What is phpWebApp
phpWebApp is an application framework which makes
easy and simple the task of building PHP web applications based on
relational databases. It separates the task of designing and changing the
layout of the application from the task of implementing the logic
of the application, by using XML templates that are an extension
of XHTML. It also simplifies the task of implementing the logic of
the application by offering an event based programming model.
In addition, phpWebApp tries to offer modularity and code reusability
to the community of webApp developers.
Some of the features of the 'phpWebApp' framework, and the advantages and
benefits of using it for building web applications, are these:
- The framework separates the layout from the logic of the
application, so a graphical designer can easily improve the
layout of the application without getting messed with the logic
and without having to understand it. It makes easier the work
of both the graphical designer and the programer.
This also facilitates an iterative and incremental development
approach for web application projects.
- The framework gives the possibility to divide a page into several
parts which can be used in other pages as well. This makes the
user interface of the application (the layout, the graphical part)
more structured and easier to understand and maintain and makes
easier the work of the graphical designer.
- The framework looks at web applications from a new point of
view. From this point of view, a web application is a state machine,
which can be represented and described by one or more statechart
diagrams. Each page of the application that is displayed, represents
the application in a certain state. Clicking to a link causes a
transition to another state of the application. This simplifies
the design and the implementation of web applications. Later, if this
point of view is formalised and elaborated enough, it may provide
the theoretical bases for automatic code generation of web applications
from state chart diagrams (e.g. from UML state chart diagrams), and
for reverse engineering.
- The framework supports an event based programing model. When a
transition from one state of the application to another happens,
it may trigger an event as well, which is handled by a function
(event handler). This makes the logic of the application easy to build,
understand and maintain, and makes easy the work of the web programer.
- The framework gives to the web programers the possibility to create
independent web components (called WebBox-es) which have their own
user interface (graphical design), client side behaviour, server
side behaviour, states, events, event handlers, etc. These components
can be very easily reused in other web applications and thus provide
code reusability to web programers. This means that if you have
constructed something once, you don't have to re-construct it again
when you need it another time, but use it ready.
- The framework brings closer the client-side and the server-side
logic of a web application. E.g. the session variables (which are
usually used to keep the state of various parts of the application),
are available and can be accessed both on client side and on server side.
- The framework makes the interaction with the database almost
database independent. This means that in case that you decide
to change the database on which your application is based (e.g.
switching from MySQL to Oracle), then the application itself
doesn't need to be changed at all, it will work all the same.
Installation
phpWebApp is written in PHP, so, before installing it, make sure
that PHP is installed and works correctly with your web server.
phpWebApp works on any platform that PHP works, i.e Windows9x/NT/2000,
Linux/UNIX, Apache, IIS, etc.
To install the phpWebApp framework you don't need to make or build
anything, just get it and extract it to your DocumentRoot folder (the
folder where your web server looks for web documents).
Download the latest release, or get it from
CVS@sourceforge (login as anonymous
and checkout the modules web_app, documentation,
app1, app2 etc.).
Related Links
Copying
Copyright 2001, 2002, 2003 Dashamir Hoxha,
dashohoxha@users.sf.net
phpWebApp is free software;
you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the
GNU General Public License
as published by the
Free Software Foundation; either
version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.
phpWebApp is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
GNU General Public License
for more details.
You should have received
a copy of the GNU General Public License
along with phpWebApp; if not, write to the Free Software
Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place, Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307 USA