VANILLA PHP MVC Blog System

A lightweight, pure PHP MVC blog system for building structured, secure, and scalable web applications without external frameworks.

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🚀 Get Started

1. Clone the repository: git clone https://github.com/NatanR-dev/vanilla-php-mvc.
2. Copy .env.example to .env and update your database credentials.
3. Launch the environment: docker-compose up -d.
4. Visit http://localhost:8080 to access the app.
5. Manage the database via PHPMyAdmin at http://localhost:3006 (set in .env).

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📚 Requirements

• PHP: 8.2 or higher.
• MySQL: 5.7 or higher.
• Apache: With mod_rewrite enabled.
• Docker: Docker and Docker Compose (optional, for development).

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🗄 Database Setup

The project's database was developed to bootstrap a blog system in the easiest and fastest way possible. You'll need to follow this database structure to test it, but feel free to adapt and expand it as needed—this project was designed specifically for such use cases.

Users Table

The users table requires these fields:

• id: INT (Primary Key, Auto Increment)
• full_name: VARCHAR(100)
• username: VARCHAR(50) (Unique)
• email: VARCHAR(100) (Unique)
• password: VARCHAR(255)
• avatar: VARCHAR(255)
• birthday: DATE
• role: ENUM('admin', 'editor', 'author')
• created_at: DATETIME
• updated_at: DATETIME

Posts Table

Set up a posts table with these fields:

• id: INT (Primary Key, Auto Increment)
• title: VARCHAR(255)
• description: TEXT
• content: TEXT
• slug: VARCHAR(255) (Unique)
• author: VARCHAR(50) (Foreign Key referencing users(username))
• images: JSON
• created_at: TIMESTAMP
• updated_at: TIMESTAMP

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Hands on!

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📖 Overview

The Vanilla PHP MVC Blog System is a minimal yet powerful blog platform built from the ground up using pure PHP, following the MVC (Model-View-Controller) pattern. It's designed for developers who want a clean, dependency-free foundation to learn, extend, or deploy real-world applications. This project not only showcases professional-grade PHP development practices but also serves as a valuable resource for the community, making it an excellent addition to your portfolio for technical interviews and recruitment opportunities.

🎯 Why Use This?

• Master MVC architecture in pure PHP.
• Understand routing, controllers, and views without framework magic.
• Build secure, scalable apps with full control.
• Showcase your skills in portfolios or interviews.

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🛠 Core Features

MVC Architecture

• Model: Manages data and logic with PDO-based MySQL integration.
• View: Renders templates with reusable components and layouts.
• Controller: Handles requests and ties everything together.

Routing

• Custom-built router with:
  • Dynamic parameters (e.g., /posts/{id}, /posts/{slug}).
  • Controller-method mapping (Controller@method).
  • Public routes: /, /posts, /posts/{slug}, /login.
  • Private routes: /admin/dashboard, /admin/users (admin-only), /admin/posts (authenticated).
  • 404 handling and URL normalization.

All routes organized by | Path | Method | Desc:

Route	Controller@Method	Description
/	HomeController@index	Displays the homepage
Public Post Routes
/posts	PostController@index	Lists all posts
/posts/{id}	PostController@showById	Shows a post by ID
/posts/{slug}	PostController@showBySlug	Shows a post by slug
Admin User Routes
/admin/users	UserController@index	Lists all users (admin only)
/admin/users/{id}	UserController@show	Shows a user by ID (admin only)
/admin/users/create	UserController@create	Form to create a user (admin only)
/admin/users/store	UserController@store	Saves a new user (admin only)
/admin/users/edit/{id}	UserController@edit	Form to edit a user (admin only)
/admin/users/update/{id}	UserController@update	Updates a user (admin only)
/admin/users/delete/{id}	UserController@delete	Deletes a user (admin only)
Settings Routes
/admin/settings/user	SettingsController@index	Displays user settings
/admin/settings/user/edit/{id}	SettingsController@edit	Form to edit user settings
/admin/settings/user/update/{id}	SettingsController@update	Updates user settings
Admin Post Routes
/admin/posts	PostController@index	Lists all posts (authenticated)
/admin/posts/create	PostController@create	Form to create a post
/admin/posts/store	PostController@store	Saves a new post
/admin/posts/edit/{id}	PostController@edit	Form to edit a post
/admin/posts/update/{id}	PostController@update	Updates a post
/admin/posts/delete/{id}	PostController@delete	Deletes a post
/admin/posts/{id}	PostController@showById	Shows a post by ID
Authentication Routes
/login	AuthController@login	Displays login form
/auth/authenticate	AuthController@authenticate	Processes login
/auth/logout	AuthController@logout	Logs out the user
Admin Dashboard
/admin/dashboard	DashboardController@index	Admin dashboard (authenticated)

Controller System

• Base controller with common functionality.
• Specialized controllers for specific features.
• Dynamic method calling based on route parameters.
• Error handling and 404 management.

Security

• PDO prepared statements to prevent SQL injection.
• HTML escaping for XSS protection.
• Input sanitization and validation.
• Role-based access control (RBAC).

Database

• PDO abstraction for MySQL.
• Configurable via .env.
• Extensible models for CRUD operations.

Views

• Component-based templates.
• Dynamic data injection.
• Support for layouts and partials.

Post Management

• Full CRUD for blog posts.
• Metadata support (e.g., date, author).
• SEO-friendly slugs.
• Image handling.

User Management

• Login and registration.
• Role-based permissions.
• Admin-only user management.

🐳 Docker Integration

• Pre-configured environment:
  • PHP 8.2 + Apache.
  • MySQL 5.7.
  • PHPMyAdmin.
• Isolated network setup.

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🔧 Technical Details

Router

• Regex-based route parsing.
• Parameter extraction (IDs, slugs).
• Automatic controller invocation.

Controllers

• Base class with shared utilities.
• Error handling built-in.

Models

• Centralized Database class.
• Entity-specific CRUD methods.

Views

• Secure rendering with HTML escaping.
• Template inclusion system.

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🌟 Highlights

• Pure PHP implementation without external dependencies.
• Full CRUD for blogs/stores.
• Modern PHP 8.2 features.
• Docker-based development environment.
• MVC pattern with strong Separation of Concerns (SoC).
• Secure by default with proper input/output handling.
• Extensible and maintainable codebase.
• SEO-friendly URL structure.
• Component-based view system for reusability.

This project demonstrates professional-grade PHP development practices without relying on frameworks, making it an excellent showcase for technical interviews and portfolio presentations.

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🔐 Security Practices

• Inputs validated and sanitized.
• Outputs escaped to block XSS.
• Sensitive data in .env.
• Protection against common threats (CSRF, SQL injection).

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🎯 Use Cases

• Learning MVC and PHP internals.
• Building blogs, e-commerce, or custom apps.
• Portfolio projects for technical interviews.

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⭐ Get Involved

If you find this project useful, please give it a star on GitHub, fork it to experiment with your own ideas, or contribute by submitting pull requests. Your support helps grow this resource for the community!