# novaconium

A tiny, Hugo-flavored PHP micro-framework. Routes are directories on disk, pages render with [Twig](https://twig.symfony.com/), and any page that needs real logic gets an optional PHP "sidecar" file. Pages without a sidecar are pre-rendered once and served as static HTML straight from Apache afterwards. No Composer — Twig is vendored directly into the repo as plain source files.

## Features

- **File-based routing** — a directory under `App/pages/` *is* a route (Hugo-style page bundles). No route table to maintain.
- **`[param]` segments** — a directory literally named `[param]` (e.g. `App/pages/products/[id]/`) captures any single URL segment into `$params['param']` for clean URLs, no query strings.
- **Optional PHP "sidecars"** — drop an `index.php` next to any `index.twig` to supply Twig context data, or return a `Response` (redirect/JSON/XML/HTML) to short-circuit templating entirely.
- **Static caching, zero config** — sidecar-less pages render once and are written to `public/cache/`; `.htaccess` serves the cached file directly on every later hit, skipping PHP and Twig entirely.
- **Override-by-path** — `App/` (your project) is checked before `novaconium/` (the framework defaults) for every page, layout, `Lib\` class, and even the Sass color palette (`App/sass/_colors.sass`). Drop a file at the same relative path to override it; nothing needs duplicating to get a working site.
- **Layout inheritance** — `_layout/layout.twig` directories are resolved by walking upward from the matched page, so you can override the layout for a whole subtree.
- **SEO boilerplate out of the box** — the default layout ships meta description, canonical link, robots, Open Graph, and Twitter Card tags, all overridable per-page via Twig blocks.
- **Built-in Matomo analytics** — set `matomo_url` and `matomo_site_id` in `App/config.php` to enable tracking site-wide, including automatic 404 tracking. Off by default.
- **Admin authentication** — gate every `/admin/*` route behind a session login with multi-user management: a SQLite-backed `users` table, `/admin/login`/`/admin/logout`, and an `/admin/users` page to create, disable, delete, group, promote/demote, and change the email or password of accounts (plus a `novaconium/bin/create-admin-user.php` CLI for the first user or deploy scripts). Two roles: the first user created is the admin; everyone after is a registered user with an optional group. Every account has a unique, normalized email address — groundwork for email verification later. Enabled with a single `admin_auth_enabled` flag in `App/config.php`; off by default, and reusable for any admin page a project adds later.
- **Access control** — assign a page (or a section, one line per page) to a user or group from its sidecar: `Access::require('group:members')` returns `null` or a ready-made `Response` (login redirect with a return path, or a 404 for the wrong account). Public is the default — a sidecar that never calls it is untouched, and static (sidecar-less, cached) pages are always public by construction. Gated pages stay out of `/search` and `/sitemap.xml` automatically.
- **Draft pages** — list a route under `draft_routes` in `App/config.php` to make it visible only to an authenticated admin; anyone else gets a plain 404, not a login prompt. Reuses the admin auth check directly, and is excluded from static caching so a cached copy can't leak the draft to the public. See `/admin/docs/drafts`.
- **Media manager** — `/admin/media`, an upload/browse/delete UI for files under `public/uploads/`, covered by the existing `/admin/*` auth gate with no separate flag needed. Extension allowlist and max upload size are configurable (`media_upload_extensions`/`media_upload_max_bytes` in `App/config.php`), filenames are sanitized and de-duplicated on upload, and deletes are re-verified to resolve inside the upload directory before touching disk. See `/admin/docs/media-manager`.
- **Dark/light theme toggle** — a nav button flips a `data-theme` attribute (persisted to `localStorage`) that swaps every color via CSS custom properties; both palettes live in `App/sass/_colors.sass`, same override mechanism as everything else.
- **Self-hosted spam prevention & form validation** — `Lib\SpamGuard`, a reusable class for any form: a CSS-hidden honeypot field plus a submission-timing check, no external CAPTCHA service, site key, or outbound API call. Pairs with `Lib\FormValidator` (accumulating required-field/email/length checks) and `Lib\Validate` (the underlying validation primitives — email, length, phone, postal/zip, spam-word checks). All three ship in `novaconium/lib/`, demonstrated on the contact form.
- **Form security by default** — `Lib\Input`, a cleaning accessor for `$_POST`/`$_GET` (defense-in-depth against HTML/script injection, not a substitute for parameterized queries), and `Lib\Csrf`, standalone session-token CSRF protection called directly from a sidecar. Both ship in `novaconium/lib/`, wired into the contact form, `/admin/clear-cache`, `/admin/login`, and `/admin/users`.
- **SQLite/MySQL database, zero setup** — `Lib\Db`, a thin PDO wrapper (no ORM) supporting multiple named connections open at once — e.g. this site's own SQLite data plus a MySQL connection to a legacy database, usable in the same sidecar — each with its own plain-SQL migration convention, applied automatically on first use or via `php novaconium/bin/migrate.php`. SQLite data lives in a project-owned top-level `data/` directory, outside both `public/` and `novaconium/`. See `/admin/docs/database`.
- **Sessions with flash data** — `Lib\Session`, a thin wrapper around native PHP sessions with CodeIgniter-style flash values (set now, readable on exactly the next request) for post/redirect/GET flows without a query-string flag. Lazy-start, same mechanism `Lib\Csrf` already uses. See `/admin/docs/session`.
- **Content index: sitemap, search, tags** — `/sitemap.xml`, full-text `/search` (SQLite FTS5), and blog tag browsing all share one crawler that renders every page and harvests `keywords`/`tags`/`changefreq`/`priority` Twig blocks via Twig's own `renderBlock()` — no front-matter, no separate metadata files. Off by default (depends on SQLite); reindexes lazily on demand or via `php novaconium/bin/index-content.php`. See `/admin/docs/content-index`.
- **Blog RSS feed** — `/blog/feed`, built from the same hand-written post list `App/pages/blog/index.php` itself renders from, so it works with no database at all. `Lib\Rss` (a small RSS 2.0 envelope builder) also backs a per-tag feed, `/blog/tag/<tag>/feed`, once the content index above is enabled. Auto-discovered via a `<link rel="alternate">` on `/blog/*` pages.
- **Syntax-highlighted code blocks** — vendored [highlight.js](https://highlightjs.org/) colors PHP/Bash/HTML code blocks site-wide, auto-detected with no per-block markup, swapping between dark (`ir-black`) and light (`github`) themes along with the existing dark/light toggle. Twig-syntax samples (which highlight.js can't parse) are left plain rather than colored wrong. See `/admin/docs/upgrading-highlightjs`.
- **No build step, no Composer** — clone it, point Apache (or `php -S`) at `public/`, and it runs. Twig is vendored as source; see `/admin/docs/upgrading-twig` for upgrading it.

