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Splint.json Package Descriptor

The splint.json file that resides at the root of a splint package is a file that describes the package. It can also be used to convey more information about the package such as category, authors, etc.

The full form of the file looks like this.

{
    "name": "vendor/name",
    "type": "library|application|config|template",
    "paged": true|false,
    "config": "@config_name",
    "config_items": {
      "config_item1": "(data_type) config_description1",
      "config_item2": "(data_type) config_description2",
      "config_itemN": "(data_type) config_descriptionN",
    },
    "description": "Description goes here",
    "tags": ["tag", "goes", "here"],
    "page": "https://github.com/vendor/name",
    "website": "https://example.com",
    "authors": [
	{
	    "name": "a name goes here",
            "email": "an email goes here",
            "page": "a page goes here",
            "role": "a role goes here"
        }
    ],
    "php": ">=7.2.0",
    "depends-on": [
        "another-vendor/another-name"
    ],
    "autoload": {
        "libraries": [
            ["ClassName1", {"argKey1": "argVal1", "argKey2": "argVal2", "argKeyN": "argValN"}, "alias1"],
            ["ClassName2", "alias2"],
            ["ClassName3", "@config_file_name", "alias2"]
        ],
        "models": [
            ["Model1", "alias2"],
            ["Model2, "alias3"]
        ],
        "helpers": ["helper1, "helper2", "helperN"],
        "configs": ["config1", "config2", "configN"] 
    }
}

Key-Value Pairs

Key Description Required Example(s)
name (string) Fully qualified package name. Yes zoey/bootstrap
type (string) Package Type Yes library, application
description (string) The Package's description Yes A Library for making life easy.
tags (string array) Tags or keywords that bring the package into a search result. No git, preference, embedded
page The GitHub repository link for the package. Yes https://github.com/zoey/bootstrap
website A web page that contains more information about a package or its documentation. No http://example.com
authors (json array) An array of JSON objects that describes the author(s) of a package. No { “name”: “John Doe”, “email”: “johndoe@email.com”, “page”: “http://example.com”, “role”: “Developer” }
php (string) The minimum php version required for this package to run seamlessly No 5.6.0
depends-on (string array) An array of package identifiers the current package depends on in order to work. These packages will be installed alongside the current package. No jonas/git
autoload (json object) A JSON object which optionally contains the libraries, models, configs, & helpers key which instructs the SPlint loader to load them when a call to this→load→package($splint) is made. No “autoload”: {“libraries”:[ [“ClassName”, “alias”] ] }
libraries (json array of json arrays) A Child of the autoload key. A JSON Array of JSON Arrays with maximum a maximum length of 3 each, containing the Class name to load and its corresponding alias as the first and second element respectively, or the Class name to load, a JSON object containing key-value pairs for initialization paraters, and the corresponding alias as the first, second, and third elements respectively No [ [“ClassName”, “alias” ] ] OR [ [ “ClassName”, {“param1” ⇒ “val1”, “paramN” ⇒ “valN”}, “alias” ] ] OR [ [ “ClassName”, “@config_file_name”, “alias”] ]
models (json aray of arrays) A child of the autoload key. A JSON Array containing JSON Arrays with a maximum length of 2 each, containing the Model Class Name and optionally it's corresponding alias. No [ [ “ModelClass”, “alias” ] ]
helper (json array) A child of the autoload key. A JSON array of helpers to autoload. No [ “helper1”, “helper2”, “helperN” ]
configs (json array) A child of the autoload key. A JSON array of configs to autoload. No [ “config1”, “config2”, “configN” ]
paged (boolean) Used if package type is that of application this is used to indicate to Splint or end-users that your splint application fully supports paging. See Splint App Paging for more. No true, false
config (string) Value optionally starts with an '@' symbol. This indicates the config file to load and merge with the associative array you pass to the $this→load→app() function. No @config_file
config_items (json object) A JSON of config items that can be present within the config file specified by the config key or the config file set in descriptor auto-loading, and their description. This is for documentation purposes. No {“a_setting”: “a_value”}

Example

{
    "name": "zoey/bootstrap",
    "type": "library",
    "description": "A package for using bootstrap within code igniter.",
    "tags": ["html", "css", "bootstrap"],
    "page": "https://github.com/zoey/bootstrap",
    "website": "https://bootstrap.com",
    "authors": [
	{
	    "name": "Zoey",
            "email": "zoey@email.com",
            "page": "about.me/zoey",
            "role": "Developer"
        }
    ],
    "php": ">=7.2.0",
    "depends-on": [
        "jenkinson/ci-css"
    ],
    "autoload": {
        "libraries": [
            ["BootStrap", "bootstrap"]
        ]
    }
}

If you want your package to go get its loading parameters from a config file of choosing by end users, you can follow the example below. 

{
    "name": "zoey/bootstrap",
    "type": "library",
    "description": "A package for using bootstrap within code igniter.",
    "tags": ["html", "css", "bootstrap"],
    "page": "https://github.com/zoey/bootstrap",
    "website": "https://bootstrap.com",
    "authors": [
	{
	    "name": "Zoey",
            "email": "zoey@email.com",
            "page": "about.me/zoey",
            "role": "Developer"
        }
    ],
    "php": ">=7.2.0",
    "depends-on": [
        "jenkinson/ci-css"
    ],
    "autoload": {
        "libraries": [
            ["BootStrap", "@bootstrap_config" "bootstrap"]
        ]
    }
}

This means that a call to $this→load→package(“zoey/bootstrap”) will load the Splint package with parameters from a config file located at application/config/bootstrap_config.php.

Splint will not throw an Exception if this file doesn't exist. You must check the argument array in your class constructor and verify use the isset() function to check for present values.

The config file for end users in this particular scenario should look like this. 

<?php
defined('BASEPATH') OR exit('No direct script access allowed');
 
$config["bootstrap_config"] = [
  "arg1" => "value1",
  "arg2" => "value2",
  "argN" => "valueN"
]
?>
Notice that the key of the array in the $config variable is the same as the name of the config file.

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