**Course Title:** Mastering Yii Framework: Building Scalable Web Applications **Section Title:** Introduction to Yii and Development Environment **Topic:** Set up a Yii development environment and create a basic Yii project with routes and views.(Lab topic) **Objective:** By the end of this lab, you will have a complete setup of a Yii development environment and a basic Yii project with routes and views. ### Step 1: Set up a Yii development environment In the previous topics, we covered the overview of the Yii framework and its ecosystem, setting up a Yii development environment using Composer, PHP, and the Yii installer, understanding the MVC architecture, and exploring Yii's directory structure and configuration files. Now, let's dive into setting up a Yii development environment. **Required Tools and Software:** * PHP 7.4 or higher * Composer (PHP package manager) * Yii installer * A code editor or IDE (Integrated Development Environment) **Installing Yii using Composer:** You can install Yii using Composer by running the following command in your terminal: ```bash composer create-project --prefer-dist yiisoft/yii2-app-basic myapp ``` This command will create a new Yii project called `myapp` in the current directory. **Running the Yii Application:** To run the Yii application, navigate to the project directory and run the following command: ```bash php yii serve ``` This command will start the Yii built-in web server. **Step 2: Create a basic Yii project with routes and views** Now that we have a Yii development environment set up, let's create a basic Yii project with routes and views. **Creating a New Controller:** Create a new file called `SiteController.php` in the `controllers` directory: ```php // myapp/controllers/SiteController.php namespace app\controllers; use yii\web\Controller; class SiteController extends Controller { public function actionIndex() { return $this->render('index'); } } ``` **Creating a New View:** Create a new file called `index.php` in the `views/site` directory: ```php <!-- myapp/views/site/index.php --> <h1>Welcome to my Yii application!</h1> ``` **Defining Routes:** Open the `config/web.php` file and add the following route: ```php // myapp/config/web.php return [ // ... 'components' => [ // ... ], 'rules' => [ 'site/index' => 'site/index', ], ]; ``` This route will point to the `actionIndex()` method in the `SiteController` class. **Testing the Application:** Open a web browser and navigate to `http://localhost:8080/site/index`. You should see the "Welcome to my Yii application!" message. ### Conclusion: In this lab, we set up a Yii development environment and created a basic Yii project with routes and views. We created a new controller, view, and route, and tested the application using the Yii built-in web server. **Key Takeaways:** * Set up a Yii development environment using Composer, PHP, and the Yii installer. * Create a new Yii project using the Yii installer. * Create a new controller and view. * Define routes using the `config/web.php` file. * Test the application using the Yii built-in web server. **Practical Exercise:** Try creating a new controller, view, and route for a "about" page. You can use the same steps as above. **External Resources:** * [Yii Framework Documentation](https://www.yiiframework.com/doc/guide/2.0/en) * [Composer Documentation](https://getcomposer.org/doc/) * [Yii Installer Documentation](https://github.com/yiisoft/yii2-app-basic/blob/master/docs/guide/start-installation.md) **Leave a comment or ask for help:** If you have any questions or need help with this lab, please leave a comment below.