Useful Helpers

PHPLucidFrame provides some useful helper functions.

_app($name, $value = null)

Get/Set a global variable/object.

Parameters:

Name	Type	Description
`$name`	string	The name of the variable/object
`$value`	mixed	(Optional) The value or the variable or object

When the second parameter is ommited, it is a getter function, otherwise it is a setting function.

Return Values:

The value stored globally

Getter Usage	Description
`_app('db')`	To get the globally connected database object
`_app('view')`	To get the global View object
`_app('auth')`	To get the global authentication object
`_app('title')`	To get the current page title

Setter Usage	Description
`_app('db', new \LucidFrame\Core\Database($namespace));`	To create a new global database object (it is rarely used)
`_app('view', new \LucidFrame\Core\View())`	To set a new View object (it is rarely used)
`_app('auth', $auth)`	To set/update the authentication object globally
`_app('title', 'Home')`	To set the current page title

_cfg($key, $value = ‘’)

Get/Set a config variable

Parameters:

Name	Type	Description
`$key`	string	The config variable name without prefix
`$value`	mixed	(Optional) The value to set to the config variable; if it is omitted, it is Getter method.

When the second parameter is ommited, it is a getter function, otherwise it is a setting function.

Return Values:

The value of the config variable

_cfgOption($name, $key)

Get the value of the array config variable by its key

Parameters:

Name	Type	Description
`$name`	string	The config array variable name without prefix
`$key`	string	The key of the config array of which value to be retrieved

Return Values:

The value of a single column of the config array variable

_env($name, $default = ‘’)

Get the parameter value by name defined in /inc/parameter/parameter.env.inc

Parameters:

Name	Type	Description
`$name`	string	The parameter name in dot annotation format such as `prod.db.default.database`
`$default`	mixed	The default value if the parameter name doesn’t exist

Return Values:

The value defined in /inc/parameter/parameter.env.inc

_p($name = ‘env’)

Get the parameter value by name defined in /inc/parameter/(development|production|staging|test).php

Parameters:

Name	Type	Description
`$name`	string	The parameter name defined as key in `/inc/parameter/(development\|production\|staging\|test).php`. The file development, production, staging or test will be determined according to the value from `.lcenv`. If `$name` is `env` (by default), it returns the current environment setting from `.lcenv`.

You can use dot notation format for the name parameter such as db.default.database for multi-level array keys.

Return Values:

The value defined /inc/parameter/(development|production|staging|test).php

_baseUrlWithProtocol()

Get site base URL with protocol according to the config

_arg($index = null, $path = null)

Return a component of the current path. When viewing a page http://www.example.com/foo/bar and its path would be “foo/bar”, for example, _arg(0) returns “foo” and _arg(1) returns “bar”

Parameters:

Name	Type	Description
`$index`	mixed	The index of the component, where each component is separated by a ‘/’ (forward-slash), and where the first component has an index of 0 (zero).
`$path`	string	A path to break into components. Defaults to the path of the current page.

Return Values:

The component specified by $index, or null if the specified component was not found. If called without arguments, it returns an array containing all the components of the current path.

_entity($table, $dbNamespace = null)

Get default entity object from the schema

Parameters:

Name	Type	Description
`$table`	string	The mapped table name without prefix
`$dbNamespace`	string\|null	The current db namespace

Return Values:

The empty stdClass object with field names as properties

_addJsVar($name, $value = ‘’)

Passing values from PHP to Javascript making available to LC.vars

Parameters:

Name	Type	Description
`$name`	string	The JS variable name that will be available to `LC.vars`, e.g., if $name is ‘foo’, it will be available as `LC.vars.foo` in JS.
`$value`	mixed	The value for the JS variable

_addHeadStyle($file)

Add CSS file to be included in head section

Parameters:

Name	Type	Description
`$file`	string	An absolute file path or file name only. The file name only will be prepended the folder name `css/` and it will be looked in every sub-sites `css` folder

_addHeadScript($file)

Add JS file to be included in head section

Parameters:

