There are various technologies that a developer leverages while working on creating applications. One such technology that facilitates the development process is a library. A library is a set of pre-written instructions or code to perform a specific action.
Using a library in your programs eliminates the need to write the code from scratch to accomplish a particular task. Simply importing a library will work. These tasks could be as simple as sending emails or preventing spam from filling up your inbox. With these libraries, you can get your work done in a short amount of time and with precision.
This article covers 20 of the most used libraries in PHP that every PHP developer needs to know about. Also, we shall briefly introduce you to what exactly PHP libraries are.
Contents
What are PHP Libraries?
PHP libraries are the collection of routines, classes, and interfaces, used for developing web applications in PHP. These libraries help developers significantly reduce development time by providing ready-made code to accomplish various development tasks. In the most simple terms, a PHP library is a file with a .php extension consisting of a sequence of instructions in PHP.
There is a Standard PHP Library (SPL) that is a collection of classes and interfaces to solve common problems.
Top 20 Libraries in PHP to Use in Web Development
The following are the 20 of the most used PHP libraries that accelerate and simplify the development of PHP application.
1. Symfony Console Component
When it comes to developing an application using PHP frameworks, the Command-line Interface (CLI) works as one of the core elements. This library offers a command-line interface in Symphony that is easy to comprehend and use. Also, you can easily use this library in your application. The primary purpose of this PHP library is to develop testable command line interfaces.
Implementation
The first thing you need to do is create the PHP script in the command line and then define the console, such as
<?php
// application.php
require __DIR__.'/vendor/autoload.php';
use Symfony\Component\Console\Application;
$application = new Application();
$application->run();Now, once you are done with defining the console, the next thing to do is register the commands with the help of the add() function.
$application->add(new GenerateAdminCommand());- Composer Command – composer require Symfony/console
2. Psr/log
With the help of this logging library of PHP, you can find out all the different interfaces, classes, traits, and more that are related to PS-3. You can retrieve all these resources with just a few clicks.
Keep in mind that a library isn’t a logger itself, but it is a form of an interface that creates a logging system. Furthermore, this library comes with full-fledged documentation in order to make it easy for the developers to implement in their projects.
Implementation
Use the given code snippet to perform logging:
<?php
use Psr\Log\LoggerInterface;
class Fun
{
private $logger;
public function __construct(LoggerInterface $logger = null)
{
$this->logger = $logger;
}
public function doSomething()
{
if ($this->logger) {
$this->logger->info('Is Doing work');
}
}
}- Composer Command – composer require psr/log
3. pChart
With the use of pChart, a developer can create anti-aliased charts and pictures straight from their web server. Once these charts and pictures are made, they can showcase the results on the client’s browser via email or in a PDF format.
pChart is known for providing users with an object-oriented syntax, and it comes entirely in line with all the latest web standards that enhance the user experience for web2.0 applications. The latest version of pChart has been entirely rewritten from scratch, and now it is called pChart 2.0.
Implementation
<?PHP
require_once __DIR__ . '/../vendor/autoload.PHP'; // Autoload files using Composer autoload
use pChart\pData;
use pChart\pChart;
use pChart\pCache;
// Dataset definition
$DataSet = new pData;
$DataSet->AddPoint(array(1, 4, 3, 2, 3, 3, 2, 1, 0, 7, 4, 3, 2, 3, 3, 5, 1, 0, 7));
$DataSet->AddSerie();
$DataSet->SetSerieName("Sample data", "Serie1");
// Initialise the graph
$Test = new pChart(700, 230);
$Test->setFontProperties("Fonts/tahoma.ttf", 10);
$Test->setGraphArea(40, 30, 680, 200);
$Test->drawGraphArea(252, 252, 252, TRUE);
$Test->drawScale($DataSet->GetData(), $DataSet->GetDataDescription(), SCALE_NORMAL, 150, 150, 150, TRUE, 0, 2);
$Test->drawGrid(4, TRUE, 230, 230, 230, 70);
// Draw the line graph
$Test->drawLineGraph($DataSet->GetData(), $DataSet->GetDataDescription());
$Test->drawPlotGraph($DataSet->GetData(), $DataSet->GetDataDescription(), 3, 2, 255, 255, 255);
// Finish the graph
$Test->setFontProperties("Fonts/tahoma.ttf", 8);
$Test->drawLegend(45, 35, $DataSet->GetDataDescription(), 255, 255, 255);
$Test->setFontProperties("Fonts/tahoma.ttf", 10);
$Test->drawTitle(60, 22, "My pretty graph", 50, 50, 50, 585);
$Test->Render("Naked.png");- Composer Command – composer require wp-statistics/pchart
4. Monolog
With using Monolog, you can save logs without much trouble. You can save logs in specific locations by moving them to set your files, inboxes, sockets, and other web services.
