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Hexavel Framework

Hexavel is a restructured version of Laravel, with the purpose of providing better work flows which will simplify the development process.

Install

To install via composer simply use the command

What's different from Laravel?

File structure

Hexavel uses a widely changed filesystem from Laravel with which to produce a working application. Each folder is explained before so you can understand where to find or place your own work.

Binaries (bin)

This is where all our console applications go, including the artisan console and the binaries install via composer. All of artisan's commands work the same as Laravel except now you must use bin/artisan instead from the root directory of your application.

Source (src)

This is where our base PHP application code goes using the default namespace \App.

Application (app)

For the moment this simply stores our applications configs and routing files.

Support

This is our biggest change from Laravel. Support is how it sounds, a directory for all files that support the development of our application. This covers views, assets, language files, tests and migrations by default.

There is also a support packages folder which is the suggested place for local packages you might be developing or sit as part of your project to be loaded via composer.

Variable (var)

Variable directory is effectively our application writable directory. All caches and data written by the application should be stored under this directory. Examples would be the bootstrap cache, logs or an sqlite database.

Hexagonal Architecture

Hexagonal architecture is a fancy name for a simple concept, you should separate your code into what's your framework, your domain and the connections between services and or libraries that your application interacts with.

Laravel

Code that relates to the core of your application in this case Laravel specific code like service providers or controllers.

Bridge

Code that relates to services or libraries that are used by the application.

Domain

Code which is unique to your business requirements and is separate to the bridge and framework.

Repository Pattern built in

The repository pattern is really important and it's useful when working with the Models you'll create using Eloquent. To make this easier there's a service provider included which allows you to map your models to repositories and in turn map repository interfaces from your domain to your model interfaces.

Example Repository:

Then add the model and repositories to the service provider.

Testing

Testing is a huge part of any good application that you're developing. Hexavel includes a simple setup for using both Behat and PHPSpec to allow you to test both the features and the code you develop.

Behat

Your feature files can be created under support/features, while the feature context for your test suite is under support/context. You can run tests via bin/behat or by calling gulp behat.

To make separating the code easier the set up is ready for using the page pattern as a way of managing the interactions with your application for testing via Behat.

PHPSpec

Class specs are stored in support/spec they can be created simply by using the phpspec command bin/phpspec desc <Namespace\\Class> and then you can call bin/phpspec run or gulp phpSpec to perform the tests.

Warnings

Not all packages made for Laravel will work out of the box with Hexavel. Most will except if they install code into your project. Laravel Spark is an example of this when it uses a number of stubs and adds assets etc.

Other Resources

• Hexavel Sparkis a package for making Spark compatible with Hexavel due to the install of stubs.
• Hexavel Componentssits between Laravel Framework and Hexavel.
• Hexavel Behatholds the contexts that sets up Behat for Hexavel.