Name	Type	Description
`$file`	string	An absolute file path or file name only. The file name only will be prepended the folder name `js/` and it will be looked in every sub-sites `js` folder

_json(array $data, $status = 200, $return = false)

Header sent as content type application/json

Parameters:

Name	Type	Description
`$data`	array	Array of data to be encoded as JSON
`$status`	int	HTTP status code, default to 200
`$return`	boolean	Return json data or not

_requestHeader($name)

Get a HTTP request header by name

Parameters:

Name	Type	Description
`$name`	string	The HTTP header name

For example, to get the value from HTTP Authorization in header:

$authorization = _requestHeader('Authorization');

Return Values:

The HTTP header value from the request

_r()

Get the current routing path, for example,

Note

example.com/foo/bar would return foo/bar
example.com/en/foo/bar would also return foo/bar
example.com/1/this-is-slug (if accomplished by RewriteRule) would return the underlying physical path

Return Values:

The route path starting from the site root

_rr()

The more realistic function to get the current routing path on the address bar regardless of RewriteRule behind, for example,

Note

example.com/foo/bar would return foo/bar
example.com/en/foo/bar would also return foo/bar
example.com/foo/bar?id=1 would also return foo/bar
example.com/1/this-is-slug would return 1/this-is-slug

Return Values:

The route path starting from the site root

_url($path = null, $queryStr = array(), $lang = ‘’)

Get the absolute URL path

Parameters:

Name	Type	Description
`$path`	string	Routing path such as “foo/bar”; null for the current path
`$queryStr`	array	Query string as key/value array
`$lang`	string	Language code to be prepended to $path such as “en/foo/bar”. It will be useful for site language switch redirect.

Return Values:

The absolute URL path

_redirect($path = null, $queryStr = array(), $lang = ‘’, $status = null)

Header redirect to a specific location

Parameters:

Name	Type	Description
`$path`	string	Routing path such as “foo/bar”; null for the current path
`$queryStr`	array	Query string as key/value array
`$lang`	string	Language code to be prepended to $path such as “en/foo/bar”. It will be useful for site language switch redirect.
`$status`	int	The HTTP status code

_page404()

Redirect to 404 page

_shorten($str, $length = 50, $trail = ‘…’)

Shorten a string for the given length

Parameters:

Name	Type	Description
`$str`	string	A plain text string to be shortened
`$length`	int	The character count. Default is 50.
`$trail`	string	To append `...` or not. `null` to not show

Return Values:

The shorten text string

_fdate($date = ‘’, $format = ‘’)

Format a date

Parameters:

Name	Type	Description
`$date`	string\|int	A date string or seconds to be formatted
`$format`	string	The date format; The config variable will be used if it is not passed

When both parameters is not provided, the current formatted date will be returned.

Return Values:

The formatted date

_fdatetime($dateTime = ‘’, $format = ‘’)

Format a date/time

Parameters:

Name	Type	Description
`$dateTime`	string\|int	A date/time string or seconds to be formatted
`$format`	string	The date/time format; The config variable will be used if it is not passed

When both parameters is not provided, the current formatted date/time will be returned.

Return Values:

The formatted date/time

_randomCode($length = 5, $letters = array(), $prefix = ‘’)

Generate a random string from the given array of letters.

Parameters:

Name	Type	Description
`$length`	int	The length of required random string
`$letters`	array	Array of letters from which randomized string is derived from. Default is a to z and 0 to 9.
`$prefix`	string	Prefix to the generated string

Return Values:

The random string of required length

_slug($string, $table = ‘’, array $condition = array())

Generate a slug of human-readable keywords

Parameters:

Name	Type	Description
`$string`	string	Text to slug
`$table`	string	Table name to check in. If it is empty, no check in the table
`$condition`	array	Condition to append table check-in, e.g, `array('fieldName !=' => value)`

Return Values:

The generated slug

_isHttpPost()

Check if HTTP request method is POST and has request data

Return Values:

TRUE if HTTP request method is POST and it has request data, otherwise FALSE

Note

See more helper functions at http://www.phplucidframe.com/api-doc/latest/