Application¶
An application is a software program designed to perform specific tasks for end users. PHP applications can take many forms: web applications served over HTTP, command-line tools, background daemons, REST APIs, batch-processing scripts, etc.
PHP applications are typically structured around a framework or architecture pattern, like MVC, ADR, hexagonal architecture, etc. and a dependency-injection container. The entry point is usually a single index.php for web apps, or a CLI script invoked via the shell.
PHP applications excel at connecting to various sources of informations, to collect, process and store data.
<?php
declare(strict_types=1);
// Bootstrap the application
require __DIR__ . '/vendor/autoload.php';
// Route incoming HTTP request
$uri = parse_url($_SERVER['REQUEST_URI'] ?? '/', PHP_URL_PATH);
$method = $_SERVER['REQUEST_METHOD'] ?? 'GET';
$router = new Router();
$router->get('/', [HomeController::class, 'index']);
$router->get('/about', [AboutController::class, 'index']);
$response = $router->dispatch($method, $uri);
$response->send();
?>
See also PHP: Namespaces and autoloading, PHP-FIG: PSR standards and The Twelve-Factor App.
Related : Terminal User Interface (TUI), Command Line Interface (CLI), Desktop Application, Mobile Application, Web Application, Model - View - Controller (MVC), Architectural Decision Record (ADR), REST API, Application Programming Interface (API), GraphQL, gRPC (Google Remote Procedure Call), Software-as-a-Service (SAAS), PaaS, IaaS, Microservice, Monolith, Single Page Application (SPA), Content Management System (CMS), NativePHP, Hexagonal Architecture, Clean Architecture