In addition to this, if you are using the PSR-3 as the interface, you can even type in the hint-logs in order to counter the libraries that are maintaining the optimum interoperability.
Implementation
require_once(DIR.'/vendor/autoload.PHP');
use MonologLogger;
use MonologHandlerStreamHandler;
use MonologHandlerFirePHPHandler;
$logger = new Logger('logger');
$logger->pushHandler(new StreamHandler(DIR.'/test_app.log', Logger::DEBUG));
$logger->pushHandler(new FirePHPHandler());
$logger->error('Logger is now Ready');- Composer Command – composer require monolog/monolog
5. PHP Text To Image
Just from the name, you can make out what this library is used for. There are a number of ways in which you can use this library. For example, with this PHP library, you could display the phone number as an image which cannot be done by writing a code.
Besides this, it will also prevent your phone number or email address from being picked up by web crawlers and then used for spamming.
Implementation
<?PHP
// (A) NEW EMPTY IMAGE OBJECT
$img = imagecreate(80, 150);
// (B) SET COLORS
$green = imagecolorallocate($img, 0, 255, 0);
$black = imagecolorallocate($img, 0, 0, 0);
// (C) EMPTY GREEN RECTANGLE
imagefilledrectangle($img, 0, 0, 150, 80, $green);
// (D) WRITE TEXT
imagestringup($img, 5, 10, 100, "FOO BAR!", $black);
// (E) OUTPUT
header("Content-type: image/png");
imagepng($img);
imagedestroy($img);6. Guzzle
Guzzle works on the abstraction layer, which is developed as a microframework between the PHP HTTP client. With the use of Guzzle, the HTTP request is sent quickly, and then it becomes easier for the developer to integrate their web application into the online services.
Guzzle’s main benefit is that it can be used with any form of HTTP handlers like cURL, socket, PHP’s stream wrapper, and more. Lastly, with Guzzle’s implementation, a developer can facilitate both synchronous and asynchronous requests.
Implementation
$client = new GuzzleHttp\Client();
$res = $client->request('GET', 'https://api.github.com/user', [
'auth' => ['user', 'pass']
]);
echo $res->getStatusCode();
// "200"
echo $res->getHeader('content-type')[0];
// 'application/json; charset=utf8'
echo $res->getBody();
// {"type":"User"...'
// Send an asynchronous request.
$request = new \GuzzleHttp\Psr7\Request('GET', 'http://httpbin.org');
$promise = $client->sendAsync($request)->then(function ($response) {
echo 'I completed! ' . $response->getBody();
});
$promise->wait();- Composer Command – composer require guzzlehttp/guzzle
7. Ratchet
With the help of Ratchet, one can create real-time web applications where content will be displayed as soon as it is published by the authors. As a result, the owner of the website does not have to update the content of their web pages manually. In theoretical terms, this is known as “immediate data delivery.” But when we try to implement it in real-world scenarios, things are a little different, and data needs to be delivered in relevant periods based on its context.
On the other hand, when you use the Ratchet library of PHP, you will be able to upload the data regularly without having to send requests from the client side. Ratchet allows developers to create designs that are event-driven instead of taking the help of traditional HTTP requests from the client side to update the data.
