Helper Functions

Global helper functions are procedural functions that provide commonly used functionality across different parts of your application. They are typically defined at the global scope, making them easily accessible from anywhere within the codebase.

Code Reusability

By encapsulating commonly used operations into helper functions, developers can avoid repetitive code and promote code reuse.

Productivity

Helper functions can significantly improve development efficiency by providing pre-built solutions to common problems. Instead of reinventing the wheel each time a similar task needs to be performed.

Abstraction of Complexity

Helper functions abstract away the complexity of certain operations, making the code-base more readable and maintainable. By encapsulating logics within well-named functions, developers can focus on the high-level functionality of their code without getting bogged down in implementation details.

Functions

app

Get application container class shared instance or new instance if not shared.

function app(): \Application

Return Value:

\Application - Return base application instance.

See Also

Base Application - See the documentation for base application methods and usages.

request

Get request object

function request(bool $shared = true): ?\Luminova\Http\Request

Parameters:

Return Value:

class-object<Request>||null - Return request object or null.

See Also

HTTP Request - See the documentation for http request methods and usages.

session

Return session data if key is present, otherwise return the session instance.

function session(string|null $key = null): mixed

Parameters:

Return Value:

mixed - The session data if key is provided, otherwise the session class instance.

See Also

Session Manager - See the documentation for session methods.

cookie

Create and return a cookie instance.

function cookie(string $name, string $value = '', array $options = [], bool $shared = false): \Luminova\Cookies\Cookie

Parameters:

Return Value:

Cookie - Return new cookie instance.

See Also

Client Cookie Manager - See the documentation for client-side cookie methods.

factory

To initialize a class available in factory and returns a shared instance of the class.Optionally you can pass NULL to context parameter in other to return factory instance instead.

function factory(string|null $context = null, bool $shared = true, mixed ...$arguments): ?object

Parameters:

Return Value:

class-object<\T>|Factory|null - Return instance of factory class, instance of class called, otherwise null.

Available Factories Context

• 'task' \Luminova\Time\Task
• 'session' \Luminova\Sessions\Session
• 'functions' \Luminova\Application\Functions
• 'modules' \Luminova\Library\Modules
• 'language' \Luminova\Languages\Translator
• 'logger' \Luminova\Logger\Logger
• 'files' \Luminova\Application\FileSystem
• 'validate' \Luminova\Security\InputValidator
• 'response' \Luminova\Template\ViewResponse
• 'services' \App\Controllers\Config\Services
• 'request' \Luminova\Http\Request

Example

This example shows how to initialize session class instance with a new constructor argument using factory.

<?php 
$session = factory('session', false, new SessionManager());

See Also

Application Factory - See the documentation for factory methods and usages.

service

Service on the other hand focus more on your business logic, It allows you to returns a shared instance of a class registered in your service bootstrap method. To return an instance of service pass null as the service parameter.

function service(class-string<\T>|string|null $service = null, bool $shared = true, bool $serialize = false, mixed ...$arguments): ?object

Parameters:

Return Value:

class-object<\T>|Services|null - Return service class instance or instance of called class.

See Also

Application Service - See the documentation for service methods and usages.

remove_service

Delete a service or clear all services.

function remove_service(class-string<\T>|string|null  $service = null): bool

If NULL is passed all cached and serialized services will be cleared.

Parameters:

Return Value:

bool - Return true if the service was removed or cleared, false otherwise.

layout

PHP Template layout helper class, to extend, inherit and import layout sections while using default template engine.

function layout(string $file): \Luminova\Template\Layout

Parameters:

Return Value:

\Luminova\Template\Layout - Returns the layout class instance.

Throws:

• \Luminova\Exceptions\RuntimeException -Throws if layout file is not found.

See Also

Template Layout - See the documentation for default PHP template layout methods and usages.

All layouts must be stored in resources/views/layout/ directory.Examples: layout('foo') or layout('foo/bar/baz')

response

Initiate a view response object and render any response content.It allows you to render content of any format in view or download content within the view controller.

function response(int $status = 200, bool $encode = true): \Luminova\Template\ViewResponse

Parameters:

Return Value:

ViewResponse - Return vew response object.