## Getting started

**Requirements:** PHP 8.1+ (uses `readonly` constructor-promoted properties) with the `pdo_sqlite` extension (bundled with PHP, just needs to be enabled — no separate install; add `pdo_mysql` too if using a MySQL connection), and, for production, Apache with `mod_rewrite` and `AllowOverride All`. The content index's search (`/admin/docs/content-index`) additionally needs SQLite's FTS5 extension, bundled with `pdo_sqlite` on virtually every modern PHP build — only relevant if `content_index_enabled` is turned on.

### Run it locally (no Apache needed)

```
php -S 127.0.0.1:8000 -t public public/router.php
```

`public/router.php` is a dev-only script that mimics the `.htaccess` rules (canonical redirects + static cache lookup) so you can develop without Apache. It is never used in production — Apache reads `public/.htaccess` directly.

Visit `http://127.0.0.1:8000/` for the static home page, then click around — `/about`, `/blog/hello-world`, `/contact`, and `/admin` (cache clearing + these same docs, rendered live) are all included as working examples.

### Deploy on Apache

Point the vhost's document root at `public/`, make sure `mod_rewrite` is enabled and `AllowOverride All` is set for that directory so `public/.htaccess` takes effect, and it just works — no build step required.

### Run it in Docker

```
docker compose up --build
```

Builds an Arch Linux-based Apache/PHP image and serves the site at `http://localhost:8080/`. Three named volumes (`cache`, `uploads`, `data`) keep the page cache, media manager uploads, and SQLite database out of paths the "Updating the framework" workflow below would wipe; `App/` is baked into the image but can be bind-mounted for edits without a rebuild. See [Docker](http://127.0.0.1:8000/admin/docs/docker) for details.

