I'm working on a very old legacy website(think PHP 4 constructs). Slowly but surely I'm refactoring most of the code. Since it's not really a huge amount of code I decided to use Slim.
I'm using Custom Views, and probably in the near future I'll go for a tempting engine, probably Twig.
Long story short, I'm autoloading the Custom Views folder to have them ready wherever. As far as my understanding of Slim goes, to use the Custom View I need to do the following:
$app = new Slim(array(
'view' => 'CustomView'
));
This is all nice and easy to use, however I'd like to have(if that's even possible) Slim loaded as a property of a some base class(along with other things) and have other classes extend that one. Clearly this presents problems since I can only have a single Custom View.
Is there some other way of passing in the Custom View to Silm, after it's instantiated?
Possibly something like:
$app = new Slim();
$app->setView(Custome View Goes Here);
I couldn't find anything relevant on Google.
Following should work. Example taken from documentation.
The View class or instance used by the Slim application. To change this > setting after instantiation you need to use the Slim application's view() method.
// During instantiation
$app = new \Slim\Slim(array(
'view' => new \My\View()
));
// After instantiation
$app->view(new \My\View());
Related
I want to use templating in a Codeigniter-4 project.
If my controller looked like this
class Blog extends \CodeIgniter\Controller
{
public function index()
{
$data = [
'todo_list' => ['Clean House', 'Call Mom', 'Run Errands'],
'title' => "My Real Title",
'heading' => "My Real Heading"
];
echo view('blogview', $data);
}
}
I want to use a templating system which works as below:
// Create new Plates instance
$templates = League\Plates\Engine::create('/path/to/templates');
// Render a template with the given data
echo $templates->render('profile', ['name' => 'Jonathan']);
My question is - what is the best place to instantiate that $templates object?
I can repeat it in every method which I know for sure is bad practice.
.... OR ...
I could do it in the __contstructor() and assign to $this->templates and I do so for every controller where I want to use that templating. I feel like there is still a better way.
I have little experience of Laravel where I don't specifically set this $templates variable to use Blade templates instead it simply calls View(). I want to achieve something like that, if possible. I tagged laravel so that anyone with more experience in Laravel may have better understanding on how to achieve it?
What would you suggest?
PS: I am using composer autoload to load all the files.
I'm afraid I am really only a CI3 user but have read a little about CI4 and there is still a base controller you can use. You should take a look at https://codeigniter4.github.io/userguide/extending/basecontroller.html?highlight=basecontroller. You would then make your $this->templates available through all extended controllers.
I am working on a newly created Phalcon project, and I don't really know how to actually use multiples views.
What is the entry point? I don't really know when each method in the controller is called, under which conditions, etc.
Where is the control flow defined? is it based in the name of the view? or is there a place where you can register them?
Phalcon is a bit different than other well-known PHP frameworks, in that not much is pre-configured or pre-built by default. It's quite loosely-coupled. So you have to decide where and how your control flow will work. This means that you will need to dig deeper in the documentation and also that there could be different way to achieve the same thing.
I'm going to walk you through a simple example and provide references, so you can understand it more.
1) You would start by defining a bootstrap file (or files) that will define the routes, or entry points, and will setup and create the application. This bootstrap file could be called by an index.php file that is the default file served by the web server. Here is an example of how such bootstrap file will define the routes or entry points (note: these are just fragments and do not represent all the things that a bootstrap file should do):
use Phalcon\Di\FactoryDefault;
// initializes the dependency injector of Phalcon framework
$injector = new FactoryDefault();
// defines the routes
$injector->setShared('router', function () {
return require_once('some/path/routes.php');
});
Then it the routes.php file:
use Phalcon\Mvc\Router;
use Phalcon\Mvc\Router\Group as RouterGroup;
// instantiates the router
$router = new Router(false);
// defines routes for the 'users' controller
$user_routes = new RouterGroup(['controller' => 'users']);
$user_routes->setPrefix('/users');
$user_routes->addGet('/show/{id:[0-9]{1,9}}', ['action' => 'show']);
$router->mount($user_routes);
return $router;
Im defining routes in an alternate way, by defining routes groups. I find it to be more easy to organize routes by resource or controller.
2) When you enter the url example.com/users/show/123, the routes above will match this to the controller users and action show. This is specified by the chunks of code ['controller' => 'users'], setPrefix('/users') and '/show/{id:[0-9]{1,9}}', ['action' => 'show']
3) So now you create the controller. You create a file in, let's say, controllers/UsersController.php. And then you create its action; note the name that you used in the route (show) and the suffix of Action:
public function showAction(int $id) {
// ... do all you need to do...
