Project Structure

This project stays inside app-owned folders. Do not place controllers, routes, modules, migrations, SQL scripts, or assets inside CorianderCore, because framework updates own that directory.

Create app files with the CLI

Use framework generators for the route file and controllers:

php coriander make:route api/shelter
php coriander make:controller ShelterAnimal --api
php coriander make:controller ShelterLookup --api

The route command creates src/Routes/api/shelter.php. The controller commands create files under src/ApiControllers. Keep the generated files and then replace their bodies with the project code in the route and controller chapters.

Register the route file

Open public/routes.php and include the generated route file:

<?php
declare(strict_types=1);

use CorianderCore\Core\Router\Router;

return static function (Router $router): void {
    $shelterRoutes = PROJECT_ROOT . '/src/Routes/api/shelter.php';
    if (is_file($shelterRoutes)) {
        (require $shelterRoutes)($router);
    }
};

Create app folders

Create these app-owned folders:

src/
  ApiControllers/
    ShelterAnimalController.php
    ShelterLookupController.php
  Modules/
    ShelterApi/
      AnimalRepository.php
      AnimalService.php
      AnimalValidator.php
      ApiJson.php
      ShelterDatabase.php
database/
  migrations/

ApiControllers keeps the JSON controllers separate from page controllers. Modules/ShelterApi holds reusable project logic. database/migrations contains schema changes that can be applied by the framework migration command.

Configure SQLite

Generate a database configuration:

php coriander make:database

Choose SQLite and point it to an app-owned database file:

DB_TYPE=sqlite
DB_NAME=database/shelter.sqlite

Create the folder if it does not exist:

mkdir database

SQLite can create the file on first connection, but the folder must exist.

First checkpoint

Before adding database logic, register one temporary route:

$router->get('/api/shelter/health', static fn () => new \Nyholm\Psr7\Response(
    200,
    ['Content-Type' => 'application/json'],
    json_encode(['ok' => true], JSON_THROW_ON_ERROR)
));

Visit /api/shelter/health. If it returns {"ok":true}, routing is working and the next step can focus on the database.