See Also

View Response - Also checkout the documentation for view response methods and usages.

func

Return instance a specific context if specified, otherwise get the instance BaseFunction.

function func(string|null $context = null, mixed $params): mixed

Parameters:

Supported contexts:

• ip,
• document,
• escape,
• tor,
• math.

Return Value:

mixed - Returns an instance of Functions, object, string, or boolean value depending on the context.

Throws:

• \Exception - If an error occurs.
• \Luminova\Exceptions\RuntimeException - If unable to initialize method.

See Also

Base Functions - Learn more about the Luminova's BaseFunction documentation.

browser

Get the information about user's browser, based on the user-agent string.

function browser(?string $user_agent = null, string $return = 'object', bool $shared = true): mixed

Parameters:

Return Value:

array<string,mixed>|object<string,mixed>|UserAgent|false - An array, object containing browser information or user-agent class instance.

See Also

User Agents - See the documentation for browser user-agent methods and usages.

href

Create a hyperlink to another view or file.

function href(string $view = ''): string

Parameters:

Return Value:

string - Return hyperlink of view or base controller if blank string is passed.

asset

Create a link to assets folder file.

function asset(string $filename = ''): string

Parameters:

Return Value:

string - Return assets file or base asset folder if blank string is passed.

root

Get the application root directory of your project anywhere, optionally pass a path to append the the root directory, all return path will be converted to unix or windows directory separator style.

function root(string $suffix = ''): string

Parameters:

Return Value:

string - Return path to the root directory with the suffix appended.

path

Get system or application path, compatible with unix or windows directory separator style.

function path(string $file): string

Parameters:

Return Value:

string - Return directory path, windows, unix or windows style path.

See Also

File Manager - Also checkout the documentation for file manager methods and usages.

env

Get environment variables from env file, its a wrapper that combines both $_ENV, $_SERVER and getenv, with an additional feature to ensure the accuracy of the return type and default value if the key was not found in the environment.

function env(string  $key, mixed  $default = null): mixed

Parameters:

Return Value:

mixed - The value of the environment variable or the default value if not found.

See Also

ENV Variables - Learn more from documentation about Luminova's env variable keys.

setenv

Set an environment variable if it doesn't already exist.

function setenv(string $key, string $value, bool $append_to_env = false): bool

Parameters:

Return Value:

bool - True on success or false on failure.

By default when you set an environment variable, it doesn't permanently stored in other to access it in other codebase.

If you wish to write the key and value in your environment variables file .env, then you must specify the third argument true.

More efficient method of doing this is by utilizing the NovaKit cli command to write the key and value to env file by running command php novakit env:add --key="my_new_key" --value="my key value".

import

Import a custom library into your project.

function  import(string $library): bool

Parameters:

Throws:

• \Luminova\Exceptions\RuntimeException - If the library could not be found

Return Value:

bool - Return true if the library was successfully imported.

You must place your external libraries in libraries/libs/ directory in other to use file import.

logger

To log a message with a given log level.This function uses your prefered psr logger class if define otherwise it will use default NovaLogger.

function logger(string $level, string $message, array $context = []): void

Parameters:

Log levels

• emergency - Log an emergency errors.
• alert - Log an alert message .
• critical - Log a critical errors.
• error - Log an error message.
• warning - Log a warning message.
• notice - Log a notice.
• info - Log an info message.
• debug - Log debugging information.
• exception - Log an exceptions.
• php_errors - Log PHP errors.

Throws:

• \Luminova\Exceptions\InvalidArgumentException

All loges are located in /writeable/log/, each log level has it own file name (e.x., warning.log).

