Action Parameters

[Celeb]

Maybe I'm too blind to see it, but how am I supposed to access the parameters submitted via
http://[host]/index.php/[controller]/[action]/[param1]/[param2]/[param3]...
in my Controller?

The first thing I did was hacking TinyMVC.php to pass a previously created array of Parameters seems nice at first but I don't really like it. You can only access your parameters by the order of appearance in the request string. There's no way to name them and it involves hacking which I don't like in the first place.

So I created a plugin library.Parameters.class to do the work for me.
It does the following thing: It writes all the passed Parameters into an internal array. Parameters, that have a '=' sign will be split up into
parameter name = parameter value
It also loads $_GET and $_POST into the internal array. I'm not sure if I really like that point, maybe I'll find some smoother way to handle those superglobals in my Plugin.

It provides a __get() method so parameters that have been passed this way
http://localhost/members/show/id=1
can be accessed this way
$this->param->id;
in the Controller.

Here's the code:

Code: [Select]

<?php
/**
 * library.parameters.php
 * Plugin for Tiny_MVC to provide information about submitted parameters on to the controllers
 * 
 * @package  TinyMVC
 * @author   Daniel Gaberszig
 */
 
class Parameters {

  /**
   * $_params
   *
   * Internal list of gathered parameters
   *
   * @access private
   */
  var $_params = array();

  /** 
   * class constructor
   * 
   * @access public
   */
  function __construct() {

    // Get the path information
    $path_info = !empty($_SERVER['PATH_INFO']) ? explode('/',$_SERVER['PATH_INFO']) : null;

    /* $path_info holds the following values:
     *   [0] => ???
     *   [1] => controller name
     *   [2] => action name
     *   [3]...[n] => parameters
     * 
     * Every parameter will we written into the $_params array. If a parameter
     * looks like .*=.* the left side of the = will be handled as array key
     * and the right side will be handled as array value
     */
    for($i = 3, $cnt = count($path_info);$i < $cnt; $i++) {
      // Get the current parameter
      $param = $path_info[$i];
      
      // Look for an '='
      $pos = strpos($param, '=');
      if ($pos > 0) {
        // Found -> split the parameter up
        $param_name = substr($param, 0, $pos);
        $param      = substr($param, $pos+1);
        $this->_params[$param_name] = $param;
      } else
        // Not found -> assign the parameter 
        $this->_params[] = $param;
    }

    // Get all variables passed via GET into the $_params array
    foreach($_GET as $key => $val) {
      $this->_params[$key] = $val;
    }

    // Get all variables passed via POST into the $_params array    
    foreach($_POST as $key => $val) {
      $this->_params[$key] = $val;
    }

  } // function __construct()

  /**
   * __get
   *
   * Make a parameter named 'id' will accessible via the 
   * following syntax in the controller:
   * $this->params->id 
   *
   * @access public
   * @param  string $key The key we are trying to access
   * @return mixed The value of the parameter or null if no such key exists
   */
  function __get($key) {
    return $this->get($key);
  }
  
  /**
   * get
   *
   * Get the value of a parameter
   *
   * @access public
   * @param  string $key The key we are trying to access
   * @return mixed The value of the parameter or null if no such key exists
   */
  function get($key) {
    return array_key_exists($key, $this->_params) ?
      $this->_params[$key] : null;
  }
  
  /**
   * get_all
   * 
   * Get all parameters
   * 
   * @access public
   * @return array An array of all parameters
   */
  function get_all() {
    return $this->_params;
  }
  
} // class Parameters

?>
(( Is there any other way of creating a box with syntax highlighted code than [code ]<?php ...[/code ]? ))

[mohrt]

Yep, this is the kind of stuff I'm expecting TinyMVC is super bare bones, but you can do anything with plugins (such as extract the URL params.)

You are on the right track, TinyMVC doesn't come with a way to access them yet.

