[sview.git] / README.html

<h1>sview : tiny PHP web framework</h1>

<p>
    It is inspired by <a href="http://shortphp.com">a similar framework</a> written by Arnór Heiðar Sigurðsson. 
    In the same spirit but more advanced and more complete, see also <a href="http://nanoc.ws/">nanoc</a> - in Ruby.
</p>

<p>
    sview is designed to organize essentially static websites. 
    It does not offer the features you would expect from a complete MVC framework - 
    actually, it has only the "V" part. 
    If you want a more demanding dynamic website, consider using an appropriate tool, 
    <a href="http://symfony.com/">Symfony</a> for example.
</p>

<h2> How to use it ?</h2>

<p>
    The file sample-website.tar.xz provides a basic but full website example. 
    Alternatively, here are some details about sview usage.
</p>

<h2>0. Installation</h2>

<p>
    In the following, I assume your website is located under http\[s\]://domain/topic/ 
    and is named "website" (adapt to your case). For example, in https://github.com/blog/ 
    domain = github.com and topic = blog.
</p>

<p>
Get the source code either with <code>git clone</code> command or using a zip archive. 
    Copy all folder contents in the website/ folder : 
</p>
<pre>website/
    a/
    f/
    site/
    .htaccess
    common.php
    defaults.php
    index.php
    s.php</pre>
<ul>
    <li><b>a/</b> (for "assets") is the folder for CSS files, images and javascript codes. 
        I like to put them respectively in css/, img/ and js/ folders, but the choice is yours.</li>
    <li><b>f/</b> (for "files") is the folder for any downloadable (or browsable) file you may upload.</li>
    <li><b>site/</b> is the main folder containing all your website pages. Three are already there :
    <ul>
        <li><i>404.php</i> : the 404 error page;</li>
        <li><i>dl.php</i> : a script to download binary files;</li>
        <li><i>home.php</i> : the specifications for the welcome page.</li>
    </ul></li>
    <li><b>.htaccess</b> : its main job consists in routing everything that is not a resource 
        to the index.php file.</li>
    <li><b>common.php</b> contains shared variables and functions to be used by at least two different pages.</li>
    <li><b>defaults.php</b> defines default variables for any web page, like the title or javascripts block.</li>
    <li><b>index.php</b> contains your website template, which is rendered for any web page 
        (and filled with specific values defined in pages under site/ folder; anything can be customized).</li>
    <li><b>s.php</b> consists in the framework code, loaded at the beginning of index.php.</li>
</ul>

<p>
    Now (online), in the .htaccess file, change the line <code>RewriteBase /</code> to <code>RewriteBase /topic</code>.
</p>

<h2>1. Set default contents</h2>

<span>Edit the file defaults.php with</span>
<ul>
    <li>A global title to your website; this title can later be mixed with a more specific 
        page-based title, or be replaced.</li>
    <li>A list of references to CSS style sheets and pre-rendering javascript, like 
        <code>&lt;link rel="stylesheet" href="http://cran.r-project.org/R.css"/&gt;</code>. 
        We will see later how to refer to local style sheets (under a/css).</li>
    <li>Some javascript code which will be loaded by default after every page loads
        (e.g. <a href="http://jquery.com/">jquery</a>).</li>
</ul>

<p>
    Each variable name is prepended with "b_" to avoid potential conflicts with your own variables.
</p>

<h2>2. Complete main pages</h2>

<h3>index.php</h3>

<span>Complete</span>
<ul>
    <li>The menu (at commented location)</li>
    <li>The banner (near the menu, if you want one)</li>
    <li>The footer (if you don't want one, just drop it).</li>
</ul>

<p>
    You can also change the &lt;meta&gt; tags if needed.
</p>

<h3>site/home.php</h3>

<p>
    The welcome page. You can choose a title ($s_title) or use the default one 
    (by not specifying anything). Style sheets and javascripts can be customized, ...etc. 
    Any default variable can be used to define a specific variable (prepended with "s_"). 
</p>

<h3>site/404.php</h3>

<p>
    Customize it; it is probably viewed more often than you think ;-)
</p>

<h2>3. Write all other pages</h2>

<p>
    All pages are under site/ folder, and you can nest them in any directory tree.
</p>

<p>
    <b>Hint</b> : if you don't want to load the main template, just end any site file 
    with a PHP <code>exit</code> directive.
</p>

<p>
    Now we will see how to access pages and resources (images, CSS, files, javascript).
</p>

<hr/>

<h2>How to view a web page ?</h2>

<p>
    The page at physical location site/some_folder/mypage.php is viewed in the web browser at the URL 
    http\[s\]://domain/topic/website/some_folder/mypage (thanks to URL rewriting defined in 
    the .htaccess file). 
</p>

<p>
    Any page can be linked internally using the <code>r()</code> PHP function ('r' for "resource"), like in 
    the following : <code>&lt;a href="&lt;?php echo r('some_folder/mypage'); ?&gt;"&gt;</code>. This function determines 
    the nesting level and output the appropriate path.
</p>

<h2>How to access...</h2>

<p>
    <i>A CSS style sheet</i> : its path is given by the following PHP function call 
    <code>r('a/css/name_of_the_file.css')</code> from within any site file (assuming you place all CSS files 
    under a/css/. They may be inside a nested folder structure).
</p>

<p>
    <i>An image</i> : same as above, with <code>r('a/img/name_of_the_image.xxx')</code>.
</p>

<p>
    <i>A javascript file</i> : same as above, with <code>r('a/js/name_of_the_file.js')</code>.
</p>

<h2>How to give a download link ?</h2>

<p>
    Just use a regular link pointing to <code>r('dl/?f=name_of_the_file.xxx')</code>, anywhere you want.
</p>

<hr/>

<h2>Usual workflow</h2>

<p>
    Just add pages under site/ folder, and potential resources and files under a/ and f/. 
    All other files will not change a lot.
</p>