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Getting Started

Information

Our platform enhances the robust capabilities of Phalcon PHP, offering a suite of tools to streamline your web development process. For a comprehensive understanding of the foundational features, we recommend familiarizing yourself with the Official Phalcon PHP Documentation.

PHP Version 8.4+

While exploring the Phalcon PHP documentation, keep in mind that some features or examples may differ slightly due to our PHP version requirement. Phalcon Kit is designed to leverage the latest advancements in web technology, which is why we support PHP 8.4 and above. This approach ensures that you have access to the most recent PHP features, enhancing both performance and security.

Install Phalcon Kit

Before beginning, ensure you have PHP and Composer installed on your system, as they are prerequisites for using Phalcon Kit.

Option 1: Creating a New Project with Phalcon Kit

To start a fresh project powered by Phalcon Kit, use the composer create-project command. This approach sets up a new project with all the essential and recommended files, along with default configurations to streamline your setup process. Visit the Phalcon Kit App repository for additional details. Execute the following command in your terminal, replace my-app with your desired project name.

composer create-project phalcon-kit/app my-app
This command creates a new directory with all the necessary Phalcon Kit files.

Option 2: Adding Phalcon Kit to an Existing Project

If you already have a project and wish to incorporate Phalcon Kit, use the composer require command. This command adds Phalcon Kit as a dependency to your existing project. Run the following in your project directory:

composer require phalcon-kit/core

Once installed, you can start using Phalcon Kit classes in your project. Simply include the Composer autoloader, and you're ready to go!

You can initialize your application using the \PhalconKit\Bootstrap class. Below is a minimalist example demonstrating how to set up your application with Phalcon Kit, utilizing the \Phalcon\Autoload\Loader.

./public/index.php
<?php
use Phalcon\Autoload\Loader;
use PhalconKit\Bootstrap;

// Initialize the autoloader
$loader = new Loader();

// Specify the Composer autoload file and your application's namespace
$loader->setFiles(['../vendor/autoload.php']);
$loader->setNamespaces(['App' => '../src/']);

// Register the autoloader
$loader->register();

// Bootstrap and run your Phalcon Kit application
$bootstrap = new Bootstrap();
echo $bootstrap->run();

Configure your application

Phalcon Kit will automatically look for the .env from the root of your project. There you can add your own custom variables for your custom application or set the ones that are natively supported by Phalcon Kit. Below you can see an example to configure your database.

./.env
DATABASE_HOST="localhost"
DATABASE_DBNAME="database"
DATABASE_USERNAME="username"
DATABASE_PASSWORD="password"