Wigbi
Wigbi is an open source web application framework that is implemented in PHP 5 and licensed under the GPLv3 license.
History
The development of Wigbi begun in late 2006. Wigbi initially aimed at mapping PHP classes to the database and various script layers like JavaScript and Flash, with the goal to speed up development and avoid manual errors.
During development, a lot of additional functionality has been introduced. Wigbi 0.99 was released August 24, 2009 and new versions are released on a regular basis. The continous aim is to provide developers with a minimalistic framework that is easy to learn, easy to use and easy to extend.
Philosophy
The main aim with Wigbi has always been to keep the framework as small as possible to provide developers with a minimalistic framework that is easy to learn, easy to use and easy to extend. All new functionality that is introduced into the framework has been carefully considered and designed to be as intuitive as possible.
Wigbi aims to minimize manual handling of tasks that can be automated. This ensures a fast and more fun and secure development, where tedious, repetetive and even complex tasks are handled automatically. Wigbi also provides developers with core functionality and a standardized way of initializing Wigbi and its components.
Wigbi does not claim to provide a “complete” framework, simply because it is not. Neither does it force a single development paradigm or pattern onto its developers, but rather allows you to use the parts of the framework that you need. As a direct result, Wigbi provides a simple plugin model that makes it easy to extend it with additional classes.
Wigbi was released as Open Source under the GPLv3 license April 1, 2009. It is still a “basement” project and not (yet) open for code checkins, but code and competence contributions as well as help with various bugs are more than welcome.
Licensing
Wigbi is released under the GPLv3 license. The source code and all official, downloadable plugins use the same license, which means that the GPLv3 license conditions apply to the entire framework.
Requirements
Wigbi requires PHP 5.2.4 or later as well as mySQL and Apache. Developers are recommended to install WAMP (Windows), MAMP (OSX) or LAMP (Linux), which includes everything that is needed to run Wigbi.
Wigbi also requires the JQuery and MooTools Core frameworks. These frameworks are shipped together with Wigbi and are automatically included when Wigbi is started.
The Wigbi GUI plugins are almost exclusively AJAX-based, which means that JavaScript must be enabled for the controls to work. This, however, only applies to the GUI plugins.
Features
Wigbi does not have to be installed and requires very little configuration, if any, to work. Basically, it is possible to just download Wigbi, unzip the file and add Wigbi to any PHP application, but some functionality does require minor configuration.
Wigbi is easy to start, and just require that you
1. Include Wigbi (wigbi/wigbi.php) at the very first line2. Start Wigbi in the HEAD tag3. Stop Wigbi whenever you do not need it anymore
Wigbi features a small, framework as well as an ever growing collection of database and UI/GUI plugins, as listed below.
Code principles
Since Wigbi aims at being minimalistic, classes and functions are carefully considered before being added to the framework. Due to this, the Wigbi development process is strictly centralised and does not (for now) allow external checkins.