Frontend¶

Introduction to Frontend with PHP¶

Frontend development refers to the part of web development that involves creating user interfaces for websites or applications. PHP can be used in conjunction with HTML, CSS, and JavaScript to create dynamic and interactive web pages.

In the PHP OOP MVC framework, the frontend is typically implemented using HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, with PHP used to generate dynamic content and communicate with the backend.

Using PHP in View Files¶

In the view files of the PHP OOP MVC framework, you can use PHP code to dynamically generate HTML content. This allows you to easily include data from the backend code in the frontend user interface.

To use PHP in a view file, simply include the PHP code within the opening and closing PHP tags (<?php and ?>). For example, if you have an array of user objects in the backend code that you want to display in a table in the frontend, you might do something like this:

<table>
    <thead>
        <tr>
            <th>Name</th>
            <th>Email</th>
        </tr>
    </thead>
    <tbody>
        <?php foreach ($users as $user): ?>
        <tr>
            <td><?php echo $user->getName(); ?></td>
            <td><?php echo $user->getEmail(); ?></td>
        </tr>
        <?php endforeach; ?>
    </tbody>
</table>

In this example, the foreach loop iterates over the $users array, which contains user objects, and generates a row in the table for each user. The echo statements within the loop output the user's name and email in the appropriate table cells.

Passing Data from PHP to View¶

To pass data from the backend PHP code to the frontend view, you can use variables. In the controller class, you can define a variable and assign it the value you want to pass to the view. Then, in the view file, you can access this variable and use its value to generate dynamic content.

For example, in the controller class, you might define a variable called $pageTitle:

class HomeController
{
    public function index()
    {
        $pageTitle = "Homepage";
        // other code
    }
}

Then, in the view file, you could use this variable to set the page title:

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
    <head>
        <title><?php echo $pageTitle; ?></title>
    </head>
    <body>
        <!-- other HTML code -->
    </body>
</html>

In this example, the $pageTitle variable is defined in the HomeController class's index method and assigned the value "Homepage". In the view file, the variable is used to set the page title in the <title> tag.

Rendering Views and Returning HTML¶

In the PHP OOP MVC framework, views are typically rendered by the controller class and returned as HTML to the browser. To render a view, the controller class typically creates a new instance of the appropriate view class and passes any necessary data to it.

For example, in the HomeController class's index method, you might render the index.view.php view like this:

class HomeController
{
    public function index()
    {
        $pageTitle = "Homepage";
        View("index", $pageTitle);
    }
}

In this example, the $pageTitle variable is defined and the $view variable is set to a new instance of the View class, passing in the name of the view file ("index") as an argument. Then, the $pageTitle variable is passed to the view by setting a property on the $view object with the same name. Finally, the render method is called on the $view object to render the view as HTML and return it to the browser.