Implementation
<?PHP
use Ratchet\MessageComponentInterface;
use Ratchet\ConnectionInterface;
// Make sure composer dependencies have been installed
require __DIR__ . '/vendor/autoload.PHP';
/**
* chat.PHP
* Send any incoming messages to all connected clients (except sender)
*/
class MyChat implements MessageComponentInterface {
protected $clients;
public function __construct() {
$this->clients = new \SplObjectStorage;
}
public function onOpen(ConnectionInterface $conn) {
$this->clients->attach($conn);
}
public function onMessage(ConnectionInterface $from, $msg) {
foreach ($this->clients as $client) {
if ($from != $client) {
$client->send($msg);
}
}
}
public function onClose(ConnectionInterface $conn) {
$this->clients->detach($conn);
}
public function onError(ConnectionInterface $conn, \Exception $e) {
$conn->close();
}
}
// Run the server application through the WebSocket protocol on port 8080
$app = new Ratchet\App('localhost', 8080);
$app->route('/chat', new MyChat, array('*'));
$app->route('/echo', new Ratchet\Server\EchoServer, array('*'));
$app->run();- Composer Command – composer require cboden/ratchet
8. PHPDocumentor
Documenting your code is quite important when the application is complex. With PHPDocumentor, you can incorporate proper documentation in your code. This makes the job of the developer, tester, and your client much easier as they can read the instructions in the documentation and can make changes to it without having to address the issue with you in the first place.
PHPDocumentor uses all the best practices and recommended styles for ease of understanding. Besides this, with the implementation of this PHP library, developers can generate documentation that can be viewed in HTML and other standard formats.
Implementation
The easiest way to run PHPDocumentor is by writing the given code snippet below after the installation has been completed.
$ PHPdoc run -d <SOURCE_DIRECTORY> -t <TARGET_DIRECTORY>- Composer Command – composer require PHPdocumentor/PHPdocumentor:2.*
9. Swiftmailer
With the installation of Swiftmailer, you will be revoking the rights of default PHP mail(), and for all things, Swiftmailer will be used. The benefit of using Swiftmailer is that some of the latest generation servers don’t work with the PHP mail() setup. Furthermore, the default mail setup of PHP is not consistent, and it can perform very poorly with some servers.
In addition to this, Swiftmailer allows sending emails in multiple formats, such as (Text+HTML) which used to be missing from the default mailer. You can even attach files to your emails by using the file submission method or by selecting the file from your server. It has return-path headers that users can specify for their mail templates. As a result, emails that are not delivered will be sent back to the user’s mailbox. Lastly, it is much faster.
Implementation
require_once '/path/to/vendor/autoload.PHP';
// Create the Transport
$transport = (new Swift_SmtpTransport('smtp.example.org', 25))
->setUsername('your username')
->setPassword('your password')
;
// Create the Mailer using your created Transport
$mailer = new Swift_Mailer($transport);
// Create a message
$message = (new Swift_Message('Wonderful Subject'))
->setFrom(['john@doe.com' => 'John Doe'])
->setTo(['receiver@domain.org', 'other@domain.org' => 'A name'])
->setBody('Here is the message itself')
;
// Send the message
$result = $mailer->send($message);- Composer Command – $ composer require “swiftmailer/swiftmailer:^6.0”
10. AWS SDK For PHP
With AWS SDK for PHP, a developer is getting an object-oriented abstraction for the low-level or the RPC style interface in order to provide a much simpler code writing experience. Apart from this, the details that used to stay hidden in HTTP API requests are now transparent with its latest version, and now the developer can work with the multiple resources of AWS as they are local PHP objects.
One of the most highlighted features of AWS SDK is the presence of an Amazon S3 Stream wrapper that allows native use of PHP functions and allows you to interact with the S3 buckets. Moreover, this is an open-sourced library. Thus, a developer can share multiple components and projects to enhance the functionalities of the PHP programming language with Amazon SDK.
