The Trongate PHP Framework

Documentation

Introduction

Quick Start

Basic Concepts

Understanding Routing

Controllers

Views

Assets

Modules Calling Modules

Parent & Child Modules

Database Operations

Modules within Modules

Templates & Themes

Helpers Explained

Form Handling

Working with Files

The Module Import Wizard

Authorization & Authentication

The API Explorer

Best Practices

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The Trongate PHP Framework

Quick Start

Installing Trongate Using GitHub

The Trongate PHP framework is available from GitHub at the following URL:

https://github.com/trongate/trongate-framework.

However, the fastest and easiest way to obtain Trongate is by using the Trongate Desktop App. This Electron-based application, built with Node.js, is completely free and always will be. It is available for Mac, Windows, and Linux and can be downloaded from:

https://trongate.io/download.

Why Use the Trongate Desktop App?

The Trongate Desktop App provides several benefits, including:

Automatic framework downloads and setup
Automatic updates when new features are released
Automatic code generation
Built-in database management
A graphical query builder

...and much more!

Installing Without the Desktop App

For those who prefer not to use the Desktop App, Trongate can still be installed manually.

Configuring the Main Settings File

To begin, the primary configuration file, config.php, must be set up correctly. This file is located at:

The contents of config.php are as follows:

The most critical setting at this stage is the BASE_URL constant.

What is a Base URL?

The Base URL (BASE_URL) represents the root address of a website. For example, if the site is hosted at http://www.example.com/, the BASE_URL should be set as follows:

Always make sure the value that is assigned to BASE_URL ends with a forwardslash.

Ensuring that the base URL is correctly defined is essential for loading assets such as images and stylesheets and for proper navigation throughout the application.

After setting the BASE_URL, save the config.php file.

Note: All constants defined in the config directory can be accessed from both controller and view files. For example, the following code outputs the application's base URL:

Setting Up the Database

Users installing Trongate manually must create and configure a database.

Step 1: The Database Configuration File

Once a database has been created (using a database management tool such as PHPMyAdmin), the database configuration file (database.php) must be updated. This file is located at:

The setup.sql file can be imported into the database management software to create the required tables. Alternatively, the SQL statements from setup.sql can be executed manually.

The content of setup.sql is as follows:

SET SQL_MODE = "NO_AUTO_VALUE_ON_ZERO"; START TRANSACTION; CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS `trongate_administrators` ( `id` int(11) NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT, `username` varchar(65) DEFAULT NULL, `password` varchar(60) DEFAULT NULL, `trongate_user_id` int(11) DEFAULT NULL, PRIMARY KEY (`id`) ) ENGINE=InnoDB DEFAULT CHARSET=utf8mb4; INSERT INTO `trongate_administrators` (`id`, `username`, `password`, `trongate_user_id`) VALUES (1, 'admin', '$2y$11$SoHZDvbfLSRHAi3WiKIBiu.tAoi/GCBBO4HRxVX1I3qQkq3wCWfXi', 1); CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS `trongate_comments` ( `id` int(11) NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT, `comment` text DEFAULT NULL, `date_created` int(11) DEFAULT 0, `user_id` int(11) DEFAULT NULL, `target_table` varchar(125) DEFAULT NULL, `update_id` int(11) DEFAULT NULL, `code` varchar(6) DEFAULT NULL, PRIMARY KEY (`id`) ) ENGINE=InnoDB DEFAULT CHARSET=utf8mb4; CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS `trongate_pages` ( `id` int(11) NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT, `url_string` varchar(255) DEFAULT NULL, `page_title` varchar(255) DEFAULT NULL, `meta_keywords` text DEFAULT NULL, `meta_description` text DEFAULT NULL, `page_body` text DEFAULT NULL, `date_created` int(11) DEFAULT NULL, `last_updated` int(11) DEFAULT NULL, `published` tinyint(1) DEFAULT NULL, `created_by` int(11) DEFAULT NULL, PRIMARY KEY (`id`) ) ENGINE=InnoDB DEFAULT CHARSET=utf8mb4; INSERT INTO `trongate_pages` (`id`, `url_string`, `page_title`, `meta_keywords`, `meta_description`, `page_body`, `date_created`, `last_updated`, `published`, `created_by`) VALUES (1, 'homepage', 'Homepage', '', '', '

It Totally Works!

\n Congratulations! You have successfully installed Trongate. This is your homepage. Trongate was built with a focus on lightning-fast performance, while minimizing dependencies on third-party libraries. By adopting this approach, Trongate delivers not only exceptional speed but also rock-solid stability.\n

\n You can change this page and start adding new content through the admin panel.\n

Getting Started

\n To get started, log into the admin panel. From the admin panel, you\'ll be able to easily edit this page or create entirely new pages. The default login credentials for the admin panel are as follows:\n

Username: admin
Password: admin

\n \n \n

About Trongate

\n Trongate is an open source project, written in PHP. The GitHub repository for Trongate is here. Contributions are welcome! If you\'re interested in learning how to build custom web applications with Trongate, a good place to start is The Learning Zone. The URL for the Learning Zone is: https://trongate.io/learning-zone. If you enjoy working with Trongate, all we ask is that you give Trongate a star on GitHub. It really helps!\n

\n Finally, if you run into any issues or you require technical assistance, please do visit our free Help Bar, which is at: https://trongate.io/help_bar.\n

', 1723807486, 0, 1, 1); CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS `trongate_tokens` ( `id` int(11) NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT, `token` varchar(125) DEFAULT NULL, `user_id` int(11) DEFAULT 0, `expiry_date` int(11) DEFAULT NULL, `code` varchar(3) DEFAULT '0', PRIMARY KEY (`id`) ) ENGINE=InnoDB DEFAULT CHARSET=utf8mb4; CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS `trongate_users` ( `id` int(11) NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT, `code` varchar(32) DEFAULT NULL, `user_level_id` int(11) DEFAULT 0, PRIMARY KEY (`id`) ) ENGINE=InnoDB DEFAULT CHARSET=utf8mb4; INSERT INTO `trongate_users` (`id`, `code`, `user_level_id`) VALUES (1, 'Tz8tehsWsTPUHEtzfbYjXzaKNqLmfAUz', 1); CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS `trongate_user_levels` ( `id` int(11) NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT, `level_title` varchar(125) DEFAULT '', PRIMARY KEY (`id`) ) ENGINE=InnoDB DEFAULT CHARSET=utf8mb4; INSERT INTO `trongate_user_levels` (`id`, `level_title`) VALUES (1, 'admin'); COMMIT;

This code should be executed, either by importing setup.sql or by copying and pasting the code above from within your database management software.

Once the database setup is complete, delete the setup.sql file to enhance security.