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InitORM ORM

A lightweight, PDO-based ORM. Each subclass of initorm/database. Entities support per-column accessor and mutator hooks (Laravel-style), and models ship with optional timestamp columns, soft deletes, and per-operation permission gates.

Requirements

• PHP 8.1 or later
• ext-pdo
• One of ext-pdo_mysql, ext-pdo_pgsql, or ext-pdo_sqlite depending on the database you target.

Supported databases

The full query-builder dialect support comes through initorm/database: MySQL/MariaDB, PostgreSQL, and SQLite ship with dialect-aware identifier quoting; any other PDO driver works through a no-escape generic driver.

Installation

initorm/orm pulls in initorm/database, initorm/dbal, and initorm/query-builder transitively — you do not need to require them yourself.

Quick start

Define a model:

Define an entity:

Use the model:

How it fits together

A Model holds a DatabaseInterface and forwards unknown calls to it via __call. The Database, in turn, forwards builder calls (where, select, orderBy, …) to the underlying query builder. Chainable calls re-wrap at every boundary, so this all stays fluent on the Model:

The full query-builder surface (~100 methods including joins, group/having, sub-queries, LIKE family, BETWEEN, IN, raw expressions) is documented in initorm/query-builder and initorm/database.

Configuration reference

These protected properties shape a model's behaviour. All are optional with sensible defaults.

Soft deletes

When $useSoftDeletes = true:

• read() automatically filters to rows where $deletedField IS NULL.
• delete() sets $deletedField to the current timestamp instead of issuing a DELETE.

• Pass purge: true to bypass soft-delete and remove the row for real:

• Use onlyDeleted() to read soft-deleted rows on the next read():

  The flag is consumed by the next read and reverts afterwards.

update() and updateBatch() automatically add $deletedField IS NULL to avoid resurrecting soft-deleted rows.

Entities, accessors, and mutators

Entity stores values in an internal attribute bag ($attributes) and exposes them through the magic __get / __set accessors. For column post_title, you can define:

• Accessor receives the stored attribute value as its single argument.
• Mutator must write back via $this->setAttribute('post_title', …). Plain $this->post_title = … from inside a class method bypasses __set and creates a dynamic property (deprecated in PHP 8.2+, fatal in a future PHP version), so the value would never reach the attribute bag.
• toArray() / getAttributes() return the raw attribute bag.
• getOriginal() returns a snapshot captured at construction time; call syncOriginal() to refresh it after a save.

Permission gates

Each operation is gated by a flag — flip any to false and the matching typed exception fires:

All four — WritableException, ReadableException, UpdatableException, DeletableException — extend ModelException, so a single catch handles all of them.

Multiple connections

Models bind to the shared DB facade by default. Set $credentials on a subclass to give it its own connection:

$credentials is passed through to InitORM\Database\Facade\DB::connect(), which builds a fresh Database (and underlying connection) without touching the shared facade slot.

Testing

The library ships with a comprehensive PHPUnit 10 suite that exercises the model against an in-memory SQLite database. Patterns for testing your own models live in tests/Support/AbstractModelTestCase.php.

Run the full quality suite locally:

Individual targets:

Documentation

Deeper, code-first guides live under docs/:

• 01-getting-started.md — install, bootstrap, the layered architecture.
• 02-defining-models.md — every property, plus auto-schema derivation.
• 03-entities.md — accessors, mutators, attribute bag, the setAttribute rule.
• 04-crud-basics.md — create, read, update, delete, batch variants.
• 05-soft-deletes.md — useSoftDeletes, onlyDeleted, ignoreDeleted, purge.
• 06-timestamps.md — auto-filled created_at / updated_at / deleted_at.
• 07-permission-gates.md — $writable / $readable / $updatable / $deletable.
• 08-extending-the-builder.md — accessing the full query-builder API through the Model.
• 09-multiple-connections.md — $credentials, the DB facade, secondary connections.
• 10-testing-models.md — how the package's own suite is wired and how to mirror it.

Contributing

Contributions are welcome. The general flow is:

1. Fork and branch off master.
2. Add tests for the behaviour you change (see tests/ — SQLite in-memory, fast, dependency-free).

3. Run the full quality suite locally:

4. Open a PR — CI runs the same suite across PHP 8.1–8.4.

By submitting a contribution you agree to license it under the MIT License.

Credits

• Muhammet ŞAFAK — <[email protected]>

License

Released under the MIT License.