F3 Caveats

F3, https://fatfreeframework.com/, is a 'new style' (central router based) php web framework that is lightweight with just enough batteries included. It is similar in scope to Silex. I chose it because its architecture allows me to build from one page to model-view-controller webapps. It also has a nice Sinatra style convenience methods api and a TAL based templating language. I will use composer, php’s package mangager - https://getcomposer.org/, to add appropriate libraries.

Now, having said all that it’s documentation is pretty good. However, there are still parts that would need more clarifying for me. This page is a log of those parts and hopefully, how I solved the caveat. The content is in reverse chronological order.

Caveats

How does f3 handle folder and path name conflicts?

  • I created a get route and folder with the same name and tested using php’s built in webserver

  • I got an error message

  • when I changed the route name, the page displayed.

How do you save variables across sessions using f3’s dependency container?

  • hypothesis:

    • I think the examples are incorrect and you need to pass the app instance using a closure syntax

    • I think this might have affected my testing of its built in login prompt and ldap error handling

  • resolution:

    • you can’t save variables across sessions using f3’s dependency container

    • setting a variable in f3 will allow the variable to be accessed, as if they were called globally, within inner functions for that script

    • as the docs state, the variables will not persist across http requests

    • to persist variables across http requests, you must use 'session_start()' and save the value in the SESSION superglobal, either through f3 or php

    • using an anonymous function or closure gives the same results

    • if you pass the f3 instance as a reference to the closure it will WORK!

Built in ldap library does not have the same schema as my organization:

  • also, had to suppress php’s errors using @ldap_bind()

  • php docs, http://php.net/manual/en/function.ldap-bind.php, state ldap_bind returns true or false

  • but for some reason, it generates an error that even bypasses exception catching.

Reminder

How to reload composer.json:

  • go to the same folder as composer.json, then type:

    • composer dump-autoload

  • i.e. after manually adding a file based library, etc.

 — MarlonAGriffith - 10 Aug 2016