Controllers
Typically controllers just get and configure the appropriate units.
The controller may also interact with the response object, this represents the content that will be sent to the browser, typically a HTML page.
The loading of controllers is based on the requested URL, and more than one may be used.
Example
To handle requests such as:
/news/ /news/article1-ref/ /news/article2-ref/
You might use a controller such as:
/app/controller/news.php
<?php
class news_controller extends controller {
public function action_index($article_ref = NULL) {
if ($article_ref === NULL) {
$unit = unit_add('news_list', array(
'view_url' => url('/news/:ref/'),
'search' => false,
));
} else {
$unit = unit_add('news_view', array(
'ref' => $article_ref,
'admin_url' => url('/admin/news/edit/'),
));
}
}
}
?>
Nesting
You can have multiple controllers load for a request, for example the URLs:
/admin/products/images/ /admin/products/images/edit/
Will load the controllers:
/app/controller/admin.php
admin_controller
/app/controller/admin/products.php
admin_products_controller
/app/controller/admin/products/images.php
admin_products_images_controller
The first URL will call the action_index() method on the last controller.
And because there aren't any further controllers, the second URL will call the action_edit() method.
Which controllers were loaded, and how they were used, is listed in the debug information.
Route method
A controller can control the routing of the request by returning an array:
class example_controller extends controller {
public function route() {
// TBC
}
}
Or you can use this method to perform authentication checks, e.g.
class admin_controller extends controller {
public function route() {
if (!ADMIN_LOGGED_IN && !in_array(request_folder_get(1), array('login', 'logout'))) {
$admin = config::get('admin');
$admin->require_login();
}
}
public function action_index() {
// Protected
}
public function action_login() {
}
public function action_logout() {
}
}
So anything under /admin/ will get passed though the route() method, and check the admin is logged in.
Before and after methods
Before or after the appropriate action_* method is called, the controllers before() and after() methods are called:
class example_controller extends controller {
public function before() {
$response = response_get();
$response->set('title_html', '<h1><a href="/example/">Section Heading</a></h1>');
}
public function after() {
}
}