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Come on, Set the Content-Type Header!

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Come on, Set the Content-Type Header!

If you go to the network tab of your brower’s tools and refresh, you’ll find an ugly surprise. Our response has a text/html Content-Type! Silly browser!

Ok, this is our fault. Every response has a Content-Type header and its job is to tell the client if the page is text/html, application/json, or text/turtle. Yea, that’s a real format. It’s actually XML, so not as cute as the name sounds.

Anyways, it’s our job to set this header, which defaults to text/html in Symfony. Use the headers property on the $response to set it:

// src/Yoda/EventBundle/Controller/EventController.php
// ...

public function attendAction($id, $format)
{
    // ...

    if ($format == 'json') {
        // ...

        $response = new Response(json_encode($data));
        $response->headers->set('Content-Type', 'application/json');

        return $response;
    }

    // ...
}

Alright! Refresh again. Mmm, a beautiful application/json Content-Type.

The JsonResponse Class

Ok, so there’s an even lazier way to do this. So throw on your sweat pants, grab that bag of chips and let’s get lazy. Instead of Response, use a class called JsonResponse and pass it the array directly. Oh, and get rid of the Content-Type header while you’re in there:

// src/Yoda/EventBundle/Controller/EventController.php
// ...

use Symfony\Component\HttpFoundation\JsonResponse;

public function attendAction($id, $format)
{
    // ...

    if ($format == 'json') {
        $data = array(
            'attending' => true
        );

        $response = new JsonResponse($data);

        return $response;
    }

    // ...
}

Refresh again. Yea, we still see JSON and the Content-Type header is still application/json. JsonResponse is just a sub-class of Response, but it removes a few steps for us, and I like that.

Finishing up the Controller

Time to stop playing and finish unattendAction. Just copy the logic from attendAction, change the value to false, and don’t forget the $format argument:

// src/Yoda/EventBundle/Controller/EventController.php
// ...

public function unattendAction($id, $format)
{
    // ...
    $em->flush();

    if ($format == 'json') {
        $data = array(
            'attending' => false
        );

        $response = new JsonResponse($data);

        return $response;
    }

    $url = $this->generateUrl('event_show', array(
        'slug' => $event->getSlug()
    ));

    return $this->redirect($url);
}

When we try it manually, it seems to work!

Removing Duplication

Looking at these 2 methods, do you see any duplication? Um, yea, just about every line is duplicated. We can fix at least some of this by creating a new private method called createAttendingResponse with $event and $format arguments.

Copy in the logic that figures out which response to return:

// src/Yoda/EventBundle/Controller/EventController.php
// ...

/**
 * @param Event $event
 * @param string $format
 * @return \Symfony\Component\HttpFoundation\Response
 */
private function createAttendingResponse(Event $event, $format)
{
    if ($format == 'json') {
        $data = array(
            'attending' => $event->hasAttendee($this->getUser())
        );

        $response = new JsonResponse($data);

        return $response;
    }

    $url = $this->generateUrl('event_show', array(
        'slug' => $event->getSlug()
    ));

    return $this->redirect($url);
}

For the attending value, why not just use our hasAttendee method to figure this out?

Sweet, let’s do my favorite thing – delete some code! Call the new method in attendAction and unattendAction and return its value.

We can use this function to easily generate the JSON response for both controllers:

// src/Yoda/EventBundle/Controller/EventController.php
// ...

public function attendAction($id, $format)
{
    // ...

    return $this->createAttendingResponse($event, $format);
}

public function unattendAction($id, $format)
{
    // ...

    return $this->createAttendingResponse($event, $format);
}

Try it out! Isn’t it nice when things don’t break?

Leave a comment!

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Default user avatar
Default user avatar guest | posted 5 years ago | edited

hello again. it is still i am...

Looks you have to remove "use" statement or fix it to be JsonResponse in the last code block:


// src/Yoda/EventBundle/Controller/EventController.php
use Symfony\Component\HttpFoundation\Request;
// ...

public function attendAction($id, $format)
{
    // ...

    return $this->createAttendingResponse($event, $format);
}
Reply

Hey there!

I don't see what's missing in the last code block - it looks like what you have here is the same as the code block? Let me know - we always appreciate people looking out for typos :).

Cheers!

Reply
Default user avatar

Just look at the end of post. The last code example.
You have here "use Symfony\Component\HttpFoundation\Request;" line. But looks it should be "use Symfony\Component\HttpFoundation\JsonResponse;" or nothing.

It is not an error because Request class is needed in the controller. But you are talking about Response and JsonResponse in the post. There is nothing about Request. There is no new usage of Request class. So it is a bit confusing why i should include this statement. It is already here (from previous lessons) and why it is important to mention it in the current lesson?

Hope it helps.

Reply

Cool! I see your point - the Request class doesn't need to be there (it is of course there in the file, but since it didn't get added at this step, it's unnecessary / confusing to include it). I've made this change at https://github.com/knpunive...

Thanks!

Reply
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What PHP libraries does this tutorial use?

// composer.json
{
    "require": {
        "php": ">=5.3.3",
        "symfony/symfony": "~2.4", // v2.4.2
        "doctrine/orm": "~2.2,>=2.2.3", // v2.4.2
        "doctrine/doctrine-bundle": "~1.2", // v1.2.0
        "twig/extensions": "~1.0", // v1.0.1
        "symfony/assetic-bundle": "~2.3", // v2.3.0
        "symfony/swiftmailer-bundle": "~2.3", // v2.3.5
        "symfony/monolog-bundle": "~2.4", // v2.5.0
        "sensio/distribution-bundle": "~2.3", // v2.3.4
        "sensio/framework-extra-bundle": "~3.0", // v3.0.0
        "sensio/generator-bundle": "~2.3", // v2.3.4
        "incenteev/composer-parameter-handler": "~2.0", // v2.1.0
        "doctrine/doctrine-fixtures-bundle": "~2.2.0", // v2.2.0
        "ircmaxell/password-compat": "~1.0.3", // 1.0.3
        "phpunit/phpunit": "~4.1", // 4.1.0
        "stof/doctrine-extensions-bundle": "~1.1.0" // v1.1.0
    }
}
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