php clean (mvc) architecture for simple problem

Question

I'm trying to find a clean approach for a simple problem in php 5.3.

I'm not having implementation problems whatsoever, just thinking about the best method to setup a clean solution.

Here is my project:

I request data from a public API.
The data is JSON. I convert the JSON response into a php object
I pass the php object to my view (template engine) where it is iterated over and both raw and mapped data is displayed.

This is my current state of code:

In index.php i require all classes and the configuration. I could write an autoloading class but i don't think this would make sense at all, since every class i require is always used.

I then read my config file and I create a Options object from it.

Also a Request object is created to which my Options object is passed via constructor injection.

In this object I perform the actual request to the API and I get the JSON back. Should I convert the JSON response in the Request object or should I write some Helper Class to perform this task, since the conversion has nothing to do with the actual Request?

Still in index.php I create the necessary View object and create a Controller object to which the View is passed and call its indexAction.

My folder structure looks like this:

A. Classes

AA.Controller

AAA. IndexController.php

AA. Service

AAA. Service.php

AA. Options.php

AA. Request.php

A. Configuration

AA. config.php

A. index.php

So, how do I setup my project for the cleanest solution possible?

Since I do not have a model I have no "M" part as in MVC. I only have these 2-3 Classes which I don't know a clean way to deal with.

Should Options and Request be classes on their own or should they be just methods of Service?

Should I completely remove Service and just create a Helper class since it is not really a Service Layer? Currently I only do some mapping from raw data to fixed values in Service

I am looking forward to hearing from you guys

tdammers · Accepted Answer · 2011-07-20 14:27:37Z

1

I say this smells of over-engineering. All you need to do is:

make a http request to the API (a few lines of code involving CURL, or maybe you can even do it with file_get_contents(), using PHP's URL wrapper)
a call to json_decode()
invoke your template engine with the JSON data
echo the output of the template engine to the client

All in all, assuming you have a template engine in place, it shouldn't take more than maybe 20 lines.

answered Jul 20, 2011 at 14:27

tdammers

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3 Comments

Michael Over a year ago

Of course, I could've written it in just 20 lines. But I am trying to actually improve my architecture skills and I thought it would be good to start with a really simple project.

tdammers Over a year ago

Most important architecture skill is "Keep It Simple, Stupid". You can always refactor your code to handle more complexity when the need arises.

hakre Over a year ago

Yeah, you can not improve architecture skills by doing something totally insane. It will always measure against reality, if you de-realize, you won't increase any skills at all.

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