kernel.controller Event & Controller Arguments
Keep on Learning!
If you liked what you've learned so far, dive in! Subscribe to get access to this tutorial plus video, code and script downloads.
kernel.controller Event & Controller Arguments¶
Ok guys, what next? Hey, let’s dispatch another event:
// vendor/symfony/symfony/src/Symfony/Component/HttpKernel/HttpKernel.php
// ...
private function handleRaw(Request $request, $type = self::MASTER_REQUEST)
{
// ...
$event = new FilterControllerEvent($this, $controller, $request, $type);
$this->dispatcher->dispatch(KernelEvents::CONTROLLER, $event);
$controller = $event->getController();
// ...
}
This one is called kernel.controller. And like I keep promising, this one is passed a totally different event object called FilterControllerEvent. Why would you listen to this event? Well, FilterControllerEvent has a getController() method on it. So if you needed to do something based on what the controller is, or even change the controller in a listener, maybe to mess with your co-workers, a listener to this can do that.
But for understand the Symfony Framework, this is just a hook point. There are no mission-critical listeners to this event. So let’s keep moving!
We have $controller, we can call it, right! Wooooh - slow down. We don’t know what arguments to pass to the controller callable yet. To figure that out, we’ll go back to ControllerResolver into a function called getArguments:
// vendor/symfony/symfony/src/Symfony/Component/HttpKernel/HttpKernel.php
// ...
private function handleRaw(Request $request, $type = self::MASTER_REQUEST)
{
// ...
// controller arguments
$arguments = $this->resolver->getArguments($request, $controller);
// ...
}
Open HttpKernel’s ControllerResolver back up and scroll down to find this.
Arguments Metadata¶
This entire if statement is just a way to get some information about the arguments to the controller function by using PHP Reflection:
// vendor/symfony/symfony/src/Symfony/Component/HttpKernel/Controller/ControllerResolver.php
// ...
public function getArguments(Request $request, $controller)
{
if (is_array($controller)) {
$r = new \ReflectionMethod($controller[0], $controller[1]);
} elseif (is_object($controller) && !$controller instanceof \Closure) {
$r = new \ReflectionObject($controller);
$r = $r->getMethod('__invoke');
} else {
$r = new \ReflectionFunction($controller);
}
return $this->doGetArguments($request, $controller, $r->getParameters());
}
It needs the if statements because getting that info is different if your controller is an anonymous function, a method on an object or something different.
Ultimately, that info about the arguments is what’s passed as the $parameters argument to doGetArguments(). Let me show you what I mean. Let’s dump $parameters and put die:
// vendor/symfony/symfony/src/Symfony/Component/HttpKernel/Controller/ControllerResolver.php
// ...
protected function doGetArguments(Request $request, $controller, array $parameters)
{
dump($parameters);die;
// ...
}
If we look at DinosaurController::showAction, we have one argument: $id. The route has {id}, so this is $id: we all know how those match by name:
// src/AppBundle/Controller/DinosaurController.php
// ...
/**
* @Route("/dinosaurs/{id}", name="dinosaur_show")
*/
public function showAction($id)
{
// ...
}
In fact, we’re about to see how that works!
So if I go to /dinosaurs/22, you can see that the dumped $parameters has just one item in it, and in that ReflectionParameter object is a name with id, since this is info about the $id argument:
array(
0 => ReflectionObject(
'name' => 'id',
// ...
)
)
Add a few more arguments - like $foo and $bar - and refresh:
// src/AppBundle/Controller/DinosaurController.php
// ...
/**
* @Route("/dinosaurs/{id}", name="dinosaur_show")
*/
public function showAction($id, $foo, $bar)
{
// ...
}
Now we have three items in $parameters:
array(
0 => ReflectionObject(
'name' => 'id',
// ...
),
1 => ReflectionObject(
'name' => 'foo',
// ...
),
2 => ReflectionObject(
'name' => 'bar',
// ...
)
)
This one has foo and this one has bar. So it’s just metadata about what arguments are on that controller function.
Finding Values for Each Argument¶
In doGetArguments(), the first thing it does is so important and so geeky cool. It goes back to $request->attributes - that same thing that was populated by the routing. Let’s dump this out quickly to remember what’s in there:
// vendor/symfony/symfony/src/Symfony/Component/HttpKernel/Controller/ControllerResolver.php
// ...
protected function doGetArguments(Request $request, $controller, array $parameters)
{
$attributes = $request->attributes->all();
dump($attributes);die;
// ...
}
When we refresh, it has _controller and id from the routing wildcard:
array(
'_controller' => 'AppBundle\Controller\DinosaurController::showAction',
'id' => '22',
'_route' => 'dinosaur_show',
'_route_params' => array(...),
)
It also has a couple of other things that honestly aren’t very important.