To set your own logging handler class, it can be done in App\Controllers\Config\Preference, your logger must implement PSR logger interface.

locale

Set application locale or return current application local.

function locale(?string $locale = null): string|bool

Parameters:

Return Value:

string|bool - If locale is passed it will set it and return true, else return previous locale.

escape

Escapes a string or array of strings based on the specified context.

function escape(string|array $input, string $context = 'html', string|null $encoding = null): array|string 

Parameters:

Throws:

• \Luminova\Exceptions\InvalidArgumentException - When an invalid or blank encoding is provided.
• \Luminova\Exceptions\BadMethodCallException - When an invalid context is called
• \Luminova\Exceptions\RuntimeException - When the string is not valid UTF-8 or cannot be converted.

Return Value:

array|string - The escaped string or array of strings.

You can optionally specify the context name $context in the array key when you want to escape array values.

strict

Sanitize user input, unlike the escape function, this method replaces user input, retaining only the allowed characters.

function strict(string $input, string $type = 'default', string $replacer = ''): string

It removes unwanted characters from a given string and return only allowed characters.

Parameters:

Filters Types

• int: Accepts only integer values.
• digit: Accepts only digit values including decimals and negatives.
• key: Accepts only alphanumeric characters, underscores, and dashes.
• password: Accepts alphanumeric characters, underscores, dashes, and special characters: @, !, *, and _.
• username: Accepts alphanumeric characters, underscores, dashes, and periods.
• email: Accepts valid email addresses containing alphanumeric characters, underscores, dashes, periods, and @.
• url: Accepts valid URLs containing alphanumeric characters, underscores, dashes, periods, question marks, hashtags, ampersands, plus signs, equal signs, colons, slashes, and spaces.
• money: Accepts only numeric values, including decimals and negative numbers.
• double: Accepts only numeric values, including decimals.
• alphabet: Accepts only alphabetical characters (uppercase and lowercase).
• phone: Accepts only phone numbers containing numeric characters, dashes, and plus signs.
• name: Accepts names containing letters, digits, spaces, underscores, periods, apostrophes, and hyphens.
• timezone: Accepts valid timezone strings containing alphanumeric characters, underscores, dashes, commas, colons, plus signs, and spaces.
• time: Accepts valid time strings containing alphanumeric characters, dashes, colons, and spaces.
• date: Accepts valid date strings containing alphanumeric characters, dashes, colons, slashes, commas, and spaces.
• uuid: Accepts valid UUID strings in the format: XXXXXXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXXXXXXXXXX.
• default: Removes any HTML tags from the input string.

Return Value:

string - Return sanitized string.

lang

Translate multiple languages with support for nested arrays.

function lang(string $lookup, string|null $default = null, string|null $locale = null, array $placeholders = []): string

Parameters:

Return Value:string - The translated text.

Throws:

• \Luminova\Exceptions\NotFoundException - If translation is not found and no default is provided.

To create a language translations you need to define it in /app/Controllers/Languages/.

The file name format should be like Example.en.php, where the Example is the context and en is the locale.

See Also

Translations - See the documentation for translation methods and usages.

Example.en.php

return [
    'error' => 'Error your example encountered error',
    'users' => [
        'notFound' => 'Username "{username}" does not exist.',
        'password' => 'Error your password {0} doesn\'t match with {1}'
    ]
];

Assuming your application locale is already set to EN.

<?php
echo  lang('Example.error'); // Error your example encountered error

<?php
echo  lang('Example.error.users.notFound', null, null, [
    'username' => "peterujah"
]); 
// Username "peterujah" does not exist.

<?php
echo  lang('Example.error.users.password', null, null, [
    '12345@199',
    "12345@123"
]); 
// Error your password 12345@199 doesn't match with 12345@123

write_content

Write or append contents to a file.

function write_content(string $filename, string|resource  $content, int  $flag, resource $context = null): bool

Parameters:

Return Value:

boo - Return true on success, false on failure.

Throws:

• \Luminova\Exceptions\FileException - If unable to write file.

See Also

File Manager - Also checkout the documentation for file manager methods and usages.

make_dir

Attempts to create the directory specified by pathname if it does not exist.

function make_dir(string  $path, int|null  $permissions = null, bool  $recursive = true): bool

Parameters:

Return Value:

Returns true if the directory existed or was created, otherwise false.