### Starting a new project

Clone this repo and drop its Git history — no Composer scaffold or installer:

```
git clone --depth 1 <novaconium-repo-url> my-new-project
cd my-new-project
rm -rf .git && git init && git add -A && git commit -m "Initial commit from novaconium template"
```

Then replace the example content under `App/pages/` with your own; leave `novaconium/` and `public/` alone.

### Updating the framework

Since the framework core lives entirely under `novaconium/`, pick up a new release by overwriting just that directory against a tag and committing the diff:

```
git clone --depth 1 --branch <release-tag> <novaconium-repo-url> /tmp/nova-update
rm -rf novaconium && cp -r /tmp/nova-update/novaconium ./novaconium && rm -rf /tmp/nova-update
git add novaconium && git commit -m "Update novaconium framework to <release-tag>"
```

Safe by construction — `App/` always overrides `novaconium/`, so an update can't clobber project customizations. See [Getting started](http://127.0.0.1:8000/admin/docs/getting-started) for the full write-up.

### Add a page

Create a directory under `App/pages/` with an `index.twig` — the directory path *is* the URL:

```
App/pages/pricing/index.twig   ->   /pricing
```

Add an `index.php` next to it if the page needs data or logic. See [Sidecars](http://127.0.0.1:8000/admin/docs/sidecars) in the docs for the full contract, or [SEO](http://127.0.0.1:8000/admin/docs/seo) for a ready-to-paste starter template with every overridable block — or skip the copy-paste and scaffold it:

```
php novaconium/bin/create-static-page.php blog/my-new-post
```

## Documentation

The full framework documentation — routing, sidecars, libraries, database, session, content index, XML sitemap, RSS feeds, layouts, static caching, SEO, Matomo analytics, admin authentication, draft pages, styling, project layout, and third-party notices — lives at `/admin/docs` on any running instance (so it travels with the code, no internet connection needed). Highlights:

- [Getting started](http://127.0.0.1:8000/admin/docs/getting-started)
- [Docker](http://127.0.0.1:8000/admin/docs/docker)
- [Routing](http://127.0.0.1:8000/admin/docs/routing)
- [Sidecars](http://127.0.0.1:8000/admin/docs/sidecars)
- [Libraries](http://127.0.0.1:8000/admin/docs/libraries)
- [Database](http://127.0.0.1:8000/admin/docs/database)
- [Session](http://127.0.0.1:8000/admin/docs/session)
- [Content index](http://127.0.0.1:8000/admin/docs/content-index)
- [XML sitemap](http://127.0.0.1:8000/admin/docs/sitemap)
- [RSS feeds](http://127.0.0.1:8000/admin/docs/rss)
- [Layouts](http://127.0.0.1:8000/admin/docs/layouts)
- [Static caching](http://127.0.0.1:8000/admin/docs/caching)
- [SEO](http://127.0.0.1:8000/admin/docs/seo)
- [Matomo](http://127.0.0.1:8000/admin/docs/matomo)
- [Admin authentication](http://127.0.0.1:8000/admin/docs/admin-auth)
- [Access control](http://127.0.0.1:8000/admin/docs/access-control)
- [Draft pages](http://127.0.0.1:8000/admin/docs/drafts)
- [Media manager](http://127.0.0.1:8000/admin/docs/media-manager)
- [Styling](http://127.0.0.1:8000/admin/docs/styling)
- [Project layout](http://127.0.0.1:8000/admin/docs/project-layout)
- [Third-party](http://127.0.0.1:8000/admin/docs/third-party)

`AGENTS.md` is the short, agent-facing version for coding assistants working in this repo, and `novaconium/ISSUES.md` is the roadmap/backlog.

## Project layout

```
App/            your project — pages/ (routes), lib/ (Lib\ classes), sass/ (color overrides) — the only directory you're expected to edit
public/         Apache document root — front controller, .htaccess, static cache, compiled CSS
novaconium/     the framework itself — router, renderer, vendored Twig, default pages/lib/sass — not edited per-project
```

See [Project layout](http://127.0.0.1:8000/admin/docs/project-layout) for the full tree with every file explained.

## Third-party

[Twig](https://twig.symfony.com/) is vendored in source form under `novaconium/vendor/twig/` (no Composer — see `/admin/docs/upgrading-twig` for how to upgrade it). It's BSD-3-Clause licensed; the full license text ships alongside it at `novaconium/vendor/twig/LICENSE`.