Quick Start

This guide will walk you through creating your first PivotPHP application. We’ll build a simple REST API for managing tasks.

ℹ️ Development Status
PivotPHP is ideal for local development and API concept validation. The framework is under active development with new features being added regularly.

Step 1: Create Your Application

First, create a new file public/index.php:

<?php
require __DIR__ . '/../vendor/autoload.php';

use PivotPHP\Core\Core\Application;

// Create the application instance
$app = new Application();

// Define your first route
$app->get('/', function($request, $response) {
    return $response->json([
        'message' => 'Welcome to PivotPHP!',
        'timestamp' => time()
    ]);
});

// Run the application
$app->run();

Step 2: Start the Development Server

Run the built-in PHP development server:

php -S localhost:8000 -t public

Visit http://localhost:8000 in your browser. You should see a JSON response.

Step 3: Add More Routes

Let’s create a simple task management API:

// In-memory task storage (for demo purposes)
$tasks = [];

// List all tasks
$app->get('/tasks', function($req, $res) use (&$tasks) {
    return $res->json($tasks);
});

// Get a specific task
$app->get('/tasks/{id}', function($req, $res) use (&$tasks) {
    $id = $req->param('id');

    if (!isset($tasks[$id])) {
        return $res->status(404)->json([
            'error' => 'Task not found'
        ]);
    }

    return $res->json($tasks[$id]);
});

// Create a new task
$app->post('/tasks', function($req, $res) use (&$tasks) {
    $data = $req->body();

    // Simple validation
    if (empty($data['title'])) {
        return $res->status(400)->json([
            'error' => 'Title is required'
        ]);
    }

    $id = uniqid();
    $task = [
        'id' => $id,
        'title' => $data['title'],
        'completed' => false,
        'created_at' => date('Y-m-d H:i:s')
    ];

    $tasks[$id] = $task;

    return $res->status(201)->json($task);
});

// Update a task
$app->put('/tasks/{id}', function($req, $res) use (&$tasks) {
    $id = $req->param('id');

    if (!isset($tasks[$id])) {
        return $res->status(404)->json([
            'error' => 'Task not found'
        ]);
    }

    $data = $req->body();
    $tasks[$id] = array_merge($tasks[$id], $data);

    return $res->json($tasks[$id]);
});

// Delete a task
$app->delete('/tasks/{id}', function($req, $res) use (&$tasks) {
    $id = $req->param('id');

    if (!isset($tasks[$id])) {
        return $res->status(404)->json([
            'error' => 'Task not found'
        ]);
    }

    unset($tasks[$id]);

    return $res->status(204)->send();
});

Step 4: Add Middleware

Let’s add some middleware for logging and CORS:

// Logging middleware
$app->middleware(function($req, $handler) {
    $start = microtime(true);

    // Process the request
    $response = $handler->handle($req);

    // Log the request
    $duration = round((microtime(true) - $start) * 1000, 2);
    error_log(sprintf(
        "%s %s - %dms",
        $req->getMethod(),
        $req->getUri()->getPath(),
        $duration
    ));

    return $response;
});

// CORS middleware
$app->middleware(function($req, $handler) {
    $response = $handler->handle($req);

    return $response
        ->withHeader('Access-Control-Allow-Origin', '*')
        ->withHeader('Access-Control-Allow-Methods', 'GET, POST, PUT, DELETE, OPTIONS')
        ->withHeader('Access-Control-Allow-Headers', 'Content-Type');
});

Step 5: Test Your API

You can test your API using curl or any HTTP client:

# Create a task
curl -X POST http://localhost:8000/tasks \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"title": "Learn PivotPHP"}'

# List all tasks
curl http://localhost:8000/tasks

# Update a task
curl -X PUT http://localhost:8000/tasks/{id} \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"completed": true}'

# Delete a task
curl -X DELETE http://localhost:8000/tasks/{id}

Complete Example

Here’s the complete code for reference:

<?php
require __DIR__ . '/../vendor/autoload.php';

use PivotPHP\Core\Core\Application;

$app = new Application();

// Middleware
$app->middleware(function($req, $handler) {
    $start = microtime(true);
    $response = $handler->handle($req);
    $duration = round((microtime(true) - $start) * 1000, 2);
    error_log(sprintf("%s %s - %dms", $req->getMethod(), $req->getUri()->getPath(), $duration));
    return $response;
});

$app->middleware(function($req, $handler) {
    $response = $handler->handle($req);
    return $response
        ->withHeader('Access-Control-Allow-Origin', '*')
        ->withHeader('Access-Control-Allow-Methods', 'GET, POST, PUT, DELETE, OPTIONS')
        ->withHeader('Access-Control-Allow-Headers', 'Content-Type');
});

// Routes
$tasks = [];

$app->get('/', function($req, $res) {
    return $res->json(['message' => 'Task API', 'version' => '1.0']);
});

$app->get('/tasks', function($req, $res) use (&$tasks) {
    return $res->json(array_values($tasks));
});

$app->get('/tasks/{id}', function($req, $res) use (&$tasks) {
    $id = $req->param('id');
    if (!isset($tasks[$id])) {
        return $res->status(404)->json(['error' => 'Task not found']);
    }
    return $res->json($tasks[$id]);
});

$app->post('/tasks', function($req, $res) use (&$tasks) {
    $data = $req->body();
    if (empty($data['title'])) {
        return $res->status(400)->json(['error' => 'Title is required']);
    }

    $id = uniqid();
    $task = [
        'id' => $id,
        'title' => $data['title'],
        'completed' => false,
        'created_at' => date('Y-m-d H:i:s')
    ];

    $tasks[$id] = $task;
    return $res->status(201)->json($task);
});

$app->put('/tasks/{id}', function($req, $res) use (&$tasks) {
    $id = $req->param('id');
    if (!isset($tasks[$id])) {
        return $res->status(404)->json(['error' => 'Task not found']);
    }

    $tasks[$id] = array_merge($tasks[$id], $req->body());
    return $res->json($tasks[$id]);
});

$app->delete('/tasks/{id}', function($req, $res) use (&$tasks) {
    $id = $req->param('id');
    if (!isset($tasks[$id])) {
        return $res->status(404)->json(['error' => 'Task not found']);
    }

    unset($tasks[$id]);
    return $res->status(204)->send();
});

$app->run();

What’s Next?

Congratulations! You’ve built your first PivotPHP application. To learn more:

Requests & Responses →