Implementation
$aws = new Aws($config);
// Get references to resource objects
$bucket = $aws->s3->bucket('my-bucket');
$object = $bucket->object('image/bird.jpg');
// Access resource attributes
echo $object['LastModified'];
// Call resource methods to take action
$object->delete();
$bucket->delete();- Composer Command – composer require aws/aws-sdk-PHP
11. Predis
With the implementation of Redis in PHP, the developers have a slight advantage as it allows storing data in pieces in a much more well-structured, durable, and robust manner. In addition to this, one can even use it for the replication process due to the presence of its strong durability, which is something hard to find in a number of caching systems that one can use with PHP.
Predis helps make your task easier when you are working with data structures like lists, strings, hashes, sorted sets, and more. The average read and write tasks will be done in milliseconds of time, and it can also support up to millions of operations per second as well. Lastly, Redis is an open-source project and has a massive community backing it up for support. Due to Redis being an open-source project, you don’t have to worry about vendor or technology locks of any kind.
Implementation
The first thing you need to do is load the Redis library in your project, and this can be done by using the following line of code written below:
// Prepend a base path if Predis is not available in your "include_path."
require 'Predis/Autoloader.PHP';
Predis\Autoloader::register();
Once the library is added, you have to create a client connection using the code snippet like this:
$client = new Predis\Client();
$client->set('foo', 'bar');
$value = $client->get('foo');- Composer Command: composer require predis/predis
12. Laravel Backup
With this PHP library, you will be able to create a backup of your application as it is developed. The backup is available in the form of a Zip file, and it has all the files in directories specified by you. As a result, it is easier for you to find out a particular file from the directory when needed.
In addition to this, with Laravel backup, you can create multiple backups of your application in different sets of file systems all at once to save you time. On the other hand, if there are some issues with your backup, you will be notified using slack, mail, or other forms of notification providers.
Implementation
In order to publish the config file of your project in the back, you need to run config/backup.PHP run:
PHP artisan vendor:publish --provider="Spatie\Backup\BackupServiceProvider"- Composer command: composer require spatie/laravel-backup
13. Carbon DateTime Library
Carbon library is a part of the PHP DateTime class; in order to use Carbon, you need to declare it in the Carbon namespace. You need to do it once. After that, there is no need to provide a fully qualified name each time. The use of Carbon can help you get rid of working with Date and time in PHP, which is a complicated task in the first place. PHP has formatting issues and does a lot of salutations to display simple Dates and times in an application.
With Carbon, you are getting multiple time zones, current time, converting the DateTime into simple text for easy readability. It can also parse an English phrase into a DateTime such as (“twenty-second of October 2020”), and it follows semantic ways when it comes to dealing with dates.
Implementation
printf("Right now is %s", Carbon::now()->toDateTimeString());
printf("Right now in Vancouver is %s", Carbon::now('America/Vancouver')); // automatically converted to string
$tomorrow = Carbon::now()->addDay();
$lastWeek = Carbon::now()->subWeek();
// Carbon embed 823 languages:
echo $tomorrow->locale('fr')->isoFormat('dddd, MMMM Do YYYY, h:mm');
echo $tomorrow->locale('ar')->isoFormat('dddd, MMMM Do YYYY, h:mm');
$officialDate = Carbon::now()->toRfc2822String();
$howOldAmI = Carbon::createFromDate(1975, 5, 21)->age;
$noonTodayLondonTime = Carbon::createFromTime(12, 0, 0, 'Europe/London');
$internetWillBlowUpOn = Carbon::create(2038, 01, 19, 3, 14, 7, 'GMT');
if (Carbon::now()->isWeekend()) {
echo 'Party!';
}
echo Carbon::now()->subMinutes(2)->diffForHumans(); // '2 minutes ago'- Composer Command: composer require nesbot/carbon
14. Swagger PHP Library
API, over the time of development, evolves into a more complicated application. As a result, it becomes necessary for the development team to maintain and update its documentation so end consumers and clients can work with the API efficiently as well as understand how it works.
