Controllers

Controllers are meant to handle user input, population of models and libraries with required data, manipulating views, and so much more. However, in SlaxWeb Framework, a controller is not required for every request, and can be bypassed on requests where there is no user interaction, or the request is loading a simple view. If you have enabled Segment-based URI matching then a Controller is required as the Framework will load it for every request that is matched through segment-based URI matching.

Loader

The Controller Loader is a Framework registered service, that will instantiate your Controller class, and call an existing init method if it exists in your Controller with all additional input parameters. It passes the Application object to the constructor of the Controller class and is later available in the $app protected property. To use the Loader simply access the loadController.service in the Application object, and pass it the Controllers name as the first input parameter. Any further parameters will be passed to the init method of the Controller if it exists. Example Controller class:

<?php
namespace App\Controller;

class MyController extends \SlaxWeb\Framework\BaseController
{
    protected $param = "";

    public function init(string $param)
    {
        $this->param = $param;
    }
}

To load this Controller with a loader, you simply execute the following in your Route definition:

$controller = $application["loadController.service"]("MyController", "param value");

This way, your controller is loaded fully instantiated, and your custom initialisation method has been executed with the required parameters.

Using the Controller

The Controller being a regular class, there really are no limitation as to how one might use it, however, there are certain recommendations on dos and dont’s for the Controllers. A couple of them are outlined bellow:

• Do not mix Controllers, or call one from another - A Controller should represent a single activity in your application. It may sound as a good idea to mix the User Controller and the Post Controller at first, but you really should not. Any functionality that should or must co-exist between them should be done in a model and/or library. Post Controller should not have to check if a user is logged in through a User Controller, but rather do so directly through the Authentication Library.
• No output from controllers directly - A Controller should do just what its name suggest, control the flow of the application and should as such not output anything directly.
• Validate data - Use the Controller to validate user input before using it elsewhere in the application.
• Populate models/libraries with user data - After the Controller validates user data, it should populate models and/or libraries with that data where applicable and begin processing of said data with the help of the models and/or libraries.