HTTP Controllers

• Introduction
• Basic Controllers
• Controller Middleware
• Dependency Injection & Controllers

Introduction

Instead of defining all of your request handling logic in route files, you may wish to organize this behavior using Controller classes. Controllers can group related HTTP request handling logic into a class. Controllers are stored in the app/Http/Controllers directory. Route closures are strictly forbidden by the framework and will throw, so all routes must point directly to a Controller class method.

Basic Controllers

Here is an example of a basic controller class. All Framework controllers should extend the base controller class included with the default Framework installation:

<?php

namespace App\Http\Controllers;

use App\Models\User;

class UserController extends Controller
{
    /**
     * Retrieve the user for the given ID.
     */
    public function show(int $id): User
    {
        return User::query()->findOrFail($id);
    }
}

We can route to the controller action like so:

$router->get('user/{id}', ['uses' => 'UserController@show']);

Now, when a request matches the specified route URI, the show method on the UserController class will be executed. The route parameters will also be passed to the method.

Controllers & Namespaces

It is very important to note that we did not need to specify the full controller namespace when defining the controller route. We only defined the portion of the class name that comes after the App\Http\Controllers namespace “root”. By default, the bootstrap/app.php file will load the routes.php file within a route group containing the root controller namespace.

If you choose to nest or organize your controllers using PHP namespaces deeper into the App\Http\Controllers directory, simply use the specific class name relative to the App\Http\Controllers root namespace. So, if your full controller class is App\Http\Controllers\Photos\AdminController, you would register a route like so:

$router->get('foo', ['uses' => 'Photos\AdminController@method']);

Naming Controller Routes

Like Closure routes, you may specify names on controller routes:

$router->get('foo', ['uses' => 'FooController@method', 'as' => 'name']);

You may also use the route helper to generate a URL to a named controller route:

$url = route('name');

Controller Middleware

Middleware may be assigned to the controller’s routes like so:

$router->get('profile', [
    'middleware' => 'auth',
    'uses' => 'UserController@showProfile'
]);

However, you can specify middleware within your controller’s constructor. Using the middleware method from your controller’s constructor, you may easily assign middleware to the controller. You may even restrict the middleware to only certain methods on the controller class:

class UserController extends Controller
{
    /**
     * Instantiate a new UserController instance.
     *
     * @return void
     */
    public function __construct()
    {
        $this->middleware('auth');

        $this->middleware('log', ['only' => [
            'fooAction',
            'barAction',
        ]]);

        $this->middleware('subscribed', ['except' => [
            'fooAction',
            'barAction',
        ]]);
    }
}

Dependency Injection & Controllers

Constructor Injection

The Framework service container is used to resolve all Framework controllers. As a result, you are able to type-hint any dependencies your controller may need in its constructor. The dependencies will automatically be resolved and injected into the controller instance:

<?php

namespace App\Http\Controllers;

use App\Repositories\UserRepository;

class UserController extends Controller
{
    /**
     * The user repository instance.
     */
    protected $users;

    /**
     * Create a new controller instance.
     *
     * @param  UserRepository  $users
     * @return void
     */
    public function __construct(UserRepository $users)
    {
        $this->users = $users;
    }
}

Method Injection

In addition to constructor injection, you may also type-hint dependencies on your controller’s action methods. For example, let’s type-hint the MacropaySolutions\Kernel\Http\Request instance on one of our methods:

<?php

namespace App\Http\Controllers;

use MacropaySolutions\Kernel\Http\Request;

class UserController extends Controller
{
    /**
     * Store a new user.
     *
     * @param  Request  $request
     * @return Response
     */
    public function store(Request $request)
    {
        $name = $request->input('name');

        //
    }
}

If your controller method is also expecting input from a route parameter, simply list your route arguments after your other dependencies. For example, if your route is defined like so:

$router->put('user/{id}', 'UserController@update');

You may still type-hint the MacropaySolutions\Kernel\Http\Request and access your route parameter id by defining your controller method like the following:

<?php

namespace App\Http\Controllers;

use MacropaySolutions\Kernel\Http\Request;

class UserController extends Controller
{
    /**
     * Update the specified user.
     *
     * @param  Request  $request
     * @param  string  $id
     * @return Response
     */
    public function update(Request $request, $id)
    {
        //
    }
}