MelisFront

The front-office rendering system that turns a URL into a finished page and powers the live editable preview. Package melisplatform/melis-front.

Purpose

MelisFront is the runtime that resolves a web address to a Melis page, runs the render pipeline (routing, SEO, templating plugins, layout, caching, asset minification) and delivers the HTML response to the visitor. It also powers the live, editable preview inside the back-office (MelisCms) by re-rendering any page in melis mode. MelisFront owns no database tables — all page/site/template/SEO data is read from melis-engine, which is the single source of truth.

MelisFront is one of a tightly-coupled trio: melis-engine (data layer), melis-front (front rendering), melis-cms (back-office). Changes or questions about any one module routinely involve the other two.

Enable it

Add to config/melis.module.load.php:

return [
    'MelisFront',
];

Declared Melis dependency: melisplatform/melis-core. At runtime it also consumes MelisEngine services. Load order: melis-core → melis-front → melis-engine → melis-cms.

Key services

Service alias	Role
MelisFrontHead	Manages page <title>, meta description, canonical and injects plugin CSS/JS assets.
MelisSiteConfigService	Reads per-site configuration by key, page or language — supports file + DB merge.
MelisSiteTranslationService	Per-site translation key/text lookup and CRUD, cached per site.
MelisTranslationService	Module/locale translations (back-office strings), cached.
MinifyAssets	Builds bundle.css / bundle.js per site using matthiasmullie/minify.
MelisFrontNavigation	Navigation factory that builds a Laminas\Navigation tree from the engine page tree.

Front office

Routing

The main front route is a Regex pattern matching .../id/{idpage} — dispatched to MelisFront\Controller\Index::index. Two child routes extend it:

• /renderMode/melis — back-office edit mode (used by MelisCms to render a page for editing).
• /preview — preview of the saved version (renderMode: melis, preview: true).

Special routes: sitemap(.xml), /css/plugin-width.css, /melissearchindex/…, /melispluginrenderer (AJAX single-plugin render), /minify-assets.

Render pipeline (listeners)

Wired in src/Module.php across EVENT_DISPATCH and EVENT_FINISH (~19 listeners total):

Phase	Listeners
EVENT_LOAD_MODULES_POST	MelisFrontSEORouteListener (SEO URL routes from DB), MelisFrontSiteConfigListener, MelisFrontMiniTemplateConfigListener
EVENT_DISPATCH	MelisFrontXSSParameterListener, MelisFrontHomePageRoutingListener / …HomePageIdOverrideListener, MelisFrontSEODispatchRouterRegularUrlListener (page validation, 404/301, fires melisfront_site_dispatch_ready), MelisFront404To301Listener, MelisFront404CatcherListener
EVENT_FINISH	MelisFrontPluginsToLayoutListener (plugin CSS/JS), MelisFrontSEOMetaPageListener (title/description/canonical), MelisFrontAttachCssListener (page CSS), MelisFrontLayoutListener (front layout or BO layout + TinyMCE in melis mode), MelisFrontPageCacheListener, MelisFrontMinifiedAssetsCheckerListener

Templating plugins (controller plugins)

All extend MelisEngine\Controller\Plugin\MelisTemplatingPlugin. Registered under controller_plugins:

Plugin alias	Block
MelisFrontTagHtmlPlugin	Inline-editable HTML / rich-text zone.
MelisFrontTagTextareaPlugin	Plain text zone.
MelisFrontTagMediaPlugin	Image / file from the media library.
MelisFrontMenuPlugin	Navigation menu built from the page tree.
MelisFrontBreadcrumbPlugin	Breadcrumb trail (Home › … › Current page).
MelisFrontShowListFromFolderPlugin	Lists sub-pages from a chosen folder automatically.
MelisFrontDragDropZonePlugin	Layout container (drop zone for other plugins).
MelisFrontBlockSectionPlugin	Reusable block/section container.
MelisFrontGenericContentPlugin	General-purpose content block.
MelisFrontGdprBannerPlugin	Cookie / GDPR consent banner.
MelisFrontGdprRevalidationPlugin	Re-asks consent when the GDPR policy changes.
MelisFrontSearchResultsPlugin	Renders internal site-search results.
MiniTemplatePlugin	Inserts a pre-built mini-template in one click.

View helpers

Used inside a site's .phtml templates (registered under view_helpers):

Helper alias	Use
MelisTag	Declares an editable zone (HTML or media) that editors fill in-place.
MelisLink	Outputs a page's SEO-friendly URL (stays correct if the page moves).
MelisMenu	Renders a navigation menu from the page tree.
MelisDragDropZone	Renders a drag-and-drop zone hosting other plugins.
siteTranslate	Outputs a site translation string by key.
SiteConfig	Reads a site configuration value.

Language/home helpers for language-version links and the home-page link are also available.

Navigation

MelisFrontNavigation (src/Navigation/Factory/) extends the Laminas navigation factory to build a Laminas\Navigation object from the engine's page tree (MelisEnginePage / MelisEngineTree), which the Menu and Breadcrumb helpers render.

Asset minification

MinifyAssetsService (backed by matthiasmullie/minify) builds bundle.css / bundle.js per site. MelisFrontMinifiedAssetsCheckerListener injects them (cache-busted) when present. Trigger a build via the /minify-assets route.

Database tables

MelisFront owns no database tables. All page, site, language, SEO and translation data is owned by melis-engine and melis-cms.

Example

Typical usage in a site .phtml template and PHP service calls:

// Inside a site page template (.phtml)
<?= $this->MelisMenu($idPage); ?>                         // navigation menu from the page tree
<a href="<?= $this->MelisLink($targetPageId); ?>">…</a>  // SEO-friendly page link
<?= $this->MelisTag($idPage, 'zone_main', 'html'); ?>    // editable HTML zone
<?= $this->siteTranslate('btn_send'); ?>                  // site translation string
<?= $this->SiteConfig('contact_email'); ?>               // site config value

// Reading site config and translations in PHP
$siteConfig = $serviceManager->get('MelisSiteConfigService');
$email = $siteConfig->getSiteConfigByKey('contact_email', $siteId);

$tr = $serviceManager->get('MelisSiteTranslationService')
        ->getEntryByTextAndSiteId('btn_send', $siteId, $langId);

// Hooking the render pipeline (after page validation, before render)
$sharedEvents->attach('MelisFront', 'melisfront_site_dispatch_ready', function ($e) {
    $params = $e->getParams(); // page id, site, renderMode…
    // e.g. force a redirect, add data to the layout, A/B-test…
}, 50);

Key files

Concern	Path
Module bootstrap + listener wiring	vendor/melisplatform/melis-front/src/Module.php
Routes, services, plugins, helpers, caches	vendor/melisplatform/melis-front/config/module.config.php
Render-pipeline listeners	vendor/melisplatform/melis-front/src/Listener/
Services (Head, SiteConfig, Translations, Minify)	vendor/melisplatform/melis-front/src/Service/
Templating plugins (content blocks)	vendor/melisplatform/melis-front/src/Controller/Plugin/
View helpers	vendor/melisplatform/melis-front/src/View/Helper/
Navigation factory	vendor/melisplatform/melis-front/src/Navigation/Factory/
Front controllers	vendor/melisplatform/melis-front/src/Controller/

See also: melis-engine, melis-cms, melis-core