Software Grotto
This repository contains a group of common include files and libraries I use for all the web applications I develop. Rather than manage each app’s versions of these, I decided to have them all in their own repository, and manage all the changes to them under git. So if you use a specific web application of mine, you would have a directory structure like this:
mywebsite.com/
init.php
stuff.php
grotto/
form.lib.php
messages.inc.php
...If you’re using one of my applications, you will have a configuration file like config/config.ini. And in that configuration file, there will be two lines like this:
incdir = "../grotto/"
libdir = "../grotto/"You can change these lines to point to wherever you have installed the grotto software.
The following is a list of the files included:
FPDF Library
This is the fpdf library from Olivier Plathey. It is in its own directory. It is a simple way to create simple PDFs.
Parsedown Library
This is Emanuil Rusev’s Parsedown library, used to parse markdown files. See http://parsedown.org for his latest version.
Database Library
This is two files: database.lib.php and pdosqlite3.lib.php. The first is a generic shell which instantiates the database driver of your choice. Currently, only SQLite3 is implemented, but more can be added. The second file is the driver itself. This driver implements the PDO driver for SQLite3, but with a much easier interface.
Errors Include
This implements some functions which can be used to report errors under PHP. It implements extensive error reporting and generates trace dumps into an error.log file.
Form Library
If you’ve ever tried to write forms in straight HTML, you know what a pain it is. This library makes that job vastly easier for the programmer. All forms handling is done with calls to the form class.
Graph Include
I generate statistical graphs using both PHP’s gd library and the gnuplot utility. This simplifies creating those graphs.
Memory Library
This makes it possible to simply store large amounts of data in a session variable. The methods simplify inserting and deleting data from the session variable.
Messages Include
This include has two functions. The first allows you to insert an error (or success) message into the session variable. The second shows that message and any others queued, then deletes the message from the session variable. It is a way of providing feedback to users about what they’ve just done, which survive successive calls to page controllers.
Miscellaneous Include
This includes a variety of functions I use constantly, but which don’t necessarily fit in a single category.
instrument()
This call can be inserted anywhere, and will dump the contents of whatever variable is passed in a readable format to the web page. I use it extensively in debugging.
model()
This calls up a model. Virtually all models I use need a database connection (already built) and the application configuration, which are provided. It includes the model code, instantiates the class, and returns an instance of it.
library()
This is like the model() function, but does not pass an instance of the database connection, and does allow you to pass a parameter to whatever library you are calling. As before, it includes, instantiates, and passed back an instance of the library.
view()
This function is used to call all my views. You pass a variety of parameters to it, and it fetches the head view, the body view and the footer view and displays them. Assuming the view is also a form, it passes the script name which will handle that form’s results. It also allows the user to specify a “focus field” which is the first the user will land on when the form is shown. It can be used with non-form views, and allows the programmer to pass data to the view for display.
fork()
This function is places at the beginning of form handlers. It checks to see if a certain specified value is present, and whether it should arrive via a GET or a POST. If the value is there, it is returned. Otherwise, you specify what page controller to go.
filled_out()
This function allows you to specify which fields must be filled out on a form. It checks the POST array for those values, and returns FALSE if they are not present. This ensures the user fills out all the fields which are considered necessary.
redirect()
This is just a simplification of the header() call in PHP.
make_tables()
This is used for fresh installs of a given application which do not ship with a database, which is usually necessary to run the application. This function relies on a SQL file which, when fed to the database, will create the tables and populate them as needed.
Navigation Library
This simplifies the left hand navigation on my applications. It allows for nested and flat types of menus. You simply give it the array of links, and it displays them according to your CSS stylesheet.
Numbers Include
For financial applications, I store dollar amounts as integers. This avoids problems with binary math. However, I need to convert between the decimals the user enters and the integers I store in the database, and back again. These two functions do that.
Pdate Library
This is a library for handling dates. It was first developed to handle quarterly tax reports. Dates are stored primarily as Julian days, but with other information as well. It can display or read dates in almost any format and do simple date arithmetic easily.
PDF_Report Library
This makes dealing with the fpdf library easier. Only a few calls are needed, and there are numerous defaults to make life easier.
Snake Include
This contains a function which allows a long list of items to be “snaked” across a page. You pass it an array of strings, and specify the number of columns you want, and it will return a string with your items in columns down the page. There are two versions– one uses table cells, and the other just returns the stringified version for printing.
Table2HTML Include
This is useful for debugging. You feed it an array of key/value pairs, and it displays them in a table.
Vimoutline Include
This roughly parses vimoutline files and formats them in a way they can be easily displayed on a web page.
Where To Get It
The Grotto collection can be obtained from GitLab.