how to create a blog with the recess php framework, part 1

BlogHow to create a blog with theRecess PHP Framework, Part 1This is the first article in my Recess Framework blog tutorial. This tutorial will

introduce you to the Recess Framework, a RESTful and open source PHP

framework sponsored by New Media Campaigns. You will also learn how to create a

fully functional blog with comments, categories, and authors.

I will use Mac OS X and TextMate during this tutorial. However, the Recess

Framework will also work on Windows or Linux. Your system should meet these

minimum system requirements:

Apache web server1.

PHP 5.2.4 or greater2.

SQLite 33.

Download and install the Recess FrameworkDownload Recess Edge1.

Create a web-accessible directory for our blog2.

Unzip the Recess Edge download into the blog directory3.

View the blog directory in a web browser4.

How to create a blog with the Recess PHP Framework, Part 1 http://www.newmediacampaigns.com/page/how-to-create-a-b...

1 of 15 7/10/14 4:22 PM

If you see a Congratulations, Recess is almost setup! message, the Recess

Framework has been installed successfully. If you do not see this message, be sure

you include index.php at the end of the URL in your web browser. If you still do not

see this message, review the installation documentation on the Recess Framework

website. From this point forward, the path to the filesystem directory created for this

blog will be called the [BLOG_ROOT]; the base URL with which you view this blog

in your web browser will be called the [BLOG_URL]. On my machine, the

[BLOG_URL] is http://localhost/~joshlockhart/recess/ and the

[BLOG_ROOT] is ~/Sites/recess/ . These paths will be different if you use

Windows or Linux.

Setup the blog database

NEWMEDIACAMPAIGNS

About Services Work Blog Labs Contact


2 of 15 7/10/14 4:22 PM

For simplicity, our blog will use a SQLite database. The SQLite database will be

created automatically at [BLOG_ROOT]data/sqlite/default.db . First, we need to

make several filesystem directories writeable by the web server. You can make

these directories writeable with the following commands:

$ chmod -R 0777 [BLOG_ROOT]data/temp/1.

$ chmod -R 0777 [BLOG_ROOT]data/sqlite/2.

Next, we need to tell Recess to use a SQLite database. Open [BLOG_ROOT]recess-

conf.php in a text editor. Uncomment the SQLite item in the

RecessConf::$defaultDatabase array. You can delete the MySQL item from this

array. The final array should look like this:

RecessConf::$defaultDatabase = array(

'sqlite:' . $_ENV['dir.bootstrap'] . 'data/sqlite/default.db'

);

NEWMEDIACAMPAIGNS



3 of 15 7/10/14 4:22 PM

If you refresh your web browser (still viewing [BLOG_URL]index.php ) you will see a

Welcome to Recess! message. If you do not see this message, be sure you append

index.php to the URL. The SQLite database file will be created for us at

[BLOG_ROOT]data/sqlite/default.db . Make sure this database file is writeable

by the web server, too. Finally, run these SQL commands in the SQLite database.

These commands create the blog schema and load sample data. If you are

unfamiliar with sqlite on the command line, you can download the Firefox SQLite

manager extension that provides an easy-to-use GUI inteface.

CREATE TABLE posts (

id INTEGER PRIMARY KEY,

title TEXT,

content TEXT,

created INTEGER,

updated INTEGER

NEWMEDIACAMPAIGNS



4 of 15 7/10/14 4:22 PM

Create the blog applicationThe Recess Framework supports multiple modular applications, similar to Django.

We need to create a new application for our blog and tell Recess to use our

application. First, create the necessary directory structure for our blog application:

After we create this directory structure, we need to create the blog application

configuration file at [BLOG_ROOT]apps/blog/BlogApplication.class.php . There are

);

INSERT INTO posts VALUES (1, 'Adventure Book', 'This is the content of

the adventure book', 1254940395, 1254940395);

INSERT INTO posts VALUES (2, 'Romance Book', 'This is the content of the

romance book', 1254940395, 1254940395);

INSERT INTO posts VALUES (3, 'History Book', 'This is the content of the

history book', 1254940395, 1254940395);

[BLOG_ROOT]apps/blog/

[BLOG_ROOT]apps/blog/controllers/

[BLOG_ROOT]apps/blog/models/

[BLOG_ROOT]apps/blog/views/

NEWMEDIACAMPAIGNS



5 of 15 7/10/14 4:22 PM

several important details to note. First, capitalization is important; see how we

capitalized the B and the A in BlogApplication. Next, it is also important that we

append .class.php to the file name. Like Java, this file extension emphasizes the

one class per file convention. Open BlogApplication.class.php in a text editor

and insert the following code:

The specific details in this file are not important for this tutorial. Just know that this

file is the configuration file for our Recess blog application. Finally, we need to tell

Recess to use our blog application. Open [BLOG_ROOT]recess-conf.php in a text

editor. We need to append our blog application to the RecessConf::$applications

array. Locate this array and insert blog.BlogApplication as a new array item. The

final array should look like this:

The initial blog. prefix represents the [BLOG_ROOT]apps/blog/ directory. The

BlogApplication suffix represents the BlogApplication.class.php file we

created earlier.

<?php

Library::import('recess.framework.Application');

class BlogApplication extends Application {

public function __construct() {

$this->name = 'Blog';

$this->viewsDir = $_ENV['dir.apps'] . 'blog/views/';

$this->modelsPrefix = 'blog.models.';

$this->controllersPrefix = 'blog.controllers.';

$this->routingPrefix = 'blog/';

}

}

?>

RecessConf::$applications = array(

'recess.apps.tools.RecessToolsApplication',

'welcome.WelcomeApplication',

'blog.BlogApplication'

);

NEWMEDIACAMPAIGNS



6 of 15 7/10/14 4:22 PM

Create the Post modelThe Post model will interact with the database using Recessʼ ORM (Object

Relational Mapper). Each record in the posts database table will be mapped to a

Post model in our application. First, create [BLOG_ROOT]apps/blog/models

/Post.class.php . Open this file in a text editor and insert the following code:

Recess uses declarative annotations to attach metadata to models, controllers, and

controller methods (similar to PHPDoc annotations, but prefixed with ! instead of @).

In the Post model above, we use a Recess annotation to declare the database

table used by the Post model.

Create the Post controllerThe Post controller receives requests, interacts with the Post model, and returns

a response. First, create [BLOG_ROOT] apps/blog/controllers

/PostsController.class.php . Open this file in a text editor and insert the following

code:

<?php

/**

* !Table posts

*/

class Post extends Model {}

?>

<?php

Library::import('recess.framework.controllers.Controller');

Library::import('blog.models.Post');

/**

* !RespondsWith Layouts

* !Prefix Routes: /, Views: home/

*/

class PostsController extends Controller {

NEWMEDIACAMPAIGNS



7 of 15 7/10/14 4:22 PM

Letʼs walk through the code line by line.

Line 2: We import the Controller super class

Line 3: We import the Post model class

Line 6: A Recess annotation that declares the View used by the

PostsController

Line 7: A Recess annotation that declares the Routing prefix and View prefix

for the PostsController

Line 9: We instantiate the PostsController class

Listing postsLetʼs create a controller action in PostsController and a view template that list all

blog posts:

First we instantiate a new Post object. Next we call $post->all() to retrieve an

array of Post records from the database. We store this array in a public class

variable, $this->posts . All public class variables in the controller are automatically

passed into the view template which we will create next. We also attach a Recess

annotation to the PostsController::listPosts() action. This Recess annotation

declares the routing information for this action: we can access this action with a GET

request to [BLOG_URL]index.php/blog/posts/. We can view the

PostsController::listPosts() controller action in a web browser at

//insert actions here

}

?>

/** !Route GET, posts */

public function listPosts(){

$post = new Post();

$this->posts = $post->all();

}

NEWMEDIACAMPAIGNS



8 of 15 7/10/14 4:22 PM

[BLOG_URL]index.php/blog/posts/ . If you view this action in a web browser, you

will receive an error because we have not yet created our view template. Letʼs do

that now.

View templates reside in the [BLOG_ROOT]apps/blog/views/ directory. Since our

PostsController ʼs Views Prefix is home (declared as a Recess annotation on the

controller), our view templates will be created in [BLOG_ROOT]apps/blog/views

/home/ . Letʼs create the template for the PostsController::listPosts() action.