// fetch data
$user = UserModel::findFirst(blah blah);
// pass data to view
$this->view->setVar('user', $user);
// Phalcon automatically calls the view; from the manual:
/*
Phalcon automatically passes the execution to the view component as soon as a particular
controller has completed its cycle. The view component will look in the views folder for
a folder named as the same name of the last controller executed and then for a file named
as the last action executed.
*/
// but in case you would need to specify a different one
$this->view->render('users', 'another_view');
}
There is much more stuff related to views; consult the manual.
Note that you will need to register such controller in the bootstrap file like (Im also including examples on how to register other things):
use Phalcon\Loader;
// registers namespaces and other classes
$loader = new Loader();
$loader->registerNamespaces([
'MyNameSpace\Controllers' => 'path/controllers/',
'MyNameSpace\Models' => 'path/models/',
'MyNameSpace\Views' => 'path/views/'
]);
$loader->register();
4) You will also need to register a few things for the views. In the bootstrap file
use Phalcon\Mvc\View;
$injector->setShared('view', function () {
$view = new View();
$view->setViewsDir('path/views/');
return $view;
});
And this, together with other things you will need to do, particularly in the bootstrap process, will get you started in sending requests to the controller and action/view defined in the routes.
Those were basic examples. There is much more that you will need to learn, because I only gave you a few pieces to get you started. So here are some links that can explain more. Remember, there are several different ways to achieve the same thing in Phalcon.
Bootstrapping:
https://docs.phalconphp.com/en/3.2/di
https://docs.phalconphp.com/en/3.2/loader
https://docs.phalconphp.com/en/3.2/dispatcher
Routing: https://docs.phalconphp.com/en/3.2/routing
Controllers: https://docs.phalconphp.com/en/3.2/controllers
More on Views (from registering to passing data to them, to templating and more): https://docs.phalconphp.com/en/3.2/views
And a simple tutorial to teach you some basic things: https://docs.phalconphp.com/en/3.2/tutorial-rest
The application begins with the routing stage. From there you grab the controller and action from the router, and feed it to the dispatcher. You set the view then call the execute the dispatcher so it access your controller's action. From there you create a new response object and set its contents equal to the view requests, and finally send the response to the client's browser -- both the content and the headers. It's a good idea to do this through Phalcon rather than echoing directly or using PHP's header(), so it's only done at the moment you call $response->send(); This is best practice because it allows you to create tests, such as in phpunit, so you can test for the existence of headers, or content, while moving off to the next response and header without actually sending anything so you can test stuff. Same idea with exit; in code, is best to avoid so you can write tests and move on to the next test without your tests aborting on the first test due to the existence of exit.
As far as how the Phalcon application works, and in what steps, it's much easier to follow the flow by looking at manual bootstrapping:
https://docs.phalconphp.com/en/3.2/application#manual-bootstrapping
At the heart of Phalcon is the DI, the Dependency Injection container. This allows you to create services, and store them on the DI so services can access each other. You can create your own services and store them under your own name on the DI, there's nothing special about the names used. However depending on the areas of Phalcon you used, certain services on the DI are assumed like "db" for interacting with your database. Note services can be set as either shared or not shared on the DI. Shared means it implements singleton and keeps the object alive for all calls afterwards. If you use getShared, it does a similar thing even if it wasn't initially a shared service. The getShared method is considered bad practice and the Phalcon team is talking about removing the method in future Phalcon versions. Please rely on setShared instead.
Regarding multiple views, you can start with $this->view->disable(); from within the controller. This allows you to disable a view so you don't get any content generated to begin with from within a controller so you can follow how views work from within controllers.
Phalcon assumes every controller has a matching view under /someController/someView followed by whatever extension you registered on the view, which defaults to .volt but can also be set to use .phtml or .php.
These two correspond to:
Phalcon\Mvc\View\Engine\Php and Phalcon\Mvc\View\Engine\Volt
Note that you DON'T specify the extension when looking for a template to render, Phalcon adds this for you
Phalcon also uses a root view template index.volt, if it exists, for all interactions with the view so you can use things like the same doctype for all responses, making your life easier.
Phalcon also offers you partials, so from within a view you can render a partial like breadcrumbs, or a header or footer which you'd otherwise be copy-pasting into each template. This allows you to manage all pages from the same template so you're not repeating yourself.
