Learn Phalcon interactively and build high performance web applications

About This Book

• Learn how to install and configure Phalcon PHP on your server
• Develop a fully functional multi-module application with Phalcon PHP
• A step-by-step guide with in-depth coverage of Phalcon and best practices

Who This Book Is For

If you are a web developer and want to build effective web applications with Phalcon PHP, then this book is ideal for you. The book does not assume detailed knowledge of PHP frameworks.

What You Will Learn

• Compile and install Phalcon from source code
• Set up an MVC project and learn how to use the Dependency Injection (DI), configuration, and routing
• Get to grips with Phalcon's ORM, ODM, validation and caching, and generate models using Phalcon Developer Tools
• Create a command-line application from scratch
• Write a fully functional REST module with Phalcon PHP
• Use Volt as template engine to create your first views
• Understand how session works and learn how to implement an authentication system

In Detail

Phalcon is a full-stack PHP framework implemented as a C extension. Building applications with Phalcon will offer you lower resource consumption and high performance whether your application runs on a Linux machine or a Windows one. Phalcon is loosely coupled, allowing you to use its objects as glue components based on the needs of your application. Phalcon PHP's mission is to give you an advanced tool to develop faster websites and applications.

This book covers the most common and useful parts of PhalconPHP, which will guide you to make the right decisions while developing a Phalcon-driven application.

You will begin the journey by installing and setting up Phalcon for your environment followed by the development of each module. You will be introduced to Phalcon's ORM and ODM. Furthermore, you will also be able to create the first models and database architecture for your project. You will then cover command-line applications, API module, volt syntax, and hierarchical views. Installing and working with Node and Bower for assets management will also be covered. Finally, you will gain insights into creating the backoffice and frontend module along with best practices and resources for development with Phalcon PHP.

By the end of this book, you will be able to confidently develop any kind of application using the Phalcon PHP framework in a short time.

Style and approach

This step-by-step guide will walk you through the fundamentals of Phalcon PHP. It will then help you to create a simple but fully functional news website and gain advanced knowledge of how Phalcon PHP works.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1: Getting Started with Phalcon

Chapter 2: Setting Up the MVC Structure and the Environment for Our Project

Chapter 3: Learning Phalcon's ORM and ODM

Chapter 4: Database Architecture, Models, and CLI Applications

Chapter 5: The API Module

Chapter 6: Assets, Authentication, and ACL

Chapter 7: The Backoffice Module (Part 1)

Chapter 8: The Backoffice Module (Part 2)

Chapter 9: The Frontend Module

About the Author

Calin Rada is a full-stack developer with over 10 years of experience in web development; system architecture; database modeling; the setup, configuration, and administration of servers and hosting systems; and understanding customer and business needs.