stanislasdevfr/phpmvc

A lightweight PHP MVC project generator with Bootstrap and authentication

v1.0.0 2025-10-17 19:15 UTC

Requires

• php: >=8.0
• symfony/console: ^6.0|^7.0

MIT

• Stanislas Duarte

• framework
• generator
• php
• cli
• bootstrap
• mvc

README

A lightweight and powerful PHP MVC project generator that creates a complete, production-ready application with entities, repositories, controllers, and optional Bootstrap views and authentication system.

✨ Features

• 🚀 Rapid Development: Generate a complete MVC structure in seconds
• 🎨 Bootstrap 5 Integration: Optional responsive UI with modals and AJAX
• 🔐 Authentication System: Complete login/register system with password hashing
• 🗄️ Repository Pattern: Clean separation between business logic and data access
• 💉 Auto-Hydration: Automatic entity hydration from arrays
• 🛣️ Smart Router: RESTful routing with automatic CRUD routes
• 🔒 Security First: Prepared statements, password hashing, input validation
• 📱 Hybrid Controllers: Support both API (JSON) and HTML views
• ⚡ AJAX Ready: Modern SPA-like experience with Bootstrap modals
• 🎯 PSR-4 Autoloading: Modern PHP standards
• 🌐 i18n Ready: All generated code in English

📋 Requirements

• PHP 8.0 or higher
• Composer (dependency manager)
• MySQL or MariaDB database
• Web server (Apache, Nginx) or PHP built-in server

📦 Installation

Install the generator globally via Composer:

composer global require phpmvc/phpmvc

Or install it in a specific project:

composer require phpmvc/phpmvc --dev

🚀 Quick Start

1. Generate a new project

php vendor/bin/phpmvc init

Or if installed globally:

phpmvc init

2. Answer the interactive questions

📁 Project name: my-blog
🔢 Number of entities: 2

━━━ Entity #1 ━━━
📝 Entity #1 name: Post
➜ Field name: title
➜ Type (string/int/float/bool/datetime): string
➜ Field name: content
➜ Type: text
➜ Field name: (leave empty to finish)

━━━ Entity #2 ━━━
📝 Entity #2 name: Category
➜ Field name: name
➜ Type: string
➜ Field name: (leave empty)

🎨 Generate Bootstrap views? (y/n): y
🔐 Generate authentication system? (y/n): y

3. ⚠️ IMPORTANT - Database Setup

Before running your project, you MUST create your MySQL database:

CREATE DATABASE my_blog CHARACTER SET utf8mb4 COLLATE utf8mb4_unicode_ci;

If you enabled authentication, also create the users table:

CREATE TABLE users (
    id INT AUTO_INCREMENT PRIMARY KEY,
    email VARCHAR(255) NOT NULL UNIQUE,
    password VARCHAR(255) NOT NULL,
    name VARCHAR(255) NOT NULL,
    created_at DATETIME NOT NULL DEFAULT CURRENT_TIMESTAMP
);

Create tables for your entities:

CREATE TABLE posts (
    id INT AUTO_INCREMENT PRIMARY KEY,
    title VARCHAR(255) NOT NULL,
    content TEXT NOT NULL
);

CREATE TABLE categories (
    id INT AUTO_INCREMENT PRIMARY KEY,
    name VARCHAR(255) NOT NULL
);

4. Configure database connection

Edit config/database.php:

return [
    'host' => 'localhost',
    'database' => 'my_blog',        // ← Your database name
    'username' => 'root',           // ← Your MySQL username
    'password' => '',               // ← Your MySQL password
    'charset' => 'utf8mb4',
    'options' => [
        PDO::ATTR_ERRMODE => PDO::ERRMODE_EXCEPTION,
        PDO::ATTR_DEFAULT_FETCH_MODE => PDO::FETCH_ASSOC,
        PDO::ATTR_EMULATE_PREPARES => false,
    ]
];

5. Install dependencies and run

cd my-blog
composer install
php -S localhost:8000 -t public

6. Access your application

Open your browser:

• Home: http://localhost:8000/posts
• Login: http://localhost:8000/login
• Register: http://localhost:8000/register

