Prerequisites

Before you can start developing an Elephox application, ensure that you meet the following requirements:

• PHP version 8.2 or higher is installed and configured correctly.
• Composer version 2 or higher is installed.
• You have a text editor, such as VS Code or a PHP IDE, like PhpStorm.
• Access to a shell or terminal is required.

Optional prerequisites:

• git

Creating a new project

You have two options for starting a new Elephox project: you can either use the Elephox application template or start from scratch.

Using the Elephox application template

To create a new Elephox project using the application template, invoke the composer create-project command:

composer create-project elephox/elephox my-app

Composer will clone the latest version of elephox/elephox into a new folder named my-app.

You can now edit the composer.json file to change the name of your project and optionally adjust the license, type, etc.

The application template includes the following:

• The phox binary, which provides a CLI for your application.
• A public folder with an index.php file for providing a web application.
• Some boilerplate services and routes in the src folder.

Using the application template can help you get up and running faster.

Starting from scratch

You can also start a new Elephox project from scratch.

To do so, create a new folder, navigate to it, and run composer init:

mkdir my-project
cd my-project
composer init

Composer will prompt you to enter information about your project, such as its name, type, and license. You can also add elephox/framework as a dependency to your project.

After composer has finished, you need to decide which entry point your project should have.

CLI Entry Point

The CLI entry point is used for command-line applications that need to parse commands, arguments, and options. You can build your own commands or load commands from vendors.

Web Entrypoint

The web entry point is used for APIs and web applications that require a request pipeline. You can use middlewares and routing to build your application.