README

Arbor

A modular yet minimal PHP framework for fast, modern application development.

🌐 Website - 📖 Docs - 💡 Examples - 👤 About Author

Introduction
Installation
Usage
Features
Contributing
Support
License

Introduction

Arbor is a lightweight, highly modular PHP framework designed to give you full control over HTTP routing, middleware, dependency injection, configuration and more, while remaining fast and easy to extend.

Installation

Clone the repository

git clone https://github.com/unifiedcodes/arbor.git
cd arbor

Or use composer

composer require unifiedcodes/arbor
cd arbor

Usage

Point your web server document root to the public/ directory.

use Arbor\bootstrap\App;

require_once '../vendor/autoload.php';

$autoloader = new Autoloader('../src/');

$app = (new App())
    ->withConfig('../configs/')
    ->onEnvironment('development')
    ->boot();

$response = $app->handleHTTP();
$response->send();

Features

Bootstrap & Environment Handling

Centralized entry point via Arbor\bootstrap\App
Fluent API to configure app, load environment-specific configs, and boot services
Isolated app modules (e.g., admin/, web/) with independent routes, configs, uploads, providers
URL resolution and environment-aware bootstrapping
Configuration scope from globals defaults to app specific to environment specific.

Dependency Injection & Container

Fast and flexible DI container with ServiceContainer
Attribute injection supported via ConfigValue attribute
Provider system for lazy-loaded services with Providers and Registry
Service resolution with Resolver and ServiceBond
Contextual resolution support

Configuration System

Environment-aware config loading from PHP files via Configurator
Supports app-specific overrides and merged configs
Attribute-based configuration injection

Service Contracts

All critical services (HTTP, Router, Container, etc.) are abstracted with interfaces
Easy to swap implementations or mock in testing
Comprehensive contract system covering containers, handlers, HTTP, metadata, sessions, and validation

HTTP Lifecycle

Fully-featured HTTP stack inspired by PSR standards
Request, ServerRequest, Response, UploadedFile, Streams, Cookies, Headers
RequestContext, RequestStack, and SubKernel support for advanced routing scenarios
HTTP client for external API communication
Response factory for streamlined response creation

Fragment System

Fragment engine for internally calling Controllers with or without a parent HTTP request context

Routing System

Efficient trie-based router for dynamic routes
Route groups, attributes, error routing, and sub-request handling
URL building and route method management
Advanced route dispatching and metadata handling

Middleware Pipeline

General-purpose pipeline class
Used in HTTP kernel and route dispatcher for global and route-specific middlewares
Extensible and reusable for other application pipelines

File Uploads

Secure file uploader.
Pluggable processor system per file type (e.g., ImageProcessor)
Contract-based file processing interface

View & Template System

Comprehensive View module
Templates remain simple .php files, staying true to Arbor's minimal‑framework philosophy
Supports both dumb components (simple includes) and dynamic controller-rendered components

Flash Messaging System

Complete flash messaging system with Flasher, Message, and View components
Session-based message persistence across requests
Flexible message formatting and display

Filtering & Pipeline System

Advanced filtering system with Filters, Registry, and StageList
Contract-based stage interfaces for extensible filtering
Multi-stage filtering pipeline support

Validation System

Comprehensive validation framework with:
- Validator and ValidatorFactory for validation orchestration
- Definition and Parser for validation rule definition
- Evaluator for rule execution
- ErrorsFormatter for user-friendly error messages
- RuleList and Registry for rule management
Contract-based rule interface for custom validation rules
Detailed validation exception handling

Helpers

Auto-loaded utility functions to ease development
URL helpers and common utility functions

Autoloader (legacy, to be use only when composer is not used)

PSR-compliant autoloader
Supports multiple root directories
Integrated with bootstrap system

Database Layer & ORM

Essential ORM Implementation:
- BaseModel and Model classes for Active Record pattern
- ModelQuery for eloquent-style query building
- AttributesTrait for model attribute management
- Pivot model for many-to-many relationships
Relationship Support:
- HasOne - One-to-one relationships
- HasMany - One-to-many relationships
- BelongsTo - Inverse one-to-many relationships
- BelongsToMany - Many-to-many relationships
- MorphOne - Polymorphic one-to-one relationships
- MorphMany - Polymorphic one-to-many relationships
- MorphToMany - Polymorphic many-to-many relationships
Query System:
- SQL-dialect agnostic query builder
- Grammar & Compiler for MySQL (PostgreSQL & SQLite support coming soon)
- Safe value bindings with PlaceholderParser
- Connection pool and transformer pipeline
- Database resolver for multiple connection management

Exception Handling

Central exception handler
Validation-specific exception handling
Graceful error output and formatting

Session Management

Full session handling with Session class
Contract-based session interface for custom implementations
Integrated with flash messaging and authentication systems

Facade System

facades for major components:
- Config - Configuration access
- Container - Dependency injection container
- DB - Database operations
- Route - Routing operations
- Session - Session management
- Flash - Flash messaging
Simplified static access to framework services

Contributing

Fork the repository
Create your feature branch (git checkout -b feature/YourFeature)
Commit your changes (git commit -m 'Add awesome feature')
Push to the branch (git push origin feature/YourFeature)
Open a Pull Request at https://github.com/unifiedcodes/arbor

Bug reports and improvements are welcome via GitHub Issues

Support

Email - info.unifiedcodes@gmail.com
WhatsApp - +91 75 808 908 75

License

Arbor is licensed under the Apache License 2.0.

unifiedcodes / arbor

Maintainers

Details