File based database written in PHP

This library makes it possible to store and retrieve data sets in your application without the need of databases. The data is stored in your file system as json files and can be retrieved through an easy to use query builder.

This is not meant to replace databases in high performance applications, but rather a convenient way of storing, filtering and retrieving smaller data sets.

• Install
• Instantiate
• Storage drivers
  • File system
  • Memory
• Query builder
  • Tables
  • Insert
    • Batch insert
  • Get data
    • Get all items
    • Get first item
    • Find
    • Where
    • Order by
    • Limit
    • Offset
    • As Object
  • Update
  • Replace
  • Delete
  • Truncate

Install

Using composer:

composer require maer/file-db

Instantiate

To create an instance, you need to pass which storage driver you want to use:

$driver = new SomeStorageDriver();

$db = new Maer\FileDB\FileDB($driver);

Storage drivers

File system

File system stores the data, as suggested, on the file system. This is the driver you need to use if you want your data to be persistent between requests:

$driver = new Maer\FileDB\Storage\FileSystem(
    '/absolute-path/to/your/storage/folder'
);

The storage folder must be writable.

Important: Since the data will be saved in json-format, this folder should also be placed outside of the document root, or people will be able to access the data directly.

Memory

The memory driver only stores the data in memory for the current request and will not be persistent between requests. This driver is primarily meant to be used as a mock driver for tests.

$driver = new Maer\FileDB\Storage\Memory();

Query builder

Tables

You can have as many tables (or rather collections) as you want. Each table will be stored in it's own file.

When you get a table from the File DB, you're actually getting a new instance of the Query builder (Maer\FileDB\QueryBuilder) so you can start building your query:

$query = $db->table('people');

// or shorthand

$query = $db->people;

If that table doesn't exist, it will automatically be created when you store data in it for the first time.

Insert

Inserting data is simple. Simply pass the data as an associative array:

$id = $db->people->insert([
    'first_name'   => 'Chuck',
    'last_name'    => 'Norris',
    'masters'      => 'everything',
]);

If the insert was successful, this will return the new ID. If the insert failed, null will be returned.

Note on ID's: When you add an item and no ID is passed (passed as id), an unique and random 16 char hex string will be generated.

If you do pass an ID that already exists in that table, the query will fail and return null.

Batch insert

If you want to insert multiple items at once, you can use batchInsert(array $data)

$ids = $db->people->batchInsert([
    [
        'first_name' => 'Chuck',
        'last_name'  => 'Norris',
    ],
    [
        'first_name' => 'Jackie',
        'last_name'  => 'Chan',
    ]
]);

This method returns all the generated ID's.

Get data

Most of the below items will return a multi dimensional array with the matching items.

Get all items

$rows = $db->people->get();

Get first item

Return the first matched item.

$row = $db->people->first();

Find

Get first item that matches a condition.

// Find by ID (default)
$row = $db->people->find('123');

// Find by some other column
$row = $db->people->find('Chuck', 'first_name');

Where

Usually, you only want to return some specific items which match some type of criteria. You can do this by adding some "where" conditions to your query:

$rows = $db->people->where('masters', 'everything')->get();

The above will match all items that has everything as the value for the column masters. This equals: where('masters', '=', 'everything').

Operators

There are many more operators you can use to narrow down the result.

The below operators are used like this: where($column, $operator, $value)

=           Equal to (Loose type comparison)
!=          Not equal to (Loose type comparison)
===         Equal to (Strict type comparison)
!==         Not equal to (Strict type comparison)
<           Lower than
>           Higher than
<=          Lower or equal to
>=          Higher or equal to
*           Contains
=*          Starts with
*=          Ends with
in          Exists in list
!in         Not exists in list
regex       Match using regular expressions.
func        Match using a custom callback (closure as the third argument)
array_has   Exists in array  (if the value is an array)
!array_has  Not exists in array (if the value is an array)
has_col     The column exist
!has_col    The column does not exist

You can add as many where conditions as you like to the same query. To make it easier, you can chain them:

$result = $db->people->where('col1', '=', 'some value')
    ->where('col2', '!=', 'some other value')
    ...
    ->get();

Order by

To sort the result in a specific way, you can use orderBy($column, $order = 'asc').

// Ascending order:
$results = $db->people->orderBy('first_name');

// Descending order:
$results = $db->people->orderBy('first_name', 'desc');

Limit

You can limit the amount of items returned.

// Only get the 2 first matches
$results = $db->people->limit(2)->get();

Offset

If you need to add an offset (for using with pagination, for example), you can use offset($offset):

// Get all results from the second match and forward.
$results = $db->people->offset(2)->get();

As Object

By default, all items will be returned as associative arrays. If you rather have them returned as objects, you can use the method asObj($class = 'stdClass'):

// Default, converts the item to a StdClass
$item = $db->people->asObj()->first();

// Using your own entity class
$item => $db->people->asObj('Namespace\PersonClass')->find();

When passing a custom class, the item will be passed to the class in the constructor (as an array), so it's up to your custom class to populate it's properties accordingly.

Update

To update an item, use update(array $data):

$affected = $db->people
    ->where('first_name', 'Chuck')
    ->where('last_name', 'Norris')
    ->update([
        'middle_name' => 'The king',
    ]);

This method returns the number of affected items.

Don't forget the where-clause or you will update all items.

Replace

The difference between this method and update() is that this replaces the complete item, except from the ID. Example:

$id = $db->people->insert([
    'foo'     => 'Lorem',
    'bar'     => 'Ipsum',
]);

$affected = $db->people
    ->where('id', $id)
    ->replace([
        'foo_bar' => 'Lorem Ipsum',
    ]);

$item = $db->people->find($id);
// Returns:
// [
//     'id'      => 1234,
//     'foo_bar' => 'Lorem Ipsum',
// ]

This method returns the number of affected items.

Don't forget the where-clause or you will replace all items.

Delete

Delete items

$affected = $db->people
    ->where('first_name', 'Chuck')
    ->delete();

This method returns the number of affected items.

Don't forget the where-clause or you will delete all items.

Truncate

Truncate a table. (Deletes all items)

$success = $db->people->truncate();

This method returns a boolean. true on success and false on error.