gemvc/helper

GEMVC helper utilities: ProjectHelper, CryptHelper, type checking, file/image helpers, and more.

1.1.0 2026-07-15 10:38 UTC

Requires

• php: ^8.2
• composer-runtime-api: ^2.2
• symfony/dotenv: ^6.4 || ^7.2

Requires (Dev)

• phpstan/phpstan: ^2.1
• phpunit/phpunit: ^10.1

Suggests

• ext-bcmath: Exact decimal min/max comparisons in TypeChecker
• ext-gd: Required for ImageHelper WebP conversion
• ext-openssl: Required for FileHelper encryption and CryptHelper

MIT

• Ali Khorsandfard

• php
• helper
• utilities
• gemvc

Published on Packagist.org on 2026-07-15 10:46 UTC

README

Helper utilities for the GEMVC framework.

Composer package: gemvc/helper
GitHub repo: gemvc/helper

WARNING

This is an internal GEMVC ecosystem package. It is designed to be installed with gemvc/library, not on its own.

Do not run composer require gemvc/helper in a generic PHP project expecting a standalone utility library — several classes depend on gemvc/library (HTTP layer, system page paths, etc.) and may not work without the full framework in vendor/.

Supported install path: composer require gemvc/library (which pulls in gemvc/helper automatically).

Installation

Installed automatically with the framework:

composer require gemvc/library

gemvc/library requires gemvc/helper — you do not need a separate install in normal apps.

Classes

Class	Purpose
ProjectHelper	Project root, .env, URLs, library paths
CryptHelper	Password hashing (Argon2i)
TypeChecker	HTTP input validation — see supported types below
TypeHelper	Type utilities (GUID, timestamps, reflection helpers)
FileHelper	AES-256-CBC file encryption
ImageHelper	WebP conversion
JsonHelper, StringHelper, WebHelper	General utilities
ServerMonitorHelper, NetworkHelper	Monitoring metrics

Namespace: Gemvc\Helper\ (unchanged from monorepo layout).

Pairing with gemvc/library (no circular Composer dependency)

• gemvc/library requires gemvc/helper — normal app install path
• gemvc/helper does NOT require gemvc/library — avoids library → helper → library cycle

Some classes (ChatGptClient, legacy TraceKitToolkit) use Gemvc\Http\* from gemvc/library at runtime in real apps. When both packages are in vendor/, autoload resolves the real HTTP classes from the library.

This package ships HTTP stubs under stubs/ for standalone PHPUnit/PHPStan only (autoload-dev). They are not used when the package is installed as a dependency of gemvc/library.

Upgrading to 1.1.0

See RELEASE_NOTES.md.

New TypeChecker types: decimal, decimal:P,S, hex, uuid, slug, positive_int, timestamp, jsonb (alias of json).

TypeChecker::check('decimal', '19.99');
TypeChecker::check('uuid', '550e8400-e29b-41d4-a716-446655440000');
TypeChecker::check('positive_int', '42', ['min' => 1, 'max' => 100]);

Requires gemvc/library 5.10.0+ for DB mapping and Request getters. Helper 1.1.0 adds validation only.

Development

composer install
composer test
composer phpstan

Release workflow (v1)

1. Copy this folder into a clone of github.com/gemvc/helper
2. Tag and publish 1.0.0 on Packagist
3. Update gemvc/library to require gemvc/helper: ^1.0 and remove src/helper/

v1.0 changes

• Lift-and-shift from gemvc/library/src/helper/ (14 files, same namespace)
• ProjectHelper::getLibrarySystemPagesPath() resolves gemvc/library via InstalledVersions

Future cleanup (TraceKit legacy removal, etc.) happens in this package only.

Push to GitHub (your workflow)

1. Create repo github.com/gemvc/helper
2. Copy all contents of this staging folder into the clone (repo root = package root; local folder name gemvc-helper/ in the monorepo is only for staging)
3. composer install then composer test && composer phpstan
4. Tag v1.0.0 and publish to Packagist as gemvc/helper
5. In gemvc/library release 5.8.1: add "gemvc/helper": "^1.0", remove src/helper/ and Gemvc\Helper\ autoload, run composer update and full test suite