Backbone.js and REST api with Silex (PHP) - php

Question

lets say I have a model called John with those params:
{
Language : {
code : 'gr',
title : 'Greek'
},
Name : 'john'
}
So now when I trigger John.save() it POST those to server:
post params http://o7.no/ypvWNp
with those headers:
headers http://o7.no/x5DVw0
The code in Silex is really simple:
<?php
require_once __DIR__.'/silex.phar';
$app = new Silex\Application();
use Symfony\Component\HttpFoundation\Request;
use Symfony\Component\HttpFoundation\Response;
// definitions
$app['debug'] = true;
$app->post('/api/user', function (Request $request) {
var_dump($request->get('Name'));
$params = json_decode(file_get_contents('php://input'));
var_dump($params->Name);
});
$app->run();
but first var_dump return null second var_dump of course works since I'm getting the request directly from php://input resource. I'm wondering how I could get the params using Request object from Silex
Thanks

Answer 1

It's pretty easy actually.
use Symfony\Component\HttpFoundation\Request;
use Symfony\Component\HttpFoundation\ParameterBag;
$app->before(function (Request $request) {
if (0 === strpos($request->headers->get('Content-Type'), 'application/json')) {
$data = json_decode($request->getContent(), true);
$request->request = new ParameterBag(is_array($data) ? $data : array());
}
});
And then an example route:
$app->match('/', function (Request $request) {
return $request->get('foo');
});
And testing with curl:
$ curl http://localhost/foobarbazapp/app.php -d '{"foo": "bar"}' -H 'Content-Type: application/json'
bar
$
Alternatively look at the (slightly outdated) RestServiceProvider.
EDIT: I have turned this answer into a cookbook recipe in the silex documentation.

Answer 2

The way I have done it before is the following:
$app->post('/api/todos', function (Request $request) use ($app) {
$data = json_decode($request->getContent());
$todo = $app['paris']->getModel('Todo')->create();
$todo->title = $data->title;
$todo->save();
return new Response(json_encode($todo->as_array()), 200, array('Content-Type' => 'application/json'));
});
In your backbone collection, add the following:
window.TodoList = Backbone.Collection.extend({
model: Todo,
url: "api/todos",
...
});
I have written up a full step-by-step tutorial here http://cambridgesoftware.co.uk/blog/item/59-backbonejs-%20-php-with-silex-microframework-%20-mysql

Answer 3

I've solved it myself by setting an extra $payload property on the Request object
$app->before(function(Request $request) {
if (stristr($request->getContentType(), 'json')) {
$data = json_decode($request->getContent());
$request->payload = $data;
} else {
$request->payload = null;
}
});