Create the file [BLOG_ROOT]apps/blog/views/home/listPosts.html.php . Insert the

following HTML markup into this file:

<html>

<body>

<h1>Posts</h1>

<ul>

<?php foreach( $posts as $post ): ?>

<li>

<h2><a href="#"><?php echo $post->title; ?></a></h2>

<p>Posted on <?php echo strftime("%B %e, %Y",

$post->created); ?></p>

<p><?php echo $post->content; ?></p>

</li>

<?php endforeach; ?>

</ul>

</body>

</html>

NEWMEDIACAMPAIGNS



9 of 15 7/10/14 4:22 PM

In your web browser, view [BLOG_URL]index.php/blog/posts/ . You should see a

list of posts. Our view markup loops over the $posts variable (passed from the

controller). Columns from the posts database table are available as object

methods. You may notice that we did not set the href attribute of the post title link

(we will do this next). First, we need to create a new controller method to display a

single blog post. Letʼs do that now.

Showing a single postCreate a new PostsController action called show:

/** !Route GET, posts/$id */

public function show($id){

NEWMEDIACAMPAIGNS



10 of 15 7/10/14 4:22 PM

This method uses a Dynamic Route which passes the $id route parameter into the

PostsController::show() action. If we access [BLOG_URL]index.php/blog

/posts/1 , the PostsController::show() actionʼs first parameter will be equal to 1.

We then set a public class variable — $this->post — equal to the first Post whose

ID is equal to $id . The $this->post variable will be passed into the view

template.

Create the view template file [BLOG_ROOT]apps/blog/views/home/show.html.php

and insert this HTML markup:

Next, we need to edit [BLOG_ROOT]apps/blog/views/home/listPosts.html.php and

$post = new Post($id);

$this->post = $post->find()->first();

}

<html>

<body>

<h1><?php echo $post->title; ?></h1>

<p>Posted on <?php echo strftime("%B %e, %Y", $post->created);

?></p>


</body>

</html>

NEWMEDIACAMPAIGNS



11 of 15 7/10/14 4:22 PM

set the href attribute of each Postʼs title. Update the HTML markup so that it

reads:

We are using the Url helper available in our view template. The first parameter of

the Url::action() method is a Controller::method pair, or the destination of our

hyperlink. The second parameter is the ID of the current Post. The Url::action()

helper method creates a URL to the PostsController::show() controller action

using the current Postʼs ID. View [BLOG_URL]index.php/blog/posts/ in a web

browser. You can now click on a postʼs title to view the postʼs individual page.

SummaryIn this article we learned how to install and configure the Recess Framework, how to

create a modular Recess application, how to create a model that interacts with a

database table, how to create a controller, and how to create a view template. We

now have a basic blog that displays a list of posts with links to each postʼs individual

page. The next article of this series will demonstrate how to create posts, update

posts, and delete posts using the Recess Framework ORM. Stay tuned!

<html>

<body>

<h1>Posts</h1>

<ul>

<?php foreach( $posts as $post ): ?>

<li>

<h2><a href="<?php echo

Url::action('PostsController::show',$post->id); ?>"><?php echo

$post->title; ?></a></h2>

<p>Posted on <?php echo strftime("%B %e, %Y",

$post->created); ?></p>


</li>

<?php endforeach; ?>

</ul>

</body>

</html>

NEWMEDIACAMPAIGNS



12 of 15 7/10/14 4:22 PM

Download the final projectThis file contains the Recess Framework and all controllers, models, and views for

this tutorial.

Download (ZIP, 340 KB)

Related Posts

Community Fosters CreativityJul 2, 2014 | 2 Comments

Why a Mobile Friendly Websiteis Important for Non-ProfitsJun 30, 2014

The Value of a Blog for a LawFirmJun 26, 2014

Comments

's avatar nmc team memberMeHow-to MANUALLY create a blog with the Recess PHP Framework.

10.26.2009

Custom Web Application DevelopmentHi There,I've been playing with the Recess! PHP Framework recently and I like itThanks,

NEWMEDIACAMPAIGNS



13 of 15 7/10/14 4:22 PM

Leave a comment

Mick

01.13.2011

Name *

Email *

Website URL

Is water wet or dry? *

Comment *

SUBMIT COMMENT

CONTACT NMC

118 E. Main St. Suite A

NEWMEDIACAMPAIGNS



14 of 15 7/10/14 4:22 PM

Carrboro, NC 27510(919) [email protected]

EMAIL ADDRESS...

STAY IN TOUCH Sign up to receive our monthly newsletter

About Services Work Blog Labs ContactNEWMEDIACAMPAIGNS

NEWMEDIACAMPAIGNS



15 of 15 7/10/14 4:22 PM

how to create a blog with the recess php framework, part 1

Documents