FAQ
From TinyMVC
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Frequently Asked Questions
What is TinyMVC?
TinyMVC is a Model-View-Controller application framework for PHP. It provides a very light-weight and flexible environment for programming PHP applications using the MVC programming pattern. Out of the box, TinyMVC is an extremely basic structure with a database abstraction layer (PDO, built into PHP5), and a plugin architecture to extend the framework. New plugins will be posted to the wiki as they are created, as well as user contributions.
Does TinyMVC work with PHP4?
No. TinyMVC requires PHP5.
Does TinyMVC come with a template engine?
No, the view layer of TinyMVC is PHP. However, it is very easy to integrate your template engine of choice with a library wrapper. See the example from the documentation.
Can TinyMVC use a database layer other than PDO?
It comes with PDO out of the box, but you can create your own database plugin or integrate an existing library as a plugin. See the documentation on creating your own database layer.
Why so few features?
There really are no bells and whistles with the core distribution. Release early, release often! The plan is to add plugins to the wiki for things like form validation, helper functions, routing features, etc. All these things can easily be added with plugins. The idea is to see what kind of creativity comes from the users in the forums, and the best ones get added to the wiki.
How does TinyMVC compare to other PHP MVC frameworks?
For one, it has hardly any features (for now). It is probably the fastest, but also the skinniest. Plugins will show up in the wiki as they become available. Some of the design and terminology has been inspired by other frameworks, although the code base is 100% original. Other excellent frameworks to give a try are CodeIgniter, Symfony, and CakePHP. Each has its own goals and feature set.
Was this site built using TinyMVC?
Most of it is. MediaWiki is used for the wiki, and Simple Machines is used for the forum. The rest is running on TinyMVC.
