What’s New in Quantum PHP Framework 2.9 Release

The Quantum PHP Framework team has wrapped up 2024 with an exciting new release — version 2.9, which debuted at the end of November. This update, arriving just under a year after the 2.8 release, brings a fresh wave of enhancements and features, reinforcing Quantum’s position as a robust and developer-friendly framework.

Version 2.9 introduces a powerful set of tools designed to simplify and elevate web development. Highlights include a new CAPTCHA library to bolster security, an Archive library for seamless file compression, and significant updates to the Mailer library, enhancing email handling. The Filesystem library now supports a Google Drive adapter, making cloud storage integration effortless. Developers can also look forward to a new Module generation command, streamlining the creation of modular applications, and an all-new pagination feature for improved data navigation.

Let’s dive into the details of these features and explore how they can benefit your next project!

Enhanced Security with the New CAPTCHA Library

The Quantum PHP Framework 2.9 introduces a new CAPTCHA library, empowering developers to integrate advanced security mechanisms into their applications. With support for two of the most popular CAPTCHA services reCAPTCHA ** and **hCaptcha. This library offers robust protection against bots and automated abuse. The library supports both visible CAPTCHAs, where users interact directly with security challenges, and invisible CAPTCHAs, which work silently in the background to verify users without disrupting their experience.

To begin, add the necessary CAPTCHA keys to your .env file:

RECAPTCHA_SITE_KEY=
RECAPTCHA_SECRET_KEY=

HCAPTCHA_SITE_KEY=
HCAPTCHA_SECRET_KEY=

In the shared/config/captcha.php configuration file, specify the desired adapter (reCAPTCHA or hCaptcha) and set its type (visible or invisible). Here's an example configuration:

return [
    /**
     * ---------------------------------------------------------
     * Captcha configurations
     * ---------------------------------------------------------
     */
    'current' => 'recaptcha', // Set to 'recaptcha' or 'hcaptcha'

    'recaptcha' => [
        'type' => 'visible', // Options: 'visible' or 'invisible'
        'site_key' => env('RECAPTCHA_SITE_KEY'),
        'secret_key' => env('RECAPTCHA_SECRET_KEY'),
    ],

    'hcaptcha' => [
        'type' => 'invisible',
        'site_key' => env('HCAPTCHA_SITE_KEY'),
        'secret_key' => env('HCAPTCHA_SECRET_KEY'),
    ],
];

In your view file (e.g., the signup page), integrate the CAPTCHA widget into your form using the helper function:

echo captcha()->addToForm('signUpForm', ['class' => 'col s1 offset-s4']);

• $formIdentifier: A string parameter required for invisible CAPTCHA. It binds the CAPTCHA to the specified form.

• $attributes: An array parameter used for visible CAPTCHA, allowing you to define custom tag attributes.

To verify the CAPTCHA response, either create new middleware or update an existing one. For example, in the modules/Web/Middlewares/Signup.php middleware, you can add the validation rule alongside other rules:

$this->validator->addRules([
    // Other validation rules...
    'captcha' => [
        Rule::set('required'),
        Rule::set('captcha'),
    ],
]);

Simplify File Compression with the New Archive Library

Quantum PHP Framework 2.9 introduces a robust Archive library, making file compression and extraction more straightforward than ever. This library provides two versatile adapters — Zip and Phar.

Creating a Zip Archive:

use Quantum\Libraries\Archive\Adapters\ZipAdapter;


$zip = new ZipAdapter('my-archive.zip');

$zip->addFile('path/to/file1.txt', 'documents/file1.txt');
$zip->addFile('path/to/image.jpg', 'images/image.jpg');

Extracting Files from a Zip Archive:

use Quantum\Libraries\Archive\Adapters\ZipAdapter;

$zip = new ZipAdapter('my-archive.zip');

$zip->extractTo('path/to/extract/directory');

You can add multiple files to archive:

$zip->addMultipleFiles([
    ['path' => 'path/to/source/file1.txt', 'name' => 'file1.txt'],
    ['path' => 'path/to/source/file2.txt', 'name' => 'file2.txt'],
]);

And even add files from string:

$zip->addFromString('sample.txt', 'Just a sample text');

There are many more helpful methods available and same applies for PharAdapter.

Mailer Library: Flexible Email Integration with Multiple Adapters

The Mailer library in Quantum PHP Framework 2.9 introduces a robust and flexible email delivery system that supports multiple adapters, allowing you to integrate various email services with ease. Whether you need to send emails via a local SMTP server or use cloud-based email services, this library provides all the necessary tools to get started.

• SMTP: For sending emails via a local or remote SMTP server.
• Mailgun: For sending emails through Mailgun’s email API.
• Mandrill: For sending emails through Mandrill’s email delivery service.
• SendGrid: For using SendGrid’s email API to send emails.
• SendinBlue: For leveraging SendinBlue’s SMTP and email API.

