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March 03, 2025 00:59
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FuelPHP Cheatsheet

A quick reference guide for FuelPHP, a simple, flexible, community driven PHP 5.3+ framework, based on best practices and loaded with powerful features.

Core Concepts & Configuration

Key Concepts

HMVC (Hierarchical Model-View-Controller): FuelPHP extends the traditional MVC pattern to HMVC, promoting modularity and reusability of code.

ORM (Object-Relational Mapper): Provides an ActiveRecord implementation for easy database interaction.

Security: Built-in CSRF protection, input filtering, and output encoding to prevent common web vulnerabilities.

Bundles: Reusable packages of code that can be easily integrated into FuelPHP applications.

Modules: Self-contained applications within a FuelPHP project, enabling code organization and separation of concerns.

Configuration Files

config.php

Main application configuration file. Located in fuel/app/config/.

routes.php

Defines URL routes. Located in fuel/app/config/.

db.php

Database connection settings. Located in fuel/app/config/.

autoload.php

Specifies classes and packages to automatically load. Located in fuel/app/config/.

Environment Configuration

FuelPHP supports environment-specific configurations (development, production, testing).
Configuration files are loaded in the following order:

  1. fuel/app/config/config.php
  2. fuel/app/config/{environment}/config.php (overrides defaults)

Controllers, Models & Views

Controllers

Controllers handle user requests and interact with models to retrieve or modify data.
They then pass data to views for rendering.

Example:

class Controller_Users extends Controller
{
    public function action_index()
    {
        $data['users'] = Model_User::find_all();
        return View::forge('users/index', $data);
    }
}

Models

Models represent data and provide methods for interacting with the database.
FuelPHP uses an ActiveRecord ORM.

Example:

class Model_User extends Orm\Model
{
    protected static $_properties = array(
        'id',
        'username',
        'password',
        'email',
    );
}

Views

Views are responsible for rendering data provided by controllers into HTML or other formats.

Example (fuel/app/views/users/index.php):

<h1>Users</h1>
<ul>
<?php foreach ($users as $user): ?>
    <li><?php echo $user->username; ?></li>
<?php endforeach; ?>
</ul>

Use View::forge() to create a view instance in your controller.

Routing & URI Handling

Basic Routing

Routes define how URLs are mapped to controllers and actions. Defined in fuel/app/config/routes.php.

Example:

return array(
    '_root_'  => 'welcome/index',  // The default route
    '_404_'   => 'welcome/404',    // The main 404 route
    'hello/(:any)' => array('welcome/hello', 'name' => '$1'),
);

Named Parameters

You can use named parameters in your routes.
Example:

'users/:id' => 'users/view/$id'

URI Class

URI::base()

Returns the base URL of the application.

URI::current()

Returns the current URI.

URI::segment($n)

Returns the nth segment of the URI.

ORM & Database

Basic ORM Usage

FuelPHP’s ORM simplifies database interactions.
Remember to configure your database settings in fuel/app/config/db.php.

Example (Retrieving Data):

$user = Model_User::find(1);
echo $user->username;

Example (Creating Data):

$user = Model_User::forge(array(
    'username' => 'newuser',
    'password' => 'password123',
    'email'    => '[email protected]',
));
$user->save();

Relationships

FuelPHP supports various relationship types (one-to-one, one-to-many, many-to-many).

Example (One-to-Many in Model_User):

protected static $_has_many = array('posts' => array(
    'model_to' => 'Model_Post',
    'key_from' => 'id',
    'key_to'   => 'user_id',
));

Now you can access the user’s posts:

$user = Model_User::find(1);
foreach ($user->posts as $post) {
    echo $post->title;
}

Query Builder

For more complex queries, you can use the Query Builder.

Example:

$query = DB::select('id', 'username')
           ->from('users')
           ->where('username', 'like', '%admin%')
           ->order_by('id', 'desc')
           ->limit(10);

$result = $query->execute();

foreach ($result as $row) {
    echo $row['username'];
}