As far as which view class you use within Phalcon, there's two main choices:
Phalcon\Mvc\View and Phalcon\Mvc\View\Simple
While similar, Phalcon\Mvc\View gives you a multiple level hierarchy as described before with a main template, and a controller-action based template as well as some other fancy features. As far as Phalcon\Mvc\View\Simple, it's much more lightweight and is a single level.
You should be familiar with hierarchical rendering:
https://docs.phalconphp.com/en/3.2/views#hierarchical-rendering
The idea is with Phalcon\Mvc\View that you have a Main Layout (if this template exists) usually stored in /views/index.volt, which is used on every page so you can toss in your doctypes, the title (which you would set with a variable the view passed in), etc. You'd have a Controller Layout, which would be stored under /views/layouts.myController.volt and used for every action within a controller (if this template exists), finally you'd have the Action Layout which is used for the specific action of the controller in /views/myController/myAction.volt.
There are all types of ways you can break from Phalcon's default behavior. You can do the earlier stated $this->view->disable(); so you can do everything manually yourself so Phalcon doesn't assume anything about the view template. You can also use ->pick to pick which template to use if it's going to be different than the controller and action it's ran in.
You can also return a response object from within a controller and Phalcon will not try to render the templates and use the response object instead.
For example you might want to do:
return $this->response->redirect('index/index');
This would redirect the user's browser to said page. You could also do a forward instead which would be used internally within Phalcon to access a different controller and/or action.
You can config the directory the views are stored with setViewsDir. You can also do this from within the controller itself, or even within the view as late as you want, if you have some exceptions due to a goofy directory structure.
You can do things like use $this->view->setTemplateBefore('common') or $this->view->setTemplateAfter('common'); so you can have intermediate templates.
At the heart of the view hierarchy is <?php echo $this->getContent(); ?> or {{ content() }} if you're using Volt. Even if you're using Volt, it gets parsed by Phalcon and generates the PHP version with $this->getContent(), storing it in your /cache/ directory, before it is executed.
The idea with "template before" is that it's optional if you need another layer of hierarchy between your main template and your controller template. Same idea with "template after" etc. I would advise against using template before and after as they are confusing and partials are better suited for the task.
It all depends on how you want to organize your application structure.
Note you can also swap between your main template to another main template if you need to swap anything major. You could also just toss in an "if" statement into your main template to decide what to do based on some condition, etc.
With all that said, you should be able to read the documentation and make better sense of how to utilize it:
https://docs.phalconphp.com/en/3.2/api/Phalcon_Mvc_View
This is my long quest to develop web apps using core PHP and follow the best possible practices and not using a framework. I have achieved many things by structuring my project a better way. However ...getting a clean URL is often a problem for large apps.
Till now...I have used the Slim Framework only for creating RESTFUL services outside my web apps.
I am using Slim Framework to create APIs for a PHP project. Now, I have an install of Slim up and running fine. I have my routes talking to the database and doing what they're supposed to do, generally. My question has to do with modularizing the code. At the moment, all my routes are defined in my index.php file in the root directory. I would very much like to separate these out, say into a /controllers folder.
As I liked the way Slim makes pretty good URLs...I am wondering if it is possible to use Slim as my app architecture ...and let all my pages or APIs be accessible through the Slim index.php.
Yes pretty easily here are the steps I have taken on a recent project.
First lets say your have a HomeActionController
class HomeActionController {
//The below line I have moved into an abstract Controller class
public $view = null;
//This is using Slim Views PhpRenderer
//This allows for a controller to render views can be whatever you need
//I did not like the idea of passing the whole DC it seemed overkill
//The below method I have moved into an abstract Controller class
public function __construct(\Slim\Views\PhpRenderer $view = null){
if($view != null){
$this->view = $view;
}
}
//View could be any action method you want to call it.
public function view(Request $request, Response $response, array $args){
$data['user'] = "John Doe";
return $this->view->render($response, 'templates/home.php', $data);
}
}
Now you need to be able to call an instance of this controller from a route so you need to add the controllers you have to the DC
Where ever you are creating your instance of slim you will need to get the DC and add an instance of your controller:
$app = new \Slim\App($config['slim']);
// Get Dependency Container for Slim
$container = $app->getContainer();
$container['HomeActionController'] = new Controller\HomeActionController($container['view']); //Notice passing the view
As a note the above instantiations could have been a closures but I did not see the point at the time or making them. Also, there are ways to lazy load that I have not explored yet see here for more information.
Now the last thing you need to do is be able to call these on the routes which is not a huge challenge.
