express.php

Express.php is a new HTTP - Server especially made for RESTful APIs written in PHP.

Features

Fast

The Library is handles requests fast and precise, it consumes around 20ms per request.

Easy

This project comes up with an easy to use syntax, that similar to express.js

Get started

Installation

Download from github, and drop in your target project.

Docs

The basic application

use express\App;
use express\io\Request;
use express\io\Response;

require "src/express/App.php";

$app = new App();

# All routes have to be set here. After listen, no code will be executed

$app->listen(80);

Add a Route

To add a basic GET route, you can use the following code:

use express\io\Request;
use express\io\Response;

$app->get("/", function (Request $request, Response $response) {
	# Code that should be executed once a request received
});

• For a POST route, use $app->post()
• For a PUT route, use $app->put()
• For a PATCH route, use $app->patch()
• For a DELETE route, use $app->delete()

Query parameters

HTTP Queries are the part after the ? in an URL. This library comes up with a simple API for handling it: When registering the route, you can simply add (for example) ?name=username, the request now requires a query parameter with the name name. A request for this would look something like localhost/users?name=dummyname. In the code, this means that there is a new property called like the query parameter name, username in this case (The value you defined when setting up the route). It can simply be accessed using $request->name

use express\io\Request;
use express\io\Response;

$app->get("/users?name=username", function (Request $request, Response $response) {
	echo $request->username;
});

$app->get("/messages?id=message_id", function (Request $request, Response $response) {
	echo $request->message_id;
});

Route parameters

Route parameters are custom parameters that can contain a client - defined value (matching a pattern, if set). This can be done by using #name, name will be the property name accessible in the request. This can contain any value #message_id, ...

use express\io\Request;
use express\io\Response;

$app->post("/users/#userId/nick", function (Request $request, Response $response) {
	echo $request->userId;
});

$request->userId can now contain nearly any value. To prevent this, we can use patterns:

Route Parameter Patterns

Patterns are used to specify which values a parameter can contain. There are multiple settings to use, but in general, patterns are JSON encoded arrays, set to the route

use express\io\Request;
use express\io\Response;

$app->get('/users/{"name": "userId", "len-min": 16, "len-max": 16}', function (Request $request, Response $response): void {
	
});

Now, that you know how its basically built, lets speak of the possible settings you are able to set:

Redirect requests

use express\io\Request;
use express\io\Response;

$app->get('/users', function (Request $request, Response $response): void {
	$response->redirect("/members");
});

Set a response body

You can set a response code by using $response->body(). This can either be a string, or an array that will get JSON encoded once the request is sent. String:

use express\io\Request;
use express\io\Response;

$app->get('/users', function (Request $request, Response $response): void {
	$response->body("Access denied");
});

Array: (For JSON encoding)

use express\io\Request;
use express\io\Response;

$app->get('/users', function (Request $request, Response $response): void {
	$response->body(["error" => "Access denied"]);
});

Response Codes

You can set a response code for the response using $response->code(). All types there you can find all supported status codes with their names in express\utils\StatusCodes.

use express\io\Request;
use express\io\Response;

$app->get('/users', function (Request $request, Response $response): void {
	$response->code(403);
	$response->body(["error" => "Access denied"]);
});

If your response code is not supported yet, use $response->customResponseCodeMessage().

Respond as a HTML

use express\io\Request;
use express\io\Response;

$app->get('/users', function (Request $request, Response $response): void {
	$response->html("/members");
});

Change the HTTP Content-Type

use express\io\Request;
use express\io\Response;

$app->get('/', function (Request $request, Response $response): void {
	$response->contentType("text/plain");
});

You can check this page for a basic list of common content types.