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Dorguzen Framework

Powerful PHP Framework. No Black Box.

Dorguzen is a full-featured PHP MVC framework designed to give you everything you need to build fast, secure, and scalable web applications — without hiding how any of it works.

Most frameworks make development easier by wrapping PHP in layers of abstraction so thick that you end up learning the framework's own language (DSL) instead of PHP itself. Dorguzen takes a different approach: it keeps the ease, but strips away the abstraction. Every feature is built on straightforward PHP patterns with clear, teachable documentation that explains not just what to do, but why. The result is that a Dorguzen developer genuinely understands the architecture behind what they are building. That understanding is transferable — skills learned here apply directly to any PHP application, framework or not.

Dorguzen does not just help you ship faster. It makes you a better PHP developer.

Out of the box you get routing, controllers, models, views, an ORM, migrations, seeders, a CLI tool, built-in authentication, an admin dashboard, a REST API layer with interactive Swagger documentation, queues, events, scheduled tasks, and more.

Requirements

• PHP >= 8.0
• The GD extension (with PNG/JPEG/GIF/WebP support) — required by the bundled DGZ_Uploader for image thumbnails (Gallery, Portfolio, Blog image uploads). On cPanel: Select PHP Version → Extensions → gd.
• Composer
• MySQL / MariaDB (or PostgreSQL / SQLite for alternative drivers)
• Apache with mod_rewrite enabled (or use the built-in development server — see below)

Installation

Dorguzen is available on Packagist.

Option A — Via Composer (recommended)

Replace my-app with your project folder name. Composer will pull the latest stable release from Packagist and install all dependencies automatically — no separate composer install step needed.

Option B — Clone from GitHub

2. Set up your environment file

Dorguzen ships with .env.example as a template listing every variable the framework expects.

Optionally, use the local .env file if you would prefer to override some settings like DB connection details locally.

Open .env and fill in the values for your local setup. At minimum, set:

DB_KEY is used to AES-encrypt password fields in the database. Choose any random string and keep it consistent — changing it after data has been inserted will break password verification.

Fill in the values of the .env.local too, if you are using it for the local setup.

Then edit configs/app.php to pull from the values you set in .env, though you can add extra literal environment values there too.

See the Setup & Config section of docs for the full list of available variables including mail, JWT, Stripe, Twilio, and module flags.

4. Create the database

Create a MySQL database matching the name you set in DB_DATABASE, then run the migrations:

This creates all the core tables (users, logs, jobs, SEO, contact form messages, etc.).

5. Seed the database

This seeds the default super-admin account (see credentials below), and your application's baseSettings table with some default values to get you started.

6. Point your web server at the project root

Apache (MAMP / XAMPP)

Set the document root (or virtual host) so that http://localhost/yourAppName points to the project root directory containing index.php. Apache's mod_rewrite must be enabled and AllowOverride All must be set for the directory so that .htaccess is processed.

The visit: http://localhost/yourAppName and your web application should work.

Built-in PHP development server

If you prefer not to configure Apache, Dorguzen ships with a serve command:

This starts the app on http://localhost:8000 by default. You can customise the port:

The built-in server is suitable for local development only. Use Apache or Nginx in production.

The dorguzapp Sample Application

Out of the box Dorguzen ships with dorguzapp — a ready-made application skeleton you can use as the starting point for your own project. All controllers, models, views, and routes are already wired up and working.

A standard user account is pre-configured in the sample app so you can log in immediately:

Change these credentials once you start customising the app for your own project.

Admin Dashboard

Dorguzen includes a built-in admin dashboard available at /admin/dashboard once you are logged in as a super-admin.

Out of the box the dashboard lets you:

• Manage users — view all registered accounts, change user roles, activate or deactivate accounts
• Change your own username and password — update your admin credentials from the profile screen
• View contact form messages — all messages submitted through your site's contact form are stored in the database and readable from the dashboard

The default super-admin account created by the seeder is:

Change these credentials immediately after your first login.

Testing the API in the Browser

Dorguzen ships with interactive API documentation powered by OpenAPI and Swagger UI. No external tool is needed — visit the docs URL in any browser and you can read the full spec and fire live requests directly from the page.

URL:

Replace yourAppName with the value you set for APP_NAME in your .env.

The docs page lists every API endpoint, shows required inputs and expected responses, and includes an Authorize button where you can paste a JWT token to test protected routes.

To enable the docs, make sure your .env contains:

This is the default for local development. For production, set it to false if your API is private, or leave it true if you are building a public developer-facing API.

Running Tests

Dorguzen includes a PHPUnit test suite with a dedicated SQLite in-memory database so tests run fully isolated from your development database.

No separate database setup is needed — the test bootstrap handles everything automatically.

CLI Reference

The dgz CLI tool handles migrations, seeders, code generation, the development server, and more. Run any command from your project root:

Common commands:

To see the full list of available commands:

Documentation

Full developer documentation is in docs/dgzDocs.md. It covers routing, controllers, models, views, authentication, the ORM, migrations, seeders, queues, events, the REST API, SEO module, payments, and more.

License

MIT

Credits

Dorguzen is developed and maintained by Nolimit Media.