Throws:

• \Luminova\Exceptions\FileException - If unable to create directory.
• \Luminova\Exceptions\RuntimeException - If the path is not readable.

See Also

File Manager - Also checkout the documentation for file manager methods and usages.

validate

Validate user input fields or get a validation instance.

function validate(array|null $inputs, array|null $rules, array $messages = []): Luminova\Interface\ValidationInterface

Parameters:

Return Value:

ValidationInterface - Return validation instance if NULL is passed on $inputs or $rules.

See Also

Input Validations - Also checkout the documentation for input validation methods and usages.

Sample Usages

<?php 
    $inputs = [
        'name' => 'Peter',
        'email' => '[email protected]',
    ];
    $rules = [
        'name' => 'require|alphanumeric|max(50)',
        'email' => 'require|email'
    ];
    $messages = [
        'name' => [
            'require' => 'Name is required',
            'alphanumeric' => 'Invalid name character',
            'max' => 'Invalid name cannot be more than 50 character'
        ],
        'email' => [
            'require' => 'Email is required',
            'email' => 'Invalid email address "{value}"'
        ]
    ]

    $validation = validate($inputs, $rules, array $messages);

    if($validation->isPassed()){
        echo 'Success';
    }else{
        echo 'Error: ' . $validation->getErrorLine();
        var_export($validation->getErrors());
    }

start_url

Get start URL with hostname port suffix if available.

function start_url(string $suffix = ''): string

Parameters:

Return Value:

string Return public start URL with port if available.

absolute_url

Convert application relative paths to absolute URL including hostname port if available.

function absolute_url(string $path): string

Parameters:

Return Value:

string Return absolute url of the specified path.

Example:

On development server.

<?php 
echo absolute_url('/Applications/XAMPP/htdocs/project-base/public/asset/files/foo.text');
//Output: http://localhost/project-base/public/asset/files/foo.text.

On projection server.

<?php 
echo absolute_url('/example.com/www/public/asset/files/foo.text');
//Output: http://example.com/asset/files/foo.text.

ip_address

Retrieve the user's IP address or obtain IP address information using a third-party API service.

function ip_address(bool $ip_info = false, array $options = []): string|object|null

Parameters:

Return Value:

string|object|null - The IP address if $ip_info is false, else return IP address information or null if IP address cannot be determined.

Utilize a third-party API to fetch IP address information. Your API configuration can be done in /app/Controllers/Config/IPConfig.php.

get_class_name

Get class basename from namespace or class object.

function get_class_name(string|object $from): string

Parameters:

Return Value:

string - Return the class basename.

Note: This method is not same as PHP get_class, this method return the base name of a class no full qualified class.

get_mime

Detect MIME content type of a given file, (e.g text/plain).

function get_mime(string $filename): string|false

Parameters:

Return Value:

string|false - Return the content type in MIME format, otherwise false.

get_column

Return the values from a single column in the input array or an object.

function get_column(array|object $from, null|string|int $property, null|string|int $index = null): array 

Parameters:

Return Value:

array - Returns an array of values representing a single column from the input array or object.

This function is a wrapper for PHP array_column, but with additional optimization to handle both object or an array column.

filter_paths

Filter the display path, to remove private directory paths before previewing to users.

function filter_paths(string $path): string

Parameters:

Return Value:

string - Return the filtered path.

This method is useful when you want to throw an exceptions, use it to remove your server path and return only path which should be seen by users.

to_array

Convert an object to an array.

function to_array(mixed  $input): array

Parameters:

Return Value:

array - The finalized array representation of the object.

to_object

Convert an array or string list to a JSON object.

function to_object(array|string $input): object|false

Parameters:

Return Value:

object|false - Return JSON object, otherwise false.

string_length

Calculate string length based on different charsets.

function string_length(string $content, ?string $charset = null): int

Parameters:

Return Value:

int - Returns the string length.

kebab_case

Convert a string to kebab case.

function kebab_case(string $input, bool $lower = true): string

Parameters:

Return Value:

string - Return the kebab-cased string.

camel_case

Convert a string to camel case.

function  camel_case(string  $input): string

Parameters:

Return Value:

string - Return string. as camel cased.

which_php

Find the PHP script executable path.

function which_php(): string|null

Return Value:

string|null - Return PHP executable path or null.

status_code

Gets request status code from executed command or controller method.

function status_code(mixed $result = null, bool $return_int = true): int|bool

Parameters:

Return Value:

int|bool - Return the status code int or bool.

