actra/yuf

yuf - A Smart, Fast, and Lightweight PHP Framework

yuf (pronounced "[jʌf]" or "[jʊf]") is a smart, fast, and lightweight PHP framework designed with a focus on simplicity and performance. It has zero external dependencies, other than the actra/autoloader library which is required for all setups.

Key Features

• Extremely Lightweight: Minimal overhead and fast execution.
• Zero Dependencies: Core framework functions without heavy external libraries.
• Composer Ready: Easy installation via Packagist.
• Standalone Support: Works perfectly without Composer.
• Forced Autoloading: Always uses the specialized actra/autoloader for maximum performance and control.
• Built-in Security: Includes features like CSP (Content Security Policy) nonce support.
• Authentication Helpers: Supports access rights, password login handling, and optional per-user IP whitelists.

Requirements

• PHP 8.5 or higher
• Common PHP extensions: mbstring, openssl, pdo, intl, bcmath, simplexml, dom, iconv, curl, libxml, ctype

Installation

Install yuf and actra/autoloader via Composer or download them manually. Note that yuf always requires actra/autoloader to be manually initialized.

Via Composer (Recommended)

composer require actra/yuf

Manual Installation

• Download the source code from GitHub.
• Download actra/autoloader (https://github.com/Actra-AG/autoloader) and place it in your project.
• Reference the Autoloader.php when initializing the Core class.

Quick Start

• Create a .env.php file based on .env.example.php.
• Create an index.php in your document root based on index.example.php.
• Initialize the Framework Core and provide the path to Autoloader.php if not using the default.

REST/API Endpoints

yuf includes lightweight helpers for building REST-style endpoints without adding external dependencies.

Useful backend/API features include:

• HttpRequest::getRequestMethod() returns a typed RequestMethodEnum.
• BaseView::getJsonRequestBody() reads and validates JSON request bodies.
• JsonRequestBody provides typed accessors for required and optional string, integer, float, and array values.
• BaseView::setSuccessResponseContent() creates standardized success responses.
• BaseView::setErrorResponseContent() creates standardized error responses and can set the HTTP status code.

JSON success responses use this structure:

{
  "success": true,
  "data": {}
}

JSON error responses use this structure:

{
  "success": false,
  "error": {
    "code": 0,
    "message": "Error message"
  }
}

Optional additional response data is returned in a top-level data property.

Template Tags

yuf templates support custom tags for common rendering logic.

Conditional snippet rendering

The tst:if tag can check whether a snippet file exists in the configured snippets directory by using compare="hasSnippet".

<tst:if compare="hasSnippet" operator="eq" against="example.html">
  <tst:snippet name="example.html"/>
</tst:if>

The value of against is resolved relative to Core::get()->snippetsDirectory.

Documentation

For more detailed examples, please refer to:

• .env.example.php: Configuration examples.
• index.example.php: Full usage example with manual autoloader initialization.
• UPGRADE.md: Guide for developers updating to or working with new versions.

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License. See the LICENSE file for details.

© 2026 Actra AG