📁 Generated Project Structure

my-blog/
├── public/
│   └── index.php              # Application entry point
├── src/
│   ├── Entity/                # Your entities (Post, Category, User)
│   ├── Repository/            # Database access layer
│   ├── Controller/            # Business logic (CRUD operations)
│   ├── View/                  # Bootstrap views (if enabled)
│   └── Core/                  # Core classes
│       ├── Database.php       # PDO connection (singleton)
│       ├── Hydrator.php       # Entity hydration
│       ├── Router.php         # URL routing
│       ├── Session.php        # Session management (if auth enabled)
│       └── AuthMiddleware.php # Route protection (if auth enabled)
├── config/
│   ├── database.php           # Database configuration
│   └── routes.php             # Route definitions
├── vendor/                    # Composer dependencies
├── composer.json              # Project dependencies
├── .gitignore                 # Git ignore rules
└── README.md                  # Project documentation

🎯 What Gets Generated

For each entity (e.g., Post):

1. Entity (src/Entity/Post.php)

- Private properties with type hints
- Constructor
- hydrate() method for automatic population
- Getters and setters for all fields

2. Repository (src/Repository/PostRepository.php)

- findAll(): array          // Get all records
- findById(int $id): ?Post  // Get by ID
- save(Post $post): void    // Create or update
- delete(int $id): void     // Delete record

3. Controller (src/Controller/PostController.php)

- index()           // List all (public access)
- show($id)         // Show one (public access)
- create()          // Show form (public access)
- store()           // Create (requires auth if enabled)
- edit($id)         // Get data for edit (public access)
- update($id)       // Update (requires auth if enabled)
- delete($id)       // Delete (requires auth if enabled)

4. View (src/View/post_index.php) - If Bootstrap enabled

- Responsive table with data
- Create/Edit/View/Delete modals
- AJAX operations (no page reload)
- Real-time alerts

5. Routes (config/routes.php)

GET    /posts           → PostController::index()
GET    /posts/{id}      → PostController::show($id)
GET    /posts/create    → PostController::create()
POST   /posts           → PostController::store()
GET    /posts/{id}/edit → PostController::edit($id)
POST   /posts/{id}      → PostController::update($id) [_method=PUT]
POST   /posts/{id}      → PostController::delete($id) [_method=DELETE]

🔐 Authentication System (if enabled)

Features

• User Registration with validation
• Login/Logout with session management
• Password Hashing using bcrypt
• Route Protection for write operations
• Session Management with helper class

Authentication Routes

GET/POST /login         // Login page and process
GET/POST /register      // Registration page and process
GET      /logout        // Logout and destroy session
GET      /auth/check    // Check auth status (API)

Protected Routes

When authentication is enabled:

• ✅ Public access: index(), show(), create(), edit()
• 🔒 Requires login: store(), update(), delete()

Using Authentication in Your Code

// In a controller
use App\Core\Session;
use App\Core\AuthMiddleware;

// Check if user is authenticated
if (Session::isAuthenticated()) {
    $userId = Session::getUserId();
    $user = Session::get('user');
}

// Protect a route manually
AuthMiddleware::requireAuth();

// Require guest (not logged in)
AuthMiddleware::requireGuest();

🌐 API Usage

All controllers support JSON responses for API usage:

List all posts

curl http://localhost:8000/posts \
  -H "X-Requested-With: XMLHttpRequest"

Response:

[
    {"id": 1, "title": "First Post", "content": "..."},
    {"id": 2, "title": "Second Post", "content": "..."}
]

Create a post

curl -X POST http://localhost:8000/posts \
  -d "title=New Post&content=Great content"

Response:

{
    "success": true,
    "id": 3,
    "message": "Post created successfully"
}

Update a post

curl -X POST http://localhost:8000/posts/3 \
  -d "_method=PUT&title=Updated&content=New content"

Delete a post

curl -X POST http://localhost:8000/posts/3 \
  -d "_method=DELETE"

🎨 Bootstrap Views

When Bootstrap is enabled, you get:

• Responsive Layout with navbar and footer
• Modal-based CRUD (no page reloads)
• AJAX Operations with real-time updates
• Bootstrap Icons for actions
• Alert System for feedback
• Form Validation with visual feedback

View Structure

Each entity gets:

{entity}_index.php
├── List table with data
├── Create modal
├── Edit modal
├── View modal
└── Delete confirmation modal

🔧 Customization

Adding Custom Routes

Edit config/routes.php:

// Custom route
$router->get('/about', 'PageController', 'about');
$router->post('/contact', 'ContactController', 'send');

// Protect a specific route
// In your controller:
\App\Core\AuthMiddleware::requireAuth();

Adding New Fields to Entity

1. Add the field to your database table
2. Add property, getter, and setter to entity
3. Update repository if needed
4. Add field to view forms

Modifying Views

Views are in src/View/. Edit them directly:

• Modify HTML structure
• Change Bootstrap classes
• Add custom JavaScript
• Customize forms

🐛 Troubleshooting

Error: "Connection error"

Problem: Cannot connect to MySQL database

Solutions:

1. Verify MySQL is running: mysql --version
2. Check credentials in config/database.php
3. Ensure database exists: CREATE DATABASE your_db_name;
4. Check MySQL port (default: 3306)

Error: "Class not found"

Problem: Autoloading issue

Solution: Run composer dump-autoload

Error: "Route not found"

Problem: Routes not configured correctly

Solutions:

1. Check config/routes.php exists
2. Verify router is loaded in public/index.php
3. Clear browser cache

Error: "Call to undefined method"

Problem: Missing method in controller/repository

Solution: Regenerate the entity/controller or add method manually

Bootstrap views not working

Problem: AJAX requests failing

Solutions:

1. Check browser console for JavaScript errors
2. Verify routes are correct in config/routes.php
3. Ensure CDN links are accessible (check internet connection)

Authentication not working

Problem: Login/register not functioning

Solutions:

1. Verify users table exists in database
2. Check Session class is loaded
3. Clear browser cookies/session
4. Verify AuthMiddleware.php exists in src/Core/

🔒 Security Features

PhpMvc Generator includes several security features:

• ✅ Prepared Statements: All SQL queries use PDO prepared statements (prevents SQL injection)
• ✅ Password Hashing: Bcrypt hashing for passwords (no plain text storage)
• ✅ Input Validation: Automatic validation based on field types
• ✅ Type Safety: PHP 8 type hints throughout
• ✅ Session Security: Secure session management
• ✅ CSRF Protection: Ready for CSRF token implementation
• ✅ XSS Prevention: Use htmlspecialchars() in views for user input

Additional Security Recommendations

1. In Production:

   • Change default database credentials
   • Use HTTPS
   • Set secure session cookies
   • Enable error logging (disable display)
   • Keep dependencies updated

2. Add CSRF Protection:

// In forms:
<input type="hidden" name="csrf_token" value="<?= $_SESSION['csrf_token'] ?>">

// In controllers:
if ($_POST['csrf_token'] !== $_SESSION['csrf_token']) {
    die('Invalid CSRF token');
}

📚 Examples

Example 1: Simple Blog

phpmvc init
# Project: blog
# Entities: Post (title, content), Comment (author, content)
# Bootstrap: Yes
# Auth: Yes

Result: Full blog with posts, comments, and user authentication

Example 2: E-commerce

phpmvc init
# Project: shop
# Entities: Product (name, price, stock), Category (name)
# Bootstrap: Yes
# Auth: Yes

Result: Product catalog with admin panel

Example 3: REST API

phpmvc init
# Project: api
# Entities: User (name, email), Task (title, status)
# Bootstrap: No
# Auth: No

Result: Pure JSON API without views

🤝 Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please:

1. Fork the repository
2. Create a feature branch
3. Make your changes
4. Submit a pull request

📄 License

This project is open-source and available under the MIT License.

👤 Author

Your Name

• GitHub: @stanislasdevfr
• Email: [e-mail]

🙏 Acknowledgments

• Symfony Console for CLI interactions
• Bootstrap 5 for UI components
• The PHP community

Made by developer, for developers

⭐ Star this project if you find it useful!