This guide is intended for developers who wish to use the ORM Propel on a hosting environment where command line access is restricted.

Preamble

• The ORM allows linking application objects to database tables. Data is manipulated via PHP objects rather than writing raw SQL.
• Propel is the abstraction layer that manages these interactions (relations, joins, pagination) to simplify code maintenance.

Particularities & limitations

• Propel is not pre-installed via Pear.
  • You must install it manually in your project.
  • It is imperative to download the "Conventional Package" version of Propel.
• CLI commands (such as propel-gen) are not executable on the server.
  • Consequently, Propel is only used in "Runtime" mode in production. Class generation (build) must be performed locally.
  • The workflow involves generating the code in a development environment and then transferring the resulting files to the server.
• Dependencies:
  • The full set of libraries required for Propel is available, except for Phing.
  • The absence of Phing does not impact production, as this tool is only required during the local generation phase.