I. Introduction

Throughout the book, we will use the FuelPHP framework to build different types of projects. The objective of this chapter is to make you familiar with the basics of the framework and create your first project as quickly as possible. We won't create anything exceptional in this chapter and there will be very little coding, but we will go through the whole process from installing FuelPHP to publishing your project on a production server. You will learn the necessary basics for the other projects as well.

By the end of the chapter, you should know the following:

A common development process of a FuelPHP application
How to install FuelPHP (the latest or a specific version)
The FuelPHP file system hierarchy
Two different ways to configure Apache to access your application
How to configure FuelPHP to connect to a database
The oil command line and how to use it for scaffolding your application
How does an application respond to a URL requested by a visitor
What are the FuelPHP templates
How to publish your project to a host

Since this book is intended for intermediate developers, we will assume that you have already installed Apache and MySQL on your system. Some prior knowledge of Git and Composer is an added advantage as you might need it, but you should be fine in this book if you are not familiar with these tools. However, for advanced applications that need collaboration between several developers mastering them is highly recommended.

In this chapter, we will go from installing the FuelPHP framework to having a functional – though limited – web application. As our objective here is to introduce the framework and create a sample application as quickly as possible, we won't address important topics such as the ORM, which will be addressed in Chapter 2, Building a To-do List Application.

« Table of contents II. About FuelPHP »

This tutorial contains the first chapter of my book FuelPHP application development blueprints. I released this chapter freely so that you can have an idea of what the book looks like and get a first overview of the FuelPHP framework. Don't hesitate to comment or contact me if you have any question. You can buy the book on the Packt Publishing website, on Amazon, on BN.com and most internet book retailers.