README

App Router–Style PHP Framework

Reqziel is a lightweight PHP framework inspired by modern App Router concepts. It brings file-based routing, nested layouts, middleware, and API routes to PHP — without Laravel or heavy abstractions.

🚀 Built for learning, experimentation, and lightweight production
🧠 Designed to understand how modern frameworks work under the hood

📦 Create Project

composer create-project reqiler/reqziel my-reqziel-app

Start the development server:

composer dev

php cli/app.php dev

Open in browser:

http://localhost:8000

✨ Features

📁 File-based Routing
🔀 Dynamic Routes using [param]
🧩 Route Groups using (group) (not affecting URL)
🧱 Nested Layout System
🔐 Middleware / Route Guards
🔌 API Routes under /api
⚙️ Dev Command similar to modern frameworks
❌ No Laravel, No heavy framework

📂 Project Structure

my-reqziel-app/
├─ app/
│  ├─ page.php              # /
│  ├─ layout.php            # root layout
│  ├─ post/
│  │  └─ [id]/
│  │     └─ page.php        # /post/123
│  └─ (auth)/
│     └─ admin/
│        ├─ layout.php
│        └─ page.php        # /admin (protected)
│
├─ api/
│  └─ users.php             # /api/users
│
├─ bootstrap/
│  ├─ app.php               # bootstrap
│  ├─ router.php            # file-based router
│  └─ middleware.php        # middleware handler
│
├─ public/
│  ├─ index.php             # front controller
│  ├─ router.php            # dev router (php -S)
│  └─ .htaccess             # Apache rewrite
│
├─ cli/
│  └─ app.php               # CLI commands
│
├─ storage/
├─ composer.json
└─ README.md

🧱 Layout System

Layouts are resolved automatically based on directory hierarchy.

Rules:

The closest layout.php wraps the page
Root app/layout.php wraps everything
Layouts receive rendered page content via $content

Example:

app/layout.php
app/(auth)/admin/layout.php

Inside layout.php:

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
    <title><?= $metadata['title'] ?? 'Reqziel' ?></title>
</head>
<body>
    <?= $content ?>
</body>
</html>

🧠 Metadata (Title & Description)

Reqziel uses a layout-based metadata system.

<title> and <meta> tags live in layout.php
Pages can override metadata using the $metadata array
Pages should not render <head> or <html> tags

Example

app/page.php

<?php
$metadata['title'] = 'Home';
$metadata['description'] = 'Welcome to Reqziel';
?>

<h1>Welcome</h1>

app/post/[id]/page.php

<?php
$metadata['title'] = 'Post #' . $params['id'];
?>

<h1>Post <?= htmlspecialchars($params['id']) ?></h1>

🔐 Middleware

Route groups like (auth) can be protected automatically.

if ($route['group'] === 'auth' && !isset($_SESSION['user'])) {
    redirect('/');
}

🔌 API Routes

All files inside /api are treated as API endpoints.

api/users.php → /api/users

Example:

header('Content-Type: application/json');
echo json_encode(['ok' => true]);

🚀 Deployment

Apache or Nginx
Set document root to /public
No Node.js required
Tailwind via CDN supported

📜 License

MIT License

reqiler / reqziel

Maintainers

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