Chat app

A simple chat application written in php. This application uses its own framework that is written for this application.

Application setup

Run the setup. The setup creates the database.db file (or other sepcified in the config). Also it executes all the queries under the sql direcotry.

Be sure to execute this in the root directory of the project

composer install
php setup.php

Api Routes

Authenticated routes needs a token which can be retrived while creating a user or authenticating a user.

For passing the token you need to add a header as the following:

HEADER	Value
Authentication	TOKEN

Here are all the api routes:

Route	Description	Method	Authenticated	Post Body
/user	Creates a user	POST	FALSE	{"username": "USERNAME", "password", "PASSWORD"}
/authenticate	Authenticates a user	POST	FALSE	{"username": "USERNAME", "password", "PASSWORD"}
/user	Gets authenticated user	GET	TRUE
/chat	Gets chat of user	GET	TRUE
/chat	Creates a chat	POST	TRUE	{"username": "USERNAME_OF_RECIPIENT"}
/chat/:id	Gets a single chat	GET	TRUE
/chat/:id	Deletes a chat	DELETE	TRUE
/chat/:id/message	Get messages of chat	GET	TRUE
/chat/:id/message	New chat message	POST	TRUE	{"message": "CHAT_MESSAGE"}

The /chat/:id/message GET also supports the ?d=YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS parameter to get all chat messages from a given timestamp.

Configuring the application

All configuration is loaded and passed to the kernel in the public/index.php . Here you can add at a later stage other configuration files which are loaded automatically in the container under the key config.

The chat application uses configuration files for the following things

File	Configuration
config/Database.php	Database url configuration (only sqlite database allowed)
config/Middleware.php	A array of middlewares which will be executed before a controller is loaded
config/Routes.php	A array of routes in the application (see the router)
config/Validation/*	Here you can define custom validation keys (see the validator)

The Container

The container is a easy way to share configuration or classes throughout the application. Adding something to the container is easy and can be done in any file. The kernel registers all the base services and should be the go to file for adding new classes / config.

However in some cases adding data on runtime is needed. Like the Middleware/AuthenticationMiddleware which is setting the user in the container for later use for authenticated routes.

The container is stored in a singleton design pattern class which is created in the JeroenFrenken\Chat\Core\Container\Container class. All clases can use the ContainerAwareTrait to make the container available in the specific class. Please note that extending the BaseController already gives access to the container. This also the case with the AbstractMiddleware class.

The Router

The router is a easy way to load controllers based on a route. Also the router has support for router parameters / method based routing.

Adding a route is easy but you should stick to the following configuration.

Key	Type	Example
url	string	The url that needs the matched (ex: /user)
controller	string	The controller (ex: NamespaceController::method)
methods	array	Array of supported methods
auth	bool	User needs to be authenticated

If you want to access current route information in the controller you can simply access "current_route" in the container

The Validator

The validator can be used to autmoatically validate data and return messages to the user. Adding propertys to the validator is easy and can be done in this format.

Key	Type	Example
ARRAY_KEY	string	The property name (ex: )
regex	string	The regex for validating the property
message	string	Message that is returned to user if property is false validated
required	bool	Required to be send to the validator

The validator supports also a function callback for validation. This can be done as the following:

<?php

return [
    'username' => [
        'message' => "Username not valid",
        'required' => true,
        // Please note that a function is only allowed when no regex is presented
        'function' => function($value): bool {
            return false;
        }
    ],
];

Middlewares

A Middleware can be configured in the config/Middleware.php . You only have to pass NamespaceController. Please note that all Middlewares should extend the JeroenFrenken\Chat\Core\Middleware\AbstractMiddleware class. This provides the container in the Middleware and also forces the handle method which is by default called by the Middlewareloader.

Response Classes

All Controllers Should return a new instance of a Response class. Also Middlewares can return a Response to interupt further loading of the controller. A JsonResponse is also a valid instance of Response because a JsonResponse extends a Response class.