What is Flight?

Flight is a fast, simple, extensible framework for PHP. Flight enables you to quickly and easily build RESTful web applications.

Chat with us on Matrix IRC #flight-php-framework:matrix.org

Basic Usage

// if installed with composer
require 'vendor/autoload.php';
// or if installed manually by zip file
// require 'flight/Flight.php';

Flight::route('/', function() {
  echo 'hello world!';
});

Flight::start();

Want to setup a Skeleton/Boilerplate project quickly?

Head over to the flightphp/skeleton repo to get started!

Requirements

Flight requires PHP 7.4 or greater.

License

Flight is released under the MIT license.

Installation

1. Download the files.

If you're using Composer, you can run the following command:

composer require flightphp/core

OR you can download them directly and extract them to your web directory.

2. Configure your webserver.

For Apache, edit your .htaccess file with the following:

RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ index.php [QSA,L]

Note: If you need to use flight in a subdirectory add the line RewriteBase /subdir/ just after RewriteEngine On. Note: If you want to protect all server files, like a db or env file. Put this in your .htaccess file:

RewriteEngine On
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ index.php

For Nginx, add the following to your server declaration:

server {
  location / {
    try_files $uri $uri/ /index.php;
  }
}

3. Create your index.php file.

First include the framework.

require 'flight/Flight.php';

If you're using Composer, run the autoloader instead.

require 'vendor/autoload.php';

Then define a route and assign a function to handle the request.

Flight::route('/', function () {
  echo 'hello world!';
});

Finally, start the framework.

Flight::start();

Skeleton App

Additionally you could install a skeleton app. Go to flightphp/skeleton for instructions on how to get started!

Routing

Routing in Flight is done by matching a URL pattern with a callback function.

Flight::route('/', function () {
  echo 'hello world!';
});

The callback can be any object that is callable. So you can use a regular function:

function hello() {
  echo 'hello world!';
}

Flight::route('/', 'hello');

Or a class method:

class Greeting {
  static function hello() {
    echo 'hello world!';
  }
}

Flight::route('/', [Greeting::class, 'hello']);

Or an object method:

class Greeting {
  private $name;

  function __construct() {
    $this->name = 'John Doe';
  }

  function hello() {
    echo "Hello, $this->name!";
  }
}

$greeting = new Greeting;

Flight::route('/', [$greeting, 'hello']);

Routes are matched in the order they are defined. The first route to match a request will be invoked.

Configuration

You can customize certain behaviors of Flight by setting configuration values through the set method.

Flight::set('flight.log_errors', true);

The following is a list of all the available configuration settings:

• flight.base_url - Override the base url of the request. (default: null)
• flight.case_sensitive - Case sensitive matching for URLs. (default: false)
• flight.handle_errors - Allow Flight to handle all errors internally. (default: true)
• flight.log_errors - Log errors to the web server's error log file. (default: false)
• flight.views.path - Directory containing view template files. (default: ./views)
• flight.views.extension - View template file extension. (default: .php)

Framework Methods

Flight is designed to be easy to use and understand. The following is the complete set of methods for the framework. It consists of core methods, which are regular static methods, and extensible methods, which are mapped methods that can be filtered or overridden.

Core Methods

Flight::map(string $name, callable $callback, bool $pass_route = false) // Creates a custom framework method.
Flight::register(string $name, string $class, array $params = [], ?callable $callback = null) // Registers a class to a framework method.
Flight::before(string $name, callable $callback) // Adds a filter before a framework method.
Flight::after(string $name, callable $callback) // Adds a filter after a framework method.
Flight::path(string $path) // Adds a path for autoloading classes.
Flight::get(string $key) // Gets a variable.
Flight::set(string $key, mixed $value) // Sets a variable.
Flight::has(string $key) // Checks if a variable is set.
Flight::clear(array|string $key = []) // Clears a variable.
Flight::init() // Initializes the framework to its default settings.
Flight::app() // Gets the application object instance

Extensible Methods

Flight::start() // Starts the framework.
Flight::stop() // Stops the framework and sends a response.
Flight::halt(int $code = 200, string $message = '') // Stop the framework with an optional status code and message.
Flight::route(string $pattern, callable $callback, bool $pass_route = false) // Maps a URL pattern to a callback.
Flight::group(string $pattern, callable $callback) // Creates groupping for urls, pattern must be a string.
Flight::redirect(string $url, int $code) // Redirects to another URL.
Flight::render(string $file, array $data, ?string $key = null) // Renders a template file.
Flight::error(Throwable $error) // Sends an HTTP 500 response.
Flight::notFound() // Sends an HTTP 404 response.
Flight::etag(string $id, string $type = 'string') // Performs ETag HTTP caching.
Flight::lastModified(int $time) // Performs last modified HTTP caching.
Flight::json(mixed $data, int $code = 200, bool $encode = true, string $charset = 'utf8', int $option) // Sends a JSON response.
Flight::jsonp(mixed $data, string $param = 'jsonp', int $code = 200, bool $encode = true, string $charset = 'utf8', int $option) // Sends a JSONP response.

Any custom methods added with map and register can also be filtered.

More detailed information

We have our own documentation website that is being run by Flight. Please check the remaining documentation on our website. Learn more