Install Composer via Composer on Mac OS X

curl -sS https://getcomposer.org/installer | php sudo mv composer.phar /usr/local/bin/composer

Install Yii

composer create-project --prefer-dist yiisoft/yii2-app-basic basic

Installing Assets

Add the following lines to /basic/composer.json

"replace": {
    "bower-asset/jquery": ">=1.11.0",
    "bower-asset/inputmask": ">=3.2.0",
    "bower-asset/punycode": ">=1.3.0",
    "bower-asset/yii2-pjax": ">=2.0.0"
},

Verify the Installation

Go into the basic/
php yii serve
User browser to access:
http://localhost:8080/

CHeck if the minimum requirements are met by running

cd basic
php requirements.php

Apache Configuration

Update /etc/apache2/httpd.conf accordingly

# Set document root to be "basic/web"
DocumentRoot "path/to/basic/web"

<Directory "path/to/basic/web">
    # use mod_rewrite for pretty URL support
    RewriteEngine on
    
    # if $showScriptName is false in UrlManager, do not allow accessing URLs with script name
    RewriteRule ^index.php/ - [L,R=404]
    
    # If a directory or a file exists, use the request directly
    RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
    RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
    
    # Otherwise forward the request to index.php
    RewriteRule . index.php

    # ...other settings...
</Directory>

Yii static structure of an application

Application Structure

Yii Request Lifecycle

Request Lifecycle

1. A user makes a request to the entry script web/index.php.
2. The entry script loads the application configuration and creates an application instance to handle the request.
3. The application resolves the requested route with the help of the request application component.
4. The application creates a controller instance to handle the request.
5. The controller creates an action instance and performs the filters for the action.
6. If any filter fails, the action is cancelled.
7. If all filters pass, the action is executed.
8. The action loads some data models, possibly from a database.
9. The action renders a view, providing it with the data models.
10. The rendered result is returned to the response application component.
11. The response component sends the rendered result to the user's browser.

Working with forms

Add the following to /basic/controllers/SiteController.php
use app\models\EntryForm;

Working with Databases

Mac has pre-installed sqlite3

  1. Create a yii2basic database with table country
CREATE TABLE `country` (
  `code` CHAR(2) NOT NULL PRIMARY KEY,
  `name` CHAR(52) NOT NULL,
  `population` INT(11) NOT NULL DEFAULT '0');

INSERT INTO `country` VALUES ('AU','Australia',24016400);
INSERT INTO `country` VALUES ('BR','Brazil',205722000);
INSERT INTO `country` VALUES ('CA','Canada',35985751);
INSERT INTO `country` VALUES ('CN','China',1375210000);
INSERT INTO `country` VALUES ('DE','Germany',81459000);
INSERT INTO `country` VALUES ('FR','France',64513242);
INSERT INTO `country` VALUES ('GB','United Kingdom',65097000);
INSERT INTO `country` VALUES ('IN','India',1285400000);
INSERT INTO `country` VALUES ('RU','Russia',146519759);
INSERT INTO `country` VALUES ('US','United States',322976000);

  1. DB connection Update path in config/db.php
    'dsn' => 'sqlite:/path/to/sqlite/db/file'

  2. Create CRUD with Gii To enter Gii interface
    http://localhost:8080/index.php?r=gii

Reference

  1. Yii Getting Started
  2. Database Access