CodeIgniter 4: Build a Complete Web Application from Scratch

Description

In this course, you will learn :

• Local installation and configuration of CodeIgniter.
• What distinguishes an MVC framework like CodeIgniter from "plain" PHP.
• Database records can be created, read, updated, and deleted (CRUD).
• User registration by email, followed by account activation.
• Login with remember me, and access to content requires login.
• Email password reset initiated by the user.
• Images are being uploaded and processed.
• Ajax requests are handled and JSON is returned.
• Using a CSS framework for styling.
• Internationalisation refers to the display of content in more than one language.
• Deploying an application to shared hosting in a secure manner.
• Direct instructor assistance: any question asked in the Q&A section will always receive a response.

Syllabus :

1. Introduction and project setup

• Introduction and welcome: how to get the most out of the course
• Install a web server with PHP, database server and phpMyAdmin
• Create an empty database in the local database server
• Install the CodeIgniter framework, optionally using Composer
• Configure the framework to display error messages
• Configure the web server to access the framework using a virtual host
• Common installation / configuration issues and their solutions

2. CodeIgniter and MVC basics: controllers, views and layouts

• MVC basics: how a framework is different to plain PHP
• View basics: create and display the homepage
• Routing: how CodeIgniter decides which controller and method to run
• Add another controller and view to display a list of tasks
• Showing multiple views: two techniques for reducing code repetition
• View layouts: use a base layout for common view code
• Add a section for the title and use the layout in the task index

3. Database data: models, configuration and migrations

• Displaying dynamic data: pass data from a controller to a view
• Configure the framework to connect to the database
• Database migrations: create the task table in the database
• Migrations without the command line: add columns using a controller
• Models: connect to the database and select data automatically
• Debugging tools: enable the debug bar and use the dd function

4. CRUD Part 1: Displaying and inserting new data

• Add a page to show an individual record
• Add links between pages using the site_url helper
• Create and display a form for adding a new task using the form helper
• Add a method to process the submitted form and insert a new record
• Add validation rules and validate the form
• Redirect to the show page if validation passes or redisplay the form if not
• Flash messages: add status messages to the result of processing the form
• Prevent XSS attacks by escaping untrusted data

5. CRUD Part 2: Editing and deleting existing records

• Add a form to edit an existing task and link to it from the show page
• Add a method to process the submitted form and update the record
• Show the previously-entered values in the form when redisplaying it
• Extract shared form code out into a shared view
• Addendum: change to the base CodeIgniter Entity class namespace
• Entity classes: use an object to represent a database row instead of an array
• Change the create method to use the Task entity class
• Change the update method to use the Task entity class
• Extract common controller code out to the constructor
• Show a 404 not found page if the task ID isn't found
• Enable automatic updating of the created_at and updated_at fields
• Add a page with a confirmation message for deleting a task record

6. Signup: User account registration

• Add and run a migration to create the user table
• Add a signup controller and display the signup form
• Add a create method and insert a new user record
• Use a model event to hash the password when a new record is inserted
• Validate the data in the signup form and redisplay it if invalid
• Display a signup success page on valid signup

7. Authentication: login, logout and user identification

• Create a login controller and show the login form
• Verify the email and password against the user records in the database
• Log in the authenticated user using the session
• Log out the user when the browser closes and also with a logout action
• Add a helper to show the current user name
• Create and use a class for all the authentication code
• Add a method to get the current user
• Access the authentication object using a service
• Simplify the authentication class: extract code out to the user model and entity
• Avoid multiple identical database queries by caching the user record

8. Protecting content: require the user to login to access certain content

• Require the user to login to access the tasks index page
• Controller filters: require login for all the methods in the tasks controller
• Apply a filter to certain routes to require the user not to be logged in
• Move links to the default layout for consistent navigation
• Redirect to the originally requested page after logging in
• Protect against cross-site request forgery attacks with the CSRF filter

9. Link the tasks to users and paginate the task index

• Add a foreign key from the task table to the id column in the user table
• Show only the tasks for the current user in the task index
• Select individual task records for the current user only
• Assign the id of the current user when creating a new task record
• Get the current user in the task controller constructor
• Display the list of tasks in chronological order
• Paginate the list of tasks