Setting Up the Mailer:

To begin, add the corresponding values to the .env file. If you're using SMTP, you'll need to provide the following settings:

MAIL_HOST=
MAIL_SMTP_SECURE=
MAIL_PORT=
MAIL_USERNAME=
MAIL_PASSWORD=

Next, in the shared/config/mailer.php file, make sure to specify the current adapter in use. Here's an example of how to set it up:

return [
    /**
     * ---------------------------------------------------------
     * Mailer Settings
     * ---------------------------------------------------------
     *
     * Set the current configuration to use.
     */
    'current' => 'smtp',  // Set the adapter in use

    'smtp' => [
        'host' => env('MAIL_HOST'),
        'secure' => env('MAIL_SMTP_SECURE'),
        'port' => env('MAIL_PORT'),
        'username' => env('MAIL_USERNAME'),
        'password' => env('MAIL_PASSWORD'),
    ],

    'sendinblue' => [
        'api_key' => env("SENDINBLUE_APIKEY", null),
    ],

    'sendgrid' => [
        'api_key' => env("SENDGRID_APIKEY", null),
    ],

    'mailgun' => [
        'api_key' => env("MAILGUN_APIKEY", null),
        'domain' => env("MAILGUN_DOMAIN", null),
    ],

    'mandrill' => [
        'api_key' => env("MANDRILL_APIKEY", null),
    ],
];

Once all the configurations are set, you can use the mailer() helper method to compose and send emails. Here's an example:

mailer()
    ->setFrom('[e-mail]', 'John Doe')  
    ->setAddress('[e-mail]', 'Ban Doe')   
    ->setSubject('Hello')                     
    ->setBody('Hello everyone')                
    ->send();     

FileSystem Library: Google Drive Adapter

The FileSystem library in Quantum PHP now includes a new GoogleDrive adapter, alongside the previously available Local and Dropbox adapters. This new adapter allows you to manage files directly on your Google Drive, offering additional flexibility for file storage.

To use the Local Filesystem adapter, simply create a new instance of FileSystem(). By default, this will utilize the LocalFileSystemAdapter.

For Dropbox or Google Drive, additional setup is required.

To work with Google Drive, you need to pass the GoogleDriveFileSystemAdapter as an argument to the FileSystem() constructor. The GoogleDriveFileSystemAdapter requires an instance of GoogleDriveApp which handles essential tasks such as making HTTP requests, managing tokens, and more (Similarly, when using the DropboxFileSystemAdapter, you'll need to provide a DropboxApp instance).

Since token management is the developer’s responsibility, you must also implement the TokenServiceInterface to handle token-related operations seamlessly.

The TokenServiceInterface requires the implementation of the following three methods:

namespace Quantum\Libraries\Storage\Adapters\Dropbox;

interface TokenServiceInterface
{
    public function getAccessToken(): string;

    public function getRefreshToken(): string;

    public function saveTokens(string $accessToken, ?string $refreshToken = null): bool;
}

To manage access and refresh tokens, you need to create a TokenService class that implements the TokenServiceInterface. This class should be implemented to align with the specific requirements of the application, ensuring proper storage and retrieval of tokens.

Once your TokenService class is ready, it should be passed to the GoogleDriveApp, which will use it to manage token operations effectively. The oogleDriveApp relies on this service for obtaining access tokens, refreshing them, and saving updated tokens when needed.

use Quantum\Libraries\Storage\Adapters\GoogleDriveFileSystemAdapter;
use Quantum\Libraries\Storage\Adapters\GoogleDriveApp;
use Quantum\Libraries\Storage\FileSystem;
use Quantum\Libraries\Curl\HttpClient;
use Shared\Services\TokenService;

$appKey = config()->get('filesystem.gdrive.appKey');
$appSecret = config()->get('filesystem.gdrive.appSecret');

$httpClient = new HttpClient();

$tokenService = new TokenService();

$googleDriveApp = new GoogleDriveApp($appKey, $appSecret, $tokenService, $httpClient);

$googleDriveAdapter = GoogleDriveFileSystemAdapter::getInstance($googleDriveApp);

$fileSystem = new FileSystem($googleDriveAdapter);

Once the GoogleDrive adapter is set up, you can call any available method to interact with files as usual:

// Upload a file
$fileSystem->put('folder/file.txt', 'This is the file content');

// Retrieve a file's content
$content = $fileSystem->get('folder/file.txt');

// Delete a file
$fileSystem->delete('folder/file.txt');

While we’ve explored many aspects of the library in this article, some features, like Module Generation and Pagination, deserve their own deep dives. These are significant features with substantial functionality that require more detailed explanation. Stay tuned, as we’ll provide separate articles on these topics in the near future to help you fully leverage their potential.

To get started or explore more, visit the Quantum PHP Core GitHub repository for the source code or check out the official Quantum PHP website for detailed documentation and resources.

We encourage you to explore Quantum PHP Core’s capabilities and see how it can simplify your development journey. Happy coding!