The Exoplanet Explorer is a modern, API-driven dashboard designed for astronomers and space enthusiasts to visualize and analyze data on newly discovered worlds. Built with the Symfony Framework, this application consumes external data sources to provide a rich, interactive interface for filtering, searching, and viewing detailed profiles of exoplanets.
The dashboard's core functionality is divided into three distinct modules:
- Functionality: Allows users to dynamically organize the entire catalog using a single, explicit sorting criterion, such as Distance (ly), Planet Radius, Planet Mass, or Discovery Year, in both ascending and descending order.
- Functionality: Provides visual distributions of the exoplanet catalog by planet type and discovery year, offering quick insights into overall discovery trends and planetary demographics.
- Functionality: Categorizes and visualizes planets based on estimated habitability criteria, giving a focused look at potentially life-supporting worlds (e.g., planets in the habitable zone).
It's a powerful tool for exploring astronomical data and understanding the characteristics of distant planetary systems.
The exoplanet data displayed in this application is Powered by the NASA Exoplanet Archive.
Link: https://exoplanetarchive.ipac.caltech.edu/cgi-bin/TblView/nph-tblView?app=ExoTbls&config=PS
Welcome to the Exoplanet Explorer! This guide will walk you through setting up your local environment, installing dependencies, and running the necessary developer tools to contribute to the project.
Before you begin, ensure your local development environment meets the following requirements:
| Component | Minimum Version | Check Command |
|---|---|---|
| PHP | 8.2 or above |
php -v |
| Composer | Latest Stable | composer -v |
| Git | Latest Stable | git -v |
| Symfony CLI | Latest Stable | symfony -v |
Start by cloning the Exoplanet Explorer repository to your local machine using Git:
# Clone the repository
git clone [https://github.com/moghadban/Exoplanet-Explorer.git](https://github.com/moghadban/Exoplanet-Explorer.git)
# Navigate into the project directory
cd Exoplanet-Explorer
We use Composer to manage all project dependencies, including the Symfony framework components and developer tools like PHPUnit and PHPStan.
Run the following command in the project's root directory:
composer install
Interpretation:
-
This command reads the
composer.jsonfile. -
It downloads all required libraries (listed under
require) and development tools (listed underrequire-dev) into the./vendordirectory.
Since this is an API-driven application, no database setup is required. You can jump straight into running the Symfony web server.
We strongly recommend using the Symfony CLI for the built-in web server, as it is optimized for Symfony applications and provides HTTPS support automatically.
symfony serve
-
Access: Your application will typically be available at
https://127.0.0.1:8000. -
Stop: Press
Ctrl+Cin the terminal to stop the server.
Your project utilizes several Composer scripts to automate quality assurance tasks. You can run these tools directly from the command line using composer run-script <script-name> or the shorthand composer <script-name>.
The test script runs PHPUnit, our testing framework, using the --testdox flag for readable output.
composer test
The --testdox flag converts cryptic test method names (e.g., testUserLoginWithValidCredentials) into descriptive sentences ("A user can log in with valid credentials"). This is highly user-friendly.
We use PHP Code Sniffer to enforce coding standards.
-
Check for violations (Report Only):
composer phpcs -
Automatically Fix violations (Modifies Files):
composer phpcbf⚠️ Important: Always inspect agit diffafter runningphpcbfto ensure the automatic fixes are correct before committing!
PHPStan checks for potential bugs and type-related issues in your code without executing it.
composer phpstan
This is essential for catching errors that might slip past PHP's runtime checks.
The analyze script is a pipeline that runs all critical quality checks sequentially. This is the script you should run before every commit.
composer analyze
The analyze script executes in this order:
-
@test(Runs all PHPUnit tests) -
@phpcs(Checks code style) -
@phpcbf(Automatically fixes most code style issues) -
@phpstan(Performs static code analysis)
By running composer analyze, you ensure your code is fully tested, adheres to style standards, and is free of common type bugs, guaranteeing a high level of code quality.