Super Simple MVC PHP

**SuperSimpleMVCPHP** is a minimalist PHP project designed to demonstrate the core principles of the **MVC (Model–View–Controller)** architecture. This project is ideal for beginners who want to understand how routing, controllers, models, and views work in a PHP environment — without the overhead of a full framework.

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🎯 Purpose

The main purpose of this project is to learn and understand MVC architecture in PHP. The code is written to be as clear and simple as possible, making it easy for newcomers to follow and experiment.

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📁 Project Structure

SuperSimpleMVCPHP/
├── app/
│   ├── controllers/
│   ├── core/
│   ├── models/
│   └── views/
├── public/
│   └── index.php
├── .htaccess
└── README.md

• public/index.php – Entry point of the application (bootstrap)
• core/ – Core classes: App (router), Controller (base controller)
• controllers/ – Your controller classes (e.g., Home.php)
• models/ – Data access logic
• views/ – HTML rendering files

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🚀 Quick Start

1. Clone the repository:

git clone https://github.com/ifet4u/SuperSimpleMVCPHP.git

2. Start the built-in PHP server:

cd SuperSimpleMVCPHP/public
php -S localhost:8000

3. Open in your browser: http://localhost:8000

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🧠 How It Works

1. index.php

The application's entry point. Loads the App class and starts routing based on the URL.

2. App.php

Parses the URL and dynamically calls the corresponding controller and method.

Example URL:

/home/about

→ Calls the Home controller and its about() method.

3. Controllers

class Home extends Controller {
    public function index() {
        $this->view('home/index');
    }
}

4. Views

Views are simple .php files located in the app/views/ directory. You can pass data from the controller to the view using an associative array.

Example: Passing variables to a view

Controller:

class Home extends Controller {
    public function index() {
        $data = [
            'title' => 'Welcome Page',
            'message' => 'Hello from the controller!',
            'users' => ['Alice', 'Bob', 'Charlie']
        ];

        $this->view('home/index', $data);
    }
}

View (app/views/home/index.php):

<h1><?php echo $title; ?></h1>
<p><?php echo $message; ?></p>

<ul>
<?php foreach ($users as $user): ?>
    <li><?php echo $user; ?></li>
<?php endforeach; ?>
</ul>

The view() method automatically extracts the array into variables, so you can use $title, $message, or even loop through $users directly in your view.

You can pass both single values and arrays, depending on what your view needs to display.

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🧪 Example: Creating a Route

URL: /home/hello/Marko

Controller method:

public function hello($name = '') {
    echo "Hello, $name!";
}

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🔐 Security Note

• This project is not suitable for production — it lacks protections like SQL injection prevention, CSRF, XSS, etc.
• There's no session management, authentication, or templating engine — it's built to stay as minimal as possible for learning purposes.

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🤝 Contributing

If you'd like to improve this educational project:

1. Fork the repository
2. Create your branch (git checkout -b feature/your-feature)
3. Submit a pull request

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🙌 Acknowledgements

Special thanks to Dave Hollingworth (GitHub profile), whose tutorials and teaching style greatly helped shape this project and made learning MVC in PHP much easier.

The name SuperSimpleMVCPHP is a nod to Super Simple Songs, whose approach to learning — simple, clear, and effective — inspired the naming style of this project. While the content is entirely different, the philosophy of making learning easy and enjoyable is shared.

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📄 License

MIT License — free to use, modify, and distribute for educational purposes.

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📬 Contact

Author: ifet4u

Feel free to reach out if you have questions, suggestions, or want to use this in your course or classroom.