6.1 KiB
title: Introduction to a Controller summary: A brief look at the definition of a Controller, creating actions and how to respond to requests.
Introduction to Controllers
The following example is for a simple Controller class. When building off the SilverStripe Framework you will
subclass the base Controller class.
mysite/code/controllers/TeamController.php
use SilverStripe\Control\Controller;
class TeamController extends Controller
{
private static $allowed_actions = [
'players',
'index'
];
public function index(HTTPRequest $request)
{
// ..
}
public function players(HTTPRequest $request)
{
print_r($request->allParams());
}
}
Routing
We need to define the URL that this controller can be accessed on. In our case, the TeamsController should be visible
at http://yoursite.com/teams/ and the players custom action is at http://yoursite.com/team/players/.
mysite/_config/routes.yml
---
Name: mysiteroutes
After: framework/routes#coreroutes
---
SilverStripe\Control\Director:
rules:
'teams//$Action/$ID/$Name': 'TeamController'
For more information about creating custom routes, see the Routing documentation.
Actions
Controllers respond by default to an index method. You don't need to define this method (as it's assumed) but you
can override the index() response to provide custom data back to the Template and Views.
Action methods can return one of four main things:
- an array. In this case the values in the array are available in the templates and the controller completes as usual by returning a HTTPResponse with the body set to the current template.
HTML. SilverStripe will wrap theHTMLinto aHTTPResponseand set the status code to 200.- an HTTPResponse containing a manually defined
status codeandbody. - an HTTPResponse_Exception. A special type of response which indicates an error. By returning the exception, the execution pipeline can adapt and display any error handlers.
mysite/code/controllers/TeamController.php
/**
* Return some additional data to the current response that is waiting to go out, this makes $Title set to
* 'MyTeamName' and continues on with generating the response.
*/
public function index(HTTPRequest $request)
{
return [
'Title' => 'My Team Name'
];
}
/**
* We can manually create a response and return that to ignore any previous data.
*/
public function someaction(HTTPRequest $request)
{
$this->setResponse(new HTTPResponse());
$this->getResponse()->setStatusCode(400);
$this->getResponse()->setBody('invalid');
return $this->getResponse();
}
/**
* Or, we can modify the response that is waiting to go out.
*/
public function anotheraction(HTTPRequest $request)
{
$this->getResponse()->setStatusCode(400);
return $this->getResponse();
}
/**
* We can render HTML and leave SilverStripe to set the response code and body.
*/
public function htmlaction()
{
return $this->customise(new ArrayData([
'Title' => 'HTML Action'
]))->renderWith('MyCustomTemplate');
}
/**
* We can send stuff to the browser which isn't HTML
*/
public function ajaxaction()
{
$this->getResponse()->setBody(json_encode([
'json' => true
]));
$this->getResponse()->addHeader("Content-type", "application/json");
return $this->getResponse().
}
For more information on how a URL gets mapped to an action see the Routing documentation.
Security
See the Access Controller documentation.
Templates
Controllers are automatically rendered with a template that makes their name. Our TeamsController would be rendered
with a TeamsController.ss template. Individual actions are rendered in TeamsController_{actionname}.ss.
If a template of that name does not exist, then SilverStripe will fall back to the TeamsController.ss then to
Controller.ss.
Controller actions can use renderWith to override this template selection process as in the previous example with
htmlaction. MyCustomTemplate.ss would be used rather than TeamsController.
For more information about templates, inheritance and how to render into views, See the Templates and Views documentation.
Link
Each controller should define a Link() method. This should be used to avoid hard coding your routing in views etc.
mysite/code/controllers/TeamController.php
public function Link($action = null)
{
return Controller::join_links('teams', $action);
}