Lay - A Lite PHP Meta-Framework for Rapid Development
Lay is a modern, lightweight PHP meta-framework designed to get your projects up and running quickly. Built with developer experience in mind, it provides a clean architecture with powerful features while maintaining simplicity.
- 🚀 Rapid Development - Get started in minutes with sensible defaults
- 🏗️ Domain-Driven Architecture - Organize your application by domains/modules
- 🔌 Built-in API Support - RESTful APIs with automatic routing and rate limiting
- 📱 Modern Frontend Integration - Built-in JavaScript utilities and asset management
- 🗄️ Database Agnostic - Support for MySQL, PostgreSQL, and SQLite
- 🔒 Security First - CORS, CSRF protection, and secure session management
- ⚡ Performance Optimized - Asset compression, caching, and production optimizations
- 🎨 Flexible View System - Clean templating with PHP or integrate your favorite frontend
Create a new Lay project using Composer:
composer create-project pillardash/lay my-awesome-project
cd my-awesome-project- Copy the environment file and configure your settings:
cp .env.example .env- Edit
.envto match your environment:
# Set your environment
APP_ENV=DEVELOPMENT
# Database configuration (optional)
DB_DRIVER=mysql
DB_HOST=127.0.0.1
DB_USERNAME=root
DB_PASSWORD=your_password
DB_NAME=your_database# Using PHP built-in server
php -S localhost:8000
# Or using your preferred local server (Apache, Nginx, etc.)Visit http://localhost:8000 and you'll see your Lay application running! 🎉
my-project/
├── bricks/ # Business logic layer
│ └── Business/
│ ├── Api/ # API hooks and logic
│ ├── Controller/ # Application controllers
│ ├── Model/ # Data models
│ ├── Request/ # Request validation classes
│ └── Resource/ # API resource transformers
├── utils/ # Utility classes and helpers
├── web/ # Web layer
│ ├── domains/ # Domain-specific code
│ │ ├── Api/ # API domain
│ │ │ ├── Plaster.php # API configuration and hooks
│ │ │ └── index.php # API entry point
│ │ └── Default/ # Default web domain (template for all regular domains)
│ │ ├── Plaster.php # Domain routes and page configuration
│ │ ├── foundation.php # Domain-specific setup
│ │ ├── layout/ # HTML layout components
│ │ │ ├── head.inc # <head> section (meta, CSS, etc.)
│ │ │ ├── body.inc # Main body wrapper
│ │ │ └── script.inc # JavaScript includes
│ │ ├── plaster/ # View templates
│ │ │ ├── homepage.view # Homepage template
│ │ │ └── another.view # Example page template
│ │ └── public/ # Domain-specific public assets
│ │ ├── index.php # Domain entry point
│ │ ├── favicon.ico # Domain favicon
│ │ └── static/ # Static assets (CSS, JS, images)
│ │ └── dev/ # Development assets
│ │ ├── css/ # Stylesheets
│ │ ├── js/ # JavaScript files
│ │ ├── images/ # Images
│ │ └── ui/ # UI components
│ └── shared/ # Shared assets and resources
├── foundation.php # Application bootstrap
├── index.php # Application entry point
└── bob.config.json # Build and deployment configuration
Lay organizes applications into domains - self-contained modules that handle specific parts of your application:
Domain::new()->create(
id: "api-endpoint",
builder: \Web\Api\Plaster::class,
pattern: "api",
type: DomainType::SPECIAL,
);
Domain::new()->create(
id: "default",
builder: \Web\Default\Plaster::class,
pattern: "*",
type: DomainType::REGULAR,
);Each regular domain follows a standard structure (using Default as an example):
web/domains/Default/
├── Plaster.php # Main domain controller - defines routes and pages
├── foundation.php # Domain-specific configuration and setup
├── layout/ # HTML layout components
│ ├── head.inc # <head> section - meta tags, CSS includes
│ ├── body.inc # Main body wrapper and footer
│ └── script.inc # JavaScript includes and initialization
├── plaster/ # View templates (your actual page content)
│ ├── homepage.view # Homepage template
│ └── another.view # Additional page templates
└── public/ # Domain-specific public assets
├── index.php # Domain entry point for direct access
├── favicon.ico # Domain-specific favicon
└── static/ # Static assets organized by environment
└── dev/ # Development assets
├── css/ # Domain stylesheets
├── js/ # Domain JavaScript
├── images/ # Domain images
└── ui/ # UI components and assets
Key Files Explained:
Plaster.php- Your domain's main controller where you define routes and configure pageslayout/*.inc- Reusable HTML components that wrap your contentplaster/*.view- Your actual page templates with contentpublic/static/- All your CSS, JavaScript, images, and other assets
Controllers handle your application logic using traits for common functionality:
class NewsletterSubController
{
use IsSingleton, ControllerHelper;
public function add(): array
{
$request = new SubNewsletterRequest();
if ($request->error)
return self::res_warning($request->error);
// Your logic here...
return self::res_success("Success message");
}
}Models extend BaseModelHelper for database operations:
class NewsletterSub extends BaseModelHelper
{
public static string $table = "newsletter_subs";
protected function cast_schema(): void
{
$this->cast("options", "array");
}
}Define your API endpoints using the hook system:
class Hook extends ApiHooks
{
protected function hooks(): void
{
$this
->post("subscribe-newsletter")->bind(fn() => NewsletterSubController::new()->add())
->get("list-subscribers/{page}")->bind(fn($page) => NewsletterSubController::new()->list((int) $page));
}
}Create request classes for automatic validation:
class SubNewsletterRequest extends RequestHelper
{
protected function rules(): void
{
$this->vcm(['field' => 'name', 'required' => false ]);
$this->vcm(['field' => 'email', 'is_email' => true ]);
}
}Lay includes a minimal but powerful JavaScript library for frontend interactions:
// Built-in DOM utilities
$id('my-element').innerHTML = 'Hello World';
$sel('.my-class').$class('add', 'active');
// AJAX made simple
$ajax($lay.src.api + 'subscribe-newsletter', {
method: 'POST',
data: { email: '[email protected]' },
}).then(response => {
console.log('Success!', response);
osNote("Success", "success")
});Lay can startup without connecting to the database by default, but if you want that, you can use the ->connect_db() method in your foundation.php:
Startup::new()
->name($site_name, "$site_name | Slogan Goes Here")
->connect_db()
->set_globals([
"desc" => "Your project description"
]);Lay includes production optimizations:
- Asset Compression - Automatic JS/CSS minification
- HTML Compression - Reduced payload sizes
- Caching - Domain and asset caching
- Security Headers - Production-ready security configuration
Configure in your .env:
APP_ENV=PRODUCTION
COMPRESS_HTML=true
COMPRESS_ASSETS=true
CACHE_DOMAINS=true- Official Documentation: https://lay.pillardash.com (Coming Soon)
- Example Applications: Check the
web/domains/Defaultfolder for examples - Community: Join our discussions and get help from the community
We welcome contributions! Please feel free to submit issues, feature requests, or pull requests.
Lay is open-source software licensed under the MIT License.
Ready to build something amazing? 🚀
composer create-project pillardash/lay my-next-project