If passed result is boolean (false), integer (1) or NULL, the method will return STATUS_ERROR.

If passed result is boolean (true), integer (0), VOID or any other values, the method will return STATUS_SUCCESS.

text2html

Converts text characters in a string to HTML entities.

function  text2html(string|null  $text): string

Parameters:

Return Value:

string - Return processed text with HTML entities.

nl2html

Converts newline characters in a string to HTML entities.

function  nl2html(string|null  $text): string

This is useful when you want to display text in an HTML textarea while preserving the original line breaks.

Parameters:

Return Value:

string - Return processed text with HTML entities.

has_uppercase

Checks if a given string contains an uppercase letter.

function has_uppercase(string $string): bool

Parameters:

Return Value:

bool - Returns true if the string has uppercase, false otherwise.

list_to_array

Convert a string list to an array.

function list_to_array(string $list): array|false

Parameters:

Return Value:

array|false - The resulting array or false on failure.

In Luminova, a string list typically consist of comma-separated values, which may or may not be enclosed in quotes.

Examples: Foo, Bar, Baz, "Foo", "bar", "Baz"

list_in_array

Check if string list exists, matched an array.

function list_in_array(string $list, array $array = []): bool

Parameters:

Return Value:

bool - Return true if the list exists in the array, otherwise false.

<?php
$list = "Foo, Bar, Baz";

list_in_array($list, ['Foo', 'Bra']); // false

list_in_array($list, ['Foo', 'Baz', 'Bar']); // true

If any of the list value doesn't exist in the array, it will return false.

is_list

Test if a string is in a valid list format.

function is_list(string $input, bool $trim = false): bool

Parameters:

Return Value:

bool - Return true if the string is in a valid list format, false otherwise.

is_platform

Tells which platform your application is running on.

function is_platform(string $os): bool

Parameters:

Return Value:

bool - Return true if the application is running on the specified platform, false otherwise.

is_tor

Determines if the provided IP address corresponds to a Tor exit node.

function is_tor(string|null $ip = null): bool

Parameters:

Return Value:

bool - Return true if the IP address is a Tor exit node, false otherwise.

is_empty

Check if values are empty.

function is_empty(mixed  $values): bool

Parameters:

Return Value:

bool - True if any of the values are empty, false otherwise.

This function treats 0 as non-empty.

If you want different behavior, use the PHP empty() function instead.

is_nested

Determine if an array is a nested array.

function is_nested(array $array): bool

Parameters:

Return Value:

bool - Return true if the array is nested, false otherwise.

is_associative

Determine if an array is associative.

function is_associative(array $array): bool

Parameters:

Return Value:

bool - True if the array is associative, false otherwise.

is_command

Check if the application is running in command-line interface CLI mode.

function is_command(): bool

Return Value:bool - Returns true if the execution was made in CLI mode, false otherwise.

is_dev_server

Check if the application is running locally on any development environment.

function is_dev_server(): bool

Return Value:

bool - Returns true if the application is running on the development server, false otherwise.

This function utilizes server variable SERVER_NAME to check the server name matches any of 127.0.0.1 ::1 localhost.

Additionally it checks a custom Luminova server variable NOVAKIT_EXECUTION_ENV which is set when using builtin PHP development server.

is_blob

Determine whether the type of a variable is blob.

function is_blob(mixed $value): bool

Parameters:

Return Value:

bool - Return true if the value is a blob, false otherwise.

is_utf8

Determine weather a given string is UTF-8 encoded.

function is_utf8(string $input): bool

Parameters:

Return Value:

bool - Returns true if the string is UTF-8 encoded, false otherwise.