10. User administration: user CRUD

• Create a users controller in its own namespace
• Show a paginated list of user records
• Show an individual user record
• Insert a new user record
• Display the form for editing an existing user record
• Update a user record with conditional password validation
• Add password help text to the form when editing a user
• Delete a user record with confirmation

11. User administration: restrict access to administrator users

• Require login to access the user admin controller
• Add a column to the user table to identify admin users
• Add a seeder to insert an admin user
• Require an admin user to access the user admin controller
• Display a navigation link to the users index and user admin status
• Prevent an admin user from deleting their own account while logged in
• Add an is_admin checkbox to the form for creating or editing a user
• Enable removal of admin privileges when editing an existing admin user
• Prevent an admin user from removing admin access while logged in

12. Account activation by email

• Account activation: confirm the user's email address exists
• Add columns to the user table for account activation
• Generate a random activation token and its keyed hash
• Store the activation hash in the database when a user signs up
• Prevent inactive accounts from logging in
• Send an email using the CodeIgniter email library
• Send an activation email containing the token to the user when they sign up
• Activate the account when the user clicks on the link in the email
• Add the active status to the user admin section
• Instantly log a user out by making their account inactive

13. User-initiated password reset

• Add a controller and view for starting the password reset process
• Add a migration to add password reset columns to the user table
• Create a class to generate random tokens and their hashes
• Process the password reset form and generate a random reset token and expiry
• Send the password reset email to the user
• Display the password reset form, checking the token and its expiry
• Process the password reset form and reset the user's password

14. User profile: allow a user to change their own data

• Add a profile controller and restrict access to authenticated users only
• Add a form to edit the current user's details
• Validate and update the profile data
• Add a form for changing the current user's password
• Change the current user's password
• Require the user to enter their password to make changes to their profile

15. Handling file uploads and images: user profile image

• Add a column to the user table for the profile image
• Add a controller with an edit method for uploading an image file
• Validate the uploaded file
• Restrict the file upload by size and type
• Store the uploaded file in its permanent location
• Resize and crop the uploaded image
• Save the name of the uploaded file to the user record
• Display a blank image for those users without a profile image
• Display the user's uploaded profile image in the show profile page
• Add an option to delete the profile image

16. Remember me: remembering the login between browser sessions

• Remembering the login between browser sessions
• Add a migration to store the remember tokens in the database
• Add a remember me checkbox to the login form and get its value in the controller
• Generate a random remember me token and save its hash in the database
• Set a cookie containing the remember me token
• Refactor the authentication class
• Log in automatically using the token in the cookie
• Delete the cookie and the remembered token in the database
• Add a custom console command to clean up expired remembered login records

17. Ajax requests and JSON: searching for tasks

• Addendum to "Add a JavaScript autocomplete library"
• Add a JavaScript autocomplete library
• Search for tasks by matching the description to the search term
• Return JSON from the search method
• Add a search input and make an Ajax request to the search URL
• Use the autocomplete library to search for tasks
• Navigate to the task show page when selected in the autocomplete control

18. Styling and displaying dates and times

• Load a CSS framework in the HTML
• Add page padding using a section and style page headings
• Add a nav element and style it using the navbar component
• Style the notification messages with optional JavaScript to dismiss them
• Add styles and layout to the signup form
• Style the remember me checkbox in the login form
• Format form hint text and file input controls
• Style action links as buttons
• Style description lists using typography helper classes
• Add styles to tables and pagination links
• Display dates and times in a more readable format

19. Internationalization & localization: show content in more than one language

• Create files to store translations and display translated text in the browser
• Translate text in views: text in HTML elements
• Translate flash messages: organise translations using nested messages
• Translate validation messages: manually and with the translations package
• Set the application locale based on the browser's language settings
• Specify the locale code in the URL
• Include the locale code in the form action URL using a global view variable
• Translate the signup success message and activation email content
• Route placeholders: add a route for activation with the locale and token
• Route groups: reduce the code needed to specify routes with a common prefix
• Internationalise and localise the login and password reset controllers
• Add the locale to navigation links and translate the homepage and navigation
• Select the homepage language with the locale code in the URL
• Require the locale code on the homepage and add language selection links
• Remember the locale in the session for URLs without the locale
• Restore the flash messages shown when logging in and logging out

20. Deployment: install the application on a production server

• Create an example .env file containing settings that differ between environments
• Create a controller to seed the database from the browser
• Copy the files to the production server
• Configure the application on the live server

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