$app->get('/home', 'HomeActionController:view');
Granted you cannot have an action with parameters but I have not had an issue just passing them along in the request and then getting them from there.
If you want to create a app with no framework, then i would recommend looking through this small github repo:
https://github.com/PatrickLouys/no-framework-tutorial
It goes through with you settings everything up in terms of routing, plus would make everything go through the index.php in a public folder like your asking.
I am trying to use Symfony to replicate behavior in an existing Framework (zikula). This framework is extensible using modules which are basically extended symphony bundles. The old framework had urls like so
index.php?module=foo&type=bar&func=zip
which in symfony speak roughly translates to
index.php?bundle=foo&controller=bar&method=zip
The framework has an AbstractController which has a magic method like:
public function __call($method, $args)
{
$event = new \Zikula\Core\Event\GenericEvent($this, array('method' => $method, 'args' => $args));
$this->eventManager->dispatch('controller.method_not_found', $event);
if ($event->isPropagationStopped()) {
return $event->getData();
}
}
so, if you created a url with a method that didn't exist in the bundle, you could create a listener to capture it and send a response that looks like and behaves like it came from the specified bundle. We use this to call module services that are available to all modules and provided in a separate module but look like they are served by the 'host' module.
Now I am trying to replicates this using symfony and routing.
the first problem is generating a route that doesn't technically exist. Is this possible?
The second problem is capturing the RouteNotFoundException (which I know how to do, we already have listeners for other exceptions).
The last problem is making it appear that the bundle is serving up the response when it is actually being served by an event listener (or something else). This last part is important because other content in the response needs to come from the module/bundle.
I have tried changing the current listener to a controller, and also tried adding a method to our extension of symfony's AbstractController, but haven't yet achieved what I am hoping to achieve. I'm hoping for some suggestions on new ideas or methods to try.
I gave up trying to replicate the exact behavior as it seems impossible (it is also pretty difficult to describe). So I have resorted to a normal controller with standard route, but I found a way to make it appear to belong to the original 'host' module. Thanks to Gerry, ggioffreda and DerStoffel for offering ideas.
I am working on a project that needs to use a database driven MVC scheme where the route to the controllers and views are controlled through a single database table. However, I haven't been able to find any tutorials that demonstrate this with a current version of the framework (they all appear to have been written several versions ago) and I was wondering if anyone has done something like this with a more recent version of the framework or if anyone knows of blogs or tutorials that discuss how to accomplish this in a simple manner.
The basic idea is that there will be a sitePage table that will contain pageName, controller, module and view fields. When the request is processed I need to query the database for the given pageName and determine the appropriate controller, module and view and then pass this into the necessary Zend class to continue with the normal routing and processing of the request.
Thanks in advance.
You can also use the routeStartup() method in your plugin.
eg:
class My_Plugin_PageRoute extends Zend_Controller_Plugin_Abstract {
public function routeStartup () {
$front = Zend_Controller_Front::getInstance();
$pages = new Model_Pages();
$page_data = $pages ->getPageInfo();
$router = $front->getRouter();
foreach($page_data as $page) {
$r = new Zend_Controller_Router_Route(
'' . $page -> page_name,
array('controller' => 'pages',
'action' => 'index',
'page_id' => $page -> page_id)
);
$router->addRoute('pages_' . $page -> page_id, $r);
}
}
}
I realized that a more elegant approach is indeed to use a router, but for that you would need to create a custom one by extending the Zend_Controller_Router_Abstract class and implementing the "route" method.
You get a Zend_Controller_Request_Abstract object as the parameter of the "route" method. There you can talk to the database and then you can use:
Zend_Controller_Request_Abstract::setModuleName(),
Zend_Controller_Request_Abstract::setControllerName(),
Zend_Controller_Request_Abstract::setActionName()
to define your route.
I hope it helps!
Maybe the best aproach is not by using routers but by using plugins or a common controller. Without a deeper analysis I would suggest you to create a Front Controller Plugin, and then inside the preDispatch() method you can talk to the database and reset the request so it is dispatched to the right controller.
You can also get the same effect by using a common controller, all requests are routed to it then it can forwards to the right controller after talking to the database, although I prefer to use a plugin.
From the Manual:
preDispatch() is called before an action is dispatched by the dispatcher. This callback allows for proxy or filter behavior. By altering the request and resetting its dispatched flag (via Zend_Controller_Request_Abstract::setDispatched(false)), the current action may be skipped and/or replaced.
http://framework.zend.com/manual/en/zend.controller.plugins.html