[mohrt]

Here are my first thoughts:

here is a sample URL:

Code: [Select]

http://[host]/index.php/[controller]/[action]/[foo]/[bar]/[blah]
It could work like so:

Code: [Select]

$this->load->library('uri');
$controller = $this->uri->get(1);
$action = $this->uri->get(2);
$param1 = $this->uri->get(3);
Then, to access the values as an associative array:

Code: [Select]

http://localhost/index.php/mail/read/id/4/from/jake

Code: [Select]

$this->load->library('uri');
$uri = $this->uri->get_assoc(3);
This would start with the third URL value, and fetch them as an associative array:

Code: [Select]

array('id'=>'4','from'=>'jake')
Then you just train yourself to always provide key/val in the URL. Other frameworks use a similar approach, it seems to work well.

[Celeb]

Yes, the

Code: [Select]

.../id/4/from/jakewas my first thought too .. I even coded that approach but I discarded it again, because it seems a little less vulnerable to errors this way.

Either way, it doesn't really matter, that's just syntactic sugar. Important for me is that i can name my parameters, so I'm less depending on parameter order. Also optional parameters are implemented easier if they are named. It might be a little less performant, but I can live with that
I especially like the

Code: [Select]

$this->params->idpart

[mindfriction]

Here are my first thoughts:

here is a sample URL:

Code: [Select]

http://[host]/index.php/[controller]/[action]/[foo]/[bar]/[blah]
It could work like so:

Code: [Select]

$this->load->library('uri');
$controller = $this->uri->get(1);
$action = $this->uri->get(2);
$param1 = $this->uri->get(3);
Then, to access the values as an associative array:

Code: [Select]

http://localhost/index.php/mail/read/id/4/from/jake

Code: [Select]

$this->load->library('uri');
$uri = $this->uri->get_assoc(3);
This would start with the third URL value, and fetch them as an associative array:

Code: [Select]

array('id'=>'4','from'=>'jake')
Then you just train yourself to always provide key/val in the URL. Other frameworks use a similar approach, it seems to work well.

Here's bare bones of what I had in mind for the URI class based on your post Mohrt

Code: [Select]

class URI {

var $segments;

function URI() {
global $path_info;
$this->segments = isset($path_info[1]) ? array_slice($path_info,1) : false;
}

function get($n) {
return (isset($this->segments[$n])) ? $this->segments[$n] : false);
}

// treat uri as associative name/value pairs
function get_assoc($n) {
$n = $n*2;
return $this->get($n);
}

function total_segments(){
return count($this->segments);
}

}
What do ya think?

[mindfriction]

Hmm another thing to consider is whether we have a getr($n) function which offsets from the controller and method segments

Code: [Select]


function getr($n) {
  // offset from controller and method segments
  $n = $n+2;
  $this->get($n);
}



[mohrt]

Not a bad start. Things I would do different:

* use __construct() instead of URI() for the constructor name (you are using the PHP 4.0 way of creating constructors.)

* do not use global variables. Use the $_SERVER['PATH_INFO'] superglobal to extract the URI data. I know I have a $path_info global var, but don't use it. I will probably rewrite that to retain the information in a singleton or more object-oriented friendly manner.

* keep two property values, an indexed array of the URI variables, and an associative array of key/value pairings for a particular offset. Upon a get() or get_assoc() call, it would determine at that time if it needs to create the property array. Then it would return the appropriate value.

[mindfriction]

Heh old PHP 4 habits die hard...

Well I'm a bit of a newb when it comes to MVC architecture but how about move the section which manipulates the php_info into the URI constructor (?)

Code: [Select]

class URI {

var $segments;

function __construct() {
$path_info = $input->server('PATH_INFO'); // NB: Input is a wrapper for $_SERVER, $_GET, $_POST with xss filtering etc

$segments = isset($path_info[1]) ? array_slice($path_info,1) : false;
// reset segments first index to '1' not '0' to make access a no-brainer
$i = 1;
foreach ($segments as $val) {
$this->segments[$i++] = $val;
}
unset($this->segments[0]);
}

TinyMVC.php

Code: [Select]

$controller = $this->uri(1) ? $this->uri(1) : $config['default_controller'];
$controller_file = TMVC_MYAPPDIR . DS . 'controllers' . DS . "{$controller}.php";