Yii2 By Example

Develop complete web applications from scratch through practical examples and tips for beginners and more advanced users

About This Book

• Improve your programming experience and become a full stack developer
• Master real-life web applications, and create and manage four different projects
• Step-by-step guidance to develop real-world web applications smoothly

Who This Book Is For

This book is for anyone who wants to discover and explore Yii Framework. Basic programming experience with PHP and object oriented programming is assumed.

What You Will Learn

• Understand basic concepts, along with the installation and customization of Yii
• Discover models, controllers, and views―concepts applied in a web context―and how they are employed in Yii
• Use ActiveRecord to manipulate a database
• Add access control to your web application through authentication and authorization
• Install and customize an advanced template for multiple applications in the same project
• Create a RESTful Web Service to allow remote access to data
• Develop a console application to launch a command in the console as an automated task (cron job)
• Make code reusable through widgets and components and localize text messages to make a multilanguage web app

In Detail

Yii is a high-performance PHP framework best for developing Web 2.0 applications. It provides fast, secure, and professional features to create robust projects, however, this rapid development requires the ability to organize common tasks together to build a complete application. It’s all too easy to get confused; this is where this book comes in.

This book contains a series of practical project examples for developers starting from scratch. Each section contains the most relevant theories for every topic as you walk through developing each project, focusing on key aspects that commonly confuse users.

The book starts with all the framework’s basic concepts, such as controllers and views, to introduce you to Yii and creating your first application, a simple news reader. You will be learn to configure URL rules to make a pretty URL, essential for search engine optimization. Next, you will walk through Model and ActiveRecord, key concepts in database interaction.

The second application you will develop is a reservation system that allows you to manage rooms, customers, and reservations. For this, you will use database connection through SQL and ActiveRecord. More complex than the first one, this application will introduce you to the advanced template of Yii 2, splitting the app into two parts: a frontend for all visitors and a backend for the admin. Finally, you will move on to the last two applications: one that allows connections from remote clients, through RESTful components of Yii 2, and another that creates and organizes automatic tasks using the console application structure of Yii 2.

Style and approach

This is a step-by-step guide with each topic introduced in the context of real-world applications, highlighting common cases where users may encounter difficulties.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1. Starting with Yii2
Chapter 2. Creating a Simple News Reader
Chapter 3. Making Pretty URLs
Chapter 4. Creating a Room through Forms
Chapter 5. Developing a Reservation System
Chapter 6. Using a Grid for Data and Relations
Chapter 7. Working on the User Interface
Chapter 8. Log in to the App
Chapter 9. Frontend to Display Rooms to Everyone
Chapter 10. Localize the App
Chapter 11. Creating an API for Use in a Mobile App
Chapter 12. Create a Console Application to Automate the Periodic Task
Chapter 13. Final Refactoring