Keep that array in mind. The doGetArguments() function iterates over $parameters: the array of info about the arguments to our controller. And the first thing it does is check to see if the name of the parameter - like id - exists in the $attributes array. And if it does, it uses that value for the argument:
// vendor/symfony/symfony/src/Symfony/Component/HttpKernel/Controller/ControllerResolver.php
// ...
protected function doGetArguments(Request $request, $controller, array $parameters)
{
$attributes = $request->attributes->all();
$arguments = array();
foreach ($parameters as $param) {
if (array_key_exists($param->name, $attributes)) {
$arguments[] = $attributes[$param->name];
} elseif {
// ...
}
}
return $arguments;
}
This is exactly why if we have a {id} inside our route, its value is passed to a $id argument in the controller. This is why and how that mapping is done by name, because ControllerResolver say: “Hey, I have an $id argument, is there an id inside the $request->attributes, which is populated by the routing?”
The Request Argument¶
And if there is nothing in the attributes that matches up, it goes to the elseif: because there’s one other case. And you’ve probably seen it while doing form processing. This is when you have an argument type-hinted with the Request class:
// src/AppBundle/Controller/DinosaurController.php
// ...
use Symfony\Component\HttpFoundation\Request;
/**
* @Route("/dinosaurs/{id}", name="dinosaur_show")
*/
public function showAction($id, Request $request)
{
// ...
}
In ControllerResolver, it says: if ($param->getClass() && $param->getClass()->isInstance($request)):
// vendor/symfony/symfony/src/Symfony/Component/HttpKernel/Controller/ControllerResolver.php
// ...
protected function doGetArguments(Request $request, $controller, array $parameters)
{
$attributes = $request->attributes->all();
$arguments = array();
foreach ($parameters as $param) {
if (array_key_exists($param->name, $attributes)) {
$arguments[] = $attributes[$param->name];
} elseif ($param->getClass() && $param->getClass()->isInstance($request)) {
$arguments[] = $request;
}
// ...
}
return $arguments;
}
The $param->getClass() asks if the argument has a type-hint. The second part checks to see if the type-hint is for Symfony’s Request class. If it is, the $request object is passed to this argument. This is completely special to the Request object: it doesn’t work with anything else.
But guys, it’s really pretty if you think about it. Our whole job is to read the request and create the response. So, It makes a lot of sense to be able to have the Request as an argument to a function that will return the Response. Input Request, output Response.
Errors and Seeing the Arguments in Action¶
And those are really the only two cases that work. The other elseif is there just to see if maybe you have an optional argument:
// src/AppBundle/Controller/DinosaurController.php
// ...
use Symfony\Component\HttpFoundation\Request;
/**
* @Route("/dinosaurs/{id}", name="dinosaur_show")
*/
public function showAction($id, Request $request, $foo = 'defaultValue')
{
// ...
}
And if you do, it uses the default value instead of blowing up:
// vendor/symfony/symfony/src/Symfony/Component/HttpKernel/Controller/ControllerResolver.php
// ...
protected function doGetArguments(Request $request, $controller, array $parameters)
{
$attributes = $request->attributes->all();
$arguments = array();
foreach ($parameters as $param) {
if (array_key_exists($param->name, $attributes)) {
$arguments[] = $attributes[$param->name];
} elseif ($param->getClass() && $param->getClass()->isInstance($request)) {
$arguments[] = $request;
} elseif ($param->isDefaultValueAvailable()) {
$arguments[] = $param->getDefaultValue();
} else {
// it throws an exception
}
}
return $arguments;
}
If all else fails, it tries to get a nice exception message to say: “Hey dude, you have an argument and I don’t know what to pass to it.” For example, if I add a $bar argument that’s not optional, there’s no {bar} in the route, so we should see this “Controller requires that you provide a value” error:
// src/AppBundle/Controller/DinosaurController.php
// ...
use Symfony\Component\HttpFoundation\Request;
/**
* @Route("/dinosaurs/{id}", name="dinosaur_show")
*/
public function showAction($id, Request $request, $foo = 'defaultValue', $bar)
{
// ...
}
And we do! That’s actually where that comes from.
If we get rid of that, it should pass the request to one argument and it should be ok with $foo being optional. When we refresh, it’s happy!
Now that we’re done, the array of argument values is passed all the way back to HttpKernel. And now we’re dangerous: we have the controller callable and the arguments to pass to it.
Executing the Controller¶
Any ideas on what should happen next? Yep, we finally call the controller:
// vendor/symfony/symfony/src/Symfony/Component/HttpKernel/HttpKernel.php
// ...
private function handleRaw(Request $request, $type = self::MASTER_REQUEST)
{
// ...
// call controller
$response = call_user_func_array($controller, $arguments);
// ...
}
So on line 145, that’s literally where your controller is executed, and it passes it all of the arguments.
And what do controllers in Symfony always return? They always return a Response object, and we also see that on line 145.
Unless... they don’t return a Response. And that’s what we’re going to talk about next.
return $this->mergeDefaults(array_replace($matches, array('_route' => 'genus_show')), array ( '_controller' => 'AppBundle\\Controller\\GenusController::showAction',))
Please, tell me, how: \\ transforms to: \ ?
If, let say :
protected function mergeDefaults($params, $defaults)
{
dump($defaults);die;
We get:
array:1 [▼
"_controller" => "AppBundle\Controller\GenusController::showAction"
]