PHP Object Framework (PHPOF)

Welcome to the homepage for Tim Jackson's PHP Object Framework project (PHPOF)

What is PHPOF?

PHPOF is a framework designed to assist in developing object-oriented PHP applications. PHPOF is built on real-world experience of developing Web-based applications and attempts to provide a basic framework of useful classes for Web application developers to deploy. The overall aim of this project is to allow the rapid development and deployment of stable, easy-to-maintain applications in PHP, using centralised classes to minimise code repetition and abstract code away from the front-line implementation.

In summary, PHPOF:

• is primarily an object-oriented database access/abstraction layer with many useful functions including automatic table detection, which saves you having to write basic SQL queries for each table, and tracks changes to tables
• also includes many useful "utility"/"toolkit" classes/functions
• is aimed primarily at Web application development
• is pluggable and database-independent
• has a complete, fully working plugin for MySQL and a mostly-complete one for PostgreSQL
• has elegant and efficient binary (BLOB) handling including functions to handle file uploads conveniently (including checking filetypes, checking image sizes where relevant etc.), abstracted cleanly and consistently across different databases
• includes robust and meaningful error handling
• is elegant and easy-to-use
• is well-tested; has been in development for well over a year and production use for much of that
• helps build secure Web applications, helping to build protection against the virtually standard CSS and CSRF vulnerabilities introduced unwittingly by 99.99999999% of PHP programmers
• has integrated audit logging capabilities
• is Free Software, licensed under the GNU LGPL
• above all, WORKS, and works for real now. Thieving GNU's description of GNU Hurd: [it] is real software that works Right Now. It is not a research project or a proposal. You don't have to wait at all before you can start using and developing it.

What's the current status of PHPOF?

PHPOF is currently at a late beta stage of development. The interfaces to the core classes are pretty much stable, and PHPOF has undergone significant 'real-world' testing. However, there is much still to do, especially in documentation terms.
UPDATE 2004-02-26: PHPOF is very much alive, and being used in many real-world systems. A new snapshot has been released - see the download page. Unfortunately, I haven't yet got round to sorting out this website and documentation properly, but will do as soon as possible. Furthermore, plans are in the pipeline for PHPOF v2 for PHP5.x which will take full advantage of all the (much improved) object-oriented facilities available in PHP5.

What does it require?

PHPOF requires you to have PHP4 set up and working. It's tested with PHP 4.2.3 and 4.3.0 but will probably work with earlier versions, although I recommend you always use the latest stable version of PHP. The security features offered by the XVar class will definitely not work with PHP < 4.1.0.

The database functionality within PHPOF requires you to have compiled PHP with support for your database. PHPOF is a modular system, pluggable so that interface units can be created for a number of different database systems. Currently, it has support for MySQL and PostgreSQL.

How do I get it?

Click here to visit the download page.

How is it licensed?

PHPOF is released under the Lesser GNU Public License (LGPL) and you may use and distribute PHPOF consistent with the terms of that licence.

How do I get help with using PHPOF?

• Read the online manual
• E-mail Tim

How can I help?

Have a look at PHPOF. Try it out. See if it's useful for you. As you do, I'm sure you'll discover limitations or spot bugs. If you fix them,send patches to me at tim@timj.co.uk and I'll try to incorporate them in later versions. Use the same address if you have any comments/suggestions/etc. for PHPOF.