PLAN.md §13 v0.2.0 *Bundled-mode port negotiation*. Hardcoded
m_port = 8765 used to fail loudly only when a second php-qml app
launched on the same machine — whichever lost the bind race went
Offline with no recovery path.
Fix:
- Bind a transient QTcpServer to QHostAddress::LocalHost port 0,
read serverPort(), close. Linux's ephemeral-port allocator
doesn't immediately reassign the closed port, and FrankenPHP's
bind happens within milliseconds inside spawnChild() — small
TOCTOU window in theory, fail-loud in practice if it ever races.
- BRIDGE_PORT env override pins the port for tests / dev
(bundled-supervisor.sh and perfsmoke.sh now both export it
instead of the previous PERF_BACKEND_PORT-only knob).
- writePortSentinel() drops the chosen port to
$XDG_DATA_HOME/<app>/var/bridge.port so external tools can read
the runtime address without parsing Qt's log output.
Caddyfile already supported {$PORT:8765} env interpolation, so
no template churn. MERCURE_URL is computed from m_url which is
re-derived from the chosen port — no .env changes needed for
bundled mode (dev mode .env still references :8765 since the
developer controls their own frankenphp invocation).
bundled-supervisor.sh integration test gained a sentinel-file
assertion: after first launch, $USER_DATA/var/bridge.port must
exist and contain BRIDGE_PORT.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
examples/todo
The framework's POC application: a real Qt/QML todo app whose backend is a Symfony service generated entirely by the make:bridge:* makers. Demonstrates every architectural primitive in PLAN.md §13 Phase 3.
What's here that wasn't in the skeleton
Todoresource (entity + controller + QML snippet) generated viamake:bridge:resource Todo.MarkAllDonecommand generated viamake:bridge:command MarkAllDone, with a body that flipsdone = trueon every todo.TodoWindow.qmlsecond-window scaffold generated viamake:bridge:window Todo, customised to embed a read-only mirror of the sameReactiveListModel.Main.qmlrewritten as a real list UI with add input, per-row toggle/delete, "mark all done", and "open second window".
Everything cross-side (PHP ↔ QML) is maker-generated. There is no handwritten bridge glue in this example.
Run it
make install # composer install
make build # cmake + qt host
make doctor # bridge:doctor — readiness check
make dev # FrankenPHP --watch + Qt host
Add a few todos, toggle them, click "Mark all done", click "Open second window" — both windows stay in sync.
Multi-window test
make devstarts the app.- Add three todos via the input field.
- Click Open second window. A
Todos (mirror)window opens. - In the main window, toggle one of the todos. The mirror flips its row within ~50 ms (Mercure SSE).
- Add a new todo in the main window. It appears in the mirror within ~50 ms.
- Click Mark all done in the main window. Both windows show all rows ticked simultaneously.
Each window has its own ReactiveListModel instance subscribed to the same app://model/todo topic; the framework keeps them coherent without per-window glue.
Crash-and-recover test
make devis running.- Add a todo so the list is non-empty.
- From another terminal:
pkill -f 'examples/todo/symfony.*frankenphp'. - The app's
AppShellshows the Reconnecting banner (visible on the second window; the main window keeps its own status display). - Restart the FrankenPHP child: from the example dir,
cd symfony && frankenphp run --watch --config ../Caddyfile— or just re-runmake dev. - The app flips back to Online and re-fetches the list. No row corruption.
Layout
todo/
Caddyfile # FrankenPHP / Mercure config (port 8765, anonymous SSE)
Makefile # build / dev / doctor / quality
scripts/dev.sh
symfony/
composer.json # path repo points one level deeper at framework/php
config/
src/Entity/Todo.php # generated by make:bridge:resource
src/Controller/TodoController.php # generated, CRUD on /api/todos
src/Controller/MarkAllDoneController.php # generated, body filled in
public/index.php
bin/console
.env
migrations/
qml/
CMakeLists.txt
main.cpp
Main.qml # real todo UI (add / toggle / delete / mark-all / 2nd-window)
TodoList.qml # generated; also reused by the second window
TodoWindow.qml # generated, customised to embed mirror list
What this example proves
- The headline workflow scales: a non-trivial app's PHP/QML wiring is all generated.
ReactiveListModelhandles in-flight optimistic mutations (pendingrole drops opacity on toggled rows until the Mercure echo lands).- Two windows of the same QML app stay coherent under mutations from either side.
- Stopping FrankenPHP mid-session triggers
Reconnecting→OfflineUI; restart restoresOnlineand re-fetches without dupes. Idempotency-Keyround-trips through to Mercure ascorrelationKey— visible indev.logif yougrep correlationKey.
Out of scope here
- A CI-driven version of the multi-window / crash-recover tests lives in Phase 3 sub-commit 4 as a bridge-integration suite.
- No persistence options (export, backup) — same SQLite
var/data.sqliteas the skeleton. Apps move to Postgres by overridingDATABASE_URL.
AppImage packaging (Phase 4a)
FRANKENPHP=/path/to/frankenphp make appimage
./build/Todo-x86_64.AppImage
make appimage stages a composer install --no-dev copy of the Symfony app, downloads linuxdeploy + appimagetool + the AppImageUpdate sidecar (cached under packaging/linux/tools/, gitignored), and produces build/Todo-x86_64.AppImage (~150 MB). The AppImage carries everything needed: Qt runtime, the bundled FrankenPHP binary, the Symfony app, and an AppImageUpdate.AppImage sidecar for in-place updates.
When the AppImage runs without BRIDGE_URL set, BackendConnection switches to bundled mode: it spawns the embedded FrankenPHP, generates a per-session bearer token, runs first-launch migrations into ~/.local/share/php-qml/todo/var/data.sqlite, and supervises the child. Killing FrankenPHP from outside the AppImage triggers an automatic restart with a fresh token (PLAN.md §3 Edge cases — Per-session secret rotation).
Auto-update
The AppImage is built with an embedded update-info ELF section pointing at the canonical Gitea Releases URL for its tag (set via APPIMAGE_UPDATE_INFO at build time). The bundled sidecar implements the actual download and patch via zsync.
From QML:
Connections {
target: BackendConnection
function onUpdatesAvailable() { ... }
function onNoUpdatesAvailable() { ... }
function onUpdateApplied() { ... } // restart prompt
}
Button { text: "Check for updates"; onClicked: BackendConnection.checkForUpdates() }
Button { text: "Update"; onClicked: BackendConnection.applyUpdate() }
Performance smoke
make perf
Asserts the §11 Performance budgets: bundle ≤ 200 MB, cold start ≤ 2 s (4 s on shared CI runners), idle RSS ≤ 200 MB. CI runs this on every release tag before publishing.