Yii 2 API Project Template

Yii 2 API Project Template is a skeleton Yii 2 application best for developing complex Web applications with multiple tiers.

The template includes four tiers: front end, back end, api, and console, each of which is a separate Yii application.

The template is designed to work in a team development environment. It supports deploying the application in different environments.

DIRECTORY STRUCTURE

api
    config/              contains api configurations
    controllers/         contains Web controller classes
    models/              contains api-specific model classes
    runtime/             contains files generated during runtime
    modules/             contains api versioning
    v1/                  contains module version 1
    web/                 contains the entry script and Web resources
common
    config/              contains shared configurations
    mail/                contains view files for e-mails
    models/              contains model classes used in both backend and frontend
console
    config/              contains console configurations
    controllers/         contains console controllers (commands)
    migrations/          contains database migrations
    models/              contains console-specific model classes
    runtime/             contains files generated during runtime
backend
    assets/              contains application assets such as JavaScript and CSS
    config/              contains backend configurations
    controllers/         contains Web controller classes
    models/              contains backend-specific model classes
    runtime/             contains files generated during runtime
    views/               contains view files for the Web application
    web/                 contains the entry script and Web resources
frontend
    assets/              contains application assets such as JavaScript and CSS
    config/              contains frontend configurations
    controllers/         contains Web controller classes
    models/              contains frontend-specific model classes
    runtime/             contains files generated during runtime
    views/               contains view files for the Web application
    web/                 contains the entry script and Web resources
    widgets/             contains frontend widgets
vendor/                  contains dependent 3rd-party packages
environments/            contains environment-based overrides
tests                    contains various tests for the advanced application
    codeception/         contains tests developed with Codeception PHP Testing Framework

INSTALLATION

Install via Composer

If you do not have Composer, you may install it by following the instructions at getcomposer.org.

You can then install this project template using the following command:

composer global require "fxp/composer-asset-plugin:~1.0.0"
composer create-project --prefer-dist --stability=dev wfcreations/yii2-app-api app

Now you should be able to access the application through the following URL, assuming app is the directory directly under the Web root.

http://localhost/app/api/web/
http://localhost/app/backend/web/
http://localhost/app/frontend/web/

CONFIGURATION

Database

Edit the file common/config/db.php with real data, for example:

return [
    'class' => 'yii\db\Connection',
    'dsn' => 'mysql:host=localhost;dbname=yii2app',
    'username' => 'root',
    'password' => '1234',
    'charset' => 'utf8',
];

NOTE: Yii won't create the database for you, this has to be done manually before you can access it.

Enabling JSON Input

To let the API accept input data in JSON format, configure the [[yii\web\Request::$parsers]] property of the request application component to use the [[yii\web\JsonParser]] for JSON input:

'request' => [
    'parsers' => [
        'application/json' => 'yii\web\JsonParser',
    ]
]

Info: The above configuration is optional. Without the above configuration, the API would only recognize application/x-www-form-urlencoded and multipart/form-data input formats.