What is Medoo?

Medoo is a lightweight PHP database framework designed to simplify database interactions with a simple yet powerful API. It was created with the goal of making PHP developers' lives easier by providing an intuitive and flexible approach to database management.

Why Use Medoo?

• Lightweight: Medoo is minimalistic, with a size of less than 100 KB, which ensures that it does not bloat your project.
• Easy to Use: The API is designed to be intuitive, making it easy to perform common database operations like CRUD (Create, Read, Update, Delete) without needing to write complex SQL queries.
• Easy to Use: The API is designed to be intuitive, making it easy to perform common database operations like CRUD (Create, Read, Update, Delete) without needing to write complex SQL queries.
• Secure: Medoo has built-in mechanisms to protect against SQL injection attacks, making your application more secure by default.
• Cross-Database Compatibility: Medoo supports various SQL databases including MySQL, SQLite, PostgreSQL, and more, providing flexibility in choosing the database system that best suits your project needs.
• Community Support: Medoo is open-source and has a vibrant community that contributes to its ongoing development, ensuring it remains up-to-date with the latest best practices in PHP development.

Getting Started with Medoo

To start using Medoo, you need to install it via Composer, a dependency manager for PHP. This can be done with a simple command:

composer require catfan/medoo

After installing Medoo, you can include it in your PHP project and initialize the database connection.

Setting Up Medoo

After installation, you can initialize Medoo by including the autoload file and setting up the database connection as shown below:

<?php
require 'vendor/autoload.php';

use Medoo\Medoo;

// Initialize
$database = new Medoo([
    'type' => 'mysql',
    'host' => 'localhost',
    'database' => 'my_database',
    'username' => 'my_username',
    'password' => 'my_password'
]);

// Now you can start interacting with your database
?>

Advanced Queries with Medoo

Medoo's simplicity does not limit its power. It supports complex SQL queries with ease. Below are some examples of how you can use Medoo for more advanced database operations.

JOIN Query Example

To perform a JOIN operation between two tables, you can use the join method in Medoo as follows:

$data = $database->select("users", [
  "[>]profiles" => ["user_id" => "id"]
], [
  "users.name",
  "profiles.bio"
]);

print_r($data);

Aggregation Query Example

Medoo allows you to perform aggregation queries, such as calculating the sum, average, or counting rows in a table. Below is an example of how to count the total number of users:

$count = $database->count("users");

echo "Total users: " . $count;

Best Practices with Medoo

To get the most out of Medoo, it's important to follow some best practices that ensure your code is efficient, secure, and maintainable.

• Always sanitize input data to prevent SQL injection, even though Medoo has built-in protections.
• Use parameterized queries to ensure that your SQL statements are safe and not vulnerable to attacks.
• Leverage Medoo’s logging capabilities to debug and analyze SQL queries during development.
• Regularly update Medoo and other dependencies to ensure compatibility with the latest PHP versions and security patches.

Conclusion

Medoo is a powerful yet simple database framework that can greatly streamline your PHP projects. Whether you're working on a small personal project or a large-scale enterprise application, Medoo provides the tools you need to manage your database efficiently.