1. phpWebApp and SEE­GRID Resoures
phpWebApp and SEE­GRID Resoures
Dashamir Hoxha dhoxha@inima.al
Dashamir Hoxha
Elda Nallbani enal@inima.al
Elda Nallbani
Institute for Informatics and Applied Mathematics
INIMA
http://www.inima.al
The phpWebApp Framework
http://phpwebapp.sourceforge.net/
The SEE­GRID Resources Web Application
http://see­grid.inima.al/gridrc/

4. SEE­GRID Resources Web App
Displays resources for each country and cluster.
Displays also summary tables (reports).
Admins can also edit/modify the data.
Modification of data is password protected.
Each country/cluster has an admin password.
The admins can also change their password, and
country admins can set the cluster passwords.

5. Why Not Use Plain PHP
Mixing HTML, CSS, JS, PHP, SQL codes
✗ Editing becomes difficult (code colorization, etc.)
✗ The maintenance of the application becomes difficult.
✗ Makes difficult the team work.
✗ Increases the complexity of web applications.
There are no persistent variables.
Lack of modularity.

6. Choosing a Framework
Possible Tools:
✗ Any template system or web application framework
(look at http://sourceforge.net/search/?type=soft)
✗ ColdFusion, Smarty, etc.
Why phpWebApp?
✗ It is free (GNU GPL).
✗ Better than the others (more flexible, powerful, etc.).
✗ We know it better than the others.

7. What is the phpWebApp Framework
A Web Application
Framework
Built with PHP and
used for PHP apps
Easy interface to DB
Can be used for
eContent,
eGovernment,
eCommerce, etc.

8. Features of phpWebApp
Separates layout from logic (template system)
Supports modularity.
Thinks of a web application like a state machine.
Supports an event­based programming model.
Supports web components and web objects.
Supports code re­usability.

9. Features of phpWebApp
Simplifies the interaction of the application with
the database and makes it database independent.
Facilitates an iterative and incremental
development approach for web applications.
Supports i18n and l10n (translation to other
languages) using standard GNU gettext tools.
Has good debugging features.

10. phpWebApp Components
Templates Database
Template variables WebBox­es
State Variables WebClass­es and
Transitions WebObjects
Events

11. phpWebApp: Templates
XHTML files with some additional tags and
variables: <include>, <if>, <repeat>,
<recordset>, <var>, <!­­# comments ­­>,
<webbox>, etc.
<include src="{{./}}edit/cluster_edit.html" />
<if condition="!{{admin}}">
<a class="button" href="javascript:edit()">
Edit</a>
</if>

12. phpWebApp: Templates
<table>
<repeat rs="clusters">
<tr><td>{{cluster_name}}</td></tr>
</repeat>
</table>
<recordset id="country">
<query>
SELECT country_name FROM countries
WHERE country_id = '{{country­>id}}'
</query>
</recordset>

13. phpWebApp: Template Variables
Slots in template files, denoted like this:
{{var_name}}
Get their value in the php code, like this:
WebApp::addVar(var_name, var_value);
The framework gets its value from a state
variable, from a global php variable or from a
php constant that has the same name as the
template variable.

14. phpWebApp: State Variables
Persistent variables (don'
t loose their value from
one page to another); similar to session variables.
Keep the state of the application and its webbox­
es (which are considered as a state machine).
Stored inside the web­page itself.
Example:
$user_id =
WebApp::getSVar('user_list­>selected_user');

15. phpWebApp: Transitions and Events
A transition is the move of the application from
one state to another.
It is done by the function: GoTo('page.html')
An event is usually sent as well.
An event can be sent like this as well:
SendEvent('targetBox', 'eventName', 'arg1=val1;arg2=val2');
It is handled by the php function:
targetBox::on_eventName($event_args)

16. phpWebApp: Database
Facilitates the connection and interaction of web
applications with relational databases.
Is easy and convenient, but also flexible.
Is database independent.
Some of the classes are: Connection, Recordset,
EditableRS, PagedRS, etc.

17. phpWebApp: WebBox­es
A WebBox is a tpl which has its own php code.
It can also have its own JS, CSS, DB code, etc.
It can be self­contained and independent, and
can be included easily in other pages or in other
applications.
<webbox id="box_id">
<!­­ content of WebBox ­­>
</webbox>

18. phpWebApp: WebBox­es
The other files are: box_id.php, box_id.js, etc.
box_id.php is like this:
<?php
class box_id extends WebObject
{ . . . }
?>
It can have functions: onParse(), onRender()
These override the functions of WebObject.

19. phpWebApp: WebClass­es
An attempt to use the concept of '
Class'
for the
templates of the framework.
Several WebObject­s of the same class can be
used in the same page.
<WebObject class=”listbox” name=”books” rs=”books” />
Some predefined webclasses are:
✗ listbox: a list of values from a recordset
✗ datebox: select the date from a calendar
✗ tabs: horizontal tab­like menu

20. The Structure of a Web Page

21. Conventions of Web Applications
Web Apps should follow some conventions:
Files index.php, webapp.php, browse.php, etc.
are the same for all the applications.
The configuration of the application is placed in
the folder '
config/'
(const.Options.php,
const.Paths.php, const.Debug.php, etc.)
Templates (webboxes etc.) are usually placed in
the folder '
templates/'
.

22. Future Work
Improvement of the docs of the framework.
Improvements to the framework itself.
Tools for working with the framework:
✗ Emacs mode, Quanta plug­in, etc.
Building reusable WebBox­es and WebClass­es;
they can be even organized in higher­level
frameworks for apps of a certain kind.
Code generation and reverse enginnering from
UML models.

23. phpWebApp and SEE­GRID Resoures
phpWebApp and SEE­GRID Resoures
Dashamir Hoxha dhoxha@inima.al
Dashamir Hoxha
Elda Nallbani enal@inima.al
Elda Nallbani
Institute for Informatics and Applied Mathematics
INIMA
http://www.inima.al
The phpWebApp Framework
http://phpwebapp.sourceforge.net/
The SEE­GRID Resources Web Application
http://see­grid.inima.al/gridrc/