README

Novaris is a lightweight PHP framework designed to provide the core foundation for building flat-file, content-driven websites and applications.

It provides the underlying architecture for the Novaris Content Management System (CMS), including content management, routing, caching, configuration, templates, service providers, dependency injection, and other tools needed to build dynamic websites without requiring a traditional database.

Requirements

PHP 8.1 or higher
Composer

PHP 8.2 or newer is recommended for development.

Installation

Install Novaris using Composer:

composer require novaris-dev/framework

Content folder

A site's content and media live in its user/ folder, in user/content and user/media.

To use another folder for a while, such as a clone of theme-test-data when testing a theme, add NOVARIS_USER_PATH to the site's .env:

NOVARIS_USER_PATH=../theme-test-data

The folder needs content and media folders, like user/. A relative path is relative to the site root. Remove the line to go back to the site's own user/ folder.

Content links to images as /user/media/..., and Novaris rewrites those links to wherever the folder is:

A folder inside the site, such as NOVARIS_USER_PATH="theme-test-data": images link to /theme-test-data/media/..., so the web server serves them directly. Nothing else to set up.
A folder outside the site, such as ../theme-test-data: images keep their /user/media/... links and Novaris serves them, which works with servers that send missing files to index.php. PHP's built-in server doesn't, so use vendor/bin/novaris serve with it.

Resized images are saved next to the originals, so they are written into that folder.

Themes

A site picks its theme in config/app.php:

'theme' => 'amicable',             // installs from novaris-dev/amicable
'theme' => 'someone/their-theme',  // installs from any GitHub user or organization

A missing theme is downloaded from the repository's latest GitHub release into themes/{slug}.

theme.json

Every theme has a theme.json at its root:

{
    "$schema": "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/novaris-dev/framework/develop/schemas/theme.schema.json",
    "name": "Amicable",
    "slug": "amicable",
    "version": "0.2.0",
    "repository": "novaris-dev/amicable"
}

Field	Required	Description
`name`	Yes	Theme name shown to people.
`slug`	Yes	Folder name. Must match the GitHub repository name.
`version`	Yes	Version without a leading `v`, such as `1.0.0`.
`repository`	For updates	GitHub repository updates come from, as `owner/slug`.
`parent`	No	Parent theme, as `slug` or `owner/slug`.

Theme features, such as featured images and custom headers, are configured in config/app.php under supports, not in theme.json.

The $schema line is optional. It gives editors such as VS Code autocomplete and warnings for missing or misspelled fields. This file is not the WordPress theme.json format.

To be installable, a theme's GitHub release needs an attached zip named {slug}.{version}.zip, such as amicable.0.2.0.zip, containing the theme folder and its theme.json.

novaris-dev / framework

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