Tiny PHP Framework

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Core Concepts

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Extensions

Examples

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Tiny PHP Framework — Documentation

Tiny is a zero-config, batteries-included PHP framework. Your filesystem is the router, your SQL is just SQL, and the same code runs on PHP-FPM, Swoole, or FrankenPHP.

This documentation covers everything from a 60-second quickstart through every extension and helper that ships with the framework.

Repository branches:

• main — landing page and project overview
• tiny — framework code only (use as a submodule)
• boilerplate — full app shell with Docker, Tailwind + Webpack build pipeline, tests, and migrations
• docs — this documentation

What’s in the box

Core

• Filesystem-based routing with controller / section / slug resolution
• TinyController / TinyModel
• Middleware pipeline
• CSRF, flash messages, cookies, sessions
• Server-Sent Events helper

Views & UI

• Component system (Component::register() / Component::render())
• Layout system (Layout::main(), Layout::auth(), …)
• HTMX-native request/response with auto HX-Push-Url
• React renderer (tiny::renderReact()) — SSR + SPA from one controller
• Static asset URL helpers, HTML minification

Scheduler & background work

• Built-in fluent scheduler — one cron entry, no external runners
• Cron-style API plus calendar shortcuts (->monday('09:00'), ->january(1))
• Second-level granularity via scheduler.sh
• Local job-testing harness for browser-driven debugging

Data

• Raw-SQL DB layer (MySQL, PostgreSQL, SQLite) with a thin safe wrapper
• ClickHouse extension
• APCu / Memcached cache with remember() and prefix operations
• Migration system (CLI-driven, tracked locally)

Content

• File-based CMS (tiny::cms()) with markdown + GFM extensions (callouts, tabs, cards, columns) — powers production sites like aroussi.com
• Tag indexing, sitemap-ready API, automatic caching

Runtime modes

• Classic PHP-FPM (default)
• Swoole coroutines
• FrankenPHP worker mode
• OPcache preloading

Tooling

• IP-gated debugger (dd, dump, log, ddump)
• CLI for scaffolding and migrations
• Built-in zero-ceremony testing harness (tiny::swap(), tiny::test(), TinyTestResponse, auto :memory: SQLite)

Integrations (30+ helpers)

• Payments: Stripe, S3-compatible Spaces, invoice PDFs
• Email: Mailgun, Sendgrid, generic email, disposable-email validator
• Marketing / CRM: HubSpot, Customer.io, Encharge, GetResponse, Mixpanel, Userflow, Logsnag
• Messaging: Twilio, Vonage
• Auth & identity: OAuth, avatar generator, UUID, crypto (cypher)
• Geo: GeoIP2 + currency / country rules
• Media: Markdown renderer, OpenGraph + OG-image generation, document reader
• Misc: rate limiter, shell, HTML helpers, Caddy config

How to read this site

1. Getting Started — install, configure, runtime modes, deploy.
2. Core Concepts — MVC, routing, controllers, request/response, views, models, database, middleware, HTMX, testing.
3. Extensions — every first-party extension that lives in tiny/ext/.
4. Helpers — the integration catalog plus how to register custom helpers.
5. Examples — end-to-end walkthroughs (TODO app, API, chat, file upload, user management).
6. Architecture & vision — the design philosophy behind Tiny.

Requirements

• PHP 8.3 or newer
• Composer
• PHP extensions: pdo, openssl, mbstring, curl, json, fileinfo, zip, plus one of apcu / memcached
• DB drivers as needed: pdo_mysql, pdo_pgsql, pdo_sqlite
• Optional: swoole (coroutine mode), imagick (OG-image helper)

License

Tiny PHP Framework is distributed under the Apache 2.0 License.