lexide/lazy-boy

A skeleton REST API application, using Silex and Syringe with support for Puzzle-DI

LazyBoy

A skeleton REST API application, using Slim, Syringe and Puzzle-DI, _(*1)

Summary

LazyBoy will create a skeleton Slim framework, using ProForma to generate files, so you can create REST APIs without having to bother with boilerplate code., _(*2)

It is packaged with a route loader and uses Syringe, which allows you to define both your routes and services in configuration files, rather than PHP, _(*3)

If you have the Symfony console installed, it will also create a console script including and command services that have been defined in Syringe DI config. You can also use Puzzle-DI to load service configuration from modules., _(*4)

Requirements

• PHP 8.0+
• Slim 4.0+
• Syringe 2.2+

Installation

Install using composer:, _(*5)

composer require lexide/lazy-boy:~4.0.0

Installation will include Puzzle-DI and ProForma as dependencies, which have plugins that LazyBoy requires, so you will need to enable those when asked., _(*6)

You will also need to whitelist LazyBoy for use with ProForma in Puzzle-DI. Both steps can be done by adding the following config to composer.json:, _(*7)

{
  "config": {
    "allow-plugins": {
      "lexide/pro-forma": true,
      "lexide/puzzle-di": true
    }
  },
  "extra": {
    "lexide/puzzle-di": {
      "whitelist": {
        "lexide/pro-forma": [
          "lexide/lazy-boy"
        ]
      }
    }
  }
}

If enabled, LazyBoy will use ProForma to automatically generate several files from templates, whenever composer update or composer install is run. You are free to make modifications to the generated output; LazyBoy will not overwrite a file which already exists, so committing those changes to a VCS is safe and recommended. Having your VCS ignore the files will mean they are generated when you install vendors on a freshly cloned repository, however it means that you will always get the very latest version of the templates., _(*8)

If you want to disable automatic file generation, so you can use LazyBoy classes on their own, you can either disable the ProForma plugin or add the following to your composer file:, _(*9)

{
  "extra": {
    "lexide/pro-forma": {
      "config": {
        "lexide/lazy-boy": {
          "preventTemplating": true
        }
      }
    }
  }
}

All that is left to do is create a vhost or otherwise point requests to web/index.php., _(*10)

Code Generation

Application types

By default, LazyBoy will create files required for a standard REST application. It also supports adding console scripts, either as a straight Symfony Console app or integrated for AWS Lambda. In addition, you can replace the default REST application with one for AWS ApiGateway., _(*11)

The application type is configured with ProForma config:, _(*12)

{
  "extra": {
    "lexide/pro-forma": {
      "config": {
        "lexide/lazy-boy": {
          "rest": false,
          "apiGateway": true,
          "lambda": true
        }
      }
    }
  }
}

This example would create an ApiGateway application with Lambda support, _(*13)

Configuration

The full list of ProForma config options is as follows:, _(*14)

Templates

LazyBoy creates files from the following templates, base on the application types that are configured in composer.json, _(*15)

* This template depends on the symfony/console library being present in the package list, _(*16)

Routing

Routes

If you are using the standard LazyBoy route loader, you can define your routes in YAML configuration files. Each route is defined as follows:, _(*17)

routes:
    route-name:
        url: "/sub/directory"
        method: "post"
        action: 
          controller: "test_controller"
          method: "doSomething"
        public: true     # or
        security:
          # custom security parameters

routes is an associative array of routes that you want to allow access to., _(*18)

In this case, a HTTP request that was POSTed to /sub/directory, would access a service in the container called test-controller and call its method doSomething. This route can be referenced as route-name when using the router., _(*19)

For each route, the url and action parameters are required, but method is optional and defaults to GET., _(*20)

Route URLs are processed by Slim, so you can add parameters and assertions as you normally would for that framework, _(*21)

    routes:
        route-one:
            url: "/user/{id:[0-9+]}"
            action:
              controller: "test_controller"
              method: "doSomething"

The URL /user/56 would match and the id parameter would be set to 56. The URL /user/56/foo or /user/foo would not match., _(*22)

Groups

If you have many routes with similar URLs, such as:, _(*23)

• /users
• /users/{id}
• /users/login
• /users/logout

you can use a group to wrap them with a common url prefix., _(*24)

groups:
    users:
        url: "/users"
        routes:
            user-list:
                # Omitting a route URL leaves the effective URL for this route as "/users" 
                # ...
            get-user:
                url: "/{id}"
                # ...
            user-login:
                url: "/login"
                method: post
                # ...
            user-logout:
                url: "/logout"
                # ...

Imports

If you have a large API, it can be unwieldy to have all routes in the same file. Luckily, because LazyBoy uses syringe for route config, we can use imports to allow the routes file to be split up, _(*25)

imports:
  - "usersRoutes.yml"
  - "adminRoutes.yml"
  # ...

parameters:
  routes:
    otherRoutesAsNormal:
      # ...

