README

A lightweight, file-based ORM-like system for PHP
Developed by Zidbih

Filequent allows you to build and interact with data models in a clean, Eloquent-style syntax — without using a traditional database. Data is saved to structured JSON files, making this ideal for local development, prototypes, lightweight apps, or embedded systems.

🚀 Features

• Eloquent-style model structure
• Stores data as JSON files (no database required)
• Simple CRUD support: create, find, all, update, delete, where, etc.
• Relationship support: hasMany, hasOne, belongsTo
• Default and custom foreign key handling
• Extensible and easy to test
• Fully tested with PHPUnit

📦 Installation

Install via Composer:

composer require zidbih/filequent

🧱 Defining Models

Create model classes by extending Zidbih\Filequent\Filequent and define:

• $collection — JSON file name (without .json)
• $basePath (optional) — directory where the file is saved

use Zidbih\Filequent\Filequent;

class User extends Filequent
{
    protected static string $collection = 'users';
    protected static ?string $basePath = __DIR__ . '/data';

    public function posts()
    {
        return $this->hasMany(Post::class);
    }

    public function latestPost()
    {
        return $this->hasOne(Post::class);
    }
}

class Post extends Filequent
{
    protected static string $collection = 'posts';
    protected static ?string $basePath = __DIR__ . '/data';

    public function user()
    {
        return $this->belongsTo(User::class);
    }
}

✨ CRUD Operations

Create

$user = User::create(['name' => 'Alice']);

Read

$found = User::find($user->id);// by ID
$allUsers = User::all();// all records

Update

$user->update(['name' => 'Updated']);

Delete

$user->delete();

🔍 Query Builder

Filequent supports method chaining similar to Eloquent:

$results = User::where('name', '=', 'Alice')->get();

$firstMatch = User::where('age', '>', 25)->first();

$likeMatches = User::where('name', 'LIKE', 'Ah%')->get();

Supported operators: =, !=, >, <, LIKE

🔗 Relationships

hasMany

$user = User::find(1);
$posts = $user->posts(); // Returns all posts with user_id = $user->id

hasOne

$post = $user->latestPost(); // Returns one related Post

belongsTo

$post = Post::find(1);
$user = $post->user(); // Returns the User who owns the post

Custom Foreign Key

You can specify a custom foreign key:

return $this->belongsTo(User::class, 'custom_user_id');

💾 Where Is Data Stored?

By default, JSON files are saved in a /data folder under the project root.

your-project/
├── data/
│   ├── users.json
│   └── posts.json

You can override this using the static $basePath property on each model.

🧪 Testing

Filequent includes a fully-featured test suite using PHPUnit.

Setup

vendor/bin/phpunit

Structure

tests/
├── FilequentTest.php
├── testData/
│   ├── users.json
│   └── posts.json

The tests cover:

• File-level operations (insert/read)
• All CRUD methods
• Advanced query logic (chaining, LIKE)
• Relationship resolution
• Custom foreign keys
• Error cases and edge handling

📂 Example Usage

$user = User::create(['name' => 'Ahmed']);

Post::create([
    'title' => 'Hello World',
    'body' => 'Welcome to Filequent!',
    'user_id' => $user->id,
]);

// Retrieve all posts by this user
$posts = $user->posts();

// Get the user for a post
$post = Post::find(1);
$owner = $post->user();

🧑‍💻 Author

Zidbih
GitHub: https://github.com/medmahmoudhdaya

📄 License

This package is open-sourced software licensed under the MIT license.

🤝 Contributing

Pull requests, bug reports, and suggestions are welcome!

If you like the package, consider ⭐ starring it on GitHub and sharing it with others.

Filequent — Simplify data storage, without a database.