Slim-Handlers

I work in a lot in PHP, Python, and Javascript. In PHP, I really like the Slim micro-framework, because I write a lot of APIs. Slim gives me just enough facile syntax for writing a great ReSTful API without making me work too hard or use some full stack of components that maybe I don't need or care about.

In Python, I get the same enjoyment from using the webapp micro-framework for Google App Engine (and webapp2, yes). Primarily, the webapp.RequestHandler pattern is a well encapsulated mechanism for defining ReSTful APIs.

I want that in PHP.

Here's how it works...

<?php // index.php

require_once 'vendor/autoload.php';

\Slim\Handlers\Handler::app($app = new \Slim\Slim());

$app->map('/some/route', \Slim\Handlers\Handler::factory('SomeHandler'));

$app->run();

// elsewhere, perhaps SomeHandler.php
class SomeHandler extends \Slim\Handlers\Handler
{
    function get()
    {
        $this->app->render('someTemplate.phtml');
    }
    
    function post()
    {
        $this->app->redirect('/some/route');
    }
}

In our super-simple example, the Slim application will respond to GET /some/route and POST /some/route but not PUT, DELETE or other requests. Note that the application instance is available as a property ($this->app) of the Handler for convenience. The Handler methods correspond to the HTTP verb they serve, and the \Slim\Handlers\Handler::factory() static method is a factory (derr) for instantiating a callable.