README

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What is Zen?

Zen is a simple micro-framework aims to speed up development of application classes with PHP by providing a declaractive approach to application units within PHP. Zen seperates data (and metadata) away from the programming so code can be more abstract and more adaptive to more scenarios.

Zen includes a full Object Mapper so you can declare the commands to use and simply calling them using simple one-line code for various scenario since often code require more than just CRUD...

How is it different?

Zen is made up of a bunch of goodies:

A bunch of PHP classes
Adapters for quick and easy access to services
Feature based interfaces =======

What does Zen do?

Zen is a declarative PHP framework that allow you to write code and deploy faster. Apart from OR Mapping, Zen also comes with a workflow engine, data access, plus a bunch of plug-in enabled services so you can deploy faster and get things running.

What is inside?

OR Mapping with metadata split outside the class - allow self containing declaration of metadata
Allow cascading inheriting metadata - so you do not need to rewrite metadata from parent classes.
Document Centric Workflow engine allowing CRUD of data plus a big bunch of goodies.
Built in macro engine - allow you to do some common Excel like tasks within your declarative metadata
Caching control so you can store code and run them faster
Built-in SMTP and messaging engine using PHPMailer to save you the hassle.

v0.0.0-A1

Installing Zen

Since Zen is loaded on Packagist so you can use composer to load the whole package

composer require ziimple/zen
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** Note: ** Zen will write data into JSON format, so this can be used in MySQL or NoSQL, which ever form of DB you like.



## Example Usage

Here is a simple class declared using Zen framework:

```
<?php
  namespace Test
  use \Zen\ZenObject as master;
  use \Zen
  
  class Person extends master {
      // Here we assume the load and write functions will be XXX_PERSON_XXX depending on your metadata setup
      const SQL_PDX_PFX = "PERSON";
      
      // That's pretty much it... unless you have custom functions...
      // 
      // all CRUD functions are provided by ZenObject      
      public function __something__() {
       
        // do something
        
      }
  }

And in the metadata it will look something like this

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<instance>
  <commands>
    <command id="load" method="SPV_{instance}_GET">
      <fields>
        <field column="{instance}_ID">
          <source>instance</source>
          <data>id</data>
        </field>
      </fields>
    </command>
  </commands>
  <metadata>
    <data name="name" type="json">
      <data name="first" type="string" required="true" />
      <data name="last" type="string" required="true" />
    </data>
    <data name="email" type="string" />
  </metadata>
</instance>

That's pretty much it to create a class to run!