# usersRoutes.yml
parameters:
  routes:
    userRoute:
      # ...

Syringe combines imported files using array_replace_recursive() so the only caveat to note is that you MUST use route names that are unique across all the route files. If not, the routes will get merged with unpredictable results., _(*26)

Controllers

A route must define a controller through which a matching request can be processed. These are PHP classes that include methods that will return a Psr\Http\Message\ResponseInterface when called., _(*27)

Controller methods can be passed the Request, the initial Response object (for when middleware needs to add to a response) and any named parameters that slim parsed from the route URL. These values are assigned to method arguments that match the following criteria:, _(*28)

* URL Parameter types are not checked by LazyBoy; it is your responsibility to ensure the correct type is assigned, _(*29)

LazyBoy also provides a ResponseFactory service which can be used as a convenient method of creating common responses, such as error responses, JSON responses, no-content responses, etc..., _(*30)

Configuration

By default, the RouteLoader restricts HTTP methods to a set of the most commonly used methods: GET, POST, PATCH, PUT and DELETE. This can be customised by changing the Syringe DI configuration value router.allowedMethods:, _(*31)

parameters:
    # ...
    router.allowedMethods:
        - "get"
        - "post"
        - "delete"
        - "connect" # added CONNECT method
        - "upsert"  # added custom / non-standard method 
        # PUT and PATCH methods are now disabled (not present in the list)

Allowed method values are case-insensitive., _(*32)

API Middleware

CORS Middleware

The LazyBoy CORS middleware can be used to give your API the ability to accept cross domain requests. It is enabled by default and can be configured by changing the following parameters to your app's syringe config:, _(*33)

parameters:
  api.cors.allowedMethods: [] # List of allowed methods (defaults to the same methods as the router allows)
  api.cors.allowedOrigins: [] # List of allowed origin domains
  api.cors.allowedHeaders: [] # List of allowed headers

For allowed Origins and Headers, an empty list will insert "*" as the value in the CORS response headers. This is a fallback and not recommended for general use; if you're using CORS it should be configured only for the origins and headers that you need or your application may not be secure., _(*34)

To disable the middleware, set "useCors" to false in ProForma config when generating code files, or remove the middleware from the Slim application in DI config., _(*35)

Security Middleware

LazyBoy has a security system that aims to prevent access to a non-public route unless specific conditions are met. LazyBoy itself only provides the ability to implement security controls; it makes no assumptions about what level of security you want or what services or data you use to provide it., _(*36)

The system uses a series of Authorisers to run checks on a request to see if it should be allowed to continue. Each Authoriser implements the AuthoriserInterface and will be passed the request and the security context for a route. To implement an Authoriser, you should create a class implementing this interface and add the logic you require to validate a request. For example:, _(*37)

class RoleAuthoriser implements AuthoriserInterface
{

    protected $usersDao;

    public function __construct(UsersDao $usersDao)
    {
        $this->usersDao = $usersDao;
    }

    public function checkAuthorisation(RequestInterface $request, array $securityContext): bool
    {
        $route = $request->getAttribute("route");
        $userId = $route->getArgument("id");
        $user = $this->usersDao->getUser($userId);
        return $user->getRole() == $securityContext["role"];
    }

}

This authoriser gets a users ID from the request URL (via the route object), loads the user record from a Data Access Object and checks the user's role against the role that the route requires. If the two match then the check passes., _(*38)

This is a convoluted example that we wouldn't expect to be used in a real system, but serves to show how authorisers work and the things they can do. As a general rule, a single Authoriser should check a single thing, so that they are composable and reusable., _(*39)

Authorisers can be combined by using an AuthoriserContainer. This is itself an Authoriser, but one that loops over a list of other Authorisers, checking the request against each one in turn. It has two modes, "requireAll" and "requireOne", which determines which of the Authorisers need to pass before returning its own result. "requireAll" is similar to a logical AND operation, whereas "requireOne" is a logical OR, _(*40)

Using containers, Authorisers can be chained and combined in complex ways, allowing complete flexibility in applying your security requirements. LazyBoy sets up a default AuthoriserContainer, which you can use by adding the api.authorisers tag to your Authoriser service definition:, _(*41)

services:
  myAuthoriser:
    class: MyAuthoriser
    tags:
      - "api.authorisers"

Alternatively, you can use your own authoriser by replacing the api.authoriser service definition, _(*42)

Logging

LazyBoy provides a stub service to allow logging, found in the logging.yml DI config file. It is integrated into the generated code using the PSR-3 Psr\Log\LoggerInterface, but you will need to set up your own logger in order for errors and other logs to be handled correctly, _(*43)

Contributing

If you have improvements you would like to see, open an issue in this github project or better yet, fork the project, implement your changes and create a pull request., _(*44)

The project uses PSR-12 code styles and we insist that these are strictly adhered to. Also, please make sure that your code works with php 8.0., _(*45)

Why "LazyBoy"?

Because it likes REST, of course :), _(*46)