the name property of the #[PageProperty] attribute.

Layout slots

Pages can send data to their layout using the <slot-layout> tag. Provide a name attribute to target a named slot in the layout or omit it to use the default slot:

<slot-layout name="title">My title</slot-layout>

Any remaining markup in the page becomes the content of the layout's default slot when no anonymous <slot-layout> tag is used.

LocalStorage store access

LocalStorageStoreInstance lets PHP read and update values from the browser's localStorage without server persistence. Use the provided assets/impulse/localStorageBridge.js script on the client so that Request::createFromGlobals() can populate the store data. When values are modified server-side, the generated JavaScript is collected and automatically sent back in AJAX or HTML responses so the browser keeps its localStorage in sync.

Kernel and service container

The Impulse\Core\Bootstrap\Kernel class exposes a minimal dependency injection container through the ImpulseKernelInterface. Services can be registered by ServiceProvider implementations like the provided CoreServiceProvider which sets up the event dispatcher.

use Impulse\Core\Bootstrap\{Kernel, CoreServiceProvider};

$kernel = new Kernel([
    new CoreServiceProvider(),
]);
$kernel->boot();
$events = $kernel->getContainer()->get(\Impulse\Core\Contracts\EventDispatcherInterface::class);

Service providers can optionally define a boot() method which will be executed after all providers have registered their services. This allows providers to hook into events or perform initialization once the container is fully configured.

Provider manager

The Impulse class exposes a simple provider manager. Register providers after calling Impulse::boot() and then trigger their boot() methods:

use Impulse\Core\Kernel\Impulse;

Impulse::boot();
Impulse::registerProvider(new MyCustomProvider());
Impulse::bootProviders();

DevTools event collector

ImpulsePHP exposes a lightweight event collector that can broadcast framework activity to an external DevTools interface when enabled. Set "devtools" => true in impulse.php while in development to activate the socket emitter. All events are formatted as JSON and include the originating file and line number.

use Impulse\Core\Support\Logger;

Logger::info('Application started', ['route' => '/']);

Every log entry is also written to var/impulse.log using a readable format:

[2025-07-22 14:00:00] [INFO] /src/App.php:42 Application started
    context: {
        "route": "/"
    }

The logger accepts an optional context array to enrich each entry and requires no configuration.

Profiler timers will also emit profiler events whenever Profiler::stop() is called, capturing the duration and memory usage of each task.

Route resolutions and full HTTP requests are also tracked so a DevTools interface can display navigation details in real time.

impulsephp / core

Maintainers

Details