Oxwall is under developement at the moment, so below you can see only preliminary version of page-lifecycle. Oxwall implements front-controller pattern and all requests are handled by single script - index.php (it is the only script available for user requests). Lets see how it works:

First of all .htaccess file in root directory helps us to redirect all requests to front-controller script.

Code of .htaccess:

Options +FollowSymLinks
RewriteEngine On
#RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
#RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !^/index.php
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} (/|\.php|\.html|\.htm|\.feed|\.pdf|\.raw|/[^.]*)$  [NC]
RewriteRule (.*) index.php

Below you can see the code of index.php script:

Code of index.php:

define('_OW_', true);
 
define('DS', DIRECTORY_SEPARATOR);
 
define('OW_DIR_ROOT', dirname(__FILE__).DS );
 
require_once(OW_DIR_ROOT.'includes'.DS.'init.php');
 
$application = OW_Application::getInstance();
 
$application->triggerEvent(OW_EventManager::APPLICATION_INIT);
 
$application->triggerEvent(OW_EventManager::ROUTE_STARTUP);
 
$application->route();
 
$application->triggerEvent(OW_EventManager::ROUTE_SHUTDOWN);
 
$application->dispatch();
 
$application->finalize();
 
$application->returnResponse();

As we can see index.php is very simple script representing a number of definite logic steps:

 <-- Page start -->

• _OW_ - is indicator if core and other classes are included within the OW framework (kind of replacement for 'deny from all' instruction)
• DS - short variant of standart PHP constant DIRECTORY_SEPARATOR
• OW_DIR_ROOT - root directory constant for OW script modules

• load constants and configs to run the appliaction (stored in separate PHP files - define.php and configs.php)
• load global functions (function.php)
• load classes to be used by application in any case
• register autoloader and error manager (exception interceptor, PHP error handler)

• register non-autoloadable classes in autoloader object (Form, Inputs, etc)
• add static routes from navigation system (static pages added from admin panel) in router object
• register active plugins in plugin manager and load plugin init.php scripts (plugin initializers)
• initialize core basic objects: request, response, event manager, theme manager, etc
• create and add HTML document (OW_HtmlDocument) to response object

 <-- User request handling start -->

• search matching route in static navigation routes
• — in custom static routes
• — in dynamic routes
• try to resolve requested uri with system default route

 <-- If matches were not found -> show 404 page -->

• Check provided dispatch parameters
• Create action controller instance;
• Run controller action;
• Get result markup and put it in HTML document object

• Compile document to send ( controller rendered body + master_page + html head part )
• send added HTTP headers
• send buffered debug output
• send compiled HTML document

 <-- Page end (Here script dies) -->