With the Swagger PHP library, you get to extract API metadata from your PHP source code files. It is one of the best ways to keep your API documentation next to the corresponding source code. This makes it easier for the user to keep all the data in one place and modify them whenever they need. You can use the CLI interface to extract the code along with existing annotations.
Implementation
/**
* @OA\Info(title="My First API", version="0.1")
*/
/**
* @OA\Get(
* path="/api/resource.json",
* @OA\Response(response="200", description="An example resource")
* )
*/- Composer Command: composer require zircote/swagger-PHP
15. Snappy PDF Library
Creating a PDF using the PHP programming language is a difficult task. The main issue comes in displaying the PDF as it should look in HTML. Snappy is a PHP5 library that allows thumbnailing, snapshot, and even PDF generation from the URL or HTML page. It uses two of the most popular open-source HTML to PDF command line tools that are wkhtmltopdf and wkhtmltoimage. It is easy to use, and due to its simplicity, it has become a developer’s favorite API.
Implementation
require_once '/path/to/snappy/src/autoload.PHP';
use Knp\Snappy\Pdf;
// Initialize the library with the
// path to the wkhtmltopdf binary:
$snappy = new Pdf('/usr/local/bin/wkhtmltopdf');
// Display the resulting pdf in the browser
// by setting the Content-type header to pdf:
header('Content-Type: application/pdf');
header('Content-Disposition: attachment; filename="file.pdf"');
echo $snappy->getOutput('http://www.github.com');- Composer Command: composer require knplabs/knp-snappy
16. Twig
Twig is considered to be a fast way of compiling templates down to plain optimized PHP code. With the use of Twig, the overhead on the PHP code is shortened to a bare minimum. Apart from this, with the implementation of Twig, you get to evaluate untrusted template code using its sandbox mode.
This makes it possible for Twig to become a template language for a number of applications where users are able to make changes to the template design. In addition to this, Twig uses a flexible lexer and parser, making it possible for developers to have their own custom tags and filters and also create their own DSL.
Twig comes with a concise syntax, which allows templates to be easily readable and work with. In Twig, we need to use double curly brace delimiters {{ }} to produce output, and the usage of curly brace percentage delimiters {% %} is for inserting logic in the code. The {# #} is used for putting up comments in the code.
Implementation
<?php
require_once __DIR__.'/bootstrap.php';
// Create a product list
$products = [
[
'name' => 'Notebook',
'description' => 'Core i7',
'value' => 800.00,
'date_register' => '2017-06-22',
],
[
'name' => 'Mouse',
'description' => 'Razer',
'value' => 125.00,
'date_register' => '2017-10-25',
],
[
'name' => 'Keyboard',
'description' => 'Mechanical Keyboard',
'value' => 250.00,
'date_register' => '2017-06-23',
],
];
// Render our view
echo $twig->render('index.html', ['products' => $products] );- Composer Command: composer require twig/twig
17. Faker
Faker is the PHP library that comes with its own set of built-in data providers, and these can easily be accessed by a developer in order to generate the test data. In addition to this, a developer is able to define his own test data types making Faker quite extensible.
This library can help developers automate the generation of their testing data to save time. The other advantage Faker can provide is its ability to extend default functionalities in order to suit more complex implementations.
Implementation
<?php
require('vendor/autoload.php');
$faker = Faker\Factory::create();
echo $faker->name() . "\n";
echo $faker->name('male') . "\n";
echo $faker->name('female') . "\n";
echo $faker->firstName() . "\n";
echo $faker->firstName($gender='male') . "\n";
echo $faker->firstName($gender='female') . "\n";
echo $faker->firstNameMale('female') . "\n";
echo $faker->firstNameFemale('female') . "\n";
echo $faker->lastName() . "\n";- Composer Command: composer require fzaninotto/faker
18. Idiorm – Lightweight ORM Library
The Idiorm is one of the lightweight Object Relational Mapping (ORM) libraries that is used with PHP. It works as a great query builder for PHP5, which uses PDO. Once you install Idiorm, you will no longer have to write the complex SQL code in your program.
On the other hand, if you have ever worked with jQuery, you will know the concept of a fluent interface where one can chain method calls together or one after the other. This allows your code to be easily readable as methods, when stuck together one after the other, will make an easy sentence that developers can comprehend with ease.
Implementation
$user = ORM::for_table('user')
->where_equal('username', 'j4mie')
->find_one();
$user->first_name = 'Jamie';
$user->save();
$tweets = ORM::for_table('tweet')
->select('tweet.*')
->join('user', array(
'user.id', '=', 'tweet.user_id'
))
->where_equal('user.username', 'j4mie')
->find_many();
foreach ($tweets as $tweet) {
echo $tweet->text;
}- Composer Command: require_once ‘idiorm.php’
19. OAuth 2.0
OAuth is the open standard for the implementation of secure delegated access, which means the ability of an application to act on behalf of a user of another application without having to share the password with the other application which is asking for sign-up. This type of functionality has become quite common.
For example, if you open Spotify on any of your devices, it will ask for sign-in or sign-up. You can sign-up on Spotify using your Google email ID, FaceBook user name, and more.
Like these sign-up options, OAuth 2.0 does the same thing. In case an application gets hacked, your password will still remain secure and won’t be exposed to the hacker. The application stores a token that will indicate to your Google or Facebook, which is acting on behalf of you via such tokens.
Implementation
<?PHP
require __DIR__. '/config.php';
require __DIR__. '/common.php';
require __DIR__ . '/vendor/autoload.php';
?>
Welcome to the application.
<?php if (!$_SESSION['user']) { ?>
<?php if ($_SESSION['error']) { ?>
<br/><span style="color: red;"><?php echo $_SESSION['error']; ?></span><br/>
<?php } ?>
<form action="/authenticate.php">
Username: <input type="text" name="email"/> <br/>
Password: <input type="password" name="password"/> <br/>
<input type="submit" value="Log in"/>
</form>
<?php } ?>
<?PHP if ($_SESSION['user']) { ?>
You are logged in.<br/>
<form action="/logout.php">
<input type="submit" value="Log out"/>
</form>
<?php } ?>Note:- When the user logs in, they will enable and post to authenticate.php, which works like this:
<?PHP
require __DIR__. '/config.php';
require __DIR__. '/common.php';
require __DIR__ . '/vendor/autoload.php';
if ($_REQUEST['email'] && $_REQUEST['password']) {
if (auth($_REQUEST['email'], $_REQUEST['password'])) {
// in reality, you'd load from a database
$user = [];
$user['email'] = $_REQUEST['email'];
$user['favorite color] = 'blue';
$_SESSION['user'] = $user;
unset($_SESSION['error']);
} else {
$_SESSION['error'] = 'Unable to authenticate;
}
}
header("Location: /");
?>- Composer Command: composer require league/oauth2-server
You can also read: Best PHP Alternatives
20. Lighthouse
Lighthouse works like magic with Laravel, and it does the job of creating a GraphQL server much easier. It has been recently developed and uses GraphQL schema definition language in order to define the user data and add functionality via server-side directives.
This also allows maximum reuse of the code which you have written earlier and works with similar concepts that you already know about. With the implementation of the Lighthouse library in PHP, you get to leverage your existing models to create optimized database queries straight out of the box.
Implementation
PHP artisan vendor:publish --tag=lighthouse-schema- Composer Command: composer require nuwave/lighthouse
Wrapping Up
PHP is still ruling the programming world when it comes to creating server-side scripts. But truth to be told, it takes a lot of time for a developer to write code in PHP. With the use of PHP libraries, you can already have yourself a prebuilt code that can quickly become part of your project. As a result, you only need to focus on the creative aspects of the programming rather than writing long codes to make repetitive tasks work.
Sameeksha is a freelance content writer for more than half and a year. She has a hunger to explore and learn new things. She possesses a bachelor’s degree in Computer Science.
