pavex / website

dev-main 2026-06-11 19:59 UTC

Requires

• php: >=8.0
• pavex/http: ^3.0
• pavex/url: ^2.0

Requires (Dev)

• phpunit/phpunit: ^10.0

MIT

• Pavel Machacek

Published on Packagist.org on 2026-07-31 10:18 UTC

README

The high-performance, SEO-centric PHP 8.0+ engine for developers who demand maximum control and zero bloat.

🌟 Philosophy: Beyond "Just Another Framework"

Pavex Website isn't a general-purpose application framework. It is a specialized, opinionated Website Engine.

In an era where web performance and Core Web Vitals directly impact business success, Pavex Website strips away the heavy abstractions of traditional MVC frameworks. It provides a surgical toolset for building content-driven sites that are lightning-fast, easy to maintain, and perfectly optimized for search engines from day one.

The "Website-First" Approach

While other frameworks treat a "website" as a simplified "web app," Pavex Website acknowledges that websites have unique requirements:

• Instant Response Times: Minimal overhead between the request and the response.
• Semantic Integrity: Total control over every byte of HTML output.
• Dynamic SEO: First-class support for canonicals, meta tags, and structured data.
• Bi-directional Clarity: Routing that is as easy to read as it is to write.

Why Choose this package.

• Extreme Performance: No heavy DI containers, no complex middleware stacks, no bloated ORM. Just raw PHP speed with a refined architectural structure.
• SEO Mastery: Integrated PageContext makes managing complex SEO requirements (canonicals, OpenGraph, lang attributes, breadcrumbs) a part of your natural workflow, not an afterthought.
• Pure PHP Templates: Forget learning yet another template syntax like Blade or Twig. Use pure PHP for logic and template inheritance that is both powerful and transparent.
• Integrity by Design: Strict property visibility rules (Public for route args, Protected for templates) prevent common state-leakage bugs and make your code self-documenting.
• Smart Reverse Routing: Change a URL pattern in one place, and every link across your entire site updates automatically. No more broken internal links.

🛠️ What Can You Build?

Pavex Website is the ideal foundation for:

• Corporate Portals: Fast, accessible, and professional brand presences.
• Content Magazines & Blogs: SEO-optimized platforms for publishers.
• Marketing Landing Pages: High-conversion pages with no technical debt.
• Product Showcases: Visually rich frontends backed by a clean data layer.
• E-commerce Frontends: Performance-critical storefronts for modern shops.

🏗️ Core Architecture

The framework operates on three primary components:

1. Router: Maps URLs to Presenters (Input) and Presenters back to URLs (Output).
2. Presenter: The "Controller". It prepares data, manages SEO metadata, and triggers rendering.
3. Control: The orchestrator. It handles the request/response lifecycle and dependency injection.

🚦 Getting Started

1. Installation

composer require pavex/website

2. Recommended Directory Structure

src/
  Website/
    Application.php           # App bootstrapper
    ApplicationContainer.php  # Service locator
    Presenter/
      BasePresenter.php       # Shared logic (SEO, common data)
      HomePresenter.php       # Your first page
      templates/
        base.php              # Main layout
        home.php              # Page template
    Router/
      WebsiteRules.php        # Route definitions

3. Creating a Presenter

The presenter lifecycle centers around the render() method.

namespace App\Website\Presenter;

use Pavex\Website\Presenter;

final class HomePresenter extends BasePresenter
{
    // Public properties are automatically injected from route arguments
    public string $section = 'default';

    // Protected properties are available in the template via $this
    protected array $features = [];

    public function render(): ?string
    {
        // 1. Prepare SEO metadata
        $this->context->title = 'Welcome to My Website';
        $this->context->description = 'Building fast websites with Pavex.';
        $this->context->canonical = $this->link($this);

        // 2. Prepare data for template
        $this->features = ['Speed', 'Simplicity', 'SEO'];

        // 3. Trigger rendering (MANDATORY)
        return parent::render();
    }
}

4. Creating a Template

Templates are located in the templates/ subdirectory relative to the Presenter.

// templates/home.php
<?php $parent('base'); ?>

<main>
    <h1>Welcome!</h1>
    <p>Current section: <?= htmlspecialchars($this->section) ?></p>

    <ul>
        <?php foreach ($this->features as $feature): ?>
            <li><?= htmlspecialchars($feature) ?></li>
        <?php endforeach ?>
    </ul>
</main>

5. Registering Routes

Routes are defined as pairs of InputRule and OutputRule.

// src/Website/Router/WebsiteRules.php
use Pavex\Website\Router;
use Pavex\Website\ActionHandler;

$rules = [];

// URL -> Presenter
$rules[] = new Router\InputRule('/^\/$/', function ($match) use ($presenterConstructor) {
    return new ActionHandler($presenterConstructor(HomePresenter::class), []);
});

// Presenter -> URL (for $this->link())
$rules[] = new Router\OutputRule(HomePresenter::class, '/');

return $rules;

📖 Key Concepts

Property Visibility Rules

Visibility	Purpose	In Template
public	Route Arguments. Injected by Control before render().	✅ Yes
protected	Template Data. Prepared inside render().	✅ Yes
private	Internal Logic. Not accessible in templates.	❌ No

The render() Method

• Always use render(): ?string. There is no init() method.
• Always end with return parent::render(). Without this, your template will not render.

Link Generation

Never hardcode URLs. Always use the Router to ensure links are always in sync with your rules.

// Link to a class
$url = $this->link(AboutPresenter::class);

// Link with arguments
$url = $this->link(PostPresenter::class, ['slug' => 'hello-world']);

// Link to current page (canonical)
$url = $this->link($this);

SEO & Metadata (PageContext)

The BasePresenter (if extended) provides a $this->context object to manage the <head> and <body> tags.

$this->context->title = 'Page Title';
$this->context->addHeaderElement(['meta', ['name' => 'robots', 'content' => 'index,follow']]);
$this->context->css('/assets/css/main.css');
$this->context->addBodyClass('is-home');

📜 License

Pavex Website is open-source software licensed under